Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The History of the South-Eastern Railway
That a comparatively small railway like the south-e astern should possess a history which contains many incidents of a very varied character, as it' does, is most remarkable. The line has been Opened not much more than fifty years, yet during the whole of that period it has always been strongly before the public in some way or another. Its lately-resigned chairman (sir Edward Watkin), so well known as the Railway King, is generally known as a good fighter, but the Company has always, more or less, been at variance with its neighbours. Then the public has much to do with the line. It serves a populous suburban district in the South of London, and touches most of the holiday resorts patronised by Londoners. To the uninitiated the hidden springs that govern things are hard to under stand the public only see the results and know little of the inner working - the why and wherefore. These arise from many causes, small in themselves but great for weal or woe in their consequences.
So many years ago a petty private quarrel between a railway magnate and the proprietor of a daily journal was the cause of much unjust criticism and unfounded complaints being published about the s.e.r. Has it ever struck the average reader of the daily papers that most complaints, no matter on what subject, appear anonymously? Signed, say, Another Victim, or Business Lost.
Recently some such letters appeared in an evening paper about the and only one of the letters gave the writer's name and address. The s.e.r. Manager with commendable zeal caused an official to call upon this gentleman to learn the causes of his complaint against the railway, and these resolved themselves into two. 1. That he travelled six years ago in a carriage (2nd class) that might have been cleaner, and, 2, that once when a neighbouring railway company sent his luggage astray he thought the s.e.r. Ought to find it for him, as both the lines used the station from which the missing package disappeared.
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