A Pacific-route sleeper car in 1879 offered hotel-grade luxury and quiet.

Evidence

Precisely at 11 p.m. the huge Pacific train, with its heavy bell tolling, thundered up to the door of the Truckee House, and on presenting my ticket at the double door of a “Silver Palace” car, the slippered steward, whispering low, conducted me to my bertha luxurious bed three and a half feet wide, with a hair mattress on springs, fine linen sheets, and costly California blankets. The twenty-four inmates of the car were all invisible, asleep behind rich curtains. It was a true Temple of Morpheus. Profound sleep was the object to which everything was dedicated. Four silver lamps hanging from the roof, and burning low, gave a dreamy light. On each side of the center passage, rich rep curtains, green and crimson, striped with gold, hung from silver bars running near the roof, and trailed on the soft Axminster carpet. The temperature was carefully kept at 70°. It was 29° outside. Silence and freedom from jolting were secured by double doors and windows, costly and ingenious arrangements of springs and cushions, and a speed limited to eighteen miles an hour. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 101

Categorization

• XREF: Vivid contrast to the rough Truckee inn she describes two pages earlier — the railroad car as ‘Temple of Morpheus’ vs. the noisy, crowded hotel. A study in the stratification of travel comfort.