Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-06-26
UP THE COUNTRY.
Las Vegas Street Railway Rumors
That Bristol Will Resign.
HOME TALENT SHOW.

time ago that the Rock Island Sys-
tenn is hereafter to replace the Great
Rock Island Route" as the official
trademark for the aggregation of cor
p~orations which the Chicago, Rock ISL
n & Pacific Railway company now
dominates and includes calls forth
from the pen of the statistician a few
interesting facts. The nnouncemen
is but another illustration OF the pro
gress of railway evolution in these
rapid days, under which a railroad con-
sisting a generation ago of $50 miles
of i'll laid track, lying in a single state.
has grown into a system of 1000 miles,
multiplied into lines almost innumera-
BILE, %radiating into more than a dozen
states n territories" says the Rail-
way Age.
1t was first the Chicago & Rock
island Railroad company, chartered in
1851, whose single track 1876 miles long
reached the Mississippi in July, 1854.
forty-eight years ago, and connected a
little city on Lake Michigan with a
little village on the great river. The
Mississippi, broad and unbridged then
in all its course, at first bounded the
ambitions of the projectors of this pio-
neer line. But in 1866 the then won.
derful work of bridging the Father of
Waters being accomplished and the
western extension having been COM
menced under the name of the Missis-
sippi & Missouri Railroad company,
the two roads were consolidated under
the title of the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific railroad, and in 1869 the Mis-
souri, river was reached at Council
Bluffs. Then there was one more
river to cross.
after an interval of years the Chi
cago, Kansas & Nebraska Railway
company took up the work of extern
sion beyond the Missouri into Kansas
and beyond, and was absorbed into the
parent company in 1891, the combined
roads having developed by this time
into the Great Rock Island Route
Still later the Chicago. Rock Island &
Texas gave title to a long extension
to southwestern points. and the Chi
cago, Rock Island & Mexico and sub
ordinate companies have but recently
carried the line on to the Mexican bor-
der, a straight distance of 1.465 miles
from Chicago. Meantime the growth
has been going on west, north and
south. by construction and purchase.
until the old tap root from Chicago to
Rock Island has spread out into many
lines, reaching from Illinois into Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklaho-
ma, Indian Territory, Texas, New Mex
leo, Colorado, Minnesota, South Da-
kota, Arkansas and Tennessee. The
little city of Rock Island, which form
ed the terminus of the original line, is
now a way station through which
pours the traffic of 1000 miles of road,
but is still honored and advertised to
the world by giving its name to the
II - J11a,l Oxv1tAr, 60 ubaCA mouth
no bounds now seem to be set. The
little Rock Island road of $50 miles in
1854. which had increased to 1900
miles at the beginning of the present
year. has within a few weeks added
nearly 200 miles more, and the ag-
gregation now foots up as follows:
Miles.
c., r. l. & p. east of Missouri
river l,IOo
West of the Missouri river, 1887
Recent additions
Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf. .....1,165
Burlington, Cedar Rapids &
Northern l.2S7
Rock Island & Peoria ........... 119
st. Louis, Kansas City & Col
orado 100
Total Rock Island system. . .6,979
III was the TREAT ROCK lSldnu
Route when the mileage was small
compared to that of ~neighboring sys-
TENS; now that it has leaped to a place
among the greatest, with great plans
of extension and absorption yet to be
fulfilled, it has dropped adjectives and
risen to the dignity of the simplest
possible designation-'Rock Island Sys-
tenn Orders have been issued that
the new title shall succeed to the old
on all cars. signs, stationery, maps,
folders, tickets and other forms of Off
cial reading matter, and the dozen or
more corporate titles that must main
tain a legal existence will disappear
from the public eye, replaced for all
practical purposes by the two words,
Rock Island, which told the destina-
ton of the road as it commenced its
growth forty-eight years ago"
Adds Allied Roads to Bond.