The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-02-09

Der Sanderson's stagecoach, running
from New Brunswick to Easton, as he
drove through Someryiile, y. j., turn
ing up to the post Office and dropping
the mail bags with ten letters and two
or three newspapers, Sanderson him
self on the box, six feet two 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!
1t was the event of the day when the
stage came. 1t was our highest ambi-
tion to become 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
hind!" | saw the old stage driver not
long ago, and l expressed TO him my
surprise that one around whose head
had seen a halo of glory in my boyhood
time was only a man like the rest of us.
Between Sanderson's stagecoach and
Chicago express train what a 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 it would be
the burlesque of all railroaders. Be
tween that rude machine. crawling
= - l.r. a
clumsy and bouncing train. and one of
our Rocky mountain locomotives. with
a village of palace cars. becoming draw
ing rooms by day and princely dormi-
tories by night, what bewitching prog
ressl
See the train move out of one 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 ledges where an inch off the
track would be the difference between
hundred men living and a hundred
dead. full head Of steam and two men In
the locomotive charged with all the re-
sponsibility Of whistle and Westing-
house brake. Clank, clank. go the
wheels. Clankl clankl 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-a rail train in lightning pro-
cession.
When years ago the railroad men
struck for wages. our country was
threatened with annhilation. 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 S1,OOO.OOO, 900 received
from passengers and freight; White
mountains, Allegheny mountains.
Rocky mountains, Sierra Neyadas. 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 all
the other wheels of the tens Of thou
sands of freight ears, 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 | saw at Doncaster.
For what It has done for all Christen-
dom / calculate in the language of the
text. 30 WHEEL"
q ..-,-1l hoe Loor4 ,.g1ffrfr Drt
the eight wheels of the rail car or the
four wheels of the carriage or the two
wheels OF the gig il was not until 1876,
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, dominating
spectacle of a 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
mystery. Was It of more Importance
that the reindeer or the eagle rapidly
exchanged iungles or crags than that
man should get swiftly from place TO
place? Was the business Of the bird or
the roebuck more urgent than that of
the incarnated immortal? No. AT last
we have the obiteration of distances by
pneumatic tire. At last we have wings.
And what has this invention done for
woman? The cynics and constitution
al GROWERS would deny her this eman-
cipation and say: "What better eXer-
else can she have than broom or
duster or a churn or rocking a cradle
or running up and downstairs ora walk
TO church with prayer book under
her arm?" And they rather rejoice 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 air
and the health in deep respiration and
the awakening Of disused muscles and
the exhilaration OF velocity will rejoice
that wife and mother and daughter may
have this new recreation. Indeed life
TO so many is so hard a grind that am
glad at the arrival of any new mode OF
healthful recreation. We need have no
anxiety about this invasion OF the
worlds stupidity by the vivacious and
laughing and iubilant wheel, except
that we always want it TO roll in the
right direction. toward place Of busi-
ness, toward good recreation. toward
philanthropy, toward usefulness, to-