The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-12-10

necessary TO Tell now vice 1FeSlueHl
Cannon wanted to put on straw hat
at Savannah, and General Passenger
Agent Turk suggested the propriety OF
taking a drive around the city in a
luster. So mellow was the sunshine, so
genial was the weather. Then how
at the banquet that followed we all
drank as freely as if we had really
found the Fons Juventutis: then of the
trip back in which we did nothing but
sleep--sleep and eat.
We left Savannah at o'clock, spent
TWO hours in Columbia and half AN hour
in Greensboro reaching here yesterday
morning at 6:30 o'clock.
On the trip to Savannah, as has al
ready been told in these columns, a rec
ord-brealiing speed of "A miles an hour
was attained over the new road. Re
turning the highest speed reached was
81 miles an hour. This high speed of the
first passenger train ever run over the
road, shows that the railroad commits
sioners of South Carolina were right
when they declared it as the best new
road ever built in South Carolina. Admir-
ably located with maximum grade of l
per cent, enabling it to move trains at
Il high rate of speed over the loftiest
ridge in the sandhill region. some 900
feet above Columbia; strongly bridged.
heavily rallied, and well ballasted
throughout. it steps full panoplied into
The arena of composition. The work has
been done in an astonishingly short
time and is one of the best examples Of
modern railway enterprise.
The new line extends from Columbia
l. h.
Charleston and Western Carolina, thence
connecting at Yemassee with the Plant
system. 1t creates new route to
Florida, and thence by line of steamers
to Havana.
At one minute past II o'clock tonight
the regular schedule on the Southern's
new line from New York to Havana
viii go into effect Within the next few
months the Seaboard's route between
the same points viii be opened up.
Both of these will shorten the journey
from the North to the South many hours
and will make us next door neighbor to
Canada Oh the one side and the West
Indies on the other.
Thus the frozen north and the torrid
zone. once so far away and strange,
have become in a night, an easy journey
of few hours. in a Pullman sleeper.
This is indeed, as | have already
said, most significant event, and means
much for the South.
The opening of these railways means
the development Of great areas of coun-
try which have not heretofore been fac
tors III Southern civilization. Soon they
viii provide larger crops and larger sup
plies of finished goods or larger bodies
of consumers. Every new step in devel-
opment such rs this viii add TO the
degree CT civilization of the people, and
make them at once larger producers and
larger consumers.
1t is no aceRient--t the fact that these
roads are building southwark and devel-
oping this section. They are simply
reaching out for the markets of the
world. Lit is an economic necessity that
demands it. Accidents such as this are
only the ripening of opportunity. There
is no sentiment i'll capital. 1t instructive
~ acts along the lines of natural de-
yclopment.
The South's turn has come to partici-
pate in the struggle for foreign markets;
and, apparently, as the result Of an ac-
cident in Havana harbor, the path Of
destiny has been suddenly opened for us
in the Orient.
AS the Mediterranean lost its import
ance when ocean-going vessels passed
outside the Pillars Of Hercules, and
America and India became the objective
points Of European commerce, so the
developments Of the last few years are
likely to develop new trade centres IN
Cuba and Porto Rico, in Asia and in
Africa, in South America and in the
islands Of the Pacific. And this can but
have the effect of greatly beneiitting
this section of the country. This shifting
Of the axis Of commerce has already be
gun, as is shown by the great railway
routes South which are in process OF
completion or in contemplation
Seventy -four miles an hour, for the
first train over new railroad! The
world knew no such record before Fri-
day. when the Southern train made T.
on its new line.
How To-day conlplacenty plumes itself
upon its superiority TO little Yester-
day of SO years ago. And in nothing IS
this truer than i'll railroading. From its
misty heights of great through lines,
laundering along Mt more than mile
a minute. Today looks down with smile
of pity on the low levels of /. the little
road Of Yesterday, making its II to 10
miles an hour. How modest and simple
were the iron straps tackled to stringers
for rails, the toy-ille engine; the cars
built in barrel form SO that in case they
toppled off the track nobody would be
hurt. Then a trip by rail from Raleigh
to Savannah and return would have
taken two weeks of the most wearing
travel Now we make it, eating and
sleeping and making ourselves generally
comfortable as in. the most luxurious
Of hotels and are absent from home bur
a day.
What mighty wonders have the in
ventige genius of man, coupled with
great wealth, wrought! Even a year
ago this was not possible-and no man
Al tkxtxs.