The popularity of the Pullman car at home and abroad quite naturally inspired a host of imitators. Among the first was Colonel W. D. Mann, the proprietor of the _Mobile Register_, who designed a sleeping car embodying certain characteristic Pullman features, but divided transversely into compartments or "boudoirs," each entered directly from the sides, and connected by a private door permitting the passage of the attendant to and through the several compartments. Each compartment contained seats for four persons, which by night could be made up into beds. The design was ingenious but failed in many vital respects to compete with the greater comfort and roominess of the Pullman car.
As the Pullman car was the first sleeping car to be installed for regular service in England, so credit should be given to Colonel Mann for affording the first sleeping car for public service ever operated on the Continent. Mann's "Boudoir Cars" were installed on the Vienna and Munich line in 1873, and their favorable reception and popularity unquestionably went far to better the trying conditions of European travel.
[Illustration: Interior of a Pullman car used about 1880. Here a tendency to ornamentation begins to show. Note the low-backed seats]
Designed in America and introduced on the continent, the Mann boudoir cars enjoyed an almost unoccupied field in Europe, with the exception of England, where the railway managers had adopted the Pullman cars as their standard. The Mann car was developed to suit European railroads and European wants. A Belgian company was organized to introduce sleeping cars by contracts with railroad companies, somewhat like those of the Pullman Company in America. The Mann cars which were put in service in the United States between Boston and New York in 1883 were divided into eight compartments, some accommodating two persons, some four. The seats were arranged transversely instead of longitudinally. Due to their smaller passenger capacity a higher rate was necessarily charged than for Pullman accommodations.
But exclusive possession of the Continental field was not left to Colonel Mann undisputed, for during the year 1875 Mr. Pullman established a shop at Turin, Italy, and under the direction of a Mr. A. Rapp, who was sent on from the Detroit works, a number of cars were constructed for use on through trains on the principal Italian lines. The following testimonial presented to Mr. Rapp at the conclusion of the work by the men who had been employed expresses, although in none too polished English, their appreciation of the work that had been provided them.