Depot

“ It is a great railroad centre, and it is very curious to visit the depot amid the rushing thousands who daily pass through this place on their way to Texas. It is a wildly romantic place, built upon a clearing of forty acres without any decided plan, streets running at random very much like the old cowpaths of Manhattan, and houses grouped in picturesque confusion. Finding the main hotel crowded, the proprietor manifested an unheard-of disinterestedness in a two hours search to find us suitable accommodations elsewhere, an act of magnanimity worthy of especial note and remembrance. ”

“ The axial effect of a depot is more easily noted when it is located a few blocks from a through traffic street than if located on such a street, the travel off the. through street being then directly due to the depot and not being mingled with the general travel. In some cases a depot blocks the end or furnishes the beginning of a street which would for other reasons have been a good street, but which is greatly strengthened by the depot, as with 17th Street in Denver. Freight depots are commonly a part of passenger terminals and attract warehouses, heavy wholesalers and tenements. ”

“ Why the railroad company should have established a depot there he could not understand. Probably there must be some village not far away.
No other passenger had got out with Jasper. There was no other person in sight but the station-master, a tall, sallow-faced man, in a slouched hat, who eyed our hero curiously. ”

“ All along the streets were omnibuses, wagons, and wheelbarrows, taking in trunks and valuables and rushing them down to the dépôt to be shipped out of rebel range. The stores, the female seminaries, and almost every private residence were busy all of the forenoon in swelling the mountain of freight that lay at the dépôt. Every horse was impressed into service and every porter groaned beneath his burdens.
People desert the City. ”

“ In these piping commercial days of acute competition he has no time to be gallivanting down to the depot every time a through train rolls in, especially as the depot is frequently eighty or ninety miles distant from his domicile. He is closely confined at home turning out souvenirs. ”

“ We had been on the street only a few minutes when I began to reason with him, and to point out the danger of exposing ourselves in so public a place as the Buffalo depot.
“Mark,” I said, “when the superintendent of a railway issues orders as to the running time of trains, he never fails to say to his employees, ‘When you’re in doubt as to the right of way, be sure to take the course you know is safe.’ Now, it’s dollars to doughnuts that the depot is being well watched. I suggest that we about face and drive to another town, much smaller than this, and get a train there.” ”

“ At his elbow stood Captain Berry, the depot master, hands in pockets, cigar in mouth, the personification of calmness and imperturbability. He had come out of his house, which stood close to the corner, and walked over to join his friend.
“Land of love!” exclaimed Simeon. “Why don't you scare a fellow to death, tiptoein' around? I never see such a cat-foot critter!”
Captain Sol smiled. “Jumpin' it, ain't they?” he said, nodding toward the “Colonial.” “Be there by the tenth, won't it?”
“Tenth!” Mr. Phinney sniffed disgust. ”

“ Quite, according to good modern usage, may qualify an adjective, but not a noun. "She is quite the lady," is a vile phrase, meaning, "She is very or quite ladylike."
Railroad Depot. Few things are more offensive to fastidious ears than to hear a railway station called a depot. [Pg 168] A depot is properly a place where goods or stores of any kind are kept; and the places at which the trains of a railroad—or, better, railway—stop for passengers, or the points from which they start and at which they arrive, are, properly, the stations. ”

“ A combination depot is one in which both the freight and the passenger business is carried on under one roof. For the freight business a freight room is required, with platform space along a wagon road for transferring freight to and from wagons: and also the necessary facilities for handling freight to and from cars in freight trains or cars standing at the depot. ”

“ Three hundred pack-mules are greatly needed to relieve the troops in taking subsistence alone, along the line of investment of more than five miles, as, at present, our only depot is south of the city. On the cessation of the present raging norther, which almost stifles the troops with sand, sweeping away hills and creating new, I hope to establish a second depot north of the city, which will partially relieve the left wing of the army. ”

“ Here a tablet was erected to the memory of Sir John Franklin and his officers and crew, and the Fox, having filled up with stores and coals from the depot there, left again on the 16th.
On the 18th she had run twenty-five miles down Peel’s Straits, the hopes of all raised to the utmost, when a pack of ice appeared, barring their farther progress. Putting about, she visited the depot at Port Leopold, where boats and an abundant supply of all sorts of articles were found, which, in case of the destruction of their own vessel, would afford the explorers a fair prospect of escape. ”

“ I was keeping up at that time five fires (or smokes) besides the one in the hotel, to wit: one in the harness shop and one in Joyce’s, both at the north end of the street and opposite each other; one in the bank; one in Townsend’s store at the south end of the street on the west side, and one in the depot out across the square in front of the south end of the street. There was a chance for a good tunnel to all of these except to the depot; here the northwest wind had swept across the square and the ground in some places was almost bare. ”

“ Private effects, household furniture, books, pictures, everything was conveyed to the depot and loaded into the cars until they were filled and heaped, and the flying people could not find standing room. ”

“ The depot was crowded and all was bustle and hurry until the 9.50 train going east came due; then every passenger left except the old lady. It is very rare indeed that any one takes the night express, and almost always, after I have struck ten, the depot becomes silent and empty.
The ticket agent put on his great coat, and bidding Simmons keep his wits about him for once in his life, departed for home. ”

“ This depot contains enough foodstuffs to enable a party of five or six men to make their way to Butter Point, where, another large depot exists.
Early on 26th January we left these inhospitable coasts, and those who were on deck watched the familiar rocky, snow-capped shores fast disappearing from view. We had been happy there before disaster overtook our Expedition, but now we were glad to leave, and some of us must have realised that these ice-girt rocks and mountains were not meant for human beings to associate their lives with. ”

“ Time to be getting down to the depot and the post office. At least a dozen male citizens of East Harniss were thinking that very thing at that very moment. It was a community habit of long standing to see the train come in and go after the mail. The facts that the train bore no passengers in whom you were intimately interested, and that you expected no mail made little difference. If you were a man of thirty or older, you went to the depot or the “club,” just as your wife or sisters went to the sewing circle, for sociability and mild excitement. ”

“ No one stops to look at these people as they throng the wooden platform and fill the sheds at the depot, the sight is too common to cause interest now, and yet it is a curious sight this entry of the outcasts into the promised land. ”

“ The South Side Railroad depot is deserving of mention; it was originally a depot building two stories high, in which are sitting rooms, freight and ticket offices on the first floor for the accommodation of passengers, while on that above are the several offices of the corporation. Early in summer a covered depot to shelter the cars was erected and has just been completed. ”

“ I bow to them, and as I get out of the carriage at the depot I find my husband and sister there, to bid me God speed on my journey. I realize that my husband came from his place of business, and my sister from a distant part of the city. We enter the depot chatting gaily. My husband goes to inquire about the train. ”

“ At times we find that the Main Supply depot is unable to satisfy all our indents, and in consequence we have to go down on to the beach and draw from the piles of supplies which have accumulated there faster than it has been found possible to cart them away. But never on any occasion do we find that our indents have to be refused from both the Main Supply depot and the beach. ”

“ When I go up to the depot he'll stand right in the middle of the railroad track and go to sleep. I have to whale the timbers out of him to get him awake enough to step ahead so's a train of cars won't stave in his broadside. But get him home here where he can see the barn, the place where he knows I stow the oats, and he wants to run right over top of a stone wall. Can't hardly hold him, I can't. Who-a-a!... Well, Cap'n Sears, here we be at the General Minot place. ”

“ Subsidiary depots should be established every hundred miles until the pole or an open polar sea is reached. These minor depots would be nothing but tents of stout duck, of the Northwest tepee pattern, raised on light but strong poles of cedar, and spiked to the ice with iron or copper spikes. They would contain provisions, blankets, stoves, and fuel, and, as long as the main party was out, would be connected with the head depot by regular dog service. ”

“ They sound so harmless, and seem to take quite a time sailing through the air, but the sound of them crashing on the beach rather inclines us to slacken our pace. On approaching the Main Supply depot, however, we quicken our pace, and passing through it, arrive at the wood-stacks, when we hear one of their whiners sailing over. ”

“ There is, manifestly, a real want of a Tract depot in every large town, conducted by some one of intelligence and sound business habits, who would be able to speak to persons about the tracts, and to recommend such as might prove helpful to anxious inquirers after truth. ”

“ Men are engaged in sweeping it away, but the piles are not decreasing. Everything seems somehow damp and dirty, the station buildings, street cars, pavements. On the square by the depot every one is busy and every one is noisy; the open spaces are filled with tents, tables and benches; people are selling black bread, bakery goods of various univiting shapes, candy, hot sausages, sodawater, lemonade, bacon. ”

“ The clouding of our goggles made the crevasses more difficult to spot, and one or other of the party got legs or feet down pretty often.
This and the following day were precursors to good marches and easy times. We made the Mid-Glacier Depot in Latitude 84 degrees 33 minutes 6 seconds S., Longitude 169 degrees 22 minutes 2 seconds E., and set therein one half-week's provision. We marked the depot cairn with bamboo and red flag to show up against the ice as well as to contrast with the land. Hitherto only black flags had been employed to mark depots. ”

“ One day while several people were sitting in the depot waiting for a train, a young enterprising looking fellow came in with a small sample-case in his hand, and began talking to an old gentleman about spectacles, and very soon made a sale for which he received two dollars and fifty cents, spot cash. ”

“ The depot is a spacious building, containing every convenience for the accommodation, health, and comfort of the inmates. Food and lodgings are furnished to them free of charge; they are washed and cleansed, and provided with clean underclothing and with transportation to their homes. ”

“ This evening I camped very comfortably in a mia-mia, about eleven miles from the depot. The night was very cold, although not entirely cloudless. A brisk easterly breeze sprang up in the morning, and blew freshly all day. In the evening the sky clouded in, and there were one or two slight showers, but nothing to wet the ground.
Thursday, 30th May, 1861.--Reached the depot this morning at eleven A.M.; no traces of any one except blacks having been here since we left. ”

“ The customary half-dozen railways center in Hannibal now, and there is a new depot which cost a hundred thousand dollars. In my time the town had no specialty, and no commercial grandeur; the daily packet usually landed a passenger and bought a catfish, and took away another passenger and a hatful of freight; but now a huge commerce in lumber has grown up and a large miscellaneous commerce is one of the results. ”

“ I felt that all these things should not be left without a guard, and I well knew we had no men to spare, so I put each depot, and all the stores in the vicinity, in charge of the nearest wealthy citizen, telling him I would hold him responsible for the safety of the buildings and their contents ”

“ There isn’t enough real plant or material here to turn out one car a month, much less hundreds.”
The Colonel stared.
“Well, perhaps he intends to import ’em and is keeping the place as a depot.”
“Depot be damned!” responded the Honorable John. “He guarantees ’em to be English cars. No, Squire, the man’s a plain deposit-snatcher; that’s what. He doesn’t intend to make or sell as much as a child’s go-cart. ”

“ It's as good as American double eagles. You see, Snake's will just become a sort of flag station, while Buffalo Point will sit around in a halo of glory with a brand-new swell depot. It's been some work handling this proposition, and the folks interested, including the Bude and Sideley Coal Company, need a deal of compensation for their work. Personally, I am not selling a single frontage now until the depot is well on the way. ”