The underground line is admirably managed, the only objection to it being the overcrowding of the carriages. A London man once said to us: “I can very seldom get a seat in a train, when I travel on it, not because I am so big, but because the other fellows take up all the room. This overcrowding is a great inconvenience to ladies, who use the railroad quite as much as the other sex. It serves them in their calling or on shopping expeditions, in lieu of cabs or omnibuses. The last report of the underground railroad presented to the shareholders shows that the number of passengers carried, during the last half year, was twenty-six million two hundred thousand, which seems an enormous number, nearly fifty-two million five hundred thousand per year. One would suppose that with such patronage the road must pay.
RAILROAD UNDER WATER.
The most remarkable feature of this new work is the fact that a considerable portion of the line is built under water. The commerce of the world may be said to float and navigate directly over a part of the roof of the tunnel, which extends southeasterly, from the Liverpool street station of the Great Eastern Railway, passing directly under the warehouses and water-basin of the London-docks, thence under the embankment, across and under the Thames river, to the New Cross station of the Southeastern Railway, thus connecting all the roads named, and also the London & Brighton and South London lines. At Shadwell and Whitechapel, magnificent stations, each four hundred and fifty feet in length, have been erected. The total cost of this new line, which is a little less than six miles in length, has been three million two hundred thousand pounds, or sixteen millions of dollars. Of the advantageous nature of this line to the public, the London papers say there is no doubt. That portion of the line under the Thames passes through the old Thames tunnel, built by the celebrated engineer, M. I. Brunel. This work, of which I spoke before, never proved of much value to the public until brought into use several years ago as a railway tunnel.
XLVI.
DUNGEONS.
LIFE IN THEM.—ANCIENT DUNGEONS.—THE PRISON OF ST. PAUL.—THE DUCAL PALACE.—“SOTTO PIOMBI.”—THE POZZI.—SHUT UP IN THE DARK CELLS.—A NIGHT OF HORROR.—A GUIDE’S BLUNDER.—DUNGEONS OF ST. PETERSBURG.—PETER THE GREAT TORTURING HIS SON.—A PRINCESS DROWNED IN PRISON.
A great many people have at some time in their lives been in dungeons; some of their own accord, and others much against their wills. Those who have gone there voluntarily rarely stay long, as their visits are made out of curiosity; and curiosity in regard to dungeons is very speedily satisfied. I have been in a fair number of dungeons, but I generally made my way out of them with very little delay. They are not very agreeable places of residence; and if one of them were assigned to me as a spot to dwell in, I should get out at the earliest moment, when it was in my power to do so.
A dungeon is an old-fashioned institution, but it is not altogether out of date. If the history of all the dungeons in the world could be written, there would be many startling tales narrated, and many volumes could be made concerning what has transpired within them.