Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 136, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1910 — ENGLISH COMPARTMENT CAR. [ARTICLE]

ENGLISH COMPARTMENT CAR.

Harder Starts Agitation tor Mora Modern Railway Equipment. One, of the things which an American traveling in England most wonders at is the survival In a country 1 otherwise fairly up to date of the oldfashioned and inconvenient “compartment” type of railway carriages, a St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s London correspondent Bayß. It is true that on some of the great lines corridor cars, something like the American and continental cars, have been adopted for the finest trains on the longest runs, but practically all the short-distance and local travel is still carried in the old compartment cars. For the benefit of those who do rrfit know the compartment car, I may describe it as a long car cut into horse boxes. Each of these boxes is just wide enough to allow two rows of persons to sit facing each other, and each is entered from the side of the car. There 1b no communication 'from one compartment to the other. This applies to all classes of carriages. The only difference between the third or cheapest class and the first and second is that the third-class benches are bare boards,’' while the first and second are cushioned more or less comfortably. From time to time there is an agitation against this type of carriage, usually caused by some crime rendered possible and easy by this peculiar system <# traveling, and just now we are having one of those periodical agitations because of a murder which took place in the north of England a few days ago. It may be well to explain that the English are an unsociable people, and when traveling it is the first aim of every- Englishman to secure a compartment to himself. Sometimes he tips the “guard,” as he calls the conductor, to lock the door of the compartment after he has entered, but as a rule there are so many cars on each train that except on suburban lines each compartment usually contains only two or three • persons, each of whom takes possession of a corner and buries himself in a paper or book. Well, a few days ago a colliery paymaster, who had stained from Newcastle with more than $2,000 In cash to pay wages at a mine, was found shot in an empty compartment, and, of course, the money was gone. The railway men had noticed that when the train started there were two persons in the compartment and that onegot out at a way station, but no one heard any shots or any sound of a struggle. It was evident that the paymaster’s traveling companion bad murdered and robbed him and then dropped off at the first stop without attracting any attention. Now, of course, the papers are again emphasizing the part played in the tragedy by the compartment carriage and demanding that the railways be compelled to put on corridor. cars, where such privacy as makes a crime possible cannot be obtained. The papers are pointing out now that ntfthing like this could happen in a corridor carriage, where passengers and railway servarits are always moving along the corridor, and where everything that happens in the car can be heard by the other passengers. But I am afraid that it wHI end in talk this time, as it always has done before. There is nothing that an English railway director hates and fears more than spending money on new rolling stock. On some of the suburban lines In London there are carriages still running which must have been built about George Stephenson’s day. They are worse than decent cattle cars and the unfortunate passengers after riding in one of them feels as sore as if he had been bumping the bumps at Coney Island. Every now and again the public complains and the railway directors turn over in their sleep and murmur, “We really must have some, new carriages,” but the British public Is patient and continues to ride, so the railway directors go to sleep again and dream' of a happy land where passengers can be piled on top of each other like baggage and bi" dividends can be earned.