A phrase from historical newspaper personal ads, explained with real examples from the archive.
The railroad train or streetcar; in the cars meant aboard the train.
| Type | Historical phrase |
|---|---|
| Earliest example in the archive | February 20, 1862, New York Herald |
| Most common | 1840s to the 1900s |
In nineteenth-century American usage a train was often called the cars, and a streetcar the car. That is why so many missed connections in this archive begin on a car: the Farnam Street car, the Indiana Avenue car, the 14th Street car, and in 1862, the cars to Baltimore.
IF MRS. D. E. HAS RETURNED TO NEW YORK, SHE will much oblige her friend (who had the pleasure of paying some attention to her in the cars to Baltimore on Sunday night,…
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