The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-05-29
cnrr,Go's RAILWAY EXHIBITION

tniNlbO'S RAILWAY EAtiBitioN
The exhibition which opened in the city
Of Chicago last Thursday night, and which
will continue until the sd of June. is in
many respects one Of the most suggestive
and important affairs Of the kind ever wit
messed in this or any other country. II is
the special exhibition of a branch OF indus
try, and an enterprise that has grown up to
its present dimensions and power in the
United States within the last fifty years,
and is yet notwithstanding its short exist
ence and the fact that it is not half way
developed, the most powerful and the most
useful agency in the progress and business
of the new world. The railway interest of
to-day reaches from Maine TO CAL
ilornis. from the lakes TO the gulf,
not state and scarcely sec
ton of state or territory but is pierced or
touched by one its arms. tits the grand
channel of the mighty volume Of the inter
nal commerce of the country, the agency
through which of late years not only the
volume Of trade has been quadrupled, but
by which business methods and the bust
ness world have been revolutionized. 1t
controls senates aud representative assem-.
blies, makes and unmakes banking estab-
lishments, builds or breaks down towns,
employs an army Of servants, Yields nun
dreds of millions Of capital, causes business
to flourish or anguish, is the owner of
almost untold millions of acres of real es-
tate and is second only to the great arm OF
the federal government in power and omni-
presence. And yet it is but the
growth of fifty years And yet it is but u
partially developed metropolis! Such Il
record of industrial expansion and the ac-
cumulaton of power by private corpora
tons was never before known in the his
tory of the world. The first railway in
New York, and one of the first in the coun-
try, the first, we believe, being opened the
previous year, was opened in 1881, Just
lifty-twoyears ago. 1t was rough road
bed and singular engine and crude
affair all around, 1t would be laughing
stock nov in any portion OF the Union,
This year it is estimated and the figures
are not far astray, that there are
10000 miles of railway in the
United States, or as many miles
as are in operation in the
whole of Europe. With rails of steel as
solidDy laid as the rocks with two and four
tracks running for hundreds of miles side
by side, with cars that are palaces within
aud locomotives that are marvels of beauty
and intricacy and power, the railway of
to-day is as far ahead of the railway OF fifty
years ago. as in some sections the long,
solid and beautiful pixies are ahead OF the
mountain mulepaths. Thousands of trains
laden with human and brute, and inani-
mate freight cross and recross the broad
expanse OF our country with the speed of
the wind and distance, time, light. dark
ness and the weather are vanqushed
as if by the DEGREES OF a crea-
tor. The system is the leviathan,
the monster Of modern society and business
but under the determinations of intellect,
thesubte master after all has become mans
greatest servant and convenience and civ
ilization's greatest handmaiden and pro.
moter. This exhibition at Chicago is a
celebration ofthese wonderful achievements
and is designed to present faithful pic
turc and record of the processes and oh
stacles through and over which the devel-
opment of the present vast system has
gone. The first engines and coaches con
structed in this country will be there in
contrast with the latest built and each stage
in the wonderful development will be
marked and represented. The
exhibition therefore is one that
ought to interest and instruct
the uninitiatcd and unproiessional as well
as the mechanic and railroad man, the lar
mer and lawyer as well as the railway con
ductor and locomotive engineer. Then
| again much may be learned and determined
that will prove useful and powerful in the
further extension and perfection of the
system. Railways and the system as q
whole are as is the nation, yet in embryo
in infancy as it were, and as we may antici.
pate the growth and power and expansion
ofthe one we may anticipate corresponds
ing development in the other. What the
two will be when the centennial railway
exhibition will be held, it has probably not
entered into the mind of man to conceive.
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