Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-11-26

attentions to his fathers sister, and
that the only land he ever owned was
Aunt Sabina's farm.
THE Father of Railways?"
Geo. Stephenson, who is now justly
called the .'father of railways" was
the child of poor parents in England.
Unable to send him to school, they
employed him at home as a nurse for
the younger children until he was
eight years old. His chief duty as
nurse was to keep his little brothers
and sisters from under the hoofs of
the horses which drew the coal-cars
on the 'tram-way"-a wooden railroad
leading from a coal-mine, which ran
near his fathers door. At this early
age, while watching the coal-trains
passing, he conceived the idea that
iron would make better rails than
wood, and that if he could put upon
wheels the steam-engine which his
father tended as fireman at the coal
pit, it could be made TO draw as heavy
train of coal-cars as could be moved
by great team Of fifty horses.
The idea did not pass away from the
brain of George Stephenson when he
was removed from his home at nine
Years of age, and hired out, at four
cents day, TO tend the cows of 4
neighboring farmer. He had enough
of leisure while watching the herd in
the field TO think over the subject. He
even built him an engine of clay, with
hemlock branches for steam pipes. |
suspect that. like Little Boy Blue, he
sometimes let the cows stray into for
hidden meadows while he sat thinking
about engines on wheels and roads of
iron. He could not study about them
in books for two very good reasons.
In the first place, no books about rail-
roads and locomotives had been print
ed, since neither had been built. The
other reason was that George Stephen
son could mt read at all. He did not
know his alphabet until he was nine
teen years old.
Little George, or "Geordy," as the
common people nicknamed him, was
next employed to drive the horse which
turned the winding machine, or gin, >
as the coliiers called it, at the coal-pit
where his father worked. He then
began to think of plan for making
the steam do the work of'the horse,
and one day astonished the colliers by
building on a bench, in front of his
fathers cottage, model in clay of an
engine which turned the gin and
lifted the coal. He was at this time
so young and small that his father
made him hide when the owner of the
coal-mine mt "the rounds" to pay
his hands, Tor fear he should think
him too small to receive sixteen cents
day wages.
1t was not until he was nineteen
years old, and was set to watch an
engine, that he found time to attend
school and learn to read and write
He worked steadily at his old idea for
twenty-five years. He made the first
locomotive with smooth driving
wheels. 1t had been thought neces-
sary by some engineers to construct
locomotives with cogged driving
wheels, and corresponding rack on
the rail, to prevent the wheels from
slipping. But Stephenson successful
ly set aside all these contrivances. He
was nearly fifty years old before he
found men willing to risk their money
in constructing an iron railroad to
test his locomotive. When, at length,
the first railroad was completed, be-
tween Stockton and Darlington (two
English towns only twelve miles apart,
the procession with which the day was
celebrated was headed by man on
horseback, to keep the road clear for
Stephenson's locomotive and car, and
ladies and gentlemen on horseback
and in carriages kept pace with the
train by riding by the side of the track.
But after the procession had proceed
ed short distance, Stephenson, who
was running his own engine, impa-
tiently called to the horseman to get
out of the way, and, putting steam on,
he ran his locomotive the rest of the
distance at the terrible pace of twelve
miles an hour.-T. Nicholas for De-
cember.
BSA gentleman, travelling in
Texas, met on country road a wagon
drawn by four oxen, driven by Il
genuine Texas Ranger, who, in addi-
ton to the skillful flourish and crack
of the whip, was vociferously encour-
aging the horned beasts after this
fashion: CLAW, Presbyterian! Gee,
Baptist! Ahoh, Episcopalian. Get
up, Methodist!' The traveller was
struck and also amused at this strange
nomenclature, and, stopping the dri-
yer, remarked to him that he had never
heard such names applied to the dumb
creation before, and asked why he
called his oxen such names. "There,"
said the man of Texas, 81 call this OK
Presbyterian because he is true blue
| Il