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8vo, original green cloth, gilt-title on upper cover. 92 pp., 1 chromolithographic plate. Inscribed on the flyleaf: "Mrs. Myron Miller With regards of Wm. H. Weed 1871." CONDITION: Very good, moderate wear and staining to covers, some brown spots to page margins, contents otherwise clean. First edition of this anonymously-authored account of an excursion on the Trans-continental Railroad taken by "the general passenger, ticket and freight agents of the railroads" in September of 1870, at the invitation of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad Companies. On May 10, 1869 the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific were joined at Promontory Summit, Utah, when CPR president Leland Stanford drove the ceremonial "Last Spike." The following year railroad agents from both the United States and Canada were invited to participate in an excursion from Omaha to San Francisco and back, just prior to the General Ticket Agents' Convention at Milwaukee. This account by one of the excursionists offers a first-hand look at the extraordinary travel experience recently made available to the public upon completion of the railroad. The party travels aboard a so-called "fancy train," consisting of five Pullman palace, drawing-room, and sleeping cars, a smoking car, and a baggage car. Among the places they pass through, and in many cases tour, are Cheyenne, Greeley, Denver, Sherman, Laramie, Fort Steele, Echo and Weber Canons, Salt Lake City, Ogden (where they transfer to the Silver Palace cars of the Central Pacific), Elko, Carlin, Humboldt, Truckee, Sacramento, and San Francisco. At Fort Steele the colonel in command, "a celebrated Indian fighter," offers a tour of his quarters, appointed with "the weapons of Indian warfare and torture." Aboard the train one morning the passengers are treated to a breakfast consisting of Green River brook trout. The narrative contains much similarly interesting matter relating both to places visited as well as life aboard the train. Illustrated with a chromolithographic facsimile of the Excursion ticket, complete with the punch-holes unique to each rail division. REFERENCES: Howes S796. Seller Inventory # 8124
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