I was ever so slightly disappointed with the dimensions and appointments of the state-room—­I may have been expecting a whole car to myself—­but the general self-conscious smartness of the train reassured me.  I wandered into the observation-car, and saw my particular friend proudly employ the train-telephone to inform his office that he had caught the train.  I saw also the free supply of newspapers, the library of books, the typewriting-machine, and the stenographer by its side—­all as promised.  And I knew that at the other end of the train was a dining-car, a smoking-car, and a barber-shop.  I picked up the advertising literature scattered about by a thoughtful Company, and learned therefrom that this train was not a mere experiment; it was the finished fruit of many experiments, and that while offering the conveniences of a hotel or a club, it did with regularity what it undertook to do in the way of speed and promptness.  The pamphlet made good reading!...

I noted that it pleased the Company to run two other very important trains out of the terminus simultaneously with the unique train.  Bravado, possibly; but bravado which invited the respect of all those who admire enterprise!  I anticipated with pleasure the noble spectacle of these three trains sailing forth together on three parallel tracks; which pleasure was denied me.  We for Chicago started last; we started indeed, according to my poor European watch, from fifteen to thirty seconds late!...  No matter!  I would not stickle for seconds:  particularly as at Chicago, by the terms of a contract which no company in Europe would have had the grace to sign, I was to receive, for any unthinkable lateness, compensation at the rate of one cent for every thirty-six seconds!

Within a quarter of an hour it became evident that that train had at least one great quality—­it moved.  As, in the deepening dusk, we swung along the banks of the glorious Hudson, veiled now in the vaporous mysteries following a red sunset, I was obliged to admit with increasing enthusiasm that that train did move.  Even the persecutors of Galileo would never have had the audacity to deny that that train moved.  And one felt, comfortably, that the whole Company, with all the Company’s resources, was watching over its flying pet, giving it the supreme right of way and urging it forward by hearty good-will.  One felt also that the moment had come for testing the amenities of the hotel and the club.

“Tea, please,” I said, jauntily, confidently, as we entered the spotless and appetizing restaurant-car.

The extremely polite and kind captain of the car was obviously taken aback.  But he instinctively grasped that the reputation of the train hung in the balance, and he regained his self-possession.

“Tea?” His questioning inflection delicately hinted:  “Try not to be too eccentric.”

“Tea.”

“Here?”

“Here.”

“I can serve it here, of course,” said the captain, persuasively.  “But if you don’t mind I should prefer to serve it in your state-room.”