The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1878-11-22

are the sled. Night and day, th
endless cable, coated with tar
gliding like u long black snake
runs in and out of the grim engine
house on the hill, upon its lon,
journey, while cars all along tn,
track are continually graphing i
and letting go. Think OF tn
twelve thousand people carried
over the road daily by this unseel
giant power working beneath tn,
ground
We can start from a crowded
street Of the city, down town. ant
in three minutes and half be car
ried to the top of II high hill, man,
blocks away--a hill three hundre,
feet above the water, half as higl
again as a tall church spire.
1t is the wonder of everybody
The country people gaze, astonish
ed, at the mysterious looking car
and even the indifferent ChinameI
are fairly puzzled over it. They
gather in groups, with open mouths
and peering eyes, trying to make
out the strange proceeding. Iu
China they would Immediately sup
pose it to be witchcraft, as they
did recently in the case of a steam
railroad which some foreigner had
built--only twelve miles or so. All
their troubles, ills and droughts
were attributed to it, and the peo.
pie and government tore up the
track. The screaming locomotive
was an evil spirit.
But to return to our road. The
huge engine doing all this work is
driven as fast as ninety revolutions
a minute by the steam furnished
from two large boilers, and is rated
as a two hundred and fifty horse
power engine. That you may know
something of what that power is,
let us imagine two hundred and
fifty stout horses, in teams of two,
standing in the street; we will al
low ten feet for team, which will
make our line one thousand two
hundred and fifty feet long. That
is very near one quarter of a mile
in length, and you can judge how
far down your street the line would
reach. Ii these horses should all
start pulling at given signal think
of the power they would exert!
Something would snap, wouldn't
it I
Well, you may imagine three
times as many horses, for a So
called two hundred and fifty horse
power engine can do the work of
about sever hundred and fifty
horses in the course of eighteen
working hours. 1t is a great salts.
faction, when riding in the car, 70
know that poor animals are not
pulling and painting and straining
heart and lungs to carry us mp
over the high hills. On one of the
billy railroads of this city many
horses used to die of heart disease,
SO great was the strain upon the
animals. Now few tons
of coal, and mau's ingenuity, do
all the work, and thoroughly well
do they do it.
The huge wheels at the engine
house, already alluded to are eight
feet in diameter, and there are
about thirty of them in all, rolling,
rumbling, with grinding din, sug-
costing the grim prison-house of
some mighty spirit, bound, and
serving little man. AS
.he cable comes running swiftly in,
twists, turns, and circles around
eight of these wheels, and before
going out, takes as many more
,urns about another set of wheels.
This is to prevent the cable from
tor the strain on it Of
many cars with their loads coming
Up the hill is immense.
All this complicated machinery |
s located in dark, gloomy looking
'it, twenty-five feet deep, under the
treet, arched over beneath the
'avement with brick. Here is To-
.ated an arrangement for keeping
he cable taut at all times. 1t is u
ar heavily loaded with five tons of
ron, and placed upon a steep,
Looping track =; horizontal wheel
les upon this car, and around this
'heel the wire cable runs--thus
citing as "a heavy pulley, taking
p the slack rope.
At each end of the road there is
ne of these pits with just such
car in it, as well as two
1 the central pit; for the engine
ouse is not far from midway of
be road.
The length of the entire line is
yer "a mile and a half, running
asst and west on California street.
allied by the street boys "Nob
ILL.," because it has so many ele-
ant residences and gardens.
This is not the only beautiful
rect in San Francisco. In nearly
Il of the new parts of the city,
egant residences abound-spa-
ous mansions and tasteful street
all with projecting bay
indows and fiowery entrances.
he business streets, too, with their
ne shops and stately houses,
i've an air of enterprise aud ac-
vlty that fully accounts for the {
et.work of city railroads stretch
g iu every direction. Even the {
ost wretched part of the city, the
hInese anarter. has its rdilrOad-l I