The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-28

son; that the Mont Gents Tunnels hid fair to
outlive all the other "reminiscences of the
Second French Empire; and that the great
lines of telegraph are advancing round the
globe rs steadily as the sun himself.
We need not go abroad, however, to study
these signal developments of the capital and
industry of the nineteenth century, for one
of the most remarkable and instructive is
now pushing forward with gigantic strides in
our own country. We refer to the Northern
Pacific Railroad, than which better instance
could not be given Of that conjunction aud
reach of industrial resources and appliances
which are peculiar to the present
age. Consider the obstacles that
confront the undertaking. We al
ready have Pacific Railroad occupying a
central route. II is now proposed to build
another along the extreme northern portion
of the Union, two thousand miles in length,
beginning at point on the western shore
OF Lake Superior, an uneXplored section of
the country few years ago, and extending
over thirty degrees of longitude, in an ave
rage latitude considerably higher than that of
Quebec and terminating, as poet still liv-
ing has sung
"Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound
save his own dashngs."
And this gigantic undertaking, 80 grand
in Its conception aud so vast in its results,
scarcely excites an unusual interest in a
tai fame by constructing canal 800 miles
lOng And yet such has been the enormous
augmentation and mobility of modern capi-
tai, and such the skill acquired in utilizing
the vast resources of the country that the
Northern Pacific Railroad will be more easily
built than was the Erie Canal. Nature and
the age conspire to facilitate the enterprise
Though so far north the line of the road
running through depression in the Rocky
MnuutaInS uhH ba of ho
Missouri and the Columbia rivers
heading in opposite directions inter
lock-ls not only one of remarkably
easy grades, but it lies along the great
valley visited by current of warm AIR from
the Pacific Ocean, which enables herds to
thrive in the native grasses the year round.
The Government of the United States
always liberal enough in its land-grants has
placed territorial kingdom at the disposal
Of this road, to wit, twenty alternate sec
tions Of public land on each side of the line
In the Territories, aud ten in the States,
comprising fifty millions of acres an estate
larger by 10000 square miles than the whole
of New England, and three and a half times
rs large as Holland The grant Is available
only according to the actual progress of
the construction of the road, which secures
the mortgage bonds isEued upon it as we'll as
upon all the property of the company. We
of the charter, nor into the management of
those having charge of the enterprise; bnt
what we assume TO say is, that this colossal
undertaking has within itself all the elemeats
of feasibility, so that 1t CGt be consummated
just az certainly as new street can be opened
by city, or a school house built by town.
If, then, the Northern Pacific road is great
in its requirements and grand in its resources,
its whole process Of construction must be on
hac 10 SC tI1t
The several thousandssof laborers on the road
are but small part of the agencies set at
work. The bonds of the company will be
distributed from every monetary centre in
Europe, as well as taken up everywhere at
home. In order to make their landed re-
sources available, and also to lay the founda-
tions of future profits for the road, the COM
pany have lnaugurated an emigration sys-
TEN, which will turn that now desert
region of the Red aud Upper Missouri
rivers into what nature designed 1.-THE
granary of North America. When the road
Is completed the Government will have been
repaid for its munihcent gift, in the i'm
Inensey enhanced value of the public lands
that are left, and in new, thriving States of
the Union. This brings us to the grandeur
Of the enterprise as indicated in its utility
Not only does it promise to open up and de-
velop one of the best sections of the national
Of union for these States, and 1t helps to
crowd out Mormonism and to bring in Canada
Ii will not only put the grain and mining
regions into communication with con-
venient markets, save the Government
vast sums in the transportation of
mails and military supplies, and place the
fisheries of the North Pacific within easy
control, but it will supply great link in the
chain OF the worlds commerce. Being on
the direct line of communication with the old
East this route will bring Shanghai 1000
miles nearer New York than it is by any
existing route, giving corresponding ad-
vantage to the whole of Europe in its COM
merce with Asia, inasmuch as snip, loaded
at the companys wharves on Lake Superior,
could thread its way to the Atlantic Ocean
and discharge its unbroken cargo in Liver
pool or London, Havre, or Hamburg. Such,
in mere outline, is one of the enterprises of
the times-an enterprise which could neither
have been conceived nor executed, demanded
nor used, IN any other age of the world. It
is worth studying by every man who would
comprehend the present or attain to any
glimpses of the future.