To comprehend more clearly the details of this nation-wide service it must be considered in its two aspects--the material equipment which the operation of the cars requires, and the personal service afforded by the employees of the company. To give this service 7,500 cars of the Pullman Company are operated over one hundred and thirty-seven railroads, or a total of 223,489 miles of track, reaching practically every point in the country from which or to which a person might desire to travel. To operate these cars an army of over ten thousand car employees are required, while seven thousand more are employed to keep the cars in repair, and maintain them in a clean and sanitary condition. The Pullman Company maintains, in addition to the great plant at Pullman, six repair shops situated at various convenient points throughout the country where cars are repaired and maintained in good condition. In 1916, a total of 5,115 cars were repaired at these various shops at a cost of over five million dollars. Only by such rigid maintenance can the cars be kept in the almost invariably excellent condition in which they are found by the public. [Illustration: Modern Pullman steel sleeping car, ready to be made up for the night] [Illustration: Modern Pullman steel sleeping car during the day] Years ago the wearied traveler wrapped his great coat about him for his midnight journey. Later a few "sleeping" cars of primitive construction provided sheets and blankets which were stored in a cupboard in the end of the car. As these were washed only at irregular intervals, it was a lucky passenger who found clean linen for his bed, and if he did not make up the bed himself, it was the brakeman who provided this domestic service. Naturally no one thought of undressing for the night, and when the Pullman car was first introduced it was necessary to print on the back of the tickets and in the employees' rules book the warning that passengers must not retire with their boots on. Today the Pullman Company to provide clean linen nightly for each passenger, keeps on hand 1,858,178 sheets, which are valued at $980,553.00, and 1,403,354 pillow slips worth $186,475.00. In the twelve months ending April 27, 1916, over two hundred thousand sheets, valued at over one hundred thousand dollars, and nearly two hundred thousand pillow cases, valued at over twenty thousand dollars, were condemned. And during the same period 108,492,359 pieces of linen, including both sheets and pillow cases were washed and ironed. In the matter of condemnation, it is interesting to learn that the slightest tear or stain is considered sufficient cause. These figures are staggering in their immensity, but even more amazing is the system by which these articles are provided, changed, washed, returned in traveling hotels, at times hundreds of miles removed from the nearest supply station.