Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-08-31

A Mile In Minute or So.
"Go AHEAD" is America it is written on
everything from plough to q telegraph
We are not always "sure we'er right" but
nevertheless we 60. A little faster, little
further, little stronger, little longer, but
all wrapped up to the word "go."
Swallows are an Americans admiration.
and SO are pigeons and lightning and steam
engines; Of all the heathen gods, he most de-
lights in Mercury; Mercury, the lawyer and
liar, but then he was the first Express Mes
senger and had wings to his heels, and wings
to his cap. From the boys first cedar arrow
to the mans last polished lever is all ''go.''
We have passed years of life within the
sound of the clanking engine we have dwelt
in the midst of q city whittier from every
quarter flock locomotives like doves to the
windows; tugs" steam like crazy sea- birds
up and down the river; stately steamers come
in breasted with white foam; the news Of the
world is caught in web of wire. And vet.
we must get away from it all, to be impressed
with the wonderful age we live in; get away
into the woods where we are now writing,
and think and listen. Around us is the world
as it might have been centuries ago; grain
grows under sun and 1ain as it did in Pha-
raoh's time; horses 60 upon four legs still !;
the milk mothers of the herd, come lowing
home as they did when Homer sang: and
the old house dog is unchanged since it whined
Ulysses welcome home. -
But there is something new and strange
even here; something that used to find place
in the Entertainments of tile Thousand and
One Nights, and the fairy stories of child
hood. From the heart of the billowy woods
comes dull roar but as it plungcs into
deep gorge; louder and nearer as it strikes
out into the open spaces. Then there is a
shrek, and the clank of wheels, and we know
it is the Michigan Southern Railroad train
rushing through its iron orbit-from Toledo
to Chicago-from Chicago to Toledo-like
the swing Of pendulum; like the fight Of
shuttle.
Night is the time to hear it. The myriad
sound that make up the din of the day are
hushed; for noises undiscernable, the tread
OF distant feet, the fall Of far-off hammers, the
fiutter Of unseen wings, the inaudible talk of
men and women, the laugh and cry Of chill
dren, all 60 to make something which is hardly
sound, and yet is not silence all feel it,
though none can describe It. And it is in the
night that we miss it the birds that fly then
have muffied wings, the fire goes out in the
roaring forge, and the. ivory gate of dreams
stands ajar. The damp air brings to us the
champ OF the hungry wheels - they devour
the miles; we can hear IS we write, the hiss
ing plunge of the shaft, though far away over
wood and field. The sound rises and falls
like billow; we see no " headlight" no flash
OF glittering windows; each with stranger
face looking out into the moonlight night
casting glimpses of these shorn and yellow
fields, these swelling woods, these ranks of
corn, they never shall zee again. Beauty
and the Beast sweeping BY IN that train; ail
that mars or makes world, Of love and hope
and energy, little of each, parti-colored
thread Of the great web of human life.
And they are all in hurry; those going
home, to reach it; those leaving home. to re.
turn again hope is before some hope and
fortune grief is behind others; grief and
ruin. And with them all, 'gO ahead'' is the
word. They fall asleep in Illinois, they dream
through Indiana, they mutter |" what of the
night ~ in Michigan, they shake themselves
awake in Ohio, and yet they ask IN all tones
Of impatience and plaint, when the engine
stops to take what Caesar cried for "when he
was in Spain," little drink, as engines al.
ways will, "why don't they go ahead? ~
"Oh, that had the wings Of dove that
might fly away" is a wish SO intensely Amer
ican, that we are almost surprised to find 1t
in the Bible the "and be at rest that ends
the little prayer, just saves some Yankee from
sharing the fate Of him who shall add unto
''the words of the book Of the prophecy
For rest is no part Of his plan; it enters
into nothing but dreanaS and grave-yarls;
"iste ciatOr!" stop, trayeler--is written no
where but on tombstones, but everywhere
those other words go ahead"
Motion, rapid motion elates us; up to GER
tain rate, we are timid, but beyond that we
feel strong, feel Is II We had wings some
where; the mind thinks quick and clear; we
sympathixe with tho birds Of sweeping wing:
we are less Of "the earth, earthly: !" for the
time are better Hen. The other night the
Chicago bound hs1h on the Michigan South
ern Road lacked g many minutes Of being
ION time" - the dying Queen said she would
have given her crown and n her fair realms
for an hour or so,-and that night we were a
passenger. And didn't We hyl Conductor
Osgocd went quietly 70 and 70, = il we were
not moving, and yet the regular clank Of the
wheels had lquickeped to . hum; the jolt;ng
motion Of twenty uAiles an hour grew steady,
the polished arm SxAsring the engines wheel
flashed faster and faster in the setting sun
droysy Passene@s sst upright timid 1Assen-
gers looked anxouily &bout t0 fead wfiatw Vas
ID their neighbors fsocs; curious passengers
tried to count the trees, sat with stop watches