Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1867-05-25
VOL. XIy. NO. 3G....WH0LE NrMBER. 7lS.
The SOutacsn Pacific RAN Road.
ITNTIIN NNI NTl1 IINAs,
Amril nllh- lNG1

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UPsuuR CorNrY, TrXAs, }
April 9th, 1867.
EiHor ShF,rayDn NeWS Seeing
by your editorials you take much
interest in works of internal i'm.
proycment | thought would write
You II line upon the subject al rail
roads in Texas have lived for
many years Cl' my life whore the
sound ofthe locomotive was rs com. .
mon rs the sound ot the OK bell ia
in this country. Oh, shall ] ever
hear the shrill whistle Of the loco
motive in these pincy woods ? when
! see that nothing Ia doing to extend
your Southern Pacific Railroad in
this direction, on in any other dircc-
ton, my hopes fail mo, When / SEQ
that your road is unable to perform
the small amount Of work assigned
it, ! am ready TO decide that there
is II great want oi' efficiency in its
management. II seems to me that
the stockholders had better at once
sell out the concern to men Of rail-
road experience, and not allow tho
iaith, what little there is left in our
people, to be destroyed in railroad
! enterprises.
We need great line built, and
that soon, to Dallas, on the IN ST d.
rect line, and that most direct line
will carry it many miles further
through the great pine forest than
the one now spoken Of via Tyler,
Smith county, which is generally an
oaky woods country. l allude to
the pine forest as the greatest freight
giving item that ever will be consid-
cred by body of intelligent diroc-
tors. There never can be any item
of freight that can half way equal
the lumber trade of n great road to
Dallas. 1t should be aiken well in
to consideration that the location of
line bo as far through the pines us
practical. On the direct route sew
eral train loads PER day could be
averaged in up freight, and -four,
grain, cattle, lime and hay, with an
immense travel, would return on
the same trains. Drovers would
keep their stock on the fine prairie
grass, "free and fat" and shi ip them
through from Dallas to Shreveport
in twenty-four to thirty-s six hours,
for about three dollars per head
Then, and not until then, can your
citizens rely on fine beef the year
round. Then will Texas flour, as
fine a/ the world ever saw, do the
same FOR your city that upper Geor-
gia and Tennessee -four has done in
the Augusta, Ga, market; (under
similar circumstancos.) drive out en-
tirely Northern and Western flour.
Then the vast amount ofmoney sent
from your market annually to tho
West for -four, will all 90 to our
farmers in the interior Of Texas, or.
be spent with you forgoods for their
use,
Then this long stretch OF thinlY
settled, poor piney woods country,
along the railroad line, would soon
be filled with the thrifty manufac-
turing wealth, producing population
where the pine forest stands now
almost undisturbed. Villages of
from three to five hundred persons
would spring up around these fine
water powers and iron mines. The
writer is not tar from the direct line
from Marshall to Dallas, and within
twelve miles of this place there is
durable water power, sufficient to
manufacture all the cotton goods,
and spin all the cotton yarns that
would be required in this State for
fifty years to come. But Texans
say, they are difficult to control foc'
manufacturing purposes" That is
not tho case, if capital and skill
were properly applied. But they
are suffering by similar causes to.
that which makes your railroad al,
most valuclcss, and which actually
drives from your city much Of its
legitimate trade. These manutac-
turing. facilities offer no small
item for railroad business. We are
a subjugated people, but it is cer-
tainIy possible to convince our peo-
pie in aiew years, that locomotive
is a better and cheaper power than
an or team. We should continue,
our efforts until the work is done.
Such views as mine have, within
the past twenty years, built a city
of 30, 900 inhabitants in one of tho
poorest sections of Georgia, with no.
river within less than one,
hundred miles, with no great water
power, or original manufacturing
interest near to assist it, but it waS
done alone by railroads, with the
most enterprising, energetic, laboring
pap tidtion that udS eUer assembled in
say city in the United .Statcs. 1t isa
that will try again and
again.
Labor, with reasonable degree
of judgment, will do anything that
is not reserved for God himself, and
it could soon build the railroad
about which l have been writing
Every farmer near the line could
take some stock. Every merchant,
every county, and city, and citizen
Of city, conld take some stock,
and large amounts could be procur-
I'd in remote sections ofthe country.
Could this not be done and let the
work again commence? +. NJ. S.
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