The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1893-04-22
ELKTON, APRIL 90, 1898
THE OLD JOHN BULL.

complex mechanism of iron and
steer' appeared IN America AL
though like the mythical dragon
slain by the valorous St. George
it belched forth fire and smoke,
it was nevertheless the greatest
triumph of mans inventive genius,
typical not of the era of barbarism
and the sword, but OF the highest
achievement OF mans intellect i'll
applied mechanics. The fiery mon
ster was the locomotive engine John
Bull" the first historic trial of which
took place at Bordentown, New
Jersey, November 18th, 1881, and
which important event was duly
commemorated by suitable monu,
ment still to be seen there. The
appearance of this masterpiece of
mans inventive genius, was an
inspiration to the spirit Of American
invention then in its formative period.
A young American mechanic, Mat
thias Baldwin by name, viewed and
studied the sources of its hidden
power, and soon produced a working
model OF the motor for public exhi-
bition in a Philadelphia museum.
But the young mechanics inventive
impulses and constructive ambitions
were not to be limited to the
production only of locomotive
models. In a short time he had
built a complete engine which as the
"Ironsides" was used upon the old
Germantown railroad, and the con-
struction of which laid the founda-
ton for the Baldwin Locomotive
Works in Philadelphia, the greatest
machine chops OF their kind in the
world.
Important as was the part played
by the old John Bull'' the pioneer
locomotive engine in America, in
giving an impulse 10 American
locomotive building, scarcely less
interesting in the fact, that On Mon
day last the identical old engine, no
less antique and curious in all its
parts, and with the full flavor of
antiquity still about it, laboriously
pulled its way out OF the machine
shops at Jersey City, and started on
a weeks journey from the CONNER
cial metropolis of the East to that of
the West, where during the Colum-
bian exhibition it will be an object
of wonder to millions of curiosity
seekers.
As the old "relic" pufs its way
across the continent, every spark
from its ancient smoke stack, meta
phorically speaking, fires train of
retrospective thought.
When its birth startled the me-
chanical world, and revolutionized
then existing modes of rapid tran
sit (?), the great metropolis of the
West to which it now journies, had
not yet risen from the boundIess
prairies, midst which ii sits today
enthroned a queen OF marvellous life
and beauty.
Chicago was only incorporated
city in 1883, but sixty years ago. Its
corporate life is shorter by three
years than that of the old engine,
which today shaking off the stiffness
and decrepitude of accumulated
years, goes as it were in byob,1a
persona, to pay Its compliments to
the Queen city of the great and
bounding West.
All along that journey of a thou
sand miles, are strewn the evidences
of National development and great
ness.
When the old iron horse was
risky colt, suffering its way across
the Jersey sands, a three score of
miles measured the limit of its pos
sible path.
Today, for three thousand miles
across a continent teeming with lite |
and industry, the encircling rails
afford the old horse an unlimited |
''run" for any burst of speed.
And how, besides its late posterity |
of FURNISHED steel, which sixty short
years of growth have framed and
forged. the venerated old courser
pales into insignificant impotence!
What prodigies of power, with
lightning speed, a-down the shining
rails, the muscular arm of later
nineteenth century progress, has
thrown in hundred ton locomotive
engine
What admiration even IN an ordi-
nary mind, so grand a machine
excites What strides, what leaps,
in the mechanical life of our times,
this unrivaled triumph of American
genius marks. How wide the com
parison between Engine No. I of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, and the
punished steed numbered in the
No wonder "Old John Bull :"
eceived ovations this week all along v
he road, and that children placed S
pennies on the track to be kept as v
wh;s enafs; that he piped his,penny u
Vim sai and his big brothers sbr;eked b
IKE hehos' as the historic go. n
an illustrious past Grey. ~, ehost Of \
sg4 -