The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-05-03
RIVERS VS.. RAILROADS.
Bascum's Tribute to the Genius
of Our Forefathers.

f Ol OuE 4 EOECldBkkCISs
To the Editor of the Morristown Gazette:
Cousin John, l have often won
dered why it was that men who built
railroads have so much upgrade il
their roads. / am satisfied tha
more is lost in time and trouble
running on these steep grades, tha:
it would cost to make them level.
Should / ever undertake to built
railroad for myself. (Which in al
probability 1 shall do), shall Ger
tainly have it perfectly Jewel from
one end to the other, or, if any odds
little down-grade both ways. a:
cars run much faster and on less
steam on down-grade.
Some people claim that it is al
most impossible to build level rail
road in this hiIly country, but this is
all stuff, and won't bear bead.
I'll bet if our fore-fathers had un-
dertaken to have built a railroad
they would have had it level, or per-
hapS all down-grade as they did the
rivers.
Talk about the impossibility of
building level railroad Nothing
was considered impossible with our
fore.fathers. for if there had been
they never would have accom-.
plished the awful job of digging out
bed for all the rivers in this coun-
try. Just look at the Tennessee
river alone. That of itself was a
big job. Just see where they dug
down Lookout Mountain below Chat
tanooga, and go little lower down
and see where they dug through
them mountains to make a place for
the Suck-and look at the hundreds
of other smaller hills and mountains
that they worked through before the
Tennessee ever found her way to
the Gulf of Mexico. taa
1t is true the bed of the river is
not very level, but when we take in
to consideration the fact that they
had none of the late inventions for
working and lie yeling, we are CON-
PEELED to pronounce the job good
one. No doubt but the whole job
was done according TO contract, and
that all parties we're perfectly salts
fed with the job. Some boatmen
are disposed to grumble about the
falls in some of the rivers, but no
doubt these were made Intentionally,
to keep Jones's fish from running up
into Smiths part of the river.
Suppose they had had as much
upgrade in the rivers they made as
the railroad men have in their rail-
roads, how would fat boats ever get
to Knoxville and Chattanooga with
corn?
They wouldn't do it. But I don't
suppose they went heavy on loading
at that day any way. They had
probably never seen or heard of a
boat when they undertook the job.
My opinion is that the Tennessee
river was fitted up by our fore.fath.
ers. principally for the benefit of the
owners Of land. Farms were very
large ut that time, but it soon be-
came necessary to cut up those large
farms into smaller ones, for Smiths
boys got to hankering after Jones'
gals, and some of the Davises mar
ried into Browns family, and each
one as he married and went to house
keeping had to have a little farm
and little river. and it went on in
this manner till the whole country
was dug up into rivers, creeks and
branches.
If they had only thought of it,
and dug a double bed, with one rum
ming up stream and the other down,
it would have suited the convenience
of the present lazy generation bet.
ter than what it does, but then we
ought to be thankful for it just as it
is. It's mighty convenient. lis
little strange that our fore-fathers
didn't form a stock company, and
take shares and declare dividends,
and sell tickets like the railroad
men do. They could have made
lots of money if they had, and it
would have been big thing for us,
John. But then they knew that
greenbacks would depreciate in
value, and they had no idea the
Government would ever resume spe-
Gle payment-and as for Govern
ment Bonds, they wouldn't deal in
them st all. But they put up a
good job, John, and one that don't
need repairing every few months.
We have no such men now, as they
were. I wish we had. BAsCUM.