The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-09-16
ANOTHER PACIFIC RAILWAY.

The railway linking the far West to
the far East was opened in July, 1869.
The full significance of that important
announcement can scarcely be estimat-
ed. 1t will change the aspect ola great
productive region. The Indian already
stands aghast as he sees the line of cars
that greatest of all medicines-rat-
ting along the plains where he hunted
the buffalo, and withdraws to the
northwald. He hears in the whistle
of the engine the death-knell of his
race. The trapper hears it and hurried
ly gathers up his traps and little elk
ms" and, with his squaw aud his half
breed brood, retreats before the surg
ing flood of emigration. They hear,
not afar of, "the rush of waves where
soon shall roll human sea- sea that
shall sweep them before.
These regions, of which many knew
little, save by the tales that came float
ing back of the exploits of Jed Smith
and Kit Carson, the hardy pioneers; of
skipper Gray, who first breasted the
breakers on the bar of the Columbia ;
of Captain Bonneville, who made his
way to them by land; of Suffer, who
found bank of gold in his millrace of
old Downie, yclept "Major," who al
ways "struck it" where he slept-these
regions have all been brought near by
the railway. Thousands have left their
homes in the East for months -vaca-
ton and a trip to California during the
last summer. They have been to see US
and have gone away again, to tell of
our snow-tipped mountains, and giant
forests, and rocky gulches, with the
glittering gold, and pleasant corn-coV-
cred valleys and vine-clad hills.
To us in the West it seemed as if New
York and Philadelphia and Chicago
had gone out ''on the tramp" In Au-
gust the writer met an authOress from
New York in the Willamette Valley, a
professor from Iowa away up at the
Cascade Falls of the Columbia, a couple
of senators from Washington staging it
through an Oregon forest, the Govern
or of Illinois at a social gathering in
Portland, dined with the Vice-Presi-
Steamship Company's vessels, near to
the 49th parallel, had drink with an
eastern editor in one of the ice-caves of
Washington Territory, and spent three
of the happiest days of his existence
with Seward and his party on the pleas
ant waters of Puget Sound.
And no sooner has one railroad been
opened than another is proposed. The
engineers have already been out and
made the survey. The Northern Pacif-
is is spoken of as O rival to the Central
Pacific, and the land-holders and lot
holders of the Puget Sound are discus
sing the location of the great terminal
city. The eyes of all are turned to a
spot which is destined to play no mean
part in the history of our national pro-
gress and civilization. Bills may be
proposed and defeated, particular
schemes may be discussed and delayed ;
but let any one take a look at the posi-
ton and contour of the northwestern
corner of our country, and he will be
convinced of its importance and fore
see its manifest destiny.
There is a great inland sea stretching
up 200 miles from Cape Flattery, stud
ded with fertile islands, surrounded
by pine-covered heights, and nearer by
500 miles to China than San Francisco,
and nearer also to New York. Insetad
of sage-bush, desert and salt plains,
there is a fertile belt, under which lies a
belt of miacene coal, stretching all the
way from Illinois to Washington Terri
tory. Let any one consider the increas-
ing commerce with China, of which we
have merely tasted the first-fruit, and
acquaint himself with the character OF
the country behind it, and he will per-
ceive why so much attention is directed
to this part of the republic; he will be
satisfied of the wisdom manifested in
preserving intact the boundary line
which terminates near it, and discern 8
reason for the present anxiety to push
through the Northern Pacific Railway.
l-Harper's Magazine.