Omaha daily bee., 1884-04-03
WEST OF THE MISSOURI.

hiibhe BoO nun"
PEST OF THE MISSOURI.
The secretary of state is doing a land
office business Incorporating railroads. 1t
is a wet day that does not bring a new
company or the extension of an old one.
Capital seems to be no object, the figures
ranging from $4,000 away up into the
millions. The fashion now runs to cross
cut roads or angular concerns, through
promising fields and towns with great
expectations" The usual preliminaries
are as noisy as ever, and local aid is the
handspring of the boomers. Unfortu-
nately the records show a gaping void
between words and.actionsin the railroad
graveyard. A dozen vigorous steel-clad
infants have been ushered into the world
with a political hurrah in The last couple
of years, and all have perished in their
swaddling clothes. Invariably the big
fish have swallowed the little fish. And
it is better 30. The inability of stub
roads to do a paying business in this or
or any other state, without the consent
of the trunk roads is so well established
that none but spectators venture in the
field, and then only with the certainty of
county aid and early sale of charter rights.
But even those days are past. A county,
town or precinct gullible enough to bond
itself for a railroad would now DO set
down as a "tenderfoot," where confidence
men and mortgage sharks flourish and
fatten. OF such there are mighty few in
the state and the number fgrows beauti-
fully less.
The people of a majority OF counties
have reached that stage of prosperity
where their business commands railroads.
If a rival road is wanted and the business
of a community, present and prospective,
warrants it, it can be had for the asking.
The advice Of The BEE to all still is,
''Vote no bonds"
Two new roads were added to the
prospective list in the past week-the
Nebraska Central and the Netawaka,
Woodlawn e. Northwestern. The for
mer looks like a resurrection of the
Lincoln 81 Decatur road. prob.
for the purpose of controlling the
charter for a bridge over the Missouri at
the latter point which congress is ex-
to grant. The latter road is a
Kansas corporation with a capital of half
a million, to build to Pawnee City, Neb.
The distance from Netawaka, Kas., to
Pawnee City is less than forty miles, and
covers a rich agricultural region. 1t is
really a branch of the Union Pacific sys-
tenn in Kansas. Pawuee county is ready
with open arms to receive the new road,
believing it would break the extortionate
methods of the B. & M.
Reports come from Sarpy county that
the B. Sc M. surveyors are stalking a line
from the Platte river below Ashland to
Willard, and from there to Omaha, by
the straightest practicable route. 1t is be-
lieved by some that this is a game of
bulldose on Wahoo, but the connection is
apparent to the naked eye. Several
good reasons can be stated to give the
move a ''local habitation and a name"
The depot facilities of the company in
Omaha are hedged in on nearly all sides
by the Union Pacific. This is particular
ly true of the passenger depot, which is
entirely too cramped for the rapidly in
business of the company.
Patrons of the roads are obliged
to cross a score of U. p.
where trains are cor
moving. On the other hand if
the proposed line should cross the U. P,
say at Willard and come into the
city on the north side of the
U. p, it would reach a depot unsur-
passed by any in the city. The present
site of the company's freight house near
the foot of Farnam street is most con-
~venient and eligible for a fine passenger
depot. and would be an ~undiguised bles-
sing to both patrons and company.
Another very strong argument in favor of
the new line is the fact that the present
line between Bellevue and this city is a
dangerous piece of the road and cannot
De r6Hl6uleu. IL ruub through u bWdlnpy
of country between the river and
the bluffs. In the latter are hundreds of
springs, which keep the road bed soft
even in the dryest season, and no amoun
of surtacing or even rock ballast could
make it solid and safe for fast trains.
Besides the proposed line would shorten
the distance west, and would hardly in
the distance between Omaha and
1t would, however, take a
comfortable fortune to enter the city by
the route mentioned, but the company's
are such that some radical
must be made before many years.
The Omaha capitalists who have pur-
chased the Shoshone Falls in Idaho, are
preparing to bring out the attraction the
season. About $4,000 have
been expended in making roads
to and from the falls and improving the
surroundings. Accommodations for
of a temporary character will be
built for the present, to be supplanted at
a future day by a more elaborate hotel.
The debut of the falls will be made
through tourist excursion tickets, which
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