The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1855-06-30
Railroad Villages.

Railroad villages are comparatively a re.
cent feature in the village building. They
usually begin with q depot followed by a
post Office, blacksmith's shop, and the con +.
tents Of couple Of pedlar's packs duly dis
tributcd upon halfa dozen shelves and are
born, and christened, aud waiting to grow.
The trains run to and fro, and the passcn-
gers see the group clustered round the track,
and wonder what they do there and why
they DO not go on with the train.
By.and-bye, houses get TO be an epidemic,
and they go, here and there, and all about.
Streets are staked and the lots are meas.
urcd, and public square is reserved, aud
they have q justice, and q doctor, and .
young lawyer, and STATED preaching" once
in two weeks. That's pretty good begin
ming, but it is only beginning. A young
Sophomore, out OF funds, and looking for .
place to teach q winter school, gets off q
struggling train some day. Everybody
knows he is there. lis reached there at
two o'clock, and at a quarter past three eve.I
rybody knows who he is, and what he is.
and whence he is. and the squire sees him,
and the doctor show him round the town,
waves his hands towards the prairie, and
pilates upon its resources towards tho
town, and prouounces eulogy upon its en-!
terprise, and the young man is charmed.
and over the store he climbs at once, up one
flight Of stairs into "Hish School" Z
Things 60 on braveIy, aud . public -spiHt-
ed individual, who, as he says has more
room than he wants, gets the painter-for
meanwhile such an artizan has taken pass.
age in the village en- route to greatncss-to
emblazon his name in very black letters,
upon very broad board and there is gen.
cral rejoicing at the new "Hotel," where the
lawyer argues with the store keeper nightly,
while the doctor completes the triangle, UP.
on the dcstn.es Of the world in general, and
! Depotdom in particular.
What they now lack is q newspaper.
Dyand-bye an old press is for sale in u
neghberng town, and "tranping jour" has
stranded upon their beach, and the school.
master promises to do the puzzles and the
poetry, the doctor, will contribute their obit.
usrics, while the blacksmith and the mer.
chant promise to be liberal patrons in tho
way Of advertising. The paper appears !;
like the village, it is small, but with the
village ii grows.
The trains used to whist and ring, and
barely slacksn speed. Now they stop alto
gether, for there are more to get of and
more to get on.
The tavern keeper. takes a State map Of
pcdar, who happent to be his guest over a
rainy Sunday, and discovers that Depotdom
is the geographical center Of the county
There is an immediate agitation. The seat
Of Justice, Justice herself, scales aud all,
must DO removed ththcr
They work at it, electioncer about il, bid
for it, and get it.
Now the huddle is a village, now the
town is shire.town is city. The black.
smith shop has grown into half.dozen fac
tories, the lawyer is multiplied by ten, and
the docter by six, and the storc.kceper
knocks down his prices ten per cent, to
compete with nineteen new comers.
And all this accomplished, through the
agency Of railroad and locomotives within
the space Of two or three years.
The lawyer is country judge, the black
smith is Mayor, and the Sophomore is mar.
ried and settled. They have . Lyceum and
Library, and iittlo daily that regales its
readers with whole column of city items.
How they talk of our city they are no Ion
ger villages and pagsns. They are citizens.