Westward with the Prince of WalesNewton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
History
Westward with the Prince of Wales
Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
Canada -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
The train was a modern hotel strayed accidentally on to wheels. It had
its telephone system; its own electricity; its own individually
controlled central heat. It had a laundry service for its passengers,
and its valets always on the spot to renew the crease of youth in all
trousers. It had its own newspaper, or, rather, bulletin, by which all
on board learnt the news of the external world twice a day, no matter
in what wild spot the train happened to be. It had its dark-room for
photographers, its dispensary for the doctor and its untiring telegraph
expert to handle all wired messages, including the correspondents'
cables. It had its dining-rooms and kitchens and its staff of
first-class chefs, who worked miracles of cuisine in the small space of
their kitchen, giving over a hundred people three meals a day that no
hotel in London could exceed in style, and no hotel in England could
hope to equal in abundance. It carried baggage, and transferred it to
Government Houses or hotels, and transferred it back to its cars and
baggage vans in a manner so perfect that one came to look upon the
matter almost as a process of nature, and not as a breathless
phenomenon.
It was the train _de luxe_, but it was really more than that. It was a
train handled by experts from Mr. A. B. Calder, who represented the
President of the Company, down to the cleaning boy, who swept up the
cars, and they were experts of a curious quality of their own.
Whatever the Canadian Pacific Railway is (and it has its critics),
there can be no doubt that, as an organization, it captures the
loyalty, as it calls forth all the keenness and ability of its
servants. It is something that quickens their imagination and
stimulates their enthusiasm. There was something warm and invigorating
about the way each man set up within himself a counsel of
perfection--which he intended to exceed. Waiters, negro car porters,
brakemen, secretaries--every man on that staff of sixty odd determined
that _his_ department was going to be a living example, not of what he
could do, but of what the C.P.R. could do.
The _esprit de corps_ was remarkable. Mr. Calder told us at the end of
the trip that as far as the staff working of the train was concerned he
need not have been in control. He had not issued a single order, nor a
single reprimand in the three months. The men knew their work
perfectly; they did it perfectly.
When one thinks of a great organization animated from the lowest worker
to the President by so lively and extraordinarily human a spirit of
loyalty that each worker finds delight in improving on instructions,
one must admit that it has the elements of greatness in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account