The Washington bee., 1893-12-16
A Story of the First Railway.

| passed the winter OF 1867 III Au-
gusta, Ga. It was the year when
South Carolina proposed to nullify the
revenue laws OF the United States,
.'peaceably if she could, foreibly if she
must" always propided that Georgia
would join in the act. In February
the annual race meeting was to be held
in Charleston, and this usually brought
the leading men of the other slave
States to that city, where the scheme
was to be laid before them. A party
Of Augusta gentlemen were going down
to these races on horseback, and
was invited to join them.
At that time there was an excellent
breed of saddle-horses in Georgia,
called the Cherokee pony being
raised in the upper country, then occu-
pied by the Cherokee Indians. 1t is
now thickly-settled region, with At
lanta for it's chief city, but the Indians
have long since disappeared, along
with their ponies. / owned one Of
these ponies, Il very handsome animal
about twelve hands high. a compactly
built bay, with long tail, name and
foretop, very easy in all gaits, gentle
and spirited. [ had ridden him in fox
chases, and he could generally keep
up with field Of big horses, and
would jump any common fence. L
have ridden many horses in many
lands but | think Little John was the
best saddle horse | ever rode.
The distance from Augusta to Char
lesion is 140 miles; there were no rail
roads then, although one had been be-
gun from Charleston towards Augusta,
and it was the first railroad in the
United States which was operated by
steam power. On a fine morning in
the latter part of February we start
ed, six in number, with a change Of
clothing in our saddle-bags, down
south through the great tract of pine
forest which lies between Augusta and
the coast, thinly settled, with roads
| only suitable for horsemen. We made
about thirty miles day, and ate and
| slept usually in some log cabin by the
| roadside. There were few villages or
| tayerns, but almost any planter or far
mer would take us in for the night.
One day as we approached Charles
ton suddenly there appeared on the
road an elephant, coming slowly to-
wards us tapping his great ears. This
| apparitiOn was more than our horses
could stand, and they all bolted into
the woods with their riders. and re-
fused to be comforted until the mon
ster passed A few hundred yards
further we met the caravan of wild
beasts to which the elephant belonged.
AS the wagons were drawn by the
familiar mule our horses passed quiet
| iy, but as we got abreast of them from
one of the wagons came the roar of
lion, with the groWls of other beasts.
The boiling process was renewed, and
| n nt1rh hnpc,nc, in 81 Yli0
Hardly had their nerves become
quieted again when we saw in the dis
tance the new railroad, finished some
ten or twelve miles out of Charleston;
it was built upon piles, longer or short
er, according to the nature of the
ground; sometimes in crossing a rayine
the rails were twenty feet from the
surface. Our track ran near this l.
road, and soon a hOrrid shrek as from
| twenty panthers was heard in the
woods. By this time we were ner-
vous. Elephants and lions we had
heard of, and some of us had seen
them, but what monster was this
whose screams we heard? Presently
it came in sight, flying aloft through
the air, and breathing fire and smoke.
and again our frightened steeds be-
came unmanageable And, in fact, 1
think that some of our party were as
badly frightened as their horses. If
any of my readers are old enough to
remember the introduction of locomo-
tives, and how they felt at first sight
of them, they will perhaps understand
our sensations that day in the pine
woods.
A mile or two further on we came
to broken wagon by the side of the
road, and near it sat Georgia crack
er, smoking his pipe. On being asked
what was his trouble, We'll, stranger"
was the reply, I've often hearn tell
of notification, and now / reckon I've
saw it for true. Forest and Stream
A good dinner assuages grief.