Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. BOSTON. Saturday, March 3.—We met at breakfast at half-past eight, and made the acquaintance of buckwheat cakes and molasses. Then to the monument on Bunker's Hill. We took a wrong bridge, and got to the Cambridge side, but easily found a road and bridge leading to Charleston, where Bunker's Hill is. This part of the town is quite intersected by railways. These cross the streets in all directions on the level, and are in most cases without any protection. A sign-board, stretched full in front across the whole breadth of the street, bears the legend, " Railway crossing.—Look out for the engine while the bell is ringing ;" and, in addition to this, a gate is, in some instances, shut across the street while a train is passing. The onus of responsibility seems to be thrown as much as possible on the unlucky passenger. Should he get smashed after the above-mentioned admonition, he is supposed to be himself to blame. The American engine and car are both very different from ours. The locomotives are much larger, and have three striking peculiarities. The chimney or smoke- stalk is in the shape of a great inverted cone, the object of the broad top being to hold an arrangement for preventing pieces of burning wood blowing out. This BOSTON. 11 huge chimney is balanced by a house at the opposite end for the drivers. Without such a protection they could not stand either the summer heat or the winter cold of this climate. The third peculiarity is in the arrangement of the wheels. The driving wheels, varying in number from two to four pairs, are placed together behind, while in front two pairs of small wheels support a swivel platform beneath the engine,—an arrangement introduced to give facility in turning. The carriages, or cars, as they are called, are similarly s... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.