The Russellville Democrat., 1877-05-17
The Inventor of Railroads.


 very little care.
 The Inventor of Railroads.
 Strange as Il may now seem, not farther back than 1920, there was not a railroad in existence. Now they form an iron network over this couD-, try and Europe, and have almost an initiated space, in like manner as the magnetic telegraph has almost annl- Inflated time. Doubtless most people, in these times of universal intelligence and universal travel, are well acquaint- d with the progress of railroads; but how few there are who can tell us any thing of the author or inventor of that wonder of the nineteenth century, the railway system. It is so, too, with the author of the great and useful in- ventions of the age. How little is gen. orally known of Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gins of Watt, of Fulton, and hundred other ingenious men, whose inventions have made the age what it is; their works live after them, and arc likely to live for centuries but their names by seeming ungrate, iulness of the age, are suffered to sink almost into oblivion. Neither Whitney nor Fulton have even q statue among us to perpetuate their memories !. and as to the author Of railroads, there may not be twenty persons in the United States who ever heard his name, although he is still living.
 About half century ago, the ex- act year is not known. there was born at Leeds, in England, man named Thomas Gray; scarcely anything more than this is known of his early history. He was, we believe, poor collier; and being very ingenious, he conceived the idea of facilitating the transports. ton of coal from Middleton Colliery to Leeds, distance of three miles, by means of a sort of railway which he constructed of wood. Upon this his cars moved along at the rate of three miles and half an hour to the great merriment of,a wise and discriminating public, who laughed at the idea of a railway as something very visionary, and as the mere suggestion of laziness. Poor Gray thought otherwise. Mag nifcent visions of future railroads. such as are now stupendous realities, loomed up before him, and he began to talk in public of a general system of iron railroads. He was of course laughed at, and declared visionary, moon-struck fool. But the more Gray contemplated his little railway for coals, the more firmly did he believe the practicability ana immense useful ness of his scheme. He saw in it all that is now realized, and he resolved, in spite of the ridicule, the sneers and rebuffs that were heaped upon him, to prosecute his great undertaking. He petitioned to the British parliament, and sought interviews with all the great men in the kingdom ; but all this had no effect, except to bring upon him, wherever he went, the loud sneers and ridicule of all classes. Still he persevered, and at length he en- gagged the attention of men of intelli- gence, who finally embraced his views, urged his plans, and the grand results are now before the world. Thomas Gray, the inventor of railroads, who no longer ago than 1920. was laughed at for even mentioning the idea of them, still lives in Exeter, England, in the full realization of all his grand and noble railroad schemes, for which he was declared insane. How much has the world been benefited by his insanity?
 But the world is still that same un- grateful, soulless thing it always was. English writers thus speaks of him: up to 1S46 he had been neglected. While thousands had been enriched upon the consummation of his brilliant schemes, he remained iorgotten- forced by poverty to sell glass on com mission for living" Hewitt, a few years ago, gave a somewhat lengthy sketch of hi, career, thus bringing him into public notice. We have seen nothing in print in relation to him lately. Elliott wrote great truth in these words:
 How many who lived Co bless mankind
 Have died unthsnked?
 How many of the railway projec. tors. agitators, stockholders, etc, have ever heard of the subject of this sketch - RciI,rou 1o,-