The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-08-22

and iron rail with which the Madison and
Indianapolis road was originally laid.
Some idea of the contrast may be had
when it is stated that whereas the Cam
den and Amboy rail weighed only thirty
five pounds to the yard, the standard rail
of to-day, of which the examples shown
are one hundred feet in length, weigh one
hundred rounds to the yard, being nearly
three times as heavy.
Upon the tracks is another contrast
even more marked. Probably the most
conspicuous, and certainly the most in
teresting object in the display is the origi-
nal John Bull train, which here rests
after it's thousand-mile journey across the
continent from New York. The old en-
CINE itself-the oldest in America-which
was constructed by George Stephenson,
in England, and brought to this country
in 1881 for use on the Amboy Division Of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, stands there
to-day precisely as 1t was in 1886, after
having had added to it such improve
ments as were then suggested to the
minds of the American engineers. Its
weight, with its somewhat cumbersome
tender, is only thirty-tw0 thousand one
hundred pounds, as against one hundred
tons, the weight of the ordinary standard
passenger locomotive of to-day, and be-
side the modern machine, of course, it
looks very much like toy. The pas
senger coaches, glistening with fresh
coat of green paint, are 80 low that q tall
man cannot stand upright within them
their brakes are worked by means of
handles similar to those on the horse cars
of the present time, and the only method
of lighting them is by tallow dip in
each end of each car. AS example OF the
magnitude to which the railroad cars OF
to-day have attained, no better choice
could have been made that the selection
for exhibit, side by side with this tiny
passenger train, of the two tremendous
vehicles on which the mammoth Krupp
guns we're whirled from Baltimore to the
Exposition; the manner in which the
guns we're carried being shown by means
of tull-size models, made of staff, OF the
standard sixtaen-inch and ten-inch guns,
such as are now used by the United
States War Department.
This policy of contrast, which is so ap-
parent without the building. is carried
throughout the entire display, and the
interior with its relief maps, charts,
models, lay figures. photographs, and
relics, gives better ideaof the wonder
full growth of the greatest system Of the
country than could possibly be had In any
other way. The walls of the great marble
floored hall, into which the visitor may
enter from either the front or the rear,
are lined with handsome mahogany
showcases, while the columns, 80 ar
ranged as to form colonnade on each
side, are surrounded by folding frames
for the display of thousands of exhibits
that could be shown to advantage IN no
other way.
In arranging the display the smallest
details have not been neglected, and as
an indication of the thoroughness with
which these little matters have been
looked after, the labelling of the objects
with descriptive label in five languages
is especially noteworthy.
In the centre of the building, under the
dome, upon a platform shaped like a
Greek cross, are three relief maps that are
certain to attract no little notice. They
illustrate the changes in the methods OF
crossing the Alleghenies from the year
1882 to the present time, and have been
prepared with such great care as to have
won words of high commentator from
scientists, whose attention has been called
TO them. One of these in particular, the
largest of the three, which is twelve feet
long by four feet wide, and which shows
the old portage and the new portage roads,
together with the present line of the Penn
sylvania Railroad, including the Horse
shoe Curve, Allegrippus, and the district
of the Johnstown food. is especially valu-
able as being the first and only relief map
ever made of that section. The original
map, from which the basis of the present
work was obtained, was one which be-
longed to the late ]. N. DuBarry, vice
president of the company. 1t was in lead
pencil, never having been filled in in ink,
and was traced, so the legend runs, by
President j. Edgar Thompson, himself
The other two relief maps. or models
which form two arms Of the cross, show
the Horseshoe Curve and Plain No. l.,
with canal-boat, cars and locomotives
The rest of the floor space between the
colonnades is dotted with pedestals and
platforms upon which are models relat-
ing particularly to the developed system
of transportation of to-day. On one side.
for instance, is a beautiful reproduction in
miniature of the doube-decked ferry
boat Washington" one of the feet ply
ing between Jersey City and New York.
In every particular the model maker has
closely followed the original, and has sue
ceeded in turning out piece of work as
nearly perfect in every detail as 1t is pos
sibe to imagine On gala days 1T is pro-
posed to decorate this little vessel with
bunting, and arrangements have been
made to light the interior with electric
lights precisely as the boat from which It
Is copied is lighted.