A modest paragraph in many American newspapers in February, 1873, announced the momentous news that England was soon to enjoy the novelty of Pullman transportation--"The Midland Railway Company has entered into a contract with the Pullman Palace Car Company for the equipment of their road with American drawing room and sleeping coaches." The Midland was the longest and most important of three great railroads which started from London and extended to Liverpool and Scotland, transversing the rich central counties of England where so few years before the coach horn had sounded through the hills. The adoption of Pullman equipment by this prominent railroad was singularly conspicuous. On February 15, 1873, at a "half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Midland Railway," Mr. Pullman personally addressed the officers of the company. It appears that Mr. Allport, the general manager of the Midland Railway, on a recent visit to the United States and Canada, had been greatly impressed by the accommodations afforded the traveling public, and had made a particular study of the Pullman cars. Acting on his advice the directors invited Mr. Pullman to England to appear before the meeting. Mr. Pullman proposed that the Midland Company should authorize the speedy construction of carriages particularly adapted to their requirements, and a motion was carried to authorize the construction of such cars on the basic Pullman principles. It was accordingly agreed that eighteen new cars should be constructed in America and shipped to England in August and that Mr. Pullman should return to England at that time to superintend their installation. By the contract the Pullman Company agreed to furnish as many dining-room, drawing-room, and sleeping cars as the demands of the traveling public required, without charge to the road, its compensation being in the extra fare paid for use of the cars. The road, on the other hand, received its compensation in the free use of the cars, in return for which it guaranteed to the Pullman Company the exclusive right to furnish such cars for fifteen years. As in America, the porters, conductors, cooks, waiters and other attendants were hired by the Pullman Company. Two night trains and two day trains of American cars only, were to be put on at the start. The contract was not exclusive, and other English railroads watched with interest the working out of the American innovation.