The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1877-08-02
Home Correspondence.
Columbus & MaysVIIIe u. r.
A Last Appeal.
HILLsBoRo, July 80, 1877.

Mr.. EDITOR The lamentable Rail
road strike throughout the country
has so arrested and absorbed the at
tention of al communities, that the
friends of the above enterprise, IN
Difference to the public amazement,
suspended all effort to procure sub
scriptions of stock for the past week,
but now that order is restored, the
claims of an enterprise, in the man
agement of which economy in the
salaries of all officials and Just com.
pensation to all employees can sure
! ly be established, must again be ur
gently pressed by its advocates,
L Up to this time there has been
subscribed about $4,000 of stock
$4,000 in Hillsboro and Liberty tp.
and the balance in the townships
south in this county, and there has
been developed an extraordinary una
nimity of opinion, in favor of the
necessity and utility and practicable
ity of the enterprise but most IN
fortunately, this opinion is not back
ed up by corresponding subscrip
tions. Why this is so cannot be
eonjectured.
In times past all those who now
withhold their support were eager
for the enterprise, and now that the
time is at hand when every candid
man or woman will admit that we
must at once secure the speedy com
pletion of this Railway, or else
abandon all hope Of putting Hills
bOrO in connection with the Railway
system of the United States, I re-
peat, why it is that merchants, prop
erty holders and all classes of socie-
ty, in the main, stand idly by and re-
fuse to do anything, is a paradox not
easily explained.
If there be any defect in the man
ner or mode of presenting the enter
prise, it has never been hinted to its
friends, and most certainly they have
not intended, in any offensive sense,
to dictate the amount of any sub
scription to any individual, or wheth-
er he or she shall subscribe at all,
but they have been and are still
simply urgent and earnest Main
street and High street in Hillsboro,
are the centre of the central link of
the proposed line of Railroad from
Maysville to Columbus-aye, from
Chattanooga to New York-so far as
our location is concerned, and by
what logic of. common sense any 9th
er conclusion can be arrived at, than
that the ertren1es will be dormant
and lifeless, until the heart pulsates,
is unknown to me. Why ask what
is doing in Brown county or Fayette
county, until we assure them of the
speedy completion of a Railway
from Sardinia to Leesburg? Do
you not suppose they have intelli-
gence enough to know and appre-
ciate the utter futility of an earnest
appeal to their people, until a com
pleted railway right is assured to
them through the wealthy county Of
Highland? And just here I will
also say, that suppose those counties
should fail to unite with us, (Which
no one supposes on any candid
grounds whatever) then we would
still have a competing line to the
West and a direct short line to the
North. But back to my question.
If the merchants, capitalists and
owners of real estate on the two
streets in Hillsboro mentioned, and,
expanding the thought to the other
land and lot owners in and around
the village-if they all do not impart
the vital heat necessary to the birth
of the enterprise, who is to do it ?
In our land, there are no serfs bound
to render servitude in the improve
ment of the estates of their liege
lords, and should this enterprise,
under some lucky star, come to light
without that money warmth which
could be so easily impaired by the
class of citizens alluded to, then the
time will come when the conscience
of every non subscriber will cast
ahead of and across his or her daily
walk the shadow of the black cloud
of self contempt; but on the contra
ry, should the enterprise go the way
of many past undertakings, and our
town be left to all the channels of
commerce as q deserted port, then
there must arise, on the ground of
neglected neighbor-duties, irrepress-
ible hatreds, which cannot be effaced
in this generation.
2. All excuses for refusing to sub
scribe are wholly untenable. The
commercial mind of our largest cit
les has pronounced in favor of the
Narrow Gauge Railroad. Experience
has demonstrated the cheapness Of
their construction. Their actual eff
cient operation can be witnessed all
around us, and the advanced value
of all real estate contiguous to such
roads, and expanded and quickened
commerce, demonstrate the fruitful
raeults tO any DpODle who construct