COFFEE CUPS WHICH FAILED TO RECORD THE SPEED OF THE TRAIN
To a Washington group Colonel Wells H. Blodgett of St. Louis told a story of railroad travel which caused his hearers to marvel. His theme was the improvement of transportation facilities in the United States. His argument was that these advantages are coming so rapidly and with so little mention tnat most people do not appreciate them. “On a stretch of the Wabash recently,” Colonel Blodgett said, “several of us were at breakfast.
The coffee cups stood so evenly that, although they were full, not a drop splashed over the sides. Conversation turned upon speed, and one who was at the table remarked that he had often desired to realize what a rapid rate meant,” quotes the New York Mail and Express. “He said he had been on the New York Central when it was claimed that the train was going sixty miles an hour, but he had his doubt about it, because the jar did not indicate anything unusual. “At the time of this conversation the car upon which we were taking a meal did not seem to be making any unusual time.
We discussed the sense of speed as it would be experienced by the traveler. As a matter of curiosity, we asked the conductor to look at the registering apparatus at the end of the car. He came back and reported the train was going seventy-four miles an hour.”
