Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-07-04
THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD.
s7e MILES open for Tr.v.l--to Juls.burg.

356 Miles open for Trayel--tO JuIesbur9.
The telegraph has announced the COM
pletion of this road to Julesburg, 376
miles from Omaha, and the materials are
nearly all OH the ground to lay the track
to the base of the Rocky Mountains
141 miles further--by September next.
This is certainly very rapid work, but
intelligent correspondents say it is we'll
done, and that the road Is well equipped
that its depots and stations are of brick
and stone, and its locomotives and cars
of the best. The U. S. Commissioners
are also compelled to testify that 1t is in
all respects first-class road before the
Government will accept it. The bus-
ness of this road is already surprising
The thousands of teams that once spent
summer in tOiling over the prairies
have transferred their loads to the rail-
track, and by autumn the locomotive
will be at the base of the Rocky Noun
tains. The Editor of Harper's Weekly
remarks that "when the Union Pacific
is completed, all other lines of railway
will become, to certain extent, its feed
ers. Along its entire route over the great
Plains lateral branches will be construct
ed, which will pour into 1t their way
side contributions to an extent that can
not to-day be approximately estimated.
Already, with less than one-third of
Its length complete, it is earning several
times its operating expenses, as officially
stated. Such success is without pre-
cedent. When it reaches the already
populous gold regionso of Montana, Idaho,
and Nevada, the freight to and from
those points alone Is likely to be almost
fabulous. And population follows the
road as it extends. A town or village
marks each stage of its progress WHO
can calculate the quantity of way freight
that the road is destined to carry for
these rising communities? Who, indeed,
can estimate the passenger traffic alone?
When hundreds of thousands of persons,
with their faces toward the West, have
tramped over the Plains at the risk of
their scalps, how many peradventure
will ride, when they can make the iourn-
ey with safety in u few days? But
short time will elapse before the demands
of trade will call for second track, to
be used exclusively as a freight road,
over which an endless line of slowly
moving vans shall continuously pass,
leaving the other track for the use of i'm
patient passengers only" u
Our readers will perceive by reference
to the Company's advertisement, that it
offers its First Mortgage Bonds, paying
six pea cent. interest in gold to subscri-
bers, at ninety cents on the dollar. These
bonds are a first lien upon the road, and
are limited in amount to $4,000 to the
mile.
The Company state their net earnings
for the month of May, while only 300
miles of road were in operation, at $261,-
7s2--a sum which, after deducting opera
ting expenses, Is several times the inter
est on the bonds they are by law permit
ted to issue upon il. If the earnings are
so large upon the ,Udy business, what
may we not reasonably expect when the
connection Is made in 1870 with the
Pacific Coast? We can see no reason
why the First Mortgage Bonds of such a
rond are not safe security, and they are
Is per cent. cheaper than Government
bonds at the market rate. Subscriptions
are already large, and are received by
banks and bankers generally throughout
the country