The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-02-04
correspondence
THE BRANCH RAILROAD.

THE BRANCH RAILROAD.
MEssRs. EDITORS: Seeing copy of your
paper occasionally at my home in a distant
part of the country, have been gratfied to
observe that there seems to be determined
purpose upon the part of your people to
"shackle on" to the great world outside Of
Hartford, by means Of Branch Road from
the most convenient point on the F., w. d b.
Railroad to Bel Air. This, if you will allow
me to say so, is as little as you could ask,
and certainly much less, all things consider
ed, than you ought to expect. While such
Branch would conduce largely to the pros
I perity as well as responsibility of your Coun-
I ty, it is small favor in comparison with the
character of improvement your productions
and resources demand.
Many years ago | was much better ac-
quainled with Hartford and its surroundings
than l am at present, but if retain an accu-
rate knowleC &c of its topography, 1t seems
to me that it would be no great display Of
civil engineering to locate and construct
line of railway from the mouth of DeerCreek
or Conowingo through the heart of your
county, by way of Long Green to ToWson-
town, or some other accessible point in that
direction, to which have seen illusions in
more than one number of your paper. This
is the improvement you ought to have, and
the improvement your children will have,
if you lack the energy or means to secure 1t
for yourselves and them. But, seeming to
have given up that line for the present, and
to be concentrating your efforts upon the
shorter and cheaper work, there is one thing
the people of Hartford will have to do, and
that is to Danish all spirit of rivalry and dis
sension among themselves, and march up
squarely and unitcdiy to the work before
them.
1t isn't worth my while or anybody clses to
waste paper and ink to convince the intelli'
gent people of Hartford that they must have
railroad from their county town to the
Philadelphia and Baltimore line, if they can
do no better and that to obtain even this, unan-
unity of sentiment and effort are absolutely
necessary. In such work, division is not
only wrong but fatal. Railroads are not
built for individual emolument or individual
accommodation. The greatest good to the
greatest number is the object. Their benc
fits are ditfusive, and felt for miles in all di-
rections.
Who of your older citizens that remember
Putty HILL" on the Bel Air and Baltimore
road, as it was before the day of railroads,
can have forgotten the difficulty ofascending
it in winter with loaded wagon? | re-
member to have seen, on one occasion, team
of four lean horses on that hill, with a load
of flour-barrels, accompanied by four men,
each with hoop-pole, fighting their way up
inch by inch, man at each horse each yell
ing and whooping and lambasting from the
base to the summit. You may have better
teams now, and perhaps better roads, but you
still have too many hills between the centre Of
your county and Baltimore, to be thinking Of
combining yourselves to wagons while the
rest of the world is rushing past you by
steam, if there is the remotest probability of
getting branch road from Bel Air to Mag
nolia, Edgewood or some other point.
There are three propositions that but few
into 7 in,nf will ri
they are these
LIST. You must have q railroad from Bel
Air to the Philadelphia and Baltimore line.
I'd. To secure this, there must be unanimi
ty among your people; and
I'd. They may secure it if they will.
These premises require no elaboration.-
You must have the road, for the reason that
you are partially shut out from the world,
and immeasurably behind the age without
it-you must have the road to be able to
compete in great markets with other peo-
ple-you must have the road to thoroughly
deyelope your resources-you must have the
road to make those resources available.
You must have unanimity to work effec-
lively, for the reason that no important en-
terprise can well succeed without it-divi-
sions and rivalries will delay it indefinitely
united you stand, divided you may falv'-
you must make "a long pull, strong pull,
and pull all together"
Observe these principles, and the Sd pro-
position is communicating may secure it
if you will. Will your people do that thing?
That's the queston-literally and absolutely
the question. 1t is surprising, as well as
true, that most men would have q railroad to
run through their plantations, or as near as
possible, without regard to the wants and
convenences of "all the world and the rest
of mankind;" and whilst they think every
body ought to help them get it there, they are
unwilling to help others to take such i'm
provements through other plantations. This
selfish and unpatriotic disposition has retar-
ded or crippled many great common bless
ing in our country. A work that will benefit
the county, will benefit every individual in it,
some more and some less. Thepeople consti
tute the county. If the people on James or
Bynum's Runs can't get the road, they should
help the people on Winters Run to get it. If
the people on the latter can't getit, they should
work to have it located on the line of the
Little.Falls, and gtce cersa. In word, they
should all work together or give it up, and
let the world jog on without them. You
must have one road, but you can't have three;
nor can you, without you take the pass-way
into the walls of Troy as an example, accom-
modate each and every neighborhood to the
immediate benefits of q road. Hence to sue
coed, and benefit your whole population,
some more and some less, you must all work
together, and my word for it, when l go to
Bel Air next summer, as hope and expect
to do instead of hiring q conveyance from
MIR. Lyle or Mr. Brown at Magnolia, tho
iron horse will put me through in less time
than they could adjust their harness.
These are not learned or technical reasons,
nor do they pretend to be. but they are, in
some sort, | think, based upon common sense,
and they are submitted for what they are
worth, little as that may be- @.
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