Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-30

II
the wheel is in motion, and the Clermont,
the first steamboat, is going up the North
river, running the distance-hold your
breath while tell you--from New York
TO Albany in 80 hours. But the steam
boat wheel multiplied its vclocities until
the I.ucania of the Cunard and the Ma
jcstic of the White Star line and the
New York Of the American line and the
Kaiser Wilhelm of the North German
Lloyd line cross the Atlantic ocean in
six days or less, communication between
the two countries so rapid and so con-
slant that whereas once those who had
been to Europe took on airs for the rest
of their mortal livcs-and to me for
many years the most dsagrccablc man |
could meet was the man who had been to
Europe, dcspising all American pictures
and American music and American So
cicty because they had seen European
pictures and heard European music and
mingled in European society--now n
transatlantic voyage is so common that n
sensible man would no more boast of it
than if he had been to New York or
Boston.
All the rivers and lakes and seas have
turned white with rage under the shifting
of the steamboat wheel. In the phos-
phorescent wake of it sail the worlds
commercial properties. Through the
axle of that wheel nations join hands,
and America says to Venice. Give me
your pictures" and to France. Give me
your graceful apparel" and to England:
"Givc mo your Sheffield knives and Not
tingham laces and Manchester goods and
] will give. you breadstuffs. corn and rye
and rice. / will give you cotton for your
mills. ! will give You cattle for your
slaughter houses. Give me all you have
TO spare, and l will give you all I have
to spare" And transatlantic and cisat-
lantic nations grasp each others hands
in brotherhood
What n difference between John Fitch's
steamboat. GO feet long, and the Oceanic,
704 feet long! The ocean wheel turns
swifter and swifter. filling up the dis
lance between the hemisphcres and has
tening the time spoken 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 remember San
dcrson's stagecoach running from New
Brunswick to Easton. as he drove through
Somerville. n. j., turning up to the post
office and dropping the mail bags with
ten letters and two or three newspapers.
Sanderson himself on the box, 6 feet
inches and well proportional, long lash
whip in his hand, the reins of six horses
in the other the leaders" lathcred along
the line of the traces, foam dripping from
the bits,
Transportation Facilities.
1t 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 beh:nd"' | saw
the old stage driver not long ago, and
expressed to him my surprise that one
around whose head | had seen halo of
glory in my boyhood time vas only man
like the rest of us. Between Sandcrson' S
stagecoach and n Chicago express train
what a difference, all the great cities OF
the nation strung on an iron thread OF
railways,
At Doncastcr, England, I saw George
Stephenson's first locomotive. II in good
repair it could run yet but because Of its
make and size it would be the burlesque
of all railroaders. Between that rude ma
chine crawling down the iron track, fol
! a
and one Of our Rocky mountain locomo
tives, with a village of palace cars, be
coming drawing rooms by day and prince
ly dormitories by night, what bewitchinl
progress!
See the train move out of one of ouI
great depots for thousand mile journey
All aboard Tickets clipped and baggage
checked and porters attentive to every
tvin mi yvtt do m r,
ness that never saw the light, alone
lodges where an inch off the track woul(
be the difference between a hundred mer
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! go the wheels. Clank. clank! echo
the rocks. Small villages only hear tn,
thunder and see the whirlwind as thu
train shoots past, city on the wing
Thrilling, startling, sublime magnihcen
spectacle-a rail train in lightning pro
cession.
When years ago the railroad mel
struck for wages, our country was threat
ened with humiliation, and we realized
what the railroad wheel had done for th
country-over one hundred and eight.
thousand miles of railroad in the Unite,
States; in one year over billion dollar
received from passengers and freight
White mountains, Allegheny mountains
Rocky mountains, Sierra Nevadas, bow
ing to the iron yoke; all the rolling stool
of New York Central, Erie, Pennsylva
MIA, Michigan Central, Georgia, Grea
Southern, Union Pacific and all the othe
wheels of the tens of thousands of freieh
cars, wrecking cars, cabooses, DRAWN
room cars, sleeping cars, passenger cars
of all the accommodation, express an
special trains, started by the wheel of tn
grotesque locomotive that | saw at Don
caster. For what it has done for all Chris
tendon l calculate in the language of tn
text, 30 Wheel!
The Miracle of the Age.
While the world has been rolling o.
the eight wheels Of the rail car or tn
four wheels OF the carriage or the tw
wheels of the gig it was not until 1876
at the Centennial exposition at Philade
phia, that the miracle of the nineteent
century rolled in-the bicycle. The worl
could not believe its own eyes, and no
until quite far on in the eighties wer
, the continents enchanted with the whir
ing, flashing, dominating spectacle of
machine that was TO do so much for tn
pleasure, the business, the health and tn
proit of nations. The world had needle
it for G,000 years. Mans slowncss c
locomotion was a mystery. Was it G
more importance that the reindeer or tn
eagle rapidly exchanged jungles or crae
than that man should get swiftly froi