The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-16
WEST BRANCH VALLEY.

and n Sleepy PopuIation--The Antes Springs
A Delightful SpOt-The Pine Ureek and
From Our Oten OorresDonden1
JERSEY SHORE, Aug. 49, 1870.
No doubt, the citizens generally of our State
believed that with the veto of Governor Geary
to what was known the 80, ,000, 900 bond bill
would end all efforts to abstract from the Sink
ing Fund of the State the bonds now lying there,
but judging from certain acts which have been
transpiring in this vicinity, there will be an
other struggle for the possession of these much
coveted documents 1t will be remembered
that these bonds were to be replaced
with the paper of corporation to be
known as the Jersey Shore and Pine Creek Rail-
road Company, an institution which was to be
incorporated for the development of Lycoming,
Potter, Tioga, and Mexican counties, well as
to form q connection between Buffalo and Phila-
delphia, by which it was argued that the latter
city would derive immense benefits. By the bill
which was presented at the last session of the
Legislature, the State had no other guarantee for
the safety of her bonds than the
probable success of the contemplated en-
terprise. But Governor Geary refused to
append his signature, on the ground that the
object of the bill was in direct violation of
constitutional amendment which provided that
other purpose than the extinguishment of the
public debt However, the year previous the
Executive had signed the act which gave to the
Allegheny Valley Railroad Company $3, 5000
There the collateral offered was the endorse
ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,
by which the road of that corporation was
mortgaged for the full amount. 1t is nov be-
lieved that the Governor can be persuaded to do
the same thing in this case. The
proposed railroad will ultimately prove
to be so valuable an adjunct of the Pennsylvania
Central that, having shown her hand, she can
not now afford to allow any competing railway
to snatch the prize from her grasp. She will
therefore guarantee the full amount, and go to
the Governor and say, "a mortgage on our
road is certainly equivalent to your bonds;
therefore grant us this boon which.is asked of
you by the entire population of the northern
tier of counties of the State" Whether the
Executive will see the proposition in the same
light as he did the Allegheny Valley Railroad
case remains to be seen. There is not particle
of doubt about the fact that the people of these
counties are almost unanimous in this matter.
They demand an outlet for their lumber other
than the present slow and unsatisfactory man
ner of getting it to available points where it can
be disposed of. visitor in travelling along the
many water courses see without much re-
Election the heavy lostes incurred in the shape
of drift piles by the present means of shipment.
Again, the residents claim that beneath their
hills and mountains are hidden untold millions
of wealth, which only needs q railroad to pro-
duce it in Philadelphia markets.
There is hardly doubt but that the Legisla-
| ture next winter will be asked to pass an act
similar to the one proposed last year, with the
exception that the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany will appear as the endorser of the bonds
proposed to be substituted for those now in the
| custody of the State. What other conclusion
can be drawn from the fact that the surveyors
| have already gone through Jersey Shore and the
| Pine Creek region and planted their level stakes?
Why would the heavy expense necessarily at
tendant upon such an expedition be undertaken
unless those engaged in it had some substan-
! tal reason for believing that their project
would meet with better reception than it did
some seven months since? Should that be the
case, as far as Lycoming county is concerned, it
would throw open one of the most beautiful re-
| gions of the State. The road would start at
| Linden. station on the Philadelphia and Erie
Railroad, 9 miles west of Williamsport, and fol-
low the course of the West Branch Valley
through Jersey shore to the Big Pine creek.
| This valley, and particularly in the vicinage of
Jersey Shore presents, to my vision, a scene
only equalled by our famous Wyoming Valley.
This opinion is the result of q couple of
weeks stay in the romantic town of Jersey
Shore which presents to the tourist and
pleasure seeker variety of the means of en-
joying ones self not to be attained at any of
our seaside watering places and at but few of
our internal places of resort. 1t is located be-
tween two ranges of the Alleghenies, on the
West Branch of the Susquehanna river 2l5
| miles northwest of PHILADELPHIA. Its
inhabitants number about fifteen hundred,
but a very slight increase over the
census of 1850. This dormant state of the
population is owing to the fact of the town
being governed by men who have amassed great
fortunes in the lumber business, and who are
perfectly content to allow Jersey Shore to be
nothing more than a place of residences. All
business enterprises receive no encouragement
| at their hands, and as a matter of course any
one with any tact for business pursuits removes
to other points where a more liberal, pro-
gressive spirit exists. At Lock Haven
and Williamsport the two great business
centres In this part of the State, can be found
many who started life in this place, but who
were driven from il by the non-progressive
spirit which prevails Could this old-fogyism
be got rid of, Jersey Shore would attain the
place which her geographical position gives her.
Could anything be more indicative of the narrow
mindedness of these people than their refusal to
allow the Philadelphia and Rrie Railroad TO go
through the town, its natural channel, simply
because 1t might interfere with the receipts of
toHage which is now derived from the bridge
spanning the river, which belongs to a pri-
yate corporation The result is that the
railroad is two miles away, but then the stock
holders of this bridge receive eXorbitant tolls