Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-07-26
HISTORY OF RAILROADS.
The Man Who First Imagined Locomo-
 tive Was Put in a Madhouse.

The Man Who First Imagined a Locomo-
 tive Was Put in a Madhouse.
 The man who first thought ofapply- ing steam to traction, poor Solomon de taus. a Frenchman, was shut up in the Bicetre as q madman. When Maron Deorme and the marquise of Worces- ter went through the institution in f641, they saw frightful face behind the bars and heard a hoarse voice cry inc. T am not mad 1 have made a dis eoyery that would enrich the country" What has he diseoyered2" they asked the keeper oh said the man with shrng, you wonId never guess it. It is the use of the steam of boiling wa ter"
 Long after that. when the thing had become d reality old Lord Eaton tools up his parable against it. q am sorry. he said. to find the intelligent people of the north country gone mad on the subject of railways. What could be more palpably absurd and ridiculous than the prospects held out of locomo- tiyes travelling twice as fast as stage eoaches?' Some said that the railways would prevent cows grazing and hens AAA IDEs anu t4tetA 9tA0 1OisotiNt tt11 II 91tA the engines would kill birds in flight. and render the preservation of pheas- ants and foxes no longer possible. 4 rash man in Liverpool, whose name has not been preserved, declared that if anyone could make q locomotive go ten miles an hour he would afterward eat the wheel in a stew
 The next stage to incredibility was wonder and awe. Such was it's yeloc- ity," says one writer describing rup Of one of the first trains, that in some parts the speed was frequently twelve miles an hour Another writer re, parked that even at the tremendous speed of twenty-five miles an hour, the passengers. and even the ladies among them, were talking to one another with the utmost sanRfroid.
 But the speed of twenty-five miles was not attained all at once One of estephenson's earliest creations. "Puf- ing Billy" travelled with so much dif- ficulty that the driver, as it crawied ronnd an awkward curve near his cot tage, used to call to his wife to come ont and give it shove. Blind ob- struction took every possible form. The surveyors often had to work by night to save themselves from the wrath of the land owners and farmers. ane foolish parson in the north was so troublesome that they could only do their work while he was engaged in the pulpit.
 The railways have not justified any Of the prophets of evil. They have not even killed romance. adventure or fun. There are fascinating stories of rail way incident, of desperate leaps from trains--iucluding that leap of Charles Peace. which must surely go down to history with 1urpin's jump over the fiHe-barred gate on the ride to York. Runaway trains are not unknown for Those Wholii5e that kind of excitement 0a an American railway there was once mad driver. who. after pitching tHe slolter off the engine turned on all the steam he could un- ii the machine got red hot and flew along af nearly q hundred miles an hour The terrified passengers did not leave off talking even then. but they shardlY talked with sanefroid. The guard cfept along until he reached the en- zine, when he saw the excited creature gestieulatine wildly and putting on more eoals But q Well=aimed blow on tie head laid him tow and the train was stopped.
 There k pretty story of a porter.s trouble with < giraffe on one of our northern lines. He could not induce the heast to get himself comfortably packed in the truck They calls him 4 iara1f he said to the guard, tbut all gall him longlegged. chattering fool. and all reckon thau have some strugglin wi him thisen when strain gets first bridge If tho doesn't tie his neck in d knot he'll have his head knocked o8!!., The naturalist Buekland. who was a great practical locker. was fond of pro ducing extraordinary animals from his coat pocket and gravely asking the booking clerk the cost of transit. .,Fhat will that go for?7 he asked one day. as he produced a tortoise. They're nothing, said the man. with eeorn after vainly looking through the schedule. they re an insels A county court judge in South Wales once ad- journed d case from his own court to railway carriage and. taking solicitors and witnesses along with him. gave his decision at the end of the run tendon News