Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1867-11-14
The Union Pacific RailrOad-Fiye
Hundred Miles Completed. Il

Hundred Miles Completed.
The click of the telegraph tells us that
five hundred miles of this magnificent
work are now completed, and that the
whistle OF the locomotive can be heard
or the Rocky Mountains. Their very
bise, at Cheyenne, is but seventeen miles
further, and in another week, the track
will be at this embryo city on the west
ern boundary of the great plains. Itis
but thirty-one miles more to the highest
summit of the line between the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans, and to this point the
rosd-bed is nearly ready for the rails. 1t
may be quite possible for you, reader, to
travel by first class car all the way,
and eat your Christmas dinner among
the peaks of the Black Hills, eight thou
sand feet above tide water: A Athousand
laborers are on their western slopes, and
other thousands are joining them. All
winter long, the gorges and defiles of
these grand old mountains will resound
with the miners blast and the crash Of
the tumbling rocks, as they are thrown
out of their beds, where they have laid
since the world began. Ten thousand
Chinamen, under American engineers,
have already dug and pounded their way
over and through the great Sierra
Nevadas of California, and are rapidly
pushing forward to meet the great army
1 of builders from the east, and we are
told that in 1870, the traveller may see
| the sun rise out of the Atlantic on Mon
day morning, and set in The golden
/ glories of the Pacific on Saturday nisht-
\ l The locomotive Is coming Clear the
/ track, Messrs. Hole.in-the-day,h Cry!
4 ing Wolf, ,,tDancipg Grizzly, Jump. off.
a.log,s - Spotted tail, 'White-man-kilier,'
and all your rugged race. It is your
manifest destiny to stop scalping white
1 folks and you, must either be absorbed
by the new tide OF civilization or be
drowned in IT. ,Messrs Antelope, Buffalo
and Beaver, you have been very useful
animals in your way, and have done the
world service in your day but really
now-we quite regret it-but we must
have q few more farms out there In your
direction, and will trouble You to move
on, or of, asyou find Utmost convenient.
The logic Of events is not to be resisted
the race of barbarism is drawing to an
end the world moves, aud the people
thereof-and generally westward. "a 7a4
But really, the public have known
very little Of the gigantic proportions Of
this Pacific Railroad. To build it eigh-
teed hunired miles through wilderness.
and over the highest mountains on the
North American Continent was some
thing, the like of which had never been
attempted. The Appian Way of Rome
was nothing to 1t, and modern engineer
ing furnished no precedents for It. The
certain profits Of the immense business
between he two grand divisions Of the
continent were great prize to capital
lists; butno Company could be formed
that would dare venture more than q
hundred millions of money to secure it.
But necessary as the road was to 1ndi-
vidusls aid to commerce generally, the
people, IS a nation, needed 1t more The
United States Treasury was annually
taxed to So immense amount to pay for
| transporting troops and supplies to its
mountsin forts, to keep the peace among
Indian, tribes, that nothing but adyanc-
Ing civilization could keep permanently
quiet. The Pacific States and Territories
were So isoated that uneasy spirits al
ready discussed a new plan Of disunion
in a future Pacific Empire. The gov
eminent lands of a vast region were
worthless, because they could not be-
| reached aud only the richest pockets
Of the great gold field were opened, be-
cause of the impossicility of proftablel
transit. And here Congress acted wisely
in lending the Pacific Railroad "a Com
panies fifty millions in it's six per cent,
bonds, apportioHed ont as the work
progresses, to secure the speedy con !
struction7 of the line, for they more than
bpay the interestin the services they rem
der. No other internal improvement by
the general government has ever prom
ised to add so much TO the wealth of the
country. 1t will be the means of open
ing vast rtgion TO q pOpuiaVon that
we shall be only tyo ha ppJ - sc vnnu
to the national tax list and besides, ia
the event of-future wars, it would be
very well to have our neighbors so con-
venient, that they could do their share
of the fighting. EE. v..v s.a ~ /
Just now, when our California rela-
tives are anxious to come home to thanks
| giving, it is pleasant to know, that more
than one third of the work on this
! Pacific Railroad is done that more than
lone-third of the whole line is in run
| ming order; but, accustomed as We are
/ to large figures, II, scenes 8 little sur
| prising TO know, tbst over forty million
dollars in money h.ve siraady been ex-
pended. upon II. The Union Pacific
Company's contract for the frst' 9l4
| miles running west from 0mahsf amount