Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1849-02-14

in the laying, for example, of.a secone
track, and for the enlargement Of your ia
clliiies in o:ber respects. Il
1t may be proper here to state that thu
constructions already executed upon tht
fifty miles and over now under contract
are of very satisfactory quality. The
culverts and bridges appear to be wei
founded and protected, and the masonary
: Iof a very high order. of excellence
i Again, such is the abundance of excellen
7f-ssoassaeas she very traek that the cost o
the masonry is surprisingly low, in compar
Iison with the quality.
In referring to the third point of view ir
which this route presents itself-namely
as profitable investment for stockholders
there may be mentioned four principal
sources of revenue which ensure It's pro-
ductivess. The first of these is the local
business Of the region traversed by the i'm
provement.
The great activity and produc1iveness ol
this region will be obvious, at a glance,
TO any one who inspects the public docu-
ments which record the vast amounts oil
| ~ IiOtil lkltCI lOl iCSCifCo ot olCNG-
land, and Of imports from abroad taken in
return, forming an aggregate Of more than
thirteen millions of dollars. annually, and
rapidly increasing. 1t may be judged OF
by such facts as the following:-that, at
Wellsvllle alone, the amount received from
the interior in wagons, and returned to it
from the Ohio river, is ascertained to be
about seventy-fve tons day each way
enough for the largest part Of the tonnage
Of an ordinary freight tram. Two lines
of stages both ways, besides branch lines,
are now maintained from Cleveland 10
Pittsburgh. One of these lines is known,
by actual inspection of the book at Cleve-
land, to have carried 2403 passengers, du-
ring the four months ending September
3Oth, le4s, in one direction; and this
is believed 10 be fair index Of the SINH
lar transportation OF the other through
lines. This would exhibit the travel, in
both directions, at over twenty -four hun
dred month during the travelling season;
and it neither includes the large travel by
the canal nor the larger by private convey
ances. Experience has proved that
Railroad superseding an ordinary thor
oughfare always accumulates upon itself
the travel of every description and multi
plies even that accumulation many fold.
1t has been ascertained upon spch thor
oughfares as traverse the interior of we'll
cultivated and improved states that one
half or more Of their receipts very gene
rally comes from the local business. Not
to specify several eastern roads where this
fact obtains, | will simply instance one
western road which subsls1s upon local bus
mess only. The Madison and lndianapo-
lis Railroad, which penetrates purely ag-
ricultural region of Indiana for eighty six
miles from the Ohio, inland, and without
any special advantages from mines or
manufactures, derived, in its first year OF
thorough operation, an income of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and in
its second year we'll nigh. if not quite Two
hundred and fifty thousand. AT something
approaching the same rate of increase II
may be expected TO continue. It has di-
vided to its stockholders fifteen per cent,
and the stock is now at one hundred and
thirty.three per cent. IN market. That
road transacts for an adult male population
of two hundred TO a mile Of its entire
length;-whle the Cleveland and Pitts
burgh road, after dividing the territory
with other Improvements that may compete
with it, will transact for three hundred,
very closely, to each mile Of n similar pop
ulation at least as vigorous and industrious.
On such considerations is based the position
that the local business alone will make
yours paying stock.
But a second source Of revenue will ac-
crue from the manufactures of Pittsburgh
To reckon the annual exports of this de-
scriplion from that place. which are the
growth of not more than quarter OF a
century, at one hundred thousand tons,
seems quite within bounds when we consid-
er its half million Of annual tonnage i'll
the departures Of steam boats on the Ohio
alone. Under the stimulus of the several
artificial channels soon 10 be added to her
existing ones. and among which yours
stands paomInent, it is not extravagant, l
presume, to estimate that Pittsburgh will
transport upon your road, after few years,
as much annually as she now sends out in
all directions through her various channels
thus contributing to swell your income
BY some three hundred thousand dollars,
for this one item. In all this no account
is made of the vast mass Of travel from In
terror Ohio, along your route, 10 that city
and back. 1t assumes, of course, your ex-
tension from Wellsville to Pittsburgh.
An inspection of the map will exhibit,
at glance. the very favorable connection
which this Railroad must constitute and es-
tablish between Lake Erie in the one direc.
tion-foating Its commerce of one hundred
millions of dollars, very nearly, to and
from domestic ports-and the Ohio river,
in the other, bearing past Wellsville, eve'
nv twelve months, over one million 81 Ion.
maze in six thousand and more steamboat
passages, ascending and descending. 1t is
a striking fact, resulting from the low cost
If TRANSPORTATION upon the river, that this
connection of yours by the shortest posi-
hle distance, as mentioned above, will al
ford the cheapest attainable channel o.
,ransnortation from the lake to Cincin
natl.
But again, the Yellow Creek valley
for a distance Of fifteen miles. abounds
together with other valuable mineral de
nosits. with excellent coal. in veins o
| from three to seven feet in thickness, TO
,,,h;.b yo,,r road will omen way to mar