see the
whole length of one side of the train; carry the foot-board and the
hand-rail half way across the space between the carriages, by which
simple means the guard could walk outside from one end of the train to
the other, thus supervising everything, and gathering in the tickets _en
route_, instead of inconveniencing the public, as at present, by
detaining the train many minutes for that purpose.[D]

Next, fit every carriage with two strong metal pipes, running just over
the doors, and projecting a foot or so beyond the length of the
carriage, the end of the pipe to have a raised collar, by which means an
elastic gutta percha tube could connect the pipes while the carriages
were being attached; a branch tube of gutta percha should then be led
from the pipe on one side into each compartment, so that any passenger,
by blowing through it, would sound a whistle in the place appropriated
to the guard. On the opposite side, the pipes would be solely for
communication between the guard and engine-driver. Should the length of
any train be found too great for such communication, surely it were
better to sacrifice an extra guard's salary, than trifle with human life
in the way we have hitherto done. Each engine should have a second
whistle, with a trumpet tone, similar to that employed in America, to be
used in case of _danger_, the ordinary one being employed, as at
present, only to give warning of approach.

With these sagacious hints for the consideration of my countrymen, I
postpone for the present the subject of railways, and, in excuse for the
length of my remarks, have only to plead a desire to make railway
travelling in England more safe, and my future wanderings more
intelligible. I have much more to say with regard to New York and its
neighbourhood; but not wishing to overdose the reader at once, I shall
return to the subject in the pages, as I did to the place in my
subsequent travels.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote D: This power of supervision, on the part of the guard, might
also act as an effective check upon the operations of those swindling
gamblers who infest many of our railroads--especially the express trains
of the Edinburgh and Glasgow--in which, owing to no stoppage taking
place, they exercise their villanous calling with comparative impunity.]

CHAPTER IV.

_A Day on the North River_.

Early one fine morning in October, a four-seated fly might have been
seen at the door of Putnam's hotel, on