In 1883 the Erie Railroad realized the long entertained ambition of entering Chicago on its own rails. To accomplish this, the Erie had leased the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad and built the Chicago & Atlantic. Through connection was actually made May 15, on which date freight traffic was begun.

The train by which the Erie inaugurated the passenger business over the new trunk line was probably the most complete and elegant train ever to that time constructed. All of the cars were of Pullman manufacture and consisted of a baggage car, second-class coach, a smoking car, and first-class coaches and sleepers that were "models of perfection and beauty, as might be expected where the Pullman Company had carte blanche to produce the best possible." Each coach was lighted with the new Pintsch lights. The smoking car deserves more than passing mention, for it was the first one ever constructed of Pullman standard. The car was equipped with upholstered easy chairs, and a "refreshment buffet" moistened the throats of the smokers.

Early in 1889 the Pullman Company acquired the control of the Mann Boudoir Car Company and the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company, including the entire car equipment and plants. By this acquisition a long step was taken for the unification of sleeping car service, and the further development of a uniform and widely extended scope of operations. For years the success of the Pullman Company's service had been too generally acknowledged to escape the notice of enterprising railroad men, and these two companies were fair examples of the numerous competing companies that were organized. But the success of the Pullman service was based on an idea of too wide conception ever to be successfully imitated. The success of the company engendered competition; its success resulted only in a comparison of service injurious to the imitators. Behind all this lay the fundamental reason for Pullman supremacy. Created to give a standardized service everywhere for the convenience of travelers, it was quickly apparent that competition was but a reversal to the old order—the more companies, the less uniform service.

About a month previous, the Mann Boudoir Company and the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company had joined hands and formed the Union Palace Car Company. By the purchase of this combine the Pullman Company added about 15,000 miles of road to that already operated, and by that many miles extended its through car service. The only remaining sleeping car companies of any importance outside of the Pullman Company were the Wagner Company, belonging to the Vanderbilts, and operated over the Vanderbilt lines, and the Monarch Sleeping Car Company, which operated entirely in the New England States with the exception of one Ohio line. A newspaper of the time commented on the merger, and closed with the verdict: "While this will add to the volume of the Pullman business, it will also render the service upon the absorbed lines far more efficient and satisfactory for the traveling public."

The first step in the building of the car. The center construction in position, and the framework assembled

In 1888, Mr. Pullman had put in operation his vestibule trains, which immediately met with extraordinary favor and patronage. In a very few days the Wagner Company also advertised a vestibule train and were promptly met with an injunction holding the Wagner appliances to be an infringement of the Pullman patent. After another hearing, the injunction was superseded, the Wagner Company giving an unlimited bond, signed by the Vanderbilts, to pay any damages ascertained by the courts.

After months occupied in taking the evidence of travelers, expert mechanics, railroad officials, prominent citizens, and others, a final hearing was had. The judges, owing to the vast interests involved and the legal difficulties presented, took ample time for consideration, but finally adhered to their first conclusion. The main feature of the Pullman vestibule system was the Sessions patent, without which the vestibule system was worthless. The court declared this invention to be of the highest order of utility, not only as shown by the testimony in the ease and the adoption of the patent by the principal railroads of the country, but also by the acts of the Wagner Company in appropriating the device, and in the tenacity with which they clung to it in the courts under an immense bond for any damages to result, and so, in April, 1889, the United States Circuit Court delivered its opinion in favor of the Pullman Palace Car Company in its long and stubborn fight with the Wagner Palace Car Company.

CHAPTER VI
THE TOWN OF PULLMAN

Like most other industries, the Pullman Palace Car Company felt the effect of the financial depression immediately following 1873, but the reaction followed, and on the resumption of specie payments in 1879 dawned a new era in the Company's history and a rapid expansion of its business. To meet this expansion and to extend the business still farther along the line of general car building, it became necessary to enlarge the plant. The shops already established in St. Louis, Detroit, Elmira, and Wilmington were unable to provide the volume required by the increasing demand for the Company's output. It was evident that new shops must be built on a larger and more comprehensive scale than any that had gone before.