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24 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
be their best customers—with every practical indignity
and annoyance that is not specially prohibited by Act of
Parliament. The Act of Parliament compels them to
run one third-class train per day at one penny per mile,
and they run exactly one and no more;—the Act of
Parliament compels them to cover the carriages, and on
that account they do so;—the Act of Parliament
compels them to have some kind of windows to these human
cattle-boxes, and they do put in panes, like the
peepholes of a showr-box;—the Act of Parliament compels
them to run at fifteen miles per hour, and they take
scrupulous care not to exceed that pace; or, if the
fear of collision compels them to do so on part of the
journey, they shunt their third-class victims off the
line, and wait an hour or so until the express and the
ordinary train, which started two hours later, shall pass
them.
On continental lines, third-class and, where they exist,
fourth-class carriages are attached to every train except
the express, and the passengers by these have the same
advantages in speed, day tickets, &c., as the other
ordinary passengers; consequently, the shareholders in
continental lines get good dividends, while those who have
invested largely in English lines are for the most part
nearly ruined. Our directors tell sad stories of
parliamentary expenses, great original outlay in permanent
works, and actually make that a plea for contracting their
traffic, and preventing their best paying customers (a
third-class carriage of equal size holds more money than
a first-class) from travelling at all; for the mass of the
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