Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1860-06-26
nAIIloAD PANoRAMAs.


We do not remember ever seeing any notice
of the peculiar advantages, which railroad
travelisg has over all other modes of travel
ling for certain kinds of observation. For
grouping the features Of landscape, IL is un-
paralleled Instead of making the canvass
revolye before the spectator, the landscape
revolves around him. At pleasure you fix
your focus, and all the features Of the view
group themselves about it. II is frequent
and true complaint, that railroad always
runs through the worst part of village for
observation; but the country, the broad open
country, is the true home of the railroad;
there is its proper domain. Along the iron
rail, 10 the music Of the steam whistle, and
the thunder of the engine wheels, fields and
forests, hilIs and streams, marshal themselves
in beautiful harmony. An engine of thirty
tons, drawing train forty miles an hour, is
the fitting accompaniment of bold scenery,
and the only power that can harmonize into a
picture of the grand and scattered features OF
a mountain district A canal boat, moving
beneath the shadows Of the mountain, excites
our sympathy, it seems so consumptive and
sickly; even u stage coach and six chn arrest
no obesance from such surroundings; but an
express train tearing along the base of the
| hills, burying itselfin the bowels Of theamoun-
tains leaping over ionming torrents, seems a
very child OF the everlasting hills, and helps
us to understand and appreciate its patrimO-
ny aud paternity. @''
We never felt so much at home, in all our
| life, as when sweeping round the curves, over
the gorges, aud through the tunnels of Cheat
mountain along Cheat river ON a railroad
train We felt ourselves equal 10 the noun
tain and the river BY means Of an express
train, running down grades fifty and sixty
miles an hour, we bearded the green noun
tains. upon our iron thread, as jeweler woulC
thread emeralds for necklace. And We
cant get rid of the idea that we carry six hun
dred miles of mountain and mead, field ant
forest, river and city, in our pockets ant
could at pleasure reproduce them in then
projections. Railroad travelling possesses thu
same advantages for collating facts, as TO
grouping features We have in our minds al
agricultural induction of six hundred miles O
corn, oats, wheat and rye fields, and feel con
fident that we know the productive capacit
ryand and Pennsylvania through which W
passed
RAILROAD PERSPECTIVE.
, There is no place in the world for studyn
free and bold perspective, like the rear pia
form of the rear car, or the window OF the Ia
comotve We have tried both, and hardl
know which we like best To sit by the eug
neer, and look out into the eye OF the track,
most exciting but one soon wearies; the seen
lacks repose; the denouements are too rapid, a
T. well as too startling. II is like the opening
gorgeous flowers; the mountain throws out i
4 petals of rock and foliage, till one is bewi
dered with the eforescence, But from III
rear Of the car, the scene is the reverse, Ih
mountain rose, instead Of opening, closes
petals; as one sits and secs the grand ioldh
up a dreamy quiet suiiuses the scene, and 4
yites to sleep. Il makes one feel like an Ind
:. AN mystic to sit and see the valley close
or gates after the rolling train Then ii is su'
a novel sensation, 10 see hills growing high
- and higher as you first recede seeing the
n roll upward their green folds, like iieecy thu
u der-clouds against blue sky Never
mountains seem more alive, than when view'
from an approaching or receding trai
When u hill falls into the focus Of a train,
putspn u countenance as mobile and EXPIRE
sive As II animated by a god. For soeiI
y mountain ranges, give US AN express trai
=, and q seat ON The engine, or in the rear ca
~ For an experiment we would commend 4
n, "run" from Oakland TO Cumberland on 4
10 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad We do not
member finer passage in all our annals
travel