The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-11-02

cut, out uHitSS ooIiic ca l'fiioi tHStioN
takes it place, it will be an actualit'
within very few years.
Inasmuch as the postal service i
growing more eXacting in It's de
mands for rapid transportation, ;
bill will probably be introduced int
the next congress, providing for tn
construction of an electric seryic,
between New and Chicago. st. Louis
Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Washington
and Philadelphia, providing for th'
construction of an electric railway
to be used exclusively by the posta
service, upon which the mails may
be sent through at the rate Of al
least one hundred miles an hour
Should it pass, the execution of the
plan will be an object lesson in the
governmental control of public high.
ways. Should it not pass, then in.
quiries will be made in the course of
time as to its fate. The people al
ways wake up and ask these questions
in the course of time.
Side by side on the beautiful ca
mails and .agoons, which give access
to every portion of the Exposition
grounds, are two classes Of boats,
which represent almost the Oldest
and the newest form of transporta-
ton. Here the Venetian gondolier,
standing in the high stern of his
craft, boatman trained by the CEN
turies, picturesque in costume, with
the graciousness of a hundred gener-
ations of public service. But as he
moves his oar in long graceful sweeps
through the water, there glides past
him the most modern of convevan-
ces, noiseless, with apparent power,
with no evidence of steam, 10 evil
dence of any human agency, swift,
graceful, cleaving the water in lines
that are scientifically calculated for
least resistance. 1t is the boat par
excellence of the coming race.
Whence comes its motion? 1t is OBJ
tanned at night, when it has been put
in the dock. A copper wire is at
tached to the boat, through which,
during the hours of darkness, energy
has been transfused in the space
around its seats AMI beneath its deck,
as subtIy as hypodermically injected
morphine spreads through the VIC
TINS veins. Storage batteries have
taken up the energy which has come
from this living wire, and with day.
light it is ready for mans use. Sew
enty miles of transport at fifteen
miles per hour is put away in these
invisible interstices. When day comes
the engineer, sitting In the bow, puts
one hand on lever, which "a child
might operate, SO simple is its work.
ing, and another on little pilo.-
wheel, the invisible propeller turns
upon its axis and the boat is
in motion, forging ahead, slowly
backing, turning to the right and
left, with very minimum expendi-
ture of human energy.
From the point of interest rather
than usefulness, the object which at
tracts the greatest crowd in the
Transportation building are the lo-
comotives of the earliest periods of
rallroading. They stand side by side
with the most magnificent engines of
modern building, which tower with
their seven-foot driving wheels above
the originals like giants. Here are
the locomotives of Stephenson, the
locomotives used on the Baltimore &
Ohio in the early days, with their
driving shafts not much larger than
one of the bolts used in the modern
locomotive; but the passenger cars,
which were nothing but stage-coac h.
es built on iron wheels, and which
by the way, might be very plea SAINT
form of car in these days of eiec-
trical locomotion. Step by step you
trace the whole history of the loco
motive and railroad train from their
inception through all their rapid de-
yelopment up to the present houl.
And when the mind has fully grasp
ed tie meaning of this development,
the thought suddenly comes that this
is the last exhibition that will ever
be made, in all human probability,
of the locomotive as a mode of pro-
pulsion for passenger traffic. At this
exhibition we see the most imperfect
locomotive in its almost tea-kettle
form, and We also see the most per-
feet locomotive that will ever be built:
the beginning and the end of steam
railway traffic. Next year, or the
year after, or at most in eight or ten
years, steam power applied directly
to passenger trains will be a thing of
the past.
And, while in this mood of proph-
esy, why not hazard the conjecture