Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-09-12
A Scrap Of Railroad History.
It'll in the philadeIDhia Times

Twas sitting in group Of Maryland gentle
men at Saratoga, when one of them spoke up
to me. saying: 'There is a fact you have no
repOrted-that the business of the Baltimore
and Potomac railroad grew last year hundred
and fourteen per cent" The gentleman may
have said afundred and forty per cent, but I
am not sure. My attention was then directed
to Judge Brooke as the person who had passed
the original bill for the Baltimore and Potomac,
This quiet old gentleman said: 81 was the Pres
ident of the Maryland Senate at the time Nc
Clellan dispersed or arrested us. l was not ar
rested myself however, and attribute it per-
haps to a little actsof courtesy Our Governor.
Hicks. was a Union man and the legislature
did not incline to him much. He came to the
State House and nobody spoke to him.
called one Of the assistants and said: Give the
Governor of Maryland seat within the bar
here The Governor seemed to appreciate the
compliment, as it was pretty cold weather for
MIN all round, and when they arrested the legs-
lature was overlooked"
Said to Governor BOwie ssDjd Won offer the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad to the Bati-
more and Ohio Company"
81 did. took it to Mr.. Garrett and explained
It and he said in his suave way: Very we'll.
Mr. Bowie, you build the railroad and we will
operate it for you well. if that is all Mr..
Garrett said I, 4 think if can build the rail-
road | can also operate it, So left him and
my attention was called to the fact that the
pennsylvania Railroad. which was having an
exasperating battle with the Baltimore and Ohio
value in this charter. The charter had been
originally obtained by man named Walker
who perhaps designed to peddle it around. /
wanted. for the benefit Of my neighbors and nv
self who had lands that had descended to us. to
get railroad Communication. We were too Door
r. IN / ont fn to- nl~ -
call on Mr.. Edgar Thomson. We had to cool
our heels good long while before we got to see
MIN, and when we did see him he said: Why, the
pennsylvania Railroad can do nothing in the State
OF Maryland with the Legislature and Governor
owned In general by the Baltimore and Ohio
Company. We should be at perpetual disad-
VANTAGE However, he named a date some
what distant for us to come back. At that date
we went there, and this time we found Mr.
THOMAS A. Scott He looked at the scheme and
there was Governor of Maryland friendly to
this railroad. it might be worth our while to
look at it seriously. But we cannot pretend to
hight an lnimical Governor and an inimical Mayor
OF Baltimore Thereupon an old friend of mine
who was present spoke up and said: why,
there's Bowie himself, who is formidable can
dldate for Governor of Maryland Mr. Thorn
son remarked that if a Governor should be Sc
lected friendly to the enterprise it would be
! time enough after that to look into it. Now"
"<siA No'SAuOA DO"lt, SOG uO dSSISCdUCc
whatever in my campaign from that railroad
company, but saw a chance for my neighbOrs
and my old section to get railroad facilities, and
l said to my friends: This nomination is worth
fighting for now was nominated and elected.
and the MayOro of Baltimore was. equally friendly
to the new enterprise. Then the Pennsylvania
came in and built the road"
Did the Baltimore and Ohio company Gis-
turb them much?"
Eyes, in a forcible feeble way. The charter
was for railroad from Baltimore city. or rather
from the Northern Central railroad to the Po-
tomac river, with permission to build branches
east and west. The Baltimore and Ohio COM
pany wanted US to define before the courts the
nature of those branches, and insisted that one
OF them must not be to Washington. Said L:
There are only two towns of the least conse-
quence on that line-Annapolis and Washing
tOn-and If We can't have branches to either OF
those, what is the sense OF the road? So the
road was built during my term of office, and
there 1t stands and is carrying the passengers
who are no longer embarrassed at Baltimore by
losing their baggage and being thrown out by
adverse trains merely that the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad shalt carry all the passengers
from the west to Washington and will not allow
faculties to any to come east over the Pennsyl-
vania lines" #