The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-27

Torrance. He gives the names and amounts
of the original subscribers to the stock of
the Credit Mobilier. How much those who
recall the scandal connected with the pur-
chase of the Credit Mobilier stock by a
few congressman and wonder at
the spasm of virtue which swept over
the country demanding the degradation of
public-spirited men like Oliver Ames, of
Massachusetts, and Colfax, of this State,
wish that this man ~"seyenty-four years
young" could have told us more of that
wonderful financial machine which gave us
the Union Pacific and yet stood as the syn
onym of corruption and plumber. In this
connection the prediction which Train made
in a speech in Omaha, in 1863, regarding the
proposed transcontinental railway, is so
much in his unique style that it is quoted
as follows:
America is the stage, the world is the
audience of to-day. While one act of the
drama represents the booming of the cam
non on the Rapidan, the Cumberland and
the Rio Grande, sounding the death-knell
OF a rebellious war, the next scene records
the booming of the cannon on both sides of
the Missouri to celebrate the grandest work
OF peace that ever attracted the energies of
man. The great Pacific Railway is COM
menced, and If you knew the man who has
nold or the affalr as we'll as / do, no doubt
would ever arise as to its speedy compile
ton. The President shows good Judgment
in locating the road where the Almighty
placed the signal station-at the entrance of
a garden seven hundred miles in length and
twenty broad. . Before the first CEN
fury of the Nations birth we may see in
the New York depot some strange Pacific
Railway notice:
European passengers for Japan will
please take the night train.
Passengers for China this way.
african and Asiatic freight must be
distinctly marked, For Picking, via San
Francisco. immigration will soon
pour into these valleys. Ten millions of
emigrants will settle in this golden land in
twenty years"
The foregoing prediction, made at the
darkest period in the war for the Union.
must have been regarded as the dream of
a disordered intellect: nevertheless, the last
spike in the rails which connected the two
oceans was driven May 10. 1859.
Mr.. Trains book, despite the wears of
silence. doubtless due to his disgust with
mankind, is studded with brief and pungent
anecdote and keen but kindly comment.
Here is an anecdote of Wendell Phillips:
Once. in Charleston. S. c., Phillips re-
turned to his hotel late TO dinner. As he
approached the door. it was held open by
a negro slave. Phillips said haughtily that
he never permitted a slave to wait on him.
oAN ~ "o0t0 " III 81 AOh. IfOW lOnR
have you been a slave? asked Mr.. Phil
lips. The negro replied: L amt got no
time TO talk erbout dat now, wild only five
minutes for dinner Mr.. Phillips told the
slave to leave the room, that he would not
let him serve him at the table: he would
wait on himself. L can't do dat, sub: I
is responsible for de SLIDER on de table.
suhl'
The reason given for the general read
ing of fiction is that it is stranger than
truth, but here is a true story of a life
stranger and more dramatic than fiction.
into which Is woven achievement, incident
and the names of the worlds great and
famous men for the quarter of a century
ending with Mr.. Trains withdrawal from
the world. Merely as a source OF entertain
ment il should reach a circulation as wide
as that of the most popular novel. Pub
lished by D.. Appleton & Co., New York and
Chicago.