Their cars are made on the conventional European pattern, and are
light and comfortable. They are furnished with toilet rooms, and
run smoothly and noiselessly. Most of the trains are equipped with
Westinghouse brakes, steam heat, and electric lights. The trains run
very slowly. Economy is studied in this respect, as in every
other. There is a certain speed--say, fifteen or eighteen miles an
hour--which can be maintained at a minimum consumption of fuel, and
the Scandinavian railway managers have figured it down to a dot. They
can haul a longer train a greater distance with a ton of coal than any
other engineers, and the most scrupulous attention is applied to every
feature of management, the tracks, the rolling stock, the station, the
crossings. The crossing-keepers are usually women. A large number of
that sex are employed by the railways.

The stops at the stations seem unnecessarily long to impatient
Americans, but the time is utilized by the leisurely passengers in
drinking big goblets of beer, and by the conductor in parading up
and down the platform so that the patrons of the road can have
an opportunity to admire his radiant uniform and fine shape. In
Scandinavian countries the best-looking men seem to have been selected
for railway conductors and policemen, and their deportment is
decidedly different from what we are used to in America. If you ask a
question of a Norwegian policeman, he will bring his heels together,
give a military salute, and stand in the attitude of attention like
a soldier while he answers. He usually understands English, too, and
those who can not are remarkably accurate guessers, and all take a
friendly interest in your inquiries instead of giving you a short
answer and a cold shoulder like the policemen in our cities. They will
walk to the corner to point out the house in the middle of the next
block if that is where you want to go, and when you thank them for