The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1881-08-05

expressed their willingness TO undertake til
completion and equipment of the road, on terms
which can scarcely fail to be satisfactory to
the board of directors and stockholders. II is
understood that they were willing to guarantee
to put the entire railroad in running order, from
Delta to Baltimore. in four months after con-
tract TO that effect is signed. The gentlemen
who propose TO undertake the work are expe-
rienced in all the difficulties aud details of con-
etructing railroads. General Ledlie is one OF
foremost engineers in the country. He built
the trestle work on IT, 100 miles of the Union
Pacific Railroad, hauling the material 500 miles,
and completing his work on one mile and a.
quarter Of road each day, under II penalty of
$1,000 day He al SO built the Sierra Nevada
narrow-gauge railroad, forty miles in length,
in sixty days, with the thermometer twenty de-
grees below zero. He is President of a railroad
in Florida and is actively engaged in railroad
building.
Gen. Buttereld is one the best known bust.
ness men in the State of New York, and is n
thorough railroad man. He now operates a
narrow gauge railroad in that State, and has
been concerned in many large and import
ant railway and steamboat enterprises. Both
are able to give satisfactory security of their
ability to carry out any contracts they may
| make.
Whilst The difficulties attending the completion
| of q work of such magnitude in SO short time
are great, they are by no means insuperable. BY
working from both ends of the road the task
might easily be accomplished in the time speciti.
| cd. A temporary track might be laid from Delta
to Peach Bottom, and as canal transportation is
cheaper than any other, material might be
brought from points up the Susquehanna river,
landed at Peach Bottom and carried on cars as
the work proceeded. In the same manner ma
tcrial might be taken from Havrc de Grace to
| Canton, Baltimore, and carried over the North
ern Central Railroad to the point ofintersection
with the Baltimore and Delta road Thus work
might proceed from both ends at once, and The
railroad be completed in four months or less
A definite proposition, we understand, will soon
be submitted by Messrs Buttcrfield and Ledie
| to the Board of Directors, which will probably
meet with approval. The gentleman named, il
is also said are willing TO take either the bonds
of the road or cash in payment. They do moi
desire to assume the management of The road, but
only require such guarantees as would make
secure the important interests they would have
in the road
The question for the directors 10 consider, il
appears to us, is whether it would be better t.
sell the bonds in small numbers, from time t.
time, as they can, and prolong the work indie
fnitely, or by accepting the offer of Messrs. But
terfeld and Ledlie, ensure the completion of the
road in the shortest possible time 1t is feared
that when the road is completed to Towsontowr
the sale of bonds may be slow and the work may
drag along for an indefinite period 1t seems
to us that ifevery thing else is equal it is better
to accept a certainty for an uncertainty.
Altogether, the prospects of a speedy compile
ton of our long looked for and much needed
railroad were never so bright as they are now.