The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-06-01
HARPER'S FERRY, VA.

first invented the modern sleeping car.
After seeing that the CHRONICLE of the
25th, yesterday, was in press and in
good running order, we bid a0ieu to
Toledo, and started on our way intending
Ito Join that innumcrablc caravan which
is now passing on to view the great event
of the nineteenth century-the Centen-
NAL of American Independence.
Getting aboard the train at lama we
found ourselves at Cedar Rapids between
s and 8 O'Clock in the evening, where, en-
gaging berth in the sleeping car, we
retired as soon rs the berth was put in
order. In a few minutes we were in the
embrace of old Morpheus who held us
ill about daylight Thursday morning.
We arose and after making our toilet
felt as much refreshed as if we had been
ct home instead of speeding over por-
ton Of two great States. We arrived in
Chicago about o'clock and stopped ut
the Fremont House one of the first Hotels
in this country. After breakfast we
strollcd around the city till business
hours; called at the printing house of A.
N. Kellogg, and after leaving him slight
remembrance in the way of some rag
baby currency wcnded our way to the
fine large Bookstore of Jansen, McClurg
& Co. This establishment has been
spoken about and described so many
times in the CHRONICLE during the past
two years that we doubt not our readers
are well posted in regard to it. We had
a pleasant chat with Gen. McClurg, the
second man in the firm, and one of the
most genial, pleasant, unassuming gen
dlemen we ever net. We also took a
look through the store and talked awhile
with Mr. p i. Mather one Of the chief
corresponding clerks, whom 1t is always
a pleasure to meet. Mcssrs. j., McC, &
Co., are now having a great run on Cen
tcnnial Literature, of which, like every
Thing else in their Eline they keep full
stock-Gude Books, Stories of American
History, Stories of the Revolution, and
in fact il would take almost a column of
space TO simply enumerate them.
Yesterday afternoon we bought a CEN
tcnnial ticket over the Baltimore & Ohio
r. r. Uid Baltimore and Washington, to
return cia New York, Niagara Falls,
Detroit, &c The round trip ticket cost
man sleeper, at '%2OU ihaKlng S53T0
About 5 o'clock we left Chicago starting
from the exposition building. We re-
-, al >cI- 4
thus passed through Indiana and part of
Ohio in the night; we awoke shortly be-
fore reaching Mt. Vernon, Ohio. We ar
rived at Newark at about o'clock in the
morning. As we would not get break
fast till past 8 O'Clock we bought ham
sandwich and Columbus, morning pa
per, ate the paper and read the sandwich!
Newark is noted somewhat among an
tiquarians and archaeologists, on ac-
count of the mounds found near by con-
tanning relics and remains of an extinct
race, race which has so completely
disappeared that their names are even
unknown and for convenience they are
called the Mound-Buildcrs.
At 10 minutes past 8 o'clock we cross
She Ohio river at Bellaire on one of the
finest bridges in America. The scenery
all along this part of The line is fine but at
. Grafton il begins to present more mag
nifiCent aspect. We change engines here
and large siX-drive wheel locomotive
is put on our train to draw it over the
A. a,
tion, second six-wheeler is attached,
and, though our train is only composed
af four cars-three besides the pullman
and none of them half full, the two loco
motives do a good deal of putting and
blowing to take US along. We wish we
had the ability to describe the Cheat
River Scenery, but we haven't. Adler
pens than ours have essayed the task
and failed to do justice. We will copy,
however, a few remarks from our guide
book
"The grand mountain scenery for which
the Baltimore and Ohio r. r. is so re-
nowned, lies between Grafton and Pied
mont. Leaving the former place the
passenger is carried swiftly along through
rugged, almost uninhabited country,
growing wilder rs he advances, until he
dashes suddenly into Kingwood tunnel,
the longest one upon the road Il of mile)
Emerging from this he enters at once
into The sublime Cheat River Valley.
Creeping along the ledge, cut upon the
PERCEPTIONS sides of these gigantic rocks,
with mountains of equal hight towering
jnst opposite, and with the sparkling
river dashing along the valley nearly
! 900 feet below, the scene is indiscriba-
bly, grand and inspiring. No road in the
country can boast of scenery as magnifi- |
cent as that here presented, and its wild |
beauty and grandeur have won for the |
Cheat River Valley fame as undying as |
that of the stnpcndous falls of Niagara.
Climbing still upward the train reaches
the summit of the Alleghanies and across
the broad, level plateau nearly twenty
miles in length, known as TIE "Glades."
Deer Park Hotel the comrany's summer
resort is located here, and six miles west
of it, at Oakland, another similar hotel is
being built. These places are much fire.
qucnted during the summer months on
account of the cool, pure moantain mir,
and the delightful society drawn thither
during that time. At Atamont, three
miles beyond Deer Park, the descent of
the mountain is commenced along what
is called the Seventeen mile grade"
tthe grade here being one hundred and
seventeen feet to the mile)
''The scenery on this side is similar to
and nearly equals that of Cheat River. (.
AT the foot of this grade lies the little
village of Piedmont, an important rail
road station-it is the terminus of the
Mountain Divisions"
We take supper or dinner, at 10 min
ties before o'clock, at Cumberland,
Nd. This is handsome city and the
Eating House is the finest one we ever
saw. From Cumberland to Harper's ]
Ferry, distance OF nearly ono hundred S