Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 173
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[Page 173]
by comparison. You buy a first class ticket or in our case have one given to you and look about for the train. After a while by a process of exhaustion you decide that the string of offal wagons drawn up at the platform must be your train after all and your suspicion is deepened by seeing one or two hardy souls climb aboard. In a first class carriage you get narrow cane seats if you are lucky if not you rest your weary [indecipherable] in wood to the great discontent of the less well upholstered members of the community.
All the sides of the carriages are made of glass and you have the choice of being slowly broiled by a tropical sun (the blinds never work) or opening a window and being buried by coal dust or what passes current for such in Jamaica.
In due course the train moves off. It does not seem quite sure of itself at first and begins piecemeal like a caterpillar. At last the whole thing gets under way and proceeds at the modest pace of ten miles per. to the end of its journey sitting down for breath of course at every station. Through trains are unknown and six hours for sixty miles is pretty good going.
Once we went along at a station to interview the driver and tried by the aid of silver to induce him to whack his steam duty box up a bit. The old nigger in charge was very offended. "I am doin as well as I can Sah and cant go no faster". He had probably
[Note in margin indecipherable]