The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1853-06-09
The Rational Northwest Branch Of the Pennsyl-
yania Railroad.

/ Certainly this is the age of progress. The
4 world has changed much from the ''era of Noah
1 to that of Napoleon" and much even from the
era of Napoleon Lion to that of Napoleon Ou-
rang -Outang. The dominion of man ma
! ture comes as the inevitable growth of things.
The vision of the seer, afar off and incredible, SO
hidden in the apparently impossible, comes at
4 last to be of the dull catalogue OF common
i events and the poet says that PHILOSOPHY has
even clipped the angels wings" Like the pitch
of the cataract, rush the destinies of the
world, and the miracles of yesterday the re-
al things of to-day, and the story of to-day will
be mouldy tradition on the ear of to- morrow.
By what wonderful power is man thus, like a
| demigod. subduing the earth to himself? By
what miraculous force does he bring the brute
elements of nature to be the patient ministers
| of his needs, the docile slaves of his wants, and
the wonders of time and space to yield their Sc
crets and pass away as the fables of his child
hood? The real wonder worker is science; the
divine force is the intellect of The rail
road bar, the locomotive, the telegraph wire have
metamorphosed the world, and destroyed time
and space and mans Imprisonment within the
thick incrustations of the actual seems about to
1 be followed by an emancipation perfect as his
dream of the ideal The story of Orpheus is no
longer a fable but bald and familiar fact. He
does certainly play, and his enchantment of ma
ture is a perpetual miracle; but his musical in
struments are the strings of the telegraph and
the whistle of the locomotive. The trees and
rocks 90 OGNce Dut IL Is In waltz0ythe
way side of ''the train at sixty miles hour
The beasts do certainly come and follow to his
pipings; but the horses and pigs in the cars are
on the way to market, hurried by the steam dra-
gon.
In the van of this onward rush, Young Amer
lea advance! Although youth, the cropping
of thy gigantic hand is towards the sceptre of
the Planet. Thou knowest but one command
''an aboard hast but one watch-word-
''clear the track" In the meantime, on vener-
able trees by the way-side, sit mournfu ravens,
who croak disasters, and, with i'll l-boding warn
ings, shout to the army of Progress-"beware"
-''caverns yawn'-''dangers ahead" lawful
climax approaching insolvent snow
statues falling-Young America, stand from un-
der" Newspaper editors are always either
prophets or sons of prophets; and so they ought
to be- For who can know so much as the man
who is always reading and making newspapers?
Some of this brotherhood seem to imagine them
selves the sole occupants of the lighthouses of
the Universe, and take especial pains to be al
ways pointing out the breakers, and insisting
upon the necessity of everybodys being wreck
ed Recen tly, their Vaccinations have been
expended on the problem of a quickly-coming
and absolute bankruptcy of the whole United
States, and this to be achieved through the in
| strumentality of the Railroad mania. Never
mind the prophets, Young America! for there
have been Rapps, Smiths and Mohammeds, as
well as Ezekiels and Daniels. Go ahead Ad-
1
fare no blood is spilled-no precious life dies
out. With powder and pick, the railroad SOL
dier attacks the rock and mountain the abyss
is closed the hills shake hands, and the towers
of granite, ribbed and ancient the sun, with
the ceaseless cannonadng of the drill, fall to
atoms. Peacefully and sublimely the opera
tions of this army proceed. The forests and
mountains dissolve, and the traveller makes the
transit of q continent as in a dream. SorrowfuI
raven on the tree bough mournful prophet of
M iekl riyiDo fha Roll &c n
zine. No phantom, alluring the world to treach-
erous quicksands and sudden death no bewil-
der ng flies tempting men to wander into the
deserts and perish, but genial wave of the ever
advancing sea of life and progress, yelling up
from the deep fountain OF the powers of the
world. The limited States man. is represen-
ted by his scork Unlike all races that have
preceded him, he works In uses alone. He Gre
ates neither monuments of beauty, nor memori-
ais of folly; neither statues nor pyramids, nor
obeisks, nor temples of art, but in the sublime
world of uses and ends, works andlives,-works
and lives All hail divine rage of railroad ma
king,-for what brngest thou? Progress, re-
generation, and physical salvation for man. If
the venerable kings of Egypt would insist upon
wasting millions of dollars piling rock upon rock
into pyramids, let the sands of the desert covsf5
them They are monuments of folly and super
sttion, the mania of an insane This land
Of wisdoms, and birthplace of civilizations and
PHILOSOPHERS stands under condemnation of folly.
Ii Egypt, then, the land of wisdom, has consul
med millions of dollars in precious days of la
Dor, building mountains of rocks over the dust of
stupid kings, shall not young America spend
few thousands for her forest-felling, snake-kill
ing armies, who are making smooth the rugged
places and the wilderness to blossom the
rose If kings will have their dust repose un
der mountains that generations have died to
build, shall not the Yankee make his cow-paths
straight and smooth the track to market for his
chickens and pigs? No pyramids and temples,
no subterranean palaces for the dead, to be CO.
vered with sand by the revengeful centuries. do
we want but tunnels and bridges for the living
to pass, that natures great plan of uses be SER
we'd and the ends of creation fulfilled. Let the
ssmagicians wand, the railroad bar, bring the |
Atlantic and Pacific face to face, and let the
bearded forester and yankee Slick" shake
hands and have a small ''swap" of corn and no
tions And this brings us to the point young
America, and particularly young Pennsylvania,
and especially young Western Pennsylvania.
The next inevitable thing for the genius of the
hour to accomplish, is to construct a direct line
of railroad from the Allegheny mountains to the
city of Cleveland, leaving the mountain at the
western end of the Allegheny tunnel. 1t may
be said it is already done by the Pittsburg route
or by northern lines. Thisis not is what is wanted
as a world road. Why should the vast West,
with her eye fixed on the Atlantic, pass there by
a crcuitous route through Pittsburg! Let us
to the end; let US circulate quickly in the char
med circle of ends and uses, say the wheat bag
and ham-the merchant and traveller. Not all
night at Pittsburg and day longer we want
.sthrough in a single day. the bills have IL.
ssClear the track !"
For six thousand years the human race have
liQOh urrf0n fal