always looked into it whenever I had
an opportunity. One morning I happened down by the station, and there
stood No. 100 on a side track, with no engine, and nobody about it.

"'Here's my chance,' I thought to myself, 'to see the finest car on the
road'; and I went up to it, and walked all around it, and climbed over
the platforms, and saw just nothing at all, for all the shades were
pulled down tight.

"'That's too bad,' I was just saying to myself, or I guess I must have
been saying it out loud. 'I do wish I could see the inside of that car';
and the minute I said it I heard somebody alongside of me say:

"'Do you? Then come along with me, for I am going into it.'

"I looked around, and there was a gentleman I often saw in the hotel,
and, of course, he often saw me there.

"'Oh!' said I; 'can you get into it?'

"'I think so,' said he, half laughing. 'I am the superintendent of the
road.'

"He unlocked the door with a key, and took me in, and that was the first
time I ever set foot in this or any other private car. It fairly took me
off my feet to see how fine it was. He showed me the office at the end,
with its big windows on three sides, and its soft sofa and velvet carpet
and rugs; and the two big state-rooms, each with its broad double bed
and its bath-room; and this dining-room where we're sitting, as big as
the dining-room in a French flat, and much handsomer; and the two
'sections' like a sleeper; and another bath-room; and the tiny
baggage-room; and at the end of the car the kitchen, all stocked with
copper kettles and pans; and the refrigerator, and away up over that a
berth for the cook. My, but didn't it all look fine! You see, it was the
first time I was ever in a private car; I wasn't so used to them then as
I am now.

"I asked whose car it was, and the Superintendent said it belonged to
Mr. Plant, who owned the hotel I was staying in and the other big hotel
in Tampa, and was president of that railroad and a dozen others, and two
or three steamship lines. No wonder he had a beautiful car all to
himself, was it? Well, I was just going to say that that was the way I
happened to get acquainted with the superintendent, and it was through
him that I happened to go down to Tampa alone a few days afterwards to
see the big hotel and the Steamships, because he was going down, and he
said he'd see me safe in the train to come back.

"You know how the trains start just back of the big hotel in Tampa?
Well,