The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-01-04
line of the traces, foam dripping from

Nue OI Vne tF4SeS, FOAM 0r1ppln8 from
the bitsi "a
It was til event Of the day when the
stage came It was our highest ambi-
tion 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 be-
nind!" saw the old stage driver not
long ago, and expressed to him my
surprise that one around whose head
mad seen halo OF glory in my boyhood
time was only man like the rest of US.
Between Sanderson's stagecoach and q
chicago express train what differ
ence, all the great cities of the nation
strung on an iron thread of railways!
At Doncaster, England, saw George
Stephenson's first locomotive. If in
good repair it could run yet. but be-
cause OF its make and size IL would be
the burlesque of all railroaders. Be-
tween that rude machine, crawling
down the iron track, followed by q
clumsy and bouncing train, and one Of
our Rocky mountain locomotives, with
village of palace cars, becoming draw
ing rooms by day and princely dormi-
tories by night, what bewitching prog
rass!
See the train move out Of cue of our
great depots for a 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 between
. hundred men living and hundred
dead, full head of steam and two men in
the locomotive charged with all the re-
sponsibility Of whistle and Westing-
house brake. Clankl clank! 20 the
wheels. Clank! clank! echo the rocks.
Small villages only hear the thunder
and see the whirlwind as. the train
| shoots past, a city on the wing. Thrill
ing. startling. sublime, magnificent
spectacle rail train in lightning pro-
cession.
When years ago the railroad men
struck for wages, our country was
threatened with annihilation, and we
realized what the railroad wheel had
done for this country over 10000
miles Of railroad in the United States;
in one year over $1,000, ,00o, 900 received
from passengers and freight; White
mountains, Allegheny mountains,
Rocky mountains, Sierra Nevadas, bow
ing to the iron yoke; all the rolling
stock Of New York Central, Erie, Penn
sylvania, Michigan Central, Georgia,
Great Southern, Union Pacific and ali
the other wheels of the tens OF thou
| sands Of freight cars, wrecking cars, ca
booses, drawing room cars, sleeping
cars, passenger cars, OF all the accom-
mediation, express and special trains,
started by the wheel Of the grotesque
locomotive that I saw at. Doncaster.
For what it has done for all Christen.
dom I calculate in the language Of the
text, 20 WHEEL"
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 II 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 owe
eyes, and not until quite far on in the
eighties were the continents enchanted
with the whirling, flashing, dominating
spectacle Of machine that was to do
SO much for the pleasure, the business,
the health and the profit Of nations.
The world had needed it for 5000 years.
Mans slowness of locomotion was 4
| mystery. Was it Of more Importance
| that the reindeer or the eagle rapidly
exchanged jungles or crags than That
man should get swiftly from place to
place? Was the business Of the bird o.
the roebuck more urgent than that Of
the incarnated immortal? No. At last
weshave the obliteration Of distances by
Epneumatic tire. At last we have wings.
And what has this invention done for
| woman? The cynics and constitutions
| al GROWERS would deny her this eman-
cipation and say: What better exer-
j rssa can shn have than n frn0m nr n