The weekly Arizona miner., 1880-09-24

T this subject nor overwhelm you with sisiIs- ties. IL is enough l gather for you here and there a pebble from the sea shore of facts.
 IL is estimated that this year by the in- creased facilities for what is called '.rapid transit" that there will be carried m New York and Brooklyn, by street and elevated railways, number If passengers equaling ten times the people of the { nited States. more than five hundred millions of people, and II that be the case in two cities. what shall Ge said of the passenger traffic of the United States? Yet II is mol this item in the account which should be regarded as first when you consider the mission of the rail- way; il is not the population that travels, but the carrying of the food to the man. woman and the child who do not travel, and if the productions of food k oi the fmo>t conse- qLence. then its distribution ranks next and in thai respect the locomotive supercedes all other agents. What Is the surplus grain to the farmer if it must rot in the fields where 1t i> grown, because of his inability to get II 10 market?
 One word as 10 the cost of construction and the land grant of the of the <. r. anu C.. r. Cos: The Act authorizing the construction of the first transcOntinental railroad was ap- proved by President Lincoln, July lsr. ls61 entitled an Ac, To aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from The Mis- souri Riverto the Pacific Ocean, and to st. cure 10 the government the Use of the same for postal, military and other purposes The grant of lands 10 this great national high way was every alternate section for wenty mIles ou each side of the Toad. or tW entY sections, equaling l2,sO0 acres for each lli.eal mile. The road as comp eled is Is7D along from Omaha To >acramenio. This gave the com anles Z.135,l0 acres, the UnlJn Pa cIfic getting l3,zs5, ,le4, and the Centre! Pa cine q. .44U.UVu. In addition to this land grant anu rgnt uf way, the government issued Is bonds ln aid of the work, having 30 yeafs 10 run and bearing per cent inleIe est, gTadu- ated a, follows, sl5,0uO per mile for thtt portion of the road across the plai ns, s3-,UJO per mile for the next most dIincult pUrtIou. and S4s,OD0 per mile for the mountainous portion. By this subsidy the | Cnion PacItc received s25. .23o.5l2, the Central Pacific S2j sj,l30, for the whole route s5l, ,l2i ,o32. The government also guaranteed the inter est on the companies filsl mortgage, bonds tO an equal amount.
 In the grand debate which spraEg mp rela- tive 10 the passage of this act, The Hon. Hen " Wilson, from Massachusetts, III voting for II in the Senate. said, Il give no gfudgIng vote in giving away either money or land. would sink slc0,VU1,0O0 10 build The road and do il most cheeriuliy and fhInk that dld a great thing for my country. What Is that amount m opening railroad across the central regions of this continent thal shall connect the people of the \ lantlc and Pacific and bind Us together. Nothing. AS tOIhe lands l do moi grudge them"
 Having thus explained that first on ac- count of the opposition through the Indian Territory. and secondly that the civil war diverted the aid Of the government to d northerly line instead oi this sOuIhsrly one, and that for these reasons the Atlantic and Pacific feil into deep sleep which was only broken by the AichisOn, Topeka and San.a Fe Company reaching the Rio Grande, where, striking the Sjth parallel, It woke them all up, and il was concluded if they could not build the eastern end Of the Atian- tic and Pacific, they could build the West ern end through New Mexico, Arizona and California; and so Boston and St Louis said
 lt's good tlHng, the land grant Is sound. There are twenty-five millions of acres Of had or such mater m II, and this will build the road. and now much beside this We cannot tel uniil we get the route through the lndan Territory, but Il is easy enough 10 see that there will be a hundred millions of dollars for Us to divide anyhow. and enough Is Q good feast; so they p!aced first mortgage of s20, 900 per mile on the road, bearing seven per cent lnteresi per annum, aad having opened their books for a ten million subscription ic build the road
 from the Rio Ggande to The Colorado oi
 the West. they were taken at once, aud
 they Could have had twenty as easily as ten.
 Having linus gwen you as briefly Gs pos
 siJie the historical structure of this under
 taking AS far as completed from the City of St. Louis to the Rio Graade, will say that in fu.fimeht If the mission entrusted to me by the Railroad Committee of Prescott,
 visited the executive officers of these three corporations, that had personal interview S with them all, namely General Strong at a Ihomss Nickerson in Boston and not onl Y did ali these gentlemen assure me that ihe road would be built with the utmost DOS sible expedition, but they took me 10 Kid der, Pc body X Co, Bankers and Financial Agents of the A. S p R R., wno informed me that there were Sl0,0O0,O00 in the
 Treasury of the Company, that they had placed first mortgage on the road of S-0, QUO per mle, bearing seven per cent inter est, and that the bonds were at a premium They furthermore stated that steel rails for the first 100 miles were already landed al AIbuq quergue, and that th0 locomotives and ears 10 run from the Rio Grande tO the Colorauo of the West, were under contract aud now building. and that in IS m nths from tue lst of July, lSS0, EossIDly in tii- teen m 'nths from that date the train, of lie A. S r. Co, would run o0 the 3jth parallel route opposite the town of Prescott, and as well as can be iuJge1 the most accessIbl point for the Prescott junctiun, would Ue within so mics north of thI> town.
 have endeavUred 10 giye hy telegraph. through bis Honor tha Mayor. Wan. \ Eeuy, in as consi,e manner as p rssIble. the results of my Interyiews with the,e ,f-l l.H irw whiie we were engaged Ia stuaying tb inap of Arlkoua, that Mr. Nicker-, re- marked: 1t seems as though we We're "ui.diny R4i.rosd Into most desolatr : uItry. a,suIed him his apprchen ,ioss were gToUHdiesS, that NbUe ] Wa- not familiar with the route through New Mexico, yet in Arizeua the survey was along The edge of tue great Colorado pia- teauX, gr4,s aYd tlmber country. and although comparatively .uBprcspsols lsd, yet enough was known, tO say tbeTc was DOtn ing of desoiate character, but the three counties, Apache, iavapai and Moliave, penetrated by this road, sOounGed n Caai and salt, copper and IroE, guid a4d silver ores, and Jay ID close proximity to the sur vey; and that insiea'. of desoiai1n, they would find themselves opcnIng The doors oi tue Crystal Kingdom anu tapping the grea; Treasure Vault of th- Western Hemisphere.
 Men don't gatber grapes of thorLs, ncr figs of thisties, and if The valley of the Ms s!s,ippi me4us cotton and sugar, or rbe ! great prairies mean breadstuff-, then the ] exhaustiess mineral wealth of AriZUna l means product ranging from horseshoe | nails 10 silver bricks, from steel rails and : locomotives 10 gold bars and twenty dol ! lar pieces, aud from a copper rvet 10 a bronze statue.
 was invited to return home by way of l