Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-06-30
PennsyIyania central RaiIroa0.

We take the following pen-pictures from
the graphic correspondence of B. +. Taylor,
Esq, of the Chicago Evening Journal,
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company sup.
plies three things like lavish providence:
! light, air and water. For the smoky, un.
| fragrant lamp that winks at you like an eye
with the jaundice, a clear jet of bright gas
at the top of the car; for the nitrogen box
in which you have so often played martyr,
and where the secondhand air il passed
about and gasped at, coach admirably ven
! tilated for the hundred parched miles
land not drop TO drink, you remember
to have made, or the pail of warm liquid
that slops about at long intervals, fixed
reservoirs, resembling huge stove-pipes, and
containing clear, iced water enough for q
crowd not positively web footed aud am
phibious.
SCENERY OF THE ALLEGHANIES.
1t is fresher and grander than the scenery
among the Cumberlands in Tennessee, aud
then, it is not ragged and angry like them
The mountains are finished up to the top
with the richest green in the world; and
the beauty of summer flows down the
gorges as if it we're water. The trees that
God took centuries to build, stand up in
solid columns, and forests look over forests
heads till they seem to stand erect under
the peak Of the blue rafters Of heaven -
Towers of stone that the cink Of the trow-
els was never heard upon, show gray
through the green a straight red scar here
and there down the mountain sides, marks
the route Of the cataracts of iron ore that
the miners pour down; the horizon. if |
may say so, rolls heavily, like sea in rough
weather. and its great pillows OF woods wash
far up in the slope of sky
ASCENDING THE WESTERN SLOPE.
The train moves smoothly and steadily
on it is going up the western side of the
Alleghanies. 1t burrows in in gloomy tun
nels it thunders through rock furrows ii
doubles cape Of green and sweeps with the
curve Of hawk round the narrow brm of
a gorge, and you look down and think OF
them that gather apphire-dreajful
trade. 1t creeps along a stone shelf; II
makes for a bold promontory: it lies almost
coiled up like a snake in the sun, on the
lodges, SO sharp the curve is; it is feeling
its way among the mountains. This road
is grand triumph; true, the sturdy strug
gle, the mighty wrestling with the ever
lasting hills, have all passed we do not see
them, but this swift train working in and
out at will amid the heart of their mystery
proclaims that triumph every day.
You reach the summit; the Mountain
House, with its grounds spacious and beau
tiful, its splendid shades, its noble springs
its pure air, is at your right; you fee
, stronger and bravcr the breath on this tor
Of the morning has toned you up, and you
begin to understand what the Waldensiar
song can mean
"For the strength Of the hills we bless Thee,
Ottr ,nu gtirf faith God
Thou hast made Thy children mighty.
BY the touch OF the mountain sod
DESCENDING THE EASTERN SLOPE.
And now you arc going down the east
/ ern side in company with lively river, tha
is making for the lowlands, and you react
!. the valley together. You met rivers a. yo,
, came mp, but you saw nothing brighter than
the little Conemaugh, wandering amongth,
mountains; not even "the blue Junata,
that has wound in and out of more than on,
old ballad nor yet the broad thin ribbon o
the Susquehanna, lying right in your way
AT last the spires and dome Of HARRISBURG
shine in the sun, aud we roll swiftly in ant
out OF the capital of PcnnsylvaniW aud OF
for tho Patapsco and the Chesapeake.
:. THE OLD KEYSTONE STONE.
n All the region Of the State traversed i
n this days journey--trom Pittsburgh to Bal
r timore--is wonderful alike in its resource
a and its beauty. can never forget its lowell
r valleys with their rich fields of grain, thei
= broad, billowy orchards, their pastures
4 bright as emerald, their quaint, oil house,
with dormer windows, and the little two
, seated porch, and the roofs slipping off al
. most down to the ground behind, like
2 schoolgirls sun bonnet; the oven sguatte,
| out Of doors Ii Ike il great mud-turtle, ant
the slice do yen know what slice
= is?-leaning against il; the well sweeps dt
$ centti9 the low, mossy caves; the oid-tim
G flowers tha, grow in their gardens; the sun
= flower making ready TO rise; the hollyhoc
| building its small orchestra wherein the lii
@ tie Dutchman shall bag many a bee to hea
= "its small and mellow horn; the laz
0 group of great cattle that stood in tn
t streams; the clean world that it looked
e and so home-like and sheltered those valleys
@ that it seems to me next safest TO being iii
Q orally held in the hollow Of Gods hand t
y dwell in them.
I But the people would climb out of tn
+ valleys for all that, and the mountains ar
r sprnkled with homes, and counterpanes G
D grass and grain are spread out to ripen o
= their very summit. Through this rcgo
h atoretime, the young men and maiden
r "courted" as the birds do--under fcathe,
, "a fashion known as "bundIing;" her
painted eggs were kept from Christmas t
midsummer; here stray singing master
: from Connecticut used to lead off in Ol
I Hundred and Near, and now and then a
D apple-cheeked German maiden to vile. Bu
the world has found them all out, thes
e homes and valleys, and resist everso sturdily
q new fashions and new generations will com
. in together.
0 A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW.
B, What a world of tough tugging the oil
I fathers used to do, 10 be sure Ga tn
!, West Of the mountains you left fragmeu
J of canal; on the East of the mountain
9 you found the remainder. Lazy boats wer
; creeping along in the one, aud their kindre
: was as like them as two peas in the other
Q Poor Mr. Cowper's mountains interpose,l
. had done nothing for these but sunder them
: Now, the time was when these sluggis
Q crafts went over the Alleghanies At tn
: right Of the railroad the traveller observe
r graded shelf, sometimes running parable
for miles, and sometimes losing itself be
e meath the track. That is record of tn
|, tough tuggng wrote OF, for it is the oil
Portage road, hewn and blasted by the hare