Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-11-04
THE PROPOSED RAILROAD.
VIM. Armstrong, Of Rails, Says It
Ought to be Built and Now is the
Time to Secure It.

Correspondence Of the Ledger.
PERRY, NO., Nov. LII have read,
with interest, much of late in all the
Northeast Missouri papers concerning
the proposed Eldon and st. Louis rail-
road, and especially the proceedings
of your meeting regarding the same,
and am almost fighting mad that you
did not blow your whistle when that
took place, for I wanted to be there
and tell my experience, for as o citi-
zen of old Monroe and Paris, my place
of nativity, 1 am ever alive to their
interests, and on this topic I am a2:40
goer, and verify believe will yet make
a mile a minute, as my mother Oft
told me I walked early. Bob, you
know there is nothing that helps a
fellow to talk so much as to be full of
his subject, and this line Ia one of my
favorites and now is the time to beat
the iron.
For as your paper is for folks now
living, just-s so this project is offered
for us to take hold of now and not 40
years hence. I have travelled this line
three feet at a time and know it runs
through a most splendid country and
think it a grand, good investment for
the counties through which it passes
and a bank deposit for the county
seats, al also Shelbina.
1t would be presumptuous for me to
occupy your space in telling the an
nual income from q mile of railroad.
j. v. Williams, yanr recent county
clerk, did that in your recent meeting
and struck the key note, too, regard
ing the convenience to each of those
towns and proportionately SO to every
| citizen of those counties.
You cannot set a price on a con-
venience. What is the street or road
worth to you that passes your door?
Your ever e~nterprising citizen, @. Fl.
Hardin, (now deceased) once assisted
me in securing the first bridge over
the creek at the J. N. Gross place, now
almost in your city limits, and was
simply impossible. We pleaded its
necessity and convenience to routes
, to and from Mexico.
fought soreheads in court and out;
judges scratched and looked at each
other, as some thought the road ought
to be closed, but the bridge was built
and I sold the place and could not
have done 30 without that conven-
fence, and to-day your citizens enjoy
it.
Again, if your county is in a straight
at tax time you have but to speak to q
railroad company and they expect to
meet such promptly, while you are
compelled to wait on delinquent sub
scribers. I, too, see the results of hog
cholera and Bill Jones and Bob Jack
son the full limit of law. Just what
the towns and counties along this line
will do, I suppose, a be determined
by canvassing. Some soreheads say
"wait'' and those railroad companies
will do this building themselves. So
they may, in their own time, but If
can buy a convenience to myself and
enhancemy real estate now, by reas'
enable expense, I would as soon do i
as buy a mule. Neither should any
think by Paris and Mexico asking fol
this convenience that they want tht
whole world and a piece outside for
potato patch, bnt simply believe it
good business investment for count.
and town. So let us take our hand
off our pocketbooks and have this con
venience if possible and he who Gomez
this way in search Of homes will say
Missouri is the center of the earth, an,
Mexico and Paris will be the littl,
Romes of Northeast Missouri and 8,
very happy, they will ever be read.
to see the Millennium. Remember tn
imperative command: "Be We doer
Of my work." (not talkers) which, o
course, meant the early competition
of the Eldon and st. Louis railroad
Respectfully, in haste, but a well
wisher of Monroe and Audrain coun
ties. WIN. ARMSTRONG.
A Jopo procassiou Of diaeasaa star