t any hour you like, the _cuisine_ is good, and all kinds of
wine are on the list. You pass the day reading or writing, though the
last is not easy, perfect as the springs are. You smoke, when you
will, in a luxurious smoking-room. You can wander from one end of the
train to the other, and at night you have a perfect bed. What more
can one desire? Under such circumstances, a week's journey is no
hardship; but, and it is an important "but" to many, to "do" America
in this way is very expensive. The fare is high, the meals dear;
thus, to cross the continent in this wise, costs perhaps 40_l._

I advise none but the rich to visit America with travel in view. But
those to whom "money is no object," as the saying goes, can wander in
the States with more comfort and luxury than anywhere in the world.

The American rail-cars, in their construction and arrangements, being
so different to ours, it is well worth while to consider which is the
better. I do not hesitate for a moment to award them the palm, in
their phraseology, "far and away." In the first place, in such
carriages the murders, thefts, and outrages, we occasionally hear of
in England, are simply impossible. I will not dwell on this point, it
must be so obvious. Secondly, you can quench your thirst, when you
will, in whatever class you are; here you cannot do it at all. More,
you can wash, you can retire for any purpose, while here, the
suffering both sexes often go through, for want of such conveniences,
is often very great, sometimes permanently injurious. Thirdly, you
are not boxed up in a confined space in their cars as you are in our
carriages. You can have change, choose your society, stretch your
legs, go outside, and all this necessarily makes the time pass
pleasantly. That all this is so, every one must allow. Should we not
then do well to copy their plan? The conservative feeling, prevalent
with some, that _because_ "our plan is ours it cannot be beaten, and
we'll stick to it," is so contemptible. Let each nation, I say, learn
from the other in every way. Perfection is not human, there is always
room for improvement, and narrow-minded is the individual who, puffed
up with conceit for his own or national attributes, fails to
recognize it outside. I know, of course, that to change our plan of
rail carriages must in any case take many years, but some might be
built on the new plan, and the change tried gradually. If any like
privacy, a carriage on the old buil