Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-05-11

l.
ator Airs His Views on the Relations
of the Road with the Governmental
Three Minute Horses Thoroughbreds
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, May 81 heard one of
the most remarkable stories Of American
history last night. 1t was told me by
Senator Leland Stanford and it was the
story of the building of the Central
Pacific railroad | called upon Senator
Stanford at his house en- Farragut square,
and we chatted together in his library.
He Is tall, striking looking man with
big head a rosy face, blue eyes and brown
hair. He is plain in his ways, and is
ready with an answer to any question pro-
pounded to him on almost any subject
He is man of ideas, and he is an especi-
ally interesting talker in the line of re-
miniscence His whole life has been a
continuous romance in which hard work
and success and failure have gone hand
in hand. He was a young lawyer in a
small town in Wisconsin, making about
81, 500 year, when the fire which burned
up his Office and library drove him west
ward. He went intending to make some
money and 90 back to Wisconsin to live,
but the problems of the Pacific coast
threw their arms about him, and he is
graphing 18th them still. He was the
first Republican governor Of California
| and was elected to that position in the
fall of 1861. He was strong friend of
President Lincoln, and it was mainly
through him that California was saved to
| the Union. **#
l asked him as to the building Of the
Central Pacific railroad. He said:
"No one supposed the road could be
built, and had we known the difficulties
of it's construction l doubt whether we
would have attempted it. Even in Cali
fornia no one outside of the company
would have anything to do with it. We
tried to get subscriptions to the stock in
San Francisco, but we could only sell ten
shares of 81 900 each, and the man who
bought these shares was a foreigner and
Frenchmau, A little stock was sub
scribed at Sacramento, but subscribers as
rule thought that they were putting
their money into a mole and they doubted
whether they would ever get it out again.
We had only enough money of our own
to complete thirty-one miles of road, and
the road building of today Is nothing in
comparison. In going over the Sierra
| Nevada mountains we built $50 miles of
railroad which cost more than the build
ing of the whole line between Chicago
and the base of the Sierras. and for three
winters we worked on the mountains
with the snow falling to depth of thirty
six and forty feet. | slept many II night
in the snow during those days, and had
to brush away the snow for a place to
lay my blanket. All of our mate
rial had to come from the east, II 900
miles by water, and we had then to haul
pit up the mountains through the snow.
To give YOU some idea of our work in the
Sierra Nevadas, we used on the average
300 kegs of powder each day, and the
snow sheds on these mountains cost us
about 1000 600 We had from 10, 900 to
1000 men working on these mountains,
md we had to work under the snow. We
IAN tunnels into 1t to get at the rock to be
xcavated, and we had domes under the
now, and in these domes the masonry
1as laid and the stones were lowered
trough the snow drifts"
l"Two million dollars seems good deal
pay for snow Sheds" said |.
Eyes, replied Senator Stanford, cit
pes, but the ordinary man has no idea Of
hat these snow sheds are. They are a
Ass of the heaviest timbers, braced and
ross braced in every direction. We had
build somo Of them strong enough to
Import snow drifts of from 60 to 100 feet
eep, and some had to be built against the
fountain sides on slope, so that the
Valanches, with the trees and stones
hich accompany them, might sweep over
be structure and not hurt the trains
ven now the snow drifts through these
neds and sometimes fills them, and when
does it often takes sixteen locomotives
pr a single snow plow in the work of clear
lg them. We had thirty-seven miles Of
pese sheds, and it might have been better
have tunneled under the Sierra Nevadas
Glow the snow belt and think such a
lnnel will sometime be built. 1t would
bed to be about ten miles long and would
Dst about IS, 100000.
at is hard to conceive today the cost Of
ailroad building in the west in 1868, We
HI W pay lIOlu S~pO W sDuO per lol lOI
hrley and oats, and hay cost us 1920 per
bn. The first two locomotives we used
psf us in freight and actual value &c.
DO. and the first ten engines we bought
bst us $19l COO. 1t cost So 900 in freight
carry the first locomotive around Cape
orn to San Francisco, and our cars were
ade in the east taken to pieces, brought
ound Cape Horn or across the isthmus,
nded at San Francisco, carried by boat
Sacramento, and there put together.
70 had to haul much of our water for
gam and for the use Of our graders and
hen we came to spring we would carry
for miles in pipes. Along 800 miles OF
e road there was not a tree that would
IKE board, and we had to carry nearly
of our fuel. And then we had great
al of trouble with our laborers. At the
st mining excitement they would leave
and at one time, of / 100 men whom