Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1861-04-12

dFdch-L0yWy GOMPteteH.-On TUESDAY
last the track-aying on the D. & S. c. r.. R.
was finished up to the bank of the Cedar
river, and the evening train for the first time
hauled up in front Of the depot. Passengers
arriving upon that train must have been
forcibly impressed that they had stopped at
some young empire city Of the West, whose
swarming crowds of expectant citizens, free
BUSES, hotel runners and sharp, witty, loud
talking hackmen could not be equalled in the
land Of the Hawk Eyes. Old travellers, who
years ago saw here boundless wilderness,
called only home by the Red Man, with whom
thu pipe of peace wastsmoked, and the hum
bic Inequalities of the Wigwam shared, must
have been forcibly impressed with Times
rapid changes,--so rapid indeed, to them it
must have seemed, that the human tide, the
iron horse, the busy little city, were but a
mystic vision drawn by weary mind to
haunt him with an absent home left far be.
yond the Father of Waters. Old Settlers
how anxiously and eagerly they watched the
spikeing down ofthe rails; with what delight
and unalloyed satisfaction did their counte-
nances beam, and eyes dance and sparkle, as
the train rolled up to the depot. In that last
spike that fastened the last rail they saw the
realization of hope--anxious hope-long de-
ferred; we say long deferred-long for so
fast an age Who Of them thought ten years
ago, as they looked about in their solitude,
beheld the vast unbroken prairies, and the
wooded river sides where the choppers axe
had but just begun its havoc; when the In
dian had here his hunting ground, built his
campfire, and cooked his frugal meal; who
of them thought that 1851 would see the
homes they had sought and made in the will
derness bound with an iron rail to the land
Of their birth--the home of their childhood
Old travellers, and early settlers how strange
must be the "reminiscences called back to rec.
objection by the snortngs Of the Iron Horse
on the banks of the Cedar!
Every thing, with every body, is alone,
&" Railroad?" The old man totters over to
the depot to see the cars arrive; men whom
the cares of life have full possession find time
to slip over and see what's being done on the
X. r.; young men loiter around the depot
grounds as if there in the earth were buried
all the "ties" which bound them to another
world; blushng lassies slip away from watch
full parents, to take bashful peep at the ele-
plant, and a few of the most fearless, now
and then accept the invitation of some attcn-
tive masculnes, to mount the platform of
waiting car and Misses all bathed in smiles
and bushes, ladies and lasses take short
ride ahead, then back, and are switched off
together. Little three-year- hear the
shrll whistle Of the locomotive, and with eyes
wide open and hands extended, excaim, 81
hear de tars-I hear de tars ~ and their lit
tie bodies are convulsed with all the excite
ment of men with their pockets full of Hi
nois currency.
The employees of the company had quite
Notification after their days work was ended
on Tuesday last The baby walker was
brought out, and salute fired in honor of
the completion of the track-laying. Then the
devl-waker was produced, and the old gen.
tleman was, without much difficulty, well
aroused, and took an active part in the re-
naming portion Of the exercises.