This sentence does not
sound strictly fair, but the meaning one wishes to convey is that if an
English company spies in its dream the ghost of an ancient valley that
later becomes a hill, it would construct for it a magnificent steel
trestle, and consider that a duty had been performed in proper
accordance with the company's conscience. But after all is said of it,
the accidents and the miles of railway operated in England are not in
proportion to the accidents and the miles of railway operated in the
United States. The reason can be divided into three parts--older
conditions, superior caution, the road-bed. And of these, the greatest
is older conditions.
In this flight toward Scotland one seldom encountered a grade crossing.
In nine cases of ten there was either a bridge or a tunnel. The
platforms of even the remote country stations were all of ponderous
masonry in contrast to our constructions of planking. There was always
to be seen, as we thundered toward a station of this kind, a number of
porters in uniform, who requested the retreat of any one who had not the
wit to give us plenty of room. And then, as the shrill warning of the
whistle pierced even the uproar that was about us, came the wild joy of
the rush past a station. It was something in the nature of a triumphal
procession conducted at thrilling speed. Perhaps there was a curve of
infinite grace, a sudden hollow explosive effect made by the passing of
a signal-box that was close to the track, and then the deadly lunge to
shave the edge of a long platform.
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