The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-07-27
N. P. WILLIS ON THE BALTIMORE AND
OHIO RAILROAD

Mr.. WILLIS recently travelled the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad in company with several literary
and scientific gentlemen, and he has written to the
Home Journal an entertaining account of the
excursion, from which we extract the following
paragraphs.
His opinion of the great work itself is thus hap
PLY expressed:
To make Baltimore the front door to the great
cathedral of the West, with railroad to the Ohio
for the entrance to the broad isle the aim and sue
cesstul achievement of the Baltimore and Ohio rail
road, was the ''Thiry- -Laprore-
ment" which were kindly invited to take look
at 1t is the greatest single enterprise of modern
times; but 1t is curious that the man whose far
seeing and marvellous belief is now acknowledged
and honored as the main lever which achieved it,
is of the same the Scripture famed apostle
of un6ehef-Thomas Not only that, but it is
Thomas, Philip having been the other apostle of
whose limited faith our Saviour made an example,
in the question before the miracle of bread Truly,
this great man has retrieved the of the hesi-
tating apostles
Being invited to ride upon the "cow-catcher,"
the impressions formed while in that novel position
are very amusing
We had reached Martinsburg, on our return
retracng in sixteen hours the four days route of
exploration, and, of course travelling at full rail
road speed-when kind official entertainer,
| Prescott Smith, pointing to the front of the en-
| gine, asked If | would like to ride there. The
! thought delighted me- of course; and took my
seat at once the sort of gridiron wedge in front
! of the locomotive, built for throwing to the right
| or left any number of stray cattle on the track
With the sun intensely bright and the thermometer
all day at ninety -four degrees my black iron seat
was not the coolest, and the glowing admiration of
the crowd of Martinsburg boys, who gathered
| around in the few minutes that | sat alone the
cow catcher in front of the sultry station-house,
made its promise, at first, to be too warm an expe-
rience. Presently, however | was joined by anoth-
! er of our charming party to whom my example
| had with Spnith
| on one side of me and Thompson (of the 'South-
ern Literary on the other, felt little more re-
| conciled to the risky possibility-that of being
| wiped off, with my two brother authors, by any
eo,o that should cumber the track, or in other
words, served up to fate in literary sandwich
with ''forced cou-cmber8."
Well-the iron steed gave his accustomed snort
(Which it takes pretty good ear drums enjoy as
! you sit directly under his explosive diaphragm),
and off began to rattle tho fore,foot we bestrded
| Behind glided the streets and people of Martins
burg, and the hot air along with them-for, to
exquisite delight tgrew cool enough, in the second
or third minute. Smoke, cinders, and secondhand
atmosphere, were all famed to the rear With the
accelerated speed, the rush of air strife of
unseen caresses, myriad of soft fingers stroking
back the hair upon ones temples and pulling gently
at the of ones beard, like shamp0oing bv
the daughters of Eolus-(a little imaginative, per
| haps, but remember there three authors on
| the cow-catcher !)-whie the handkerchief with
which | endeavored to blow my nose was so forced
up my nosrils as to make me sneeze. The "seepers,
or braces across the raitrack at first separate and
distinct, confused into solid plank. Cow after
came in sight, and, the next instant, had
| escape of our rather-be-excused bosomS-pig after
! pig, idem-idem focks of sheep, grazing horses
! drunken men and Irish children What gauntlet
of accidents runs common cow-catcher, to be sure!
But to be thus teegraphed in ones hat and boo
| strangely removes some of ones early preudices
| The way we jumped chasms and skinned ponds
popped across rivers and cleft open hills-shot into
caverns and under mountains, and spun away
the other side as if nothing had happened-skirted
precpices and rounded blutfs-all at the same pace
and with no manner ofrecognition of mortal mans
common hindrance and obstacle. Why, it amount
ed to "a fight of fancy" 1t was thought-travel-
ghost hitting-angel's errand-gong Cor rather
''Adam's Express before the fall)-a realization
in fact of two Of my own once imaginative ques-
tions, in an early poem
Ara va tbouobt- "a, -.