“Yes, madam,” was the reply, “It would, as you say, be very nice to travel about for nothing, _if we were not paid for it_. But you see,” he remarked, “railway engineers are like the cabman’s horse. The cabman has a very thin horse. ‘Doesn’t your horse have enough to eat?’ inquired a benevolent lady passenger. ‘Oh yes, ma’am,’ replied cabby, ‘I give him lots o’ victuals to eat, only, you see, he hasn’t any time to eat ’em.’ So it is with the railway engineer; he has lots of pleasure of all kinds, only he has not any time to take it.” AN ACCOMMODATING CONTRACTOR. One railway of some scores of miles hung fire; the directors were congested with their fears of exceeding the estimates, and so a shrewd man of business, a contractor, i.e., a man with a mind contracted to profit and a keen eye to discern the paths of profit, called on them. This man had made his way upward, and passing through the process of sub-contracting, had obtained a glimpse of the upper glories. And thus he relieved the directors from their difficulties, by proffering to make the railway complete in all its parts, buy the land at the commencement, and, if required, to engage the station-clerks at the conclusion, with all the staff complete, so that his patrons might have no trouble, but begin business off-hand. But the latter condition—the staff and clerks—being simply a matter of patronage, the directors kept that trouble in their own hands. Our contractor loomed on the directors’ minds as a guardian angel, a guarantee against responsibilities, backed by sufficient sureties, so the matter was without delay handed over to him, and he knew what to do with it. —_Roads and Rails_, by W. B. Adams. THE TWO DUKES AND THE TRAVELLER. The following amusing anecdote is related of a commercial traveller who happened to get into the same railway carriage in which the Dukes of Argyle and Northumberland were travelling. The three chatted familiarly until the train stopped at Alnwick Junction, where the Duke of Northumberland got out, and was met by a train of flunkeys and servants. “That must be a great swell,” said the “commercial,” to his remaining companion. “Yes,” responded the Duke of Argyle, “he is the Duke of Northumberland.” “Bless my soul!” exclaimed the “commercial.” “And to think that he should have been so condescending to two little snobs like us!” THE GREAT RAILWAY MANIA DAY.