Sunday Services for Fast Trains.
By B.
According to the Times-Herald of this city the passenger officials of trunk lines running out of Chicago are considering the advisability of establishing divine service Sundays on their through trains. The matter received considerable attention two years ago by the Erie officials, who finally discarded an elaborate plan made by one of the road’s assistant general passenger agents. There is a feeling, however, on the part of some officials that it would be a good thing to devise some plan which would in a measure do away with the prejudice on the part of church people against Sunday travel. Several plans have been talked over, and it is thought to be almost certain that one of the trunk lines will try the influence of religious services on a sixty-mile-an-hour flyer. The plan which seems to find most favor is that of converting the dining cars into chapels, where services could be held soon after the morning meal. This would require little work on the part of the employees, and one diner would accommodate all the passengers on one train who would care to join in the services. In the card racks could be placed hymn books and small Bibles, and the singing part of the service could be done by the “congregation.” One minister could be engaged to deliver a sermon on each eastbound vestibule train, and the ministers could finish the services going east in time to catch the flyers going west and repeat the program. If the dining car was found inadequate to accommodate the worshipers ministers might be engaged to give short gospel talks and deliver morning prayers in each of the coaches. The preaching of the gospel is about the only thing which is not now enjoyed by passengers on the fast through trains east and west. Every flyer now has its library car, in which are furnished grain market reports and stock reports, daily papers and periodicals, and nearly everything else a busy man can get in his own office. The cry against Sunday travel by a portion of the public has been heard for years, and not a few officials believe that if regular religious service was established on through trains better Sunday patronage would result. The proposed innovation might prove popular with the traveling public, but it is more than doubtful if it would commend itself to the ministers. Indeed, so far as they are concerned, it would only make a bad matter worse, as it would make the Sunday railway the rival of the church.