Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1885-07-25

which we had no control" Elkins,
railway station and postofice, lies on
the Maryland side in Garrett county,
though much of the settlement is on
the West Virginia side, the two parts
being connected by an excellent
bridge The friends at home will be
the better able to locate Ell1ins when
they are told that it lies at the foot
of Fort Pendleton, where the North
western Pike crosses the North
Branch of the Potomac into Mary
land.
GETTING IN THE SWIM.
As we stopped at Elkins for mo-
ment, I recalled conversation with
the venerable father OF Mr.. S. B. Ell
kins. Seated on the piazza OF his
sons Deer Park cottage, last sum-
mer, Mr.. Elkins told me how he emil
grated from the Old Dominion to
Missouri more than half century
before, going by way of the North
western road. Now in this latter day
of steam transportation his son is one
of the leading spirits in building a
railway which crosses his fathers
path of the long ago; and the spot
where his father may have rested on
the further boundary of his native
State bears the family name and
town rises as monument to the en-
ergy of the son. In the new West
the father devoted much of his time
to staging across the plains. Now
the son comes back to take an enthu-
siastic and sagacious interest in the
development by railroad of richly
endowed part of the State which gave
his father birth. This personifes the
refux of the tide of development which
rolled over the middle country to the
easier but not richer fields beyond.
This backward flow is the hope of
West Virginia. Good health to Ell
kins and to the Davises, and to Blaine
and to Camden, and to every man
who puts a dollar or thought into
the development of our West Vir-
ginial A bumper, and no heel-taps!
The unregenerate who play at poll
tics on the dead level of Bourbonism,
won't join me in this sentiment
Well, bless their benighted souls,
their is small choice left to them
if they don't get on board they'll be
run over, for the train moves fast and
the way is narrow, and when stone
is flung on the track you can hear it
splashing in the pool thousand feet
below.
- HORSESHOE BEND.
"This is the horseshoe / was tell
ing you about" said Engineer Dough
ty. / thought we had been seeing
something of horseshoe bends, but
now we were making the first curve
of one worth the journey to see. The
station at this great bend is HANDLE
ton. The road hugs the mountain
side, and in the valley below lies
large saw-mill busily ripping big logs
into merchantable lumber We are
pulling up heavy grade, leaving the
saw mill behind. Now we take q
sharp but easy turn and half mile
on, by slight cleft in the dense foil
age-perhapsa path down the noun
tain side-there is Hambleton again,
still saving logs. We have doubled
back on the saw-mill and are less
than two hundred yards from the
station we left behind. We could
have reached this point ahead of the
train by walking across from the sta
ton, if thereis path. We are not
to take paths for granted in this re-
gion. Beyond, as below, we come
upon some straight and level stretch
es, but they are 'like angels visits"
"Some how she makes steam,n
says my entertaining friend, the en-
gineer. ''We are pulling up steep
grade, but I have to let her of. This
coal is from our eleven foot vein, and
it is the best steam coal 1 ever saw"
esRast avar f,red with y cove +ba