Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
The little hansoms are continually speeding through the gate, dashing
between the legs of the solemn temple; the four-wheelers, their tops
crowded with luggage, roll in and out constantly, and the footways beat
under the trampling of the people. Of course, there are the suburbs and
a hundred towns along the line, and Liverpool, the beginning of an
important sea-path to America, and the great manufacturing cities of
the North; but if one stands at this gate in August particularly, one
must note the number of men with gun-cases, the number of women who
surely have Tam-o'-Shanters and plaids concealed within their luggage,
ready for the moors. There is, during the latter part of that month, a
wholesale flight from London to Scotland which recalls the July throngs
leaving New York for the shore or the mountains.
The hansoms, after passing through this impressive portal of the
station, bowl smoothly across a courtyard which is in the center of the
terminal hotel, an institution dear to most railways in Europe. The
traveler lands amid a swarm of porters, and then proceeds cheerfully to
take the customary trouble for his luggage. America provides a
contrivance in a thousand situations where Europe provides a man or
perhaps a number of men, and the work of our brass check is here done
by porters, directed by the traveler himself. The men lack the memory
of the check; the check never forgets its identity. Moreover, the
European railways generously furnish the porters at the expense of the
traveler. Nevertheless, if these men have not the invincible business
precision of the check, and if they have to be tipped, it can be
asserted for those who care that in Europe one-half of the populace
waits on the other half most diligently and well.
Against the masonry of a platform, under the vaulted arch of the
train-house, lay a long string of coaches. They were painted white on
the bulging part, which led halfway down from the top, and the bodies
were a deep bottle-green. There was a group of porters placing luggage
in the van, and a great many others were busy with the affairs of
passengers, tossing smaller bits of luggage into the racks over the
seats, and bustling here and there on short quests. The guard of the
train, a tall man who resembled one of the first Napoleon's veterans,
was caring for the distribution of passengers into the various bins.
There were no second-class compartments; they were all third and
first-class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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