The Columbus journal., 1881-09-07
"'Tis sixty Years SIace."


The young traveller who bowls
along from one ocean TO another in
"palace" car with all the luXuries
of upholstery and of the table sur
rounding him, finds it hard to con-
ceive that, within the lifetime prob
ably of several of those around him,
the locomotive and the railroad was
in a far cruder state than the electric
light or the electric motor is at the
present day. The idea of the "tram-
way" and the self-propelling engine
were Sin the air" some time before,
but it was only sixty years ago that
George Stephenson crystalized and
condensed into a working machine
the vague and foggy suggestions
and purposes which many mechan-
icsl minds were already contem-
plating. Within the sixty years
which thousands of men in Europe
and this country can easily recall,
the whole railroad system of the
civilized world has been born and
has grown to its present proper
tions.
There are at present nearly 250,-
600 miles of railroad, representing
$l7,OO0,O00,0O0 Of value, overrunning
every continent and many Of. the
islands of the globe. And yet sixty
years ago the man to whose ingenu-
ity, but more particularly to whose
foresight, comprehension and pa
tience all this is due, fought as for
his personal liberty and his life in
order to get permission to set his
locomotive upon its rails. Both the
Lords and Commoners opposed him
with might and main. His engi-
neers aud surveyors were attacked
by mobs. lie was denounced as a
lunstic and q fool, as were all who
believed in and supported him. The
entire country rose against the pro-
ject. He was sueered at and ridi-
culed. Prophecies Of utter failure
were as plentiful as blockheads.
The great lawyers and scientific men
of the day laughed him to scorn.
They said the engine smoke would
kill the birds and the cattle, ruin the
fields, drive people mad with noise
and excitement, and, even if success
ful, would destroy the wealth of the
community then invested in horse
flesh. His bills were thrown out of
Parliament, aud even after he was
permitted to build the Liverpool
and Manchester road, including the
filling up of the shaking bog known
as Chat Moss, it was with great
difficulty that he persuaded the au-
thorities 10 try locomotive instead |
of stationary engines. The civil en-
gineers themselves were his ene-
mics. He was not zone of them :" |
he never received an engineers edu-
cation. Everything he proposed was
shown TO be impossible. They said
an engine could not be driven at
more than twelve miles an hour; il
would be driven back by the wind
the smooth wheels would not "bite"
on the rails; the wheels would not
turn round, and the machine would
stand still. No engineer in his
senses would undertake to make a
railroad from Liverpool TO Man
chester, etc, etc. Even after he had
succeeded, the British Government
neglected him until some years
afterward Sir Robert Peel offered to
create him a Knight, which he de-
clined. Leopold, the King of Bel
gium, greatly honored him, and
showed thorough appreciation of
his labors and character.
And all this happened in the boy
hood or girlhood of many a traveller
who shoots across states and conti-
nents more easily than they lum-
bered from town to town in the
rudest of vehicles only sixty years
ago.