The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-07-22

Nobody can realize how great a work
1-this has been until he takes the long ride of
Sfour or five days and nights, through dreary
''wastes and unbroken solitude" So wro e
our special correspondent when he reached
San Francisco the other day by the new rail-
way, after crossing the whole North Ameri-
can Continent, aud passing on the route
through every variety of climate and every
variety OF country. 1t Is like listening 60
an Arabian tale to be told of the strange
contrasts of this wonderful journey of $500
miles. At morning you ride through fields
of waving grain. where the reapers are Al
ready at work, and before noon you are
shivering among the perpetual SHOWS. In q
few hours the traveller passes from the val
ley where mercury stands at S0deg. in the
tube, to the bleak mountain station where
water freezes every night in the year
From summer to winter is only journey OF
a score or two of miles. Seven days travel
carry US from the centres of commerce on
our Atlantic coasts, through the fertile and
cultivated Middle States, past the busy cities
of the lakes, across the wide prairieS, the
burning aikali desert where water for the
engines must be carried hundred miles, the
mountain ranges and the wild magnificent
country which lies between them, through
the avalance region of the Sierras, up to the
summit of mountains 5000 feet above the
sea, and so down the Pacific slope to the
luXuriant California valleys and the lustV
seaport of our Western coast. No such road
such can be built hereafter.
The grandeur of the work we think has
failed somewhat of due appreciation. We
have lived life of such sensations of late
years, that great things have comparatively
little effect upon the public mind and be-
sides there have been such grave doL BITS
about the proper building of the road that
we were not ready to throw up our hats and
hurrah until we knew a little more about
the way in which the work had been done.
Misgivings ought now to be set at rest
Competent observers have given their ex-
perience of travel, and there is little or no
disagreement among them. A great part of
the road is as good as the best in America.
Nearly all of it compares favorably with at
least three-quarters of our railroads, and
there is only a small section, laid under Pc
culiarly unfavorable circumstances, which
can be called decidedly poor and uneven
But all these defective portions are being
rapidly put into better condition. Immense
gangs of Cinnamon are at work all along the
line, reducing curves, leveling the road-bed,
adjusting ties. Preparations are making for
the winters storms. Snow-sheds and fences
are stetching themselves for miles along the
exposed portions of the track. Masons are
at work upon culyerts. Temporary bridges
are being replaced by structures OF the NEST
approved kind. The engine factories and
car shops are turning out rolling stock with
extraordinary speed. New stations are
springing up wherever the wants of travel
ers seem TO call for them. Already one can
travel from Omaha to San Francisco, with
as much safety aud comfort as from Chicago
to New York; and we shall not be surprised
ifin the course of two or three years the
great through route from ocean ranks as one
of the best railroads in the United States
Such certainly ought to be its rank. and the
people will spare no effort to secure.