The times., 1898-11-27
To the Pathfinder,
Whose back above the Desert bent,
Who set the stakes to mark the

To the Pathfinder,
Whose back above the Desert bent.
Who set the stakes TO mark the
Trail
The TTackInlu and the President
And all the children OF the Rail.
In the pages of this book Mr.. Warman
has endeavored TO tell how the wagon
trains crept across the Great Desert; how
the engineer and the miner. with level
and pick pushed the frontier steadily
further west: how the Great Desert was
peopled and how the Indians hung like
wolves on the outskirts of advancing civ
ilzation. One of the later chapters rec
ords that incident, fresh in the memory
of the present generation, the opening OF
Oklahoma Much of his work is simple,
dry chronicle of dates and deeds; but a
passage in one OF the earlier chapters is
significant as bearing on the events OF
today. Mr.. Warman says OF the railway
agitation in the first half of the century.
During all the preliminary work the great aim
OF the road was 10 reach India, China, and Japan
Benton, Clark, and Others in Congress were ever
pointing to the East by way Of the West, and
crying in the drowsy ears OF the nodding speaker
that ''yonder lay the road TO the Orient. 1t
not until the discoveries of gold in California
that Congressman Sargent, OF that State, began
10 hint guardedly that the West itself was worth
going after. To be sure nobody took him seri-
ously. lie was merely tOOtnS MS own norm, iHtil
said. and they continued TO talk Asia, TO talk
against the scheme, not TO talk at all. No
| body dreamed Of the Possibilities Of the Wild
/ West. No prophet attempted to foretell the
! story of the vast empire that would awaken
/ with the first magnetic touch Of the steel-shod
! feet Of the iron horse.
/ No man would have believed At the close Of the
| war of the rebellion that within a quarter OF a
century 100000 people would be living in the
/ territory between the Missouri and the Pacific
Ocean. man who would have predicted in 1851
what Mr.. Sydney Dillon stated fact Just thir-
| ~ years later, would have been without honor in
| AIRY country-nameiy, that the railroads would
! change not only the climate of the West, but
the character of the soil we'll; that the farmer
would plant trees, and that these trees would
| check the bitter winds, and also cause an in
creased rainfall; that the turrowed fields, which
! formerly offered TO the sky but one uniform,
smooth, and iron-hard surface, would create 4
| rainfall by their evaporation, and invite il by
their contrast of temperature; that, in short,
! with The advent OF the railroad upon the West
| ern plaieaus the climate would become milder,
the cold less destructive snd the rainfall greater
Reaching across the great American desert toi
the trade OF the Orient, the dreamers never
dreamed that these vast reaches of land, theT
considered uninhabitsble, would soon be occupied
by q rapidly increasing population, and that
when the road was built, ninety-fve cents o
every dollar earned would come from local and
only five cents from through traffic.
The story OF this tremendous develop
ment is the story Mr.. Warman has to tell
!
read the book, ones first sensation is a
| slight disappointment that he has not
done more with IL Perhaps It is because
the dramatic possibilities of the story are
so great that the author can only hint al
them In so small book; but for the mos,
part the narrative is certainly too bald and
plain to be called literature. THE Grand
| Canon War" is the history of Titanic
duel between the Rio Grande and Santa
| 10 l.fI, az hot IT,, sI,a
courts and In the canon. 1t is a gooG
story, and interesting as mere fact; but
it impresses one when told by Mr.. War
man as If It were n sort of undeveloped
territory waiting for the pioneer to de-
velop 1t into history. Mere record OF
facts does not make history; If it did
the school histories of the United State!
would not be such fearfully dry reading
The historian may some day arrive t
make this desert bloom as the rose, bu
Mr. Warman has not done 1t in his "Stor.
of the Railroad"
Here and there are oases-dramatic in
cidents recounted briefly but with grin
humor or pathos One of the curious
chances of this Western development o
national life came to pass in the histor.
of the Kansas Pacific. 1t is told by Mr.
Warman as follows:
American securities were shaky in '7S Tn
English bondholders, having returns from III
money blindly invested went into court an
! had a receiver appointed Meanwhile the Kar
sas Pacific kept doubling the road every day
keep the rust off the rail (the road in questio
running between Kit Carson and Los Animas
and awaited developments. Times grew harder
and the court ordered the road TO be sold.
course the Kansas Pacific Company had receive
nothing for the material and said, with goo
deal of justice: I've ought 10 save our IRON
The date was fixed for the sale OF the road, an
when il came enough the Kansas Pacif
people went out TO Los Animas and began
gather up the things that they had loaned to II
new road. First of all they pulled down Il
switch targets at Los Aninas. Then they gait
cred up everything that belonged TO them an
brought 1t out They took up the rails and III
and carried them back to Kit Carson. All Il
improvements, stations, tanks, and turn tabl
that had been built by them or with Kansas p
, | cifc material they hauled home with them. F
nally when they had finished, they had haul,
the entire Kit Carson Railroad up 10 Kit CarSo
sorted it, and piled it up TO dry.
n And so II fell out that when the officer of Il
court came up 10 sell the road the local ofiicia
|. | and tie crew of the special that had hroug
a the party were bubbling over with the joke 7
be sure some dozens of widows and orphans IN.
have had their all invested here, but that is n
: the popular belief. The builders of railroad
y unfortunately, usually reckoned to be millio
o aires who stand the loss and so the peop
h about Kit Carson laughed it their sleeves and Il
V lowed the authorities down to the switch tn
used to open 10 let the Los Anmas express j
"Where is this railroad?' asked the auctionet
!, We'll" said the chief engineer. 'the fxtur
t belonged TO us-there's the right of way, thoug
il as good as new"
!; The owners bought it in.
: 1.-THE Story of the Railroads. .chro
1 icie Of fact. and the facts will intere