Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1871-09-06

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insure herself agains, all eastern invasioBs
by throwing up some Notifications liami-
liarly known as White Mountainsl, and
though NeW-Hampshiro ruined herself in
this way, for al time. as a wheat prOduc-
ing State, or for CrOquetplsying, she
has been able to say TO her eastern neigh
bors-you eau visit me with your car
riages and servants, aud admire the
strength Of my fortress; you eau 20 up
on my high towers, Washington, 5000
feet, Madison. 5000 and 50 on but you
must not bring your business here, nor
send your iron horses throug Oh or over me.
Downing can wake the echoes Of the
"Notch" with bis concord eoaehes-but
the steam-whistle neyer-the Saco eau
have the right Of way through my "Gate-
way" but all railways are forever cnjoin-
ed from crossing my grounds.
1t was the Now-Hampshire menace
which did to the courage Of Portland what
that terrible calamity of 6re, in 1866,
could not do it was more than match
for it, and so she sat by the sea with her
fine harbor, her magnificent docks, her
unsurpassed facilities for storing aud hand
ling grain, around her, but comparatively
idle.
She thoroughly wished at heart that
she could shake hands with the West,
without crooking one elbow into Boston
and the other into Montreal but right in
her face stood New-Hampshire. Thus
matters stood, till two years since some
Vermonters, men Of weslth and largely
engaged in manufacturing, and some
portlanders, men also of capital aud ac-
lively engaged in business, met.
Both wanted something, aud that some
thing happened to be for the interest Of
each party. Vermont wanted TO reach
the sea at Portland, 10 save freight on
iron, coal. and thousand other things
Portland wanted to reach the West
through Vermont. But how, says Port
land, can we accomplish this when the
cold shoulders of our neighbor, New.
Hampshire, are shrugged up in our faces
5000 feet or more? Vermont replied:
II, half century ago, We could Go all
cur trading in Portland, only little
more than a hundred miles distant, why
need we 90 to-day to Boston, double that
distance aud if our fathers could send
their Old-fashioned four and six-horse
teams through the Crawford notch with
out difficulty, why can we not send our
more modern Dexter" who runs every
where else over the continent, through
the same old highway, turning back trade
into the old channel, and breaking up
that White Mountain ring which has been
in the Boston interest so long? We will
build a railroad III miles, from Dalton,
on the Connecticut, to Swauton, in Ver-
mont, ifyou will build l05 miles to meet
us. We take the most miles because we
can Use McClellan's weapons, shovels,
through the greater part of Vermont,
while you will have little heavier skir-
mishiug to do, and need some powder to
break through the New-Hampseire lines.
This was Portland's opportunity, and,
fortunately for her and for Maine, she
did not neglect it. She knew that the
Vermont men who we're enlisted in this
enterprise were men who never acted
without thong ; men whose energy aud
business sagacity has identified the name
of Fairbanks with one of the most mark.
ed successes in the history of American
manufactures. Associated with them,
too, and thoroughly in sympathy with
them in this enterprise, were the Browns
and others OF Portland, whose energy is
only matched by their interest in all that
pertains to the welfare Of Portland.
This Interview sealed the doom of the
old stage line through the notch, and gave
birth to another Trunk Railroad line,
which will do as much for Portland, North
ern New England, and the West as the
Chesapeake and Ohio will do for Virginia
aud the SOUTHWEST. The forces were at
once organized, surveys made showing
that the building of the road was per-
fectly feasible, aud to-day, less than a
months since the ground was broken. 60
miles Of the road is completed and run
ming iron for IS miles more is being laid.
and before the close of 1872 it is expect
ed by the managers that the entire line
will be completed.
We do not believe that an enterprise Of
similar magnitude was ever undertaken III
the Eastern States, and pushed with great
er rapidity. We know that no railroad
in New England has ever been built with
equal economy. There has been none Of
your New York plumbing" and "plas-
tering" aud "carpeting" jobs on the Port
land and Ogdensburg Railroad. Tweed
and his ring would have starved under
such management as conceived, and is build
ing this road.
Will this new road from tho Lakes to