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with Daisy Miller in the American parlour car is rendered doubly delightful by the consciousness that you may at any moment transfer yourself and your _bons mots_ to Lydia Blood at the other end of the car, or retire with Gilead P. Beck to the snug little smoking-room. The great size and weight of the American cars make them very steady on well-laid tracks like those of the Pennsylvania Railway, and thus letter-writing need not be a lost art on a railway journey. Even when the permanent way is inferior, the same cause often makes the vibration less than on the admirable road-beds of England. Theoretically, there is no distinction of classes on an American railway; practically, there is whenever the line is important enough or the journey long enough to make it worth while. The parlour car corresponds to our first class; and its use has this advantage (rather curious in a democratic country), that the increased fare for its admirable comforts is relatively very low, usually (in my experience) not exceeding 1/2_d._ a mile. The ordinary fare from New York to Boston (220 to 250 miles) is $5 (L1); a seat in a parlour car costs $1 (4_s._), and a sleeping-berth $1.50 (6_s._). Thus the ordinary passenger pays at the rate of about 1-1/4_d._ per mile, while the luxury of the Pullman may be obtained for an additional expenditure of just about 1/2_d._ a mile. The extra fare on even the Chicago Vestibuled Limited is only $8 (32_s._) for 912 miles, or considerably less than 1/2_d._ a mile. These rates are not only less than the difference between first-class and third-class fares in Europe, but also compare very advantageously with the rates for sleeping-berths on European lines, being usually 50 to 75 per cent. lower. The parlour-car rates, however, increase considerably as we go on towards the West and get into regions where competition is less active. A good instance of this is afforded by the parlour-car fares of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which I select because it spans the continent with its own rails from the Atlantic to the Pacific; the principle on the United States lines is similar. The price of a "sleeper" ticket from Montreal to Fort William (998 miles) is $6, or about 3/5_d._ per mile; that from Banff to Vancouver (560 miles) is the same, or at the rate of about 14/15_d._ per mile. The rate for the whole journey from Halifax to Vancouver (3,362 miles) is about 2/3_d._ per mile. Travellers who prefer the privacy o
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