The Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1865-1870, 1869-07-23
THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD
AND ITS OWNERS.
Correspondence Of the n. Y. Tribune.

company. These six gentlemen virtu
ally own and wholly control the grea
franchise. Practically . partnership
rather than a corporation, they have
managed business with the shrewdness
frugality and vigilance which careful
men bring TO their affairs. On the plea
that they were poor In California and
only wanted to build Il" = little road "
at the end OF the long line, they got
their company included in the original
Act upon equal terms with the Union
Pacific. If any Congressman were
/" seen," it was probably not their
money which paid for that optical at
tention. They built the road them
selves, without the intervention of con-
tractors or other middle men. They
hired Cinnamon at from $50 to S35 per
month, gold, while the Eastern compa.
ny paid some of its laborers as high as
81 per day. The Central sometimes
employs IL, 900 men and the Union ls,
900, so the advantages in this item alone
.weIled to many millions.
When the Central people were selling
their bonds in New York at the rate of
hundreds of thousands of dollars per
day, they used to send forward each
monthly report of the earnings of their
road by mail for three cents, instead of
spending $50 to transmit it by tele-
graph. Remaining free from the inter
nal quarrels aud wretched scandals of
the other company, they always kept
the prices of their bonds from TWO to
FIVE per cen. the higher. The Union Pa
ciic advertising agent-whO did his
work upon cOmmission-haS since
built brown stone house on Fifth av
enue but know no subordinate in thu
Central Pacific who has erected even a
cottage,
The endowment of the Central is I'M
paraileled in financial history. For
hundred and hundreds of miles, as easy
to build as the Platte Valley portion
of the Union Pacific upon which only
SIC, 900 per mile of Government bonds
were raceivedl, it managed to obtain |
S32 900. Each company was author
lied to issue its own frst mortgage
bonds for an additional amount per
mile equsling The subsidy SO this diff
ference must be doubled.
The Central received $l7,50 more
per mile, or $4,000, 900 more for its
entire 600 miles, than did the Union for
the same length of track. And though
he heavy work in the Sierras gave il
many more millions of cubic feet of
gravel, and sand, and rock to move, its
advantages in cheap labor and close
so nearly counterbalanced |
this, that its road, mile for mile, when
accepted by the Government Commits
siouers, had cost little, if any, more
than the Union Pacific. Nor is this all,
The Central obtained further donations
of $500, 900 from San Francisco; $780,
900 from California, so acres of land
valued OF $500, 900 in the hear, of Sac
ramento. and heavy subscriptions from
several interior counties, all IN gold
Nobody ever received such munifcent
lifts, except the young vagabond Alad-
lin and Edmund Dantes, the Count of
ionte Christie.
None Of the FIVE Sacramentans were
ich at the outset, though Stanford,
huntington and Hopkins were in easy
circumstances. Now, one who has re-
noved to New York owns a magnificent
ptown residence, and his private sta
les are like q first-class dwelling,
mother, who remains in Sacramento,
Illustrates admirably what the road
as done for them. Upon one corner
{ his large lot is a frame cottage a
tory and half high, which probably
ost 81 ,2O0-a tasteful, cosy little home I
overed With trees, vines and flowers, {
ut very humble in its professions.
here the owner had lived for years
hen the company was organized. Now {
4 the center of the same lot, he has {
early completed a new residence, which
,oks like the greatest marble forti6ca-
ON on Fifth avenue. 1t might be {
,istaken for an opera house, or a CO.
scum for a Peace Jubilee. 1t is Jas
,et long, and though a frame build t
g, will cost nearly 100000 in gold. /
fairly challenges the passer By. 4
Look upon this picture, and on this. 3"
Que who thinks he knows assures me >
lat the six owners of the Central have r
lvided $40, 200, 900 in profits upon con- b
ructiOn. This is an exaggera.ion. $
ounting the frs, mortgage bonds, not )
It out, but available at any moment, b
, the law authorizes their issue, their q
lrpius on construction may be moder t
te!y estimated at 1000, 900 10 adj il
zion to this stupendous accumulation, n
icy own the land grant, which posses p
IS considerable value, and nearly all p
e stock of the company, amounting L