LUGGAGE AND BAGGAGE.
You do occasionally get a paper check or receipt for baggage on a continental railway, but in England seldom or never. Still a piece of baggage is seldom lost on an English railway. It gets to its proper destination at last, but it seems to be more by good luck than by good management. Baggage, or “luggage,” as they term it, goes astray sometimes, but on the other hand, the system for tracing and finding it is excellent. They have a “lost luggage” department in the principal stations.
They are very particular as to the quantity of baggage. Each passenger is allowed so many pounds. At every station there is an official who keeps a sharp eye on the porters who handle trunks, and at the slightest suspicion of overweight the official will order a trunk on the scales with which all stations are supplied.
There are strong racks in every car for light luggage, but a great deal of what we should term heavy baggage finds its way on the racks and under the seats. Englishmen travel with an extraordinary quantity of impedimenta. They carry large satchels, also portmanteaus resembling a good-sized trunk—all because no checks are given. Everybody wants to keep his luggage in hand or in sight.
There is a prominent sign posted in some of the large stations to this effect: “Any porter who is discovered accepting a fee will be instantly dismissed.” And yet you can’t get your trunk moved an inch without dropping a few coppers into a porter’s hand. The fee system prevails everywhere, from the station master who furnishes information to the uniformed porter who whistles for a “four-wheeler” or hansom. In many cases the door of the toilet room is only unlocked by dropping a penny in a slot. But this is a better arrangement than exists at stations on the continent, where an old woman stands guard, whom you must fee before you are allowed to leave.