Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-12-19
Raiiroad Villages.


feature In village building. They usually be-
gin with Depot, follow by Post Office,
blacksmith shop, and the cOntents of couple
of Pedlars packs duly distributed upon half-a-
dozen Shelves and then they are born, and
waiting TO grow
ThetraiBs run to and fro, and the passengers
see the little group clustered round the track,
and wonder what they DO there, and why they
do not go on with the train.
BY and by h0Rses get 10 be an epidemic,
aud up they go, here and there, and all about.
Streets are staked, and lots are m ensured, aDd q
pubic spare is reserved, and they have JUS
tice, and Doctor ard young Lawyer, and
s'ststed preaching once in two weeks. That's
pretty good beginning but its only begin
ming. a young Sophomore, out of funds, and
looking for aplace to teach winter school, gets
off from struggling train some day. Every
body knows he is there. He reached there at
two o'clock, and at g quarter past three every
body knows who and what he is, and whence
he Is, and the Squire sees him, and the decer
shows him round the town-wayes bis hand
towards the prairie. and dilates upon its re-
sources-toward the town, and pronounces
a eulogy upon its enterprise, and the young
man is charmed, and over the store he climbs
at once, up one fight of stairs into, "IIigh
School,"
Things go bravely on, and public spirited
Individual, who, as he says, has more room
than be wants, gets tire painter-for mean
while such an artizan has taken passage in the
village en- route to greatness-to emblaZon his
name in large, black letters, upon very broad
board, and there is a general rejoicing at the
pew "Hotel," where the lawyer argues with
the store-keeper nightly, while the doctor
I completes the triangle, upon the destinies OF
the world in general, and the Depotdom in
particular.
What they lack now is newspaper. By and
by, an old press is for sale in a neighboriHg
town, and ''tramping jour" has stranded
upon their beach, aud the lawyer promises to
write the leaders, the doctor will contribute
the obituaries, the schoolnaster do the puz-
zes and the poetry, while the blacksmith and
the merchant promise to be liberal patrons IN
the way Of advertising. The paper appears;
like the village, it is small, but Ctb the village,
it grows.
The trains used to whistle and ring, and
barely stop their speed. Now they stop al
together for there are more to get Oft and
more to get on.
The taveru-keeper takes State map Of a
pedlar who happens to be his guest of a rainy
Sunday, and discovers that Depot-dom is the
geographical seat of the county. There is an
immediate agitation. The seat of Justice,
Justice herself scales and all, must be remOv
ed thithcr. They work at it, electoneer about
it and get it.
Now the huddle is village, now the viii
lage is q town; now the town is 3 shire-t0wn,
now the shire-town is city. The blacksmith
shop has grown into a halt-a~dozen factories );
the lawyer is multiplied by ten, the doctor by
six and the storekeeper knocks down his
prices ten per cent, to complete with nineteen
new corners.
And all this accomplished, through the
agency of railroad and locomotives, within
the space Of two or three years.
The lawyer is comfy judge, Tie doctor has
grown rich, the blacksmith is mayor and the
Sophomore is married and settled. They have
Lycenm and library, and little daily that
rega!es its readers with whole column Of city
items How they talk of "our city, they are
no longer villagers and pagans. They are citi-
zens- Chicago Journal