Passing over all intermediate points, the traveller at length reaches the Garden City, Chicago. This, which used to be counted a western city—it is 900 miles west of New York—is now considered almost an eastern one. And it must be remembered that this place of half a million souls is a port. Large sailing‐vessels and steamers enter and leave it daily, and through Lake Michigan and the chain of other lakes can reach the ocean direct. There are miles on miles of wharfs, and it is generally considered one of the “livest” business places in America. Handsomely laid‐out and built, the city now hardly bears a trace of the terrific conflagration which in 1871 laid three‐fourths of the finest streets in ruins. From Chicago to Omaha the various routes have little to interest the ordinary traveller, and so, while speeding on together, let us dine in a Pullman hotel car. On entering you will be presented with a bewildering bill of fare, commencing with soups and finishing with ice‐cream and black coffee. The dinner is served on little separate tables, while the purity of the cloths and table napkins, the brightness of the plate, and the crystal clearness of the glass‐ware, leave nothing to desire. You can have a glass of iced water, for they have an ice‐cellar; you can obtain anything, from a bottle of beer to one of Burgundy, port, or champagne; and cigars are also kept “en board;” while at the particular point indicated you will not pay more than seventy‐five cents (about three shillings) for the dinner. It must be admitted that the liquid refreshments are generally very dear: a “quarter” (_i.e._, twenty‐five cents, the fourth of a dollar) for any small drink, fifty cents for a very small bottle of Bass, and wines expensive in proportion. Still you dine at your ease and leisure, instead of rushing out with a crowd at the “eating stations,” where the trains usually stop three times a day. We have the authority of Mr. W. F. Rae for stating that “no royal personage can be more comfortably housed than the occupant of a Pullman car, provided the car be an hotel one.”(7) [Illustration: A PULLMAN RAILWAY CAR.]