A CLASSIC MRL DVD RELEASE! RAILROAD DINING, ART, AND CULTURE IN REVIEW BY JAMES D. PORTERFIELD TRAINS ON THE Fun In the Archives
WITH APOLOGIES TO SNOOPY, “It was a dark and snowy night...” The temperature was but a single digit. The first inch of a forecast six to ten inches of snow had already fallen. Perfect weather for a glow in the fireplace, a snifter of brandy poured, and a little online research. I’d recently subscribed to two large databases that provide newspaper and maga- zine content dating to colonial times. Time to put them to use. Almost immediately, I struck gold. This,
from The New York Times: July 10, 1857: “If there is any word in the
English language more shamefully misused than another, it is the word ‘refreshment,’ as applied to the hurry scurry of eating and drinking at railroad stations. The dreary places in which the painful and unhealthy performances take place are called “Refresh- ment Saloons;” but there could not be a more inappropriate designation for such abomina- tions of desolation. Directors of railroads ap- pear to have an idea that travelers are desti- tute of stomach; that eating and drinking are not at all necessary to human beings bound on long journeys, and that nothing more is re- quired than to put them through their misery in as brief a time as possible. It is expected that three or four hundred men, women, and children, some of whom must, of necessity, be ‘feeble folk’ and unaccustomed to roughing it, and all of whom have been used to the de- cencies and comforts of orderly homes, can be whirled half a day over a dusty road, with hot cinders flying in their faces; and then, when they approach a station and are dying with weariness, hunger, and thirst, longing for an opportunity to bathe their faces at least before partaking their much-needed refresh- ments, that they shall rush out helter-skelter into a dismal long room and dispatch supper, breakfast, or dinner in 15 minutes. The con- sequences of such savage and unnatural feed- ing are not reported by telegraph as railroad disasters; but if a faithful account were given of them, we are afraid they would be found much more serious than any that are caused by the smashing of cars, or the breaking down of bridges. The traveler who has been riding all night in a dusty and crowded car, unable to sleep, and half suffocated with smoke and foul air, will be suddenly roused from his half lethargic condition by hearing the scream of the steam whistle, which tells of the near approach to a station; but, before the train stops, the door of the car opens, and the con- ductor shouts at the top of his voice: ‘Pogram- ville — 15 minutes for breakfast.’ “Here is a prospect for a weary and hungry
traveler to whom 15 minutes would be brief time enough for ablutions. But washing is out of the question, even if all the conveniences were at hand, and he rushes into the ‘saloon,’ where he is offered a choice of fried ham and eggs, or tough beefsteak soaked in bad but- ter, tea and coffee, stale bread; the inevitable custard pie and pound cake are also put at his service; but half the 15 minutes allowed for breakfast having been lost while waiting for a turn at one of the two wash-basins, the bewil- dered traveler makes a hasty grab at whatev- er comes within his reach, and hurries back to
his seat, to discover before he reaches the end of his journey, that he has laid the foundation for a fit of dyspepsia, which may lead to a dis- ease of the lungs or a fever. “A company that expends 30 millions of dol-
lars in building and equipping a road, ought not to begrudge a few hundred dollars in fur- nishing a suitable place for travelers to refresh themselves at, nor deny them the necessary time to do it in. Refreshment saloons ought to be under the charge of the Railroad Company, for passengers ought not to be put at the mercy of grasping and ignorant men, who are regard- less of everything but their own profit. There are very few roads in the whole country on which there is a station where a comfortable meal can be obtained, or where the necessary accommodations are to be found which passen- gers require when they stop. The Erie Road has the most comfortable and spacious cars of any railroad in the country, and we have no doubt that it would have a great accession of travel if there were decent station houses on the line for the refreshment of passengers, and the arrangement of timetables were such that they could be enjoyed. As our great lines of railroad are laid through wild and half-culti- vated regions, where the common refinements of City life are not to be looked for, the railroad managers should themselves make the neces- sary provision for the refreshment of passen- gers which they have a right to expect. As af- fairs are now arranged, a few days of railroad traveling are sure to end in a fit of sickness to all excepting those who have hardy constitu- tions, and are accustomed to the very roughest and toughest manner of living.” This was published ten years before Pull-
man’s first “Hotel Car,” and nearly 20 years before the first Harvey House. And although referred to in the database as “Article V,” it has all the earmarks of an editorial. October 13, 1867: The New York Times revisited this matter, when, in a portion of a piece titled “The Comforts of Railroad Trav- el,” it opined, “While alluding to this subject of improvement in the details of railroad management, we will suggest another idea which might be carried out on nearly all our roads to the immense benefit of their patrons. We allude to the system of providing refresh- ment for travelers which is in vogue on the railways of continental Europe, adding vastly to the comfort of passengers. “Instead of being compelled to rush pell-mell
from the cars into a wayside restaurant, and scramble for badly-cooked food, which must be ‘bolted’ after it is obtained, during the ‘ten minutes allowed for refreshments,’ an entire- ly different, decent and more humane plan is carried out, at least on all the great lines of travel. The wayfarer, for instance, intending to travel all day, would like a comfortable dinner at a restaurant near the railroad station if the train is to be delayed a sufficient time for him to procure it. All he has to do, therefore, is to write a telegram, specifying what he desires for his meal, which is dispatched to the restaurant proprietor by one of the uniformed railroad em- ployees, and on reaching the designated place the hungry man, or party of friends, as the case may be, enter the refectory, finding their seats
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