Show t old no 9 arst kofl pullman car built in 1859 al 1 l lb l B i i te sr Y if 1 I ii II 11 i 1 rt tn n us rrb rr 7 r n 1 isi 4 1 l i aill n 1 1 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON r ODAY a trip from the atlantic coastal h A i i to the pacific Is such a common A place event as to cause but little r ii comment you step into an airplane on a field near new york city this morning and fi rat r n tomorrow night you 11 be eating a newspaper midnight lunch in san francisco published on a train but CO years ago when the first transcontinental train that ever traversed the united states reached its destination seven days after it started that was hailed as an epochal event this first train to run from alie east coast to the west left boston on may 24 1870 and arrived in san francisco on may 31 it was operated under the auspices of the boston board of trade and on board were pas engers composed of the leaders in social financial and political life not only was it the first transcontinental train ever run but in the seven da s it made the longest journey that any railroad train had ever covered it caused a sensation not only in this country but la europe as well all over the united states gave their readers news of the progress of the tour just as in recent years the papers have kept the public informed of the progress of round thew the w orld dyers the train named the transcontinental was composed entirely of the new ape of cars which were just beginning to be introduced by george M pullman who had organized alie excursion en listed the co operation of the various railroad lines over which it ran and induced the boston board of trade to sponsor the trip another fact made this train unique MS that for the first time in history a news paper was published aboard a train and files of the transcontinental which have been preserved not only tell a day by day story of the expedition but also furnish some interesting sidelight on the life of the times the first geue dated at niagara falls N Y on may 25 contains the following description of the train the train Is made up of eight of the most elegant cars ever drawn over an american railway they were built by orde the to be completed in time for the present excursion and to be first used in con jang the members of the board of trade of city of boston and their families from their bomea on the atlantic coast to the shores ot the pacific the train leads off w ath a baggage car the front of which has five large ice closets and a for the storing of fruits meat and vegetables Tege tables the balance of the car Is for bag se etith the exception of a square in one where stands a new quarto medium gor wn press upon which this paper Is printed eit comes a very handsome smoking car uch is divided into four rooms the first is 6 printing office which la supplied with black alnut cabinets filled with the latest styles of we for newspaper and job work this depart t we may say without egotism has been thoroughly tto roughly tested and has already turned out e as fine worl as can be done by those of ur brothers who a local habitation ad ng this is a neatly fitted up lobby and wine om at comes a large smoking room with achre tables etc alie rear end of the car has 1 furnished hair dressing and S saloon following athla come the two new hotel cars lne arlington and the revere both of which we completely and elegantly furnished and are orough ly adapted to the uses for which they edes tined two magnificent saloom cars the ff lyra and marquette come next the train completed by the two elegant commissary st and st cloud each of chih en is finished in all 0 its appointments as w the other carriages noticed taran 0 entyre iraln ls capped with every de accessory that may tend in the least to broin hano the ease of the passengers elaborate costly artistic gilding and shed wood work marking every port beati 00 of thear among the new 8 ced into these cars are two eli t library replete with choice works tt fl history hl story poetry etc and two of the ardett organs these instruments ire ln ry detail of stops pedals e banks of keys etc ight i cars of chils iraln are ea S the a new and novel manner there being ahw tak each an ingeniously constructed machine cn produces from liquid hydrocarbon hydro carbon a gas eqbal la brilliancy to that made tn the ordinary way despite this writers emphasis upon the elegance of these cars it Is interesting to corn pare those wooden cars heated with wood burn ing stoves lighted by gas the first ones were lighted by tallow candles and oil lamps incidentally with no springs and no vestibules vesti bules so that walking from one car to another was something of an adventure with the vapor heated and electric lighted steel cars of today a train of which Is being shown at a number of fairs this fall but in 1870 these elegant cars represented the peak of luxury and from the ac counts tn the little four page seven by ten inch newspaper one gains the impression that this excursion was the most enjoyable but thoroughly dignified of course joyride ever taken by a party of americans the governor of massachusetts accompanied the party to the state line and there bade them godspeed on their way to albany and the news paper records the fact that chester to washington up the grade of the boston albany railroad our train ws run at fully thirty miles an hour the fastest speed between boston and albany was performed from chatham to greenwich a distance of twenty three miles which was made in twenty four minutes from albany to magara fulla the trip was made over the new york central to detroit by the great western of canada to chicago by the michigan central to council bluffs by the chicago and north western and then across the missouri by fero boat lj omaha everywhere along the route the excursionists were met and welcomed by state and city officials and civic leaders and at every station the platforms were crowded with people to see the history making first trans continental train pass through chicago sent a special train to meet the trans continental and escort it into the city and on reaching our edcur zionists found carriages in batting and were quickly whirled up to the sherman and tremont houses and after a good nights rest and breakfast found their attentive friends at the door of their hotel with carriages in which they were driven over the city and through many of its attractive and beautiful avenues isor were such attentions the only ones showered upon the members of the party at detroit two lare boxes of superior fine cut chewing tobacco were sent on board the train as a pros ent from the manufacturers and at omaha brewer and beals kindly presented the party with a barrel of fine ale of their own manufacture from the omaha brewery the receipt of which Is hereby gratefully acknowledged As for omaha it Is rather difficult to recognize the modern city of today with its population of nearly a quarter of a million in this description omaha Is situated on the western bank of the missouri river on a sloping upland about 50 feet above the high water mark it la the present terminus of the U P R R co and a thriving growing city of from to 35 inhabitants the state capitol was first located here but was removed to lincoln city in in 1854 a few squatters squat tera located here among whom was A D jones now one of the solid men of the place in the fall of that year he received an appointment as postmaster for the place which as et had no postmaster or post office As mr jones Is one of the most accommodating mo dating of men be a postoffice post office by using the crown of his hat for that purpose when the postmaster met one of his neighbors if there was a letter for him oft came the hat from the postmasters head while he fished out the missive and placed it in the hands of the owner the battered hat has ghen place to a large first class postoffice post office commensurate alth the future growth of the city the inaugurating of the U P R R gave it an onward impetus and since the growth of the city has been almost unparalleled there are many evidences of continued prosperity and future greatness the omaha herald dally republican dally western journal of commerce nebraska state journal the agriculturist anfelt the western world are published here there are two collegiate institutes and convent schools seven and six public schools in the city there are also fifteen churches omaha has eleven hotels are twenty nine manufactories manu factories one distillery and six brew cries the whole number of merchants who report sales of and over the value of for the year Is eighty five twenty five of whom are wholesale the sales of these firms for the year ending may foot up a total of omaha was also where the west began tor these easterners and their thrills multiplied as they journeyed over the union pacific toward cheyenne as witness this from the train news paper the prairies are diversified by little groups of antelopes and buffaloes and our stop pings multiplied by frequent camps of national soldiers these hardy lads who having beaten back the waves of rebellion now guard the ad vance of civilization into the wilds of the sav age prairie dog villages also excited their interest as did the indians who are now seen at almost every station they are the friendly pawnees Paw nees bannocks Ban nocks and shoshones Sho and for those who as bos had read dime novels it v as a special thrill when buckskin joe well known as a hunter trapper and indian scout during the past fifteen years was at cheyenne as we passed awaiting the regular eastward bound passenger train to proceed on to the place of his birth in new york state which he has not visited since his boyhood he at traded much attention from our party who gathered around him and listened with marked interest to his startling and romantic tales of indian fights and frontier life in light of the recent scourge of pers in the west the following paragraph Is of special interest swarms of mammoth crickets coming in hordes at times cross the track of the railroad in such numbers as to completely stop all passing trains they meas ure about two inches in length are very fat and plump and jump upon the rails when warmed by the sun As the locomotives traverse this district they crush them by the thousands and spread over the rails a glutinous substance resembling grease and the wheels soon revolve helplessly we hive seen them by the thou sand fortunately for the chronicler of the elegant cars be bad not used up all his bent adjectives from omaha to salt lake city for he needed ethem and made full use of them for the journey through the mountains to san francisco and for the lavish california hoppl folven them there dut it the members of the party were loud in their praise for the royal welcome which they received in the gold en west they also were conscious of certain ther local customs which were different from any they had previously experienced the fol lowing item published in the issue of the transcontinental newspaper dated boston july 4 for by that date they had retraced their way across flie continent seems to reflect u sense of outraged kankeo thrift which Is more than a little amusing while at san I 1 many of our party observed what Is certainly a striking characteristic of an early custom still remaining in california when a single copy of a certain morning newspaper was purchased of newsboys for nominally one bit they received a 25 cent piece a dime and a pa per thus really taking 15 acts for a single cop of a piper whose published subscription price was 12 acts a week this results from the fact that a dime Is the smallest coin in alon throughout the west coast this last issue also contains a valedictory editorial in which appear these worda all agree that the excursion has been a splendid success and that it has done much to the idea of distance and separation and to bind together the bast and west in indissoluble bonds the great valley of the mississippi and the lake states especially are brought into immediate neighborhood with us and we nr with them there Is now no west this side of the pacific coast for chicago and omaha and cheyenne are in comparison close by 2 by western union |