houses, everything and everywhere, is the electric light prominent. Many
of the streets are unevenly paved. Blacking boots is a profession in
America--in many hotels a special charge is made for it, or else the
visitors are left to their own devices thereon--and boot-blacks have
shops and nooks fitted with high, huge easy chairs, elevated like
thrones, where their clients can comfortably repose during the operation
of polish.

The next morning, December 1st, I was up early, and made enquiries at
the various offices representing the railway lines to Chicago, with the
result that I took a ticket by the Pennsylvania route, and left New York
at 10 o'clock a.m. The train service between New York and Chicago is one
of the best, if not _the_ best, in America. The cars are elegantly
fitted; they are about the length of the Pullman cars we have in
England. The best cars are those fitted with sleeping accommodation, and
travellers having tickets for a "sleeper" have the privilege of using
the sleeping car during the day. The sleeping cars are divided into
squares capable of seating four persons, but the space is accorded to
two only, as only two beds or berths can be made up in the space; the
lower berth (which is always the favourite) is formed of the two double
seats (the space for four seats), filled up in the centre by special
fittings and mattresses, hidden during the day inside the seats; the
upper berth is pulled down from the sloping roof of the car, and in the
receptacle between the slope and the square are contained the bedding
and the fittings. A curtain falls down over both the upper and lower
berths, and, so far as one can, the dressing has to be done with the
curtain hanging round one as one stands within it; and if on both sides
of the car passengers happen to stand behind their respective curtains
at the same time, they would touch one another and so block the
passage-way. The dressing accommodation is so inconvenient that only