Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-28

DUeEeS 1uu tAS S-AAAS sSSAAS@
of in the book Of Revelation when
there shall be no more sea-
While this has been doing on the
water James Watts wheel has done
as much ON the land. How well re.
member Sanderson's stagecoach, run.
ming from New Brunswick to Easton,
as he drove through Somerville, N. j.,
turning up to the postoffice and drop
ping the mail bags with ten letters
and two or three newspapers, Sander
son himself on the box. G feet 2 inches
and well proportioned. long lash whip
in his hand. the reins of six horses In
the other. the leaders" lathered along
the line of the traces, foam dripping
from the bits!
It was the event of the day when
the stage came. 1t was our highest
ambition to become a stage driver.
Some of the boys climbed on the great
leathern boot of the stage, and those
Of US who could not get on shouted,
"Cut behind" I saw the old stage
driver not long ago, and expressed to
him my surprise that one around
whose head 1 had seen halo Of glory
in my boyhood time was only a man
like the rest OF u.s. Between Sander
sons sta gecoach and Chicago express
train what difference, all the great
cities of the nation strung on an iron
thread Of railways
At Doncaster. England, saw George
Stephenson's first locomotive. II n
good repair. it could run yet. but be-
cause Of its make and size it would be
the burlesque Of all railroaders. Be-
tween that rude machine, crawling
down the iron track, followed by a
clumsy and bouncing train, and one of
our Rocky mountain locomotives, with
q village of palace cars, becoming
drawing rooms by day and princely
dornitories by night, what bewitching
progress.
Modern Wonders.
See the train move out Of one Of cur
great depots for thousand mile jour-
ney! All aboard! Tickets clipped and
baggage checked and porters attentive
to every want, under tunnels dripping
with dampness that never saw the
light; along lodges where an inch OF
the track would be the difference be-
tween a hundred men living and a
hundred dead, full head Of steam and
two men in the locomotive charged
with all the responsibility of whistle
and Westinghouse brake. Clank!
clank! 90 the wheels. Clank! clank!
echo the rocks. Small villages only
hear the thunder and see the whirl-
wind as the train shoots past, city
on the wing. Thrilling, startling,
sublime, magnificent spectacle--a rail
train in lightning procession.
When years ago the railroad men
struck for wages, our country was
threatened with humiliation, and we
realized what the railroad wheel had
done for this country-oyer one hun
dred and eighty thousand milesrof rail-
read in the United States; in one year
over billion dollars received from
passengers and freight; White noun
tains, Allegheny mountains, Rocky
mountains, Sierra Nevadas, bowling tc
the iron yoke; all the rolling stock of
New York Central, Erie. Pennsylvania,
Michigan Central, Georgia, Great
Southern, Union Pacific and all the
other wheels of the tens Of thousands
Of freight cars, wrecking cars, ca
booses, drawing room cars. sleeping
cars, passenger cars, of all the accom-
modation, express and special trains,
started by the wheel of the grotesque
locomotive that I saw at Doncaster.
For what 1t has done for all Christen-
dom calculate in the language Of the
text, 20 wheeiT
While the world has been rolling on
the eight wheels Of the rail car or the
four wheels of the carriage or the two
wheels of the gig it was not until 1875.
at the Centennial exposition at Phila-
delphia, that the miracle of the nine
teenth century rolled in-the bicycle.
The world could not believe its own
eyes, and not until quite far on in the
eighties were the continents enchanted
with the whirling. flashing, dominat-
ing spectacle Of a machine that was to
do so much for the pleasure, the busi-
ness, the health and the profit Of ma
tions. The world had needed it for
5000 years. Mans slowness of loco
motion was mystery. Was it of mora
Importance that the reindeer or the
eagle rapidly exchanged jungles or
crags than that man should get swift
ly from place to place? Was the busi-
ness Of the bird or the roebuck more
urgent than that Of the incarnated i'm
mortal? No At last we have the
obiiteration Of distances by pneumatic
tire. At last we have wings. And
what has this invention done for wo-
man? The cynics and constitutions
GROWERS would deny her this eman
cipation and say. "What better exer-
else can she have than a broom or
duster or churn or rocking a cradle
or running up and down stairs OF q
walk to church with prayer book un
der her arm?" And they rather re-
joice to find her disabled with broken
pedal or punctured tire half way out
to Chevy Chase or Coney Island. But
all sensible people who know the tonic
OF fresh mir and the health in deep
respiration and the awakening Of dis
used muscles and the exhilaration of
velocity will rejoice that wife and
mother and daughter may have this
new recreation. Indeed life to so many
10 so hard grind that I am glad at
the arrival of any new mode of health
full recreation. We need have no anx-
iety about this invasion of the worlds
stupidity by the vivacious and laugh
~ y,,h; ~ IL xI-