Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1857-05-13
er. ara Doing nothing but only waiting


ers are Doing nothing, but only waiting. II
depends, OF coarse, ori what the department
Of work is which oftticse two methods is the
best.
An epic poem requires the very best tools
and waiting. speech at the hastings OF in
Parliament mnst be made with whatever tool
comes 10 hand. e., with the best ofexpres-
sion we can summon at the moment. Seine
persons, however, cannot bring themselves to
speak till they have hit on the very best
words. The late Archbishop of Canterbury
was SO fastideous in his choice Of words that
he used to keep his audience painfully wait
ing till he had tried one word after another
to see how it would fit, and. as this process,
took place once or twice in every sentence,
the constant search for perfection was hardly
rspaid by the tardy discovery. In matters Of
.'time and tide, = and over which that great
power to which one Of the seven wise men
consecrated the result of life wisdom, SOP
portunity, presides, it seldom answers to,
wait very long for your machinery. In war,
for instance, you cannot
The object for which railways are wanted
in America is in one very important respect
different from that in this country; they are
wanted not simply as railways, but AZ roads;
not only to quicken communication between
towns, hut to open a way into the heart of
large spaces ofterritory, and to carry off their
produce The railway is the carrier there.
Railroads, as Capt Cation informs US, are
cheaper than roads; there would not be funds
forthcoming for making even tolerable roads
over the vast prairies Of the West; but the
railway comes before the road in this extra
o,1,,, IF fho ha-
ririnal road of the West, performing the very
first function which a new country wants
that of opening it to human labor, and afford
ing channel by which the results Of that
labor can make their way to purchaser
when first opened, three years ago, (says
Capt Gallon Of the illinois Central railway
the station houses were almost the only hab.
itations on the line; now there Is a large vii
lage at each station, surrounded 10y vast tracts,
of cultivated ground. When passed along
the line last autumn sacks of corn covered
every available spot round the stations and
the means of the company were scarcely ad-
equate to removing them" With boundless
tracts of land, then, lying idle and waiting
to be used-land which will give an enor-
nous return to cultivation-it is obviously
not the interest of the American to delay his
railway till he can make one with the best
| curves and the most even rails. He cannot
| afford to wait for chef deuore of engineer
ing; no, every minute is lost that this land
| lies idle, and therefore he just lays down a
| railway good enough to take him into the
| heart of this profitable region, and set him
| down there with pillow and spade and a chan,
| mel of conveyance for the produce ofhis farm.
lie bends the railway to his temporary OBJ
| ject, and makes it serve the purpose he wants
| ut the time he wants. e., now. He dashes
! at his end and does not mind sharp curves
| and inclined planes. This is making the
| most of the instrument in his own case, and
| welding it most VIGOROUSLY and effectively
| The Baltimore and Ohio railway, as first
made, avoided an expensive tunnel by "se-
| ries of zigzags, ascending over q hill by a
gradient of one in eighteen at its steepest
part, each zigzag terminating in Il short level
/ space, SO that the train could run up one
zigzag on to this level space, and then back
| ed up the next zgzag, and so on. This &C.
! centric expedient was superseded by tun-
1 mel afterwards: but the American would not
wait for perfection before he had a railway
in the first instance We wish our Indian
authorities wonid take hint from American
expedition. They 90 on waiting for perfect
engineering and doing nothing till they can
| do everything as it is done in this country.
The Americans would have covered India
with railways before now The mode OF
| raising funds for the construction OF rail-
ways by means Of grants ofland, is, perhaps
1 useful hint to our Australian authorities.
E. 1t would, however, he doing injustice to
the American railways to omit the great con
veniences and good accommodation which they
afford, Notwithstanding the haste ofther con
struction. Indeed it is one Of the most re
1,arkuble characteristics of the system how
it combines roughness and expedition in the
construction Of the railway with convenience
and refinement in the railway furniture and
carriages. even greater in many respects than
those we have in this country The average
indoor comfort even than the average Eng
| plains of our cold rooms.
The railways humor these tastes, and the
| carpets, the cushions, the chairs with backs
that can be put either way, the room tol
moving about, and the warm air-pipes, put
ali except our Erst-class carriages to shame
The ingenious continuance on the New orE
a. Erie railway Of a funnel which conveys ali
down into q chamber, where it ispurifed by
spray forced up from gets below, and thence
makes its way through thecar, is specimen
of American railway indulgence to summer
travellers. The slanting windows and the
screens of tarred canvass for throwing off the
dust show the same consideration, while the
use of Il bell instead of whistle on leaving
stations proves regard for the human eal
Mt which we have not arrived in this country