they had all gone away. In this democratic country they could not be
put to the inconvenience of coming back again, so I had to wait
about till they came to cart it up to the train. I do not mean to
say there would be any of this bother in travelling about from
station to station, it was only during the confusion of landing when
a lot of people all wanted their things done at the same time, and
the baggage all had to be brought up from the wharf, still it was an
item in our first railway experiences which, coupled with the delay
in starting, put me out of temper with Canadian travelling, though
there is not a shadow of doubt but what the chequing system is a
great deal superior to our own. However, when we did get fairly
under weigh it was not so bad. It is certainly very nice to be able
to get up and walk about when one gets tired of sitting still, or go
and stand on the platforms outside. Then, their rules are far less
strict than ours. If a man likes to jump on or off while a train is
going full speed ahead he can, nobody has the least objection to his
coming down on his head if he likes; or if he feels inclined to jump
off and run alongside he is perfectly at liberty to do so, only the
Company will not bind themselves to stop and wait for him if he
can't run fast enough. In fact, a man here is entirely his own
master, and as such is just as good us anybody else. There is one
thing which seems to me a great disadvantage, that is so few of the
railway officials are in any uniform at all. They may have a badge,
or something of that sort, but I did not see any, consequently one
never knows who to ask for information about the trains, etc. When
we got to Richmond last night, where we had to change for
Sherbrooke, a chap told us we should start in about twenty-five
minutes; the next man told us that we should not start till two or
three in the morning; and while we were endeavouring to arrive at
the truth somebody shouted out to know if everybody was "on board"