mules, and electricity, also elevated railways—­that is, railways running down the streets on huge tressels or scaffolding—­so that the vehicles go underneath them, and the passengers in the train look straight into the first-floor windows of the houses on the other side.  There is an immense development of electricity all over America, and in tram-cars, railway-cars, hotels, 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 partial undressing is adopted.  The outside of the slope is polished mahogany, and in the daytime bears no indication whatever of what it really is, but looks like a handsome sloping polished mahogany roof.  These cars are luxuriously fitted.  Another car on the train is a handsome dining saloon, with kitchen attached, where you can order as good a dinner as you could obtain at an hotel.  The cars are also fitted liberally with lavatories and water-closets, separate ones for ladies and for gentlemen.  On this train is also a bath-room and a barber’s shop.  There are also one or two small private rooms, which can be hired separately.  This train