"NOT ANOTHER BERTH
on the Limited Monday," was the unpleasant news I got at the ticket office two days before I was ready to go. It was a great disappointment. The Limited is made up entirely of Pullman sleepers with a dining car attached. "Seventy-three hours from New Orleans to San Francisco," are the words which I have thought about for three months. Here is a description which charmed me: "Sunset Limited traverses the New Coast Line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the grandest trip in the United States."
EQUIPMENT OF "SUNSET LIMITED." COMPOSITE CAR, "EL INDIA."
"A place where men smoke, read and rest. The first car of the train: It contains buffet, baths, barber shop, desk, bookcases, books and stationery. Here one may view the peculiar scenery through wide plate-glass windows, tell yarns and enjoy full comfort of an up-to-date equipment. A conveyance worthy of any man's admiration."
Then it goes on to describe in the same style each car: The ladies' parlor car, the sleeping car, the dining car. But I missed it by not engaging a place beforehand. Never mind, next time I'll know better. I lose a day thereby and pay double for a sleeper. Poor comfort, but the best at hand, "an upper berth only to Los Angeles on the regular train is all that is left—nothing to San Francisco," and I jumped at it.
An hour later and I would have had to go in the day coach and nod it out. It looks like everybody has taken a notion to travel at the same time; but I learn it is always this way on this road in winter. Through the low lands and swamps and magnificent sugar plantations, the train speeds on its western course. The Teche country through which we go is called the "Sugar Bowl of Louisiana." I wonder that it wasn't put down as the "biggest thing of its kind in the world."
Before we leave Louisiana, it will be interesting to some I am sure, to hear something of the