New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-24
THE CINCINNATI SOUTHERN.
A TRIP OVER THE COMPLETED SECTION.

SOMERSET, n.y., Dec. lO.-On tuesday the iast TIL
was laid on the Cincinnati Southern Railway. The
new section of The road will remain in the contract
oTs hands until January L. when it win be turned
over to the company and formally opened TO travel
dare say Cincinnati will celebrate the completion
of the road by an illumination some other form
of public rejoicing She has a right TO. beyond any
question, for she has carried through difficult en-
terprise which has eaten up a great deal of money
and heavily taxed the courage and persistence of
her people, as well as their pockets. No other city
ever undertook to build $50 miles Of railroad with
out hep from any quarter. The Southern Road. be
il understood is the exclusive property of the City
of CIncinnafi-not of the capitalists of that CITY,
but of the municipality itself In this respect 1t Is
a unique piece of railroad property. liz has cost
about $1s, 100000 already and BY the time ter
minal facilities secured at both ends the total
will run up 10 a round twenty millions. The Cincn-
natlans have had alternate spells of heat and cold
over the enterprise. They have famed with en-
thusiasm when thinking of the trade it would
bring in and they have been seized with cold ehills
when they were forced TO provide for the heavy
bills and saw the cost jumping up million after
another above the original estimate. until an ex-
DcndItnrc OF nearly double the engineers first calcn-
lations reached. They greatly delighted INST
now that the road actually done at last aud that
they see an end of issuing bonds and putting on
taxes Perhaps they have paid dear for their whis-
tie. but they nave the consolation of knowing that
It is very good whistle. There is no better con-
struced road in the country than the section have
passed over to-day. The road bed is broad and sod
the bridges are iron or stone the track is baasted
with broken stone, and every culvert built in the
most i'll and worKmaRlike manner. Even the
smallest tunnels are spanned with heavy stone arch
ways, broad enough for safety in any possible
freshee short OF a second Deluge.
The reason for building the road will be seen at
glance by looking at a map Chattanooga lies al
most due south from Cincinnati. At Chattanooga
centres a railway system winch ramiies throughout
the States of Georgia, south Carolina and Alabama.
And yet heretofore, the only way to transport pas
sengers and freight between these two points was
to take them around by Nashville and Louisyille-a
hundred miles out of the way. short line to At
lanta, Savannah and Charleston must be of inn
mense advantage to Cincinnati. When the map has
settled the matter of the desirabty of the road as
it will in an instant the question will arise Why
then, did not capitalists construct It long ago, and
why must Cincinnati build it order to secure its
advantages ~ If the reader had accompanied me
over the completed portion of the road, which have
traversed to-day he would have found solution 70
his query if he should go the remaining poF-
ton msgin ne would wonder how even the city
ever had the pluck 70 undertake so dscouraging
Job. First the line crosses the Ohio on very high
and very costly iron truss bridge then II traverses or
twenty-five miles a farming country thats toieraby
fair. but all crumped mp with steep hills and deep
valleys. so that there IS no half mile Of the road
that is not either n cutting or filling. Afterward
come thirty-fve miles of detestabe barren country
called the Eagle Hills. Here deep cuts through
rock and high embankmcnts succeed each other con-
stantly. At Rogers Gap this forbddng region Is
left behind and the road energies into the beautiful
Blue Grass country. The transition from rocks
preciprous hills and rugged forests To smooth and
fertile farms is almost sudden the shiftina of
pictures in a magic lantern. For sixty miles the
road raverses as rich and beautiful agricultural
section as can be found in the West. This favored
region Lad already an outlet TO Cincinnati from its
chief mart Lexington, and it not to secure Its
trade that the Southern Road was built. twenty
one miles south of Lexington the road crosses the
deep chasm worn by the Kentucky River in the
limestone rock, on the highest bridge in the United
States The track is 2Sd feet above the river
about fty feet higher than the Portage Bridge the
Erie Railway Soon after Danville Is passed the Blue
Grass region ends and there district of high
and heavily timbered hills, with occasional culti-
waited slopes and fine valleys. lod run under
kings Mountain through mlie-long tunnel. and
over many long iron viafucts trayersing deep "a
vines and at 3 O'Clock. having left Cincinnati at
minus of travel -
Oul train this morning was comfortably filed
with passengers Of two quite distinct casses-hand-
some well-ied and we-ciOthed people from the
Blue Grass region, and lank. saiiow gaunt-faced
creatures from the sterile hill districts few
erations of good livers side and poor llvers
on the other have developed these widely divergent
Kentucky types. The human animal may not shO>v
the results of good tseuIng as quickly horse
bnt he does show It quite plainly. nevertheless in
the long run. No rOund-limbed and well-featured
| race can be grown on the scanty bacon and corn
bread diet of the Southern poor whites. Our pas
senQers were friendly and chatty. Two families
struck up an acquaintance with the usual Kentucky
| question, =" nere were You raised = They speak
of raising people here, as they do OF raising stock
! When one family got of the train the elders shook
! hands and said Z" farewell with grave COURTESY
An unleot rou ehlv clad man. after paring an apple
| dren Of HON he had taken no notice before. and
/ who sat with their mother at some distance from
! him in the ear The mother thanked bin. bur did
not seem at all surprised at the little act of kind
| ness The conductor a model of pOlIieness. He
took great pans to point out interesting features Of
| The country related the history OF the Southern
Railroad enterprise. told how the present company
| WAS organized under the common carrier law 70
operate the road until SIX months after It's compile
| ton for per cent oil It's net earnings how the
| trustees appointed by the CITY were not able le-
! pally to work the line, and how IL wOuld soon be
leased for long term on the best conditions the
city could get from trust worthy persons. In short
| he was inst the sort of conductor traveller in
| search of information delights to meet When
parted from him 1t was RAINING hard, and he III
sisted on giving his umbrella. This strucklne as
the height OF generosity. To give stranger your
umbrella on a RAINY day and get wet yourself-coud
there be more dsInteresfed benevolence than this
| Rejecting OH an occurrence of such an extraordi-
nary character should doubt II II really happened,
IL the umbrella-not bad one, etber-dd not stand
there in the by the fire as unquestonable
witness of the transaction.
| Somerset is the county-seat of Pulaskl-the larg-
est county I'm the State-one which sent 2 1000 men
into the Union army and has been strongly Repub-
lcan ever since Ii IL little country trading town.
| with big courthouse. few good residences and
perhaps a few hundred shabby ones. THIS is the
| end of civilization the Southern Road and it
does not begin again until you strike the Valley
those hundred miles there Is not a single village
save the temporary encampments of the railroad
workmen. The country is part of the great Cum-