Nellie Bly Quotes

“In October 1883, representatives of the largest railroad companies met at a General Time Convention in Chicago, at which it was decided to divide the country into four time zones, corresponding to the mean sun time at the meridians near Philadelphia, Memphis, Denver, and Fresno. This action had been taken without the consent of the president, the Congress, or the courts, but almost immediately it became the de facto law of the land. On Sunday, November 18, 1883, clocks across the country were changed to the new railroad standard; that Sunday became known as "the day of two noons". Local mean time was gone; now everyone was living by railroad time.”
― Matthew Goodman, Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

“The writer Mary Cadwalder Jones felt obliged to begin her book European Travel for Women: Notes and Suggestions by remarking that "unless travellers are willing to leave national prejudices behind them, and ready to see whatever is characteristic and excellent in a foreign country, without finding fault because it is unfamiliar, they had better remain at home."
"Americans," she pointedly added, "are among the worst offenders in this regard.”
― Matthew Goodman, Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World