wn that
window" is almost sure to follow a moment or two of fresh air. In vain
have rows of ventilators been put in the tops of some of the cars, for
conductors and passengers are both of one mind, that these ventilators
are inlets of danger, and must be kept carefully closed.

Railroad travelling in America is systematically, and one would think
carefully, arranged so as to violate every possible law of health. The
old rule to keep the head cool and the feet warm is precisely reversed.
A red-hot stove heats the upper stratum of air to oppression, while a
stream of cold air is constantly circulating about the lower
extremities. The most indigestible and unhealthy substances conceivable
are generally sold in the cars or at way-stations for the confusion and
distress of the stomach. Rarely can a traveller obtain so innocent a
thing as a plain good sandwich of bread and meat, while pie, cake,
doughnuts, and all other culinary atrocities, are almost forced upon him
at every stopping-place. In France, England, and Germany the railroad
cars are perfectly ventilated; the feet are kept warm by flat cases
filled with hot water and covered with carpet, and answering the double
purpose of warming the feet and diffusing an agreeable temperature
through the car, without burning away the vitality of the air; while the
arrangements at the refreshment-rooms provide for the passenger as
wholesome and well-served a meal of healthy, nutritious food as could be
obtained in any home circle.

What are we to infer concerning the home habits of a nation of men who
so resignedly allow their bodies to be poisoned and maltreated in
travelling over such an extent of territory as is covered by our
railroad lines? Does it not show that foul air and improper food are too
much matters of course to excite attention? As a writer in "The Nation"
has lately remarked, it is simply and only because the American nation
like to have unventilated cars, and to be fed on pie and coffee at
stopping-places, that nothing better is known to our travellers; if
there were, any marked dislike of such a state of things on the part of
the people, it would not exist. We have wealth enough, and enterprise
enough, and ingenuity enough, in our American nation, to compass with
wonderful rapidity any end that really seems to us desirable. An army
was improvised when an army was wanted,--and an army more perfectly
equipped, more bountifully fed, than so great a body of men eve