Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/391

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GENERAL INFORMATION
331

now control the Newfoundland Rail, Steamer, Express and Telegraph Lines. The track is narrow gauge throughout the total mileage but the trains are well equipped with comfortable cars including diners. The rate for second-class is half the price of first-class accommodation. Only one train crosses the island daily in each direction. The sleeping-car berth rate is $3 for the distance of 546 miles. First-class fares, three cents a mile.[1] All tourists and sporting tourists who travel over the Reid Line remark the invariably pleasant conduct of its officials and its train and station staffs. The magnanimous attitude of "the Reids" toward their many hundreds of employés induces a sense of devotion, if not affection, which is reflected to the traveller in innumerable comments and brief incidents, readily related to those who will listen. The stewardess on the little coasting steamer—she was the wife of the agent at an obscure station. Her husband took sick and died. That was some time ago, but her voice trembles yet telling you how the company paid the bills, gave her the use of a freight car to move her household things, and then found a berth for her where she can make a living wage for herself and her children. An old track-walker seeks the stranger's ear at a wayside platform to eulogise the company's president who was not too busy to heed when the humblest of his

  1. The Guide issued by the company for free distribution contains a list of 32 rail and steamer tours, with cost. Address the Reid-Newfoundland Company, St. John's.