Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-10-23

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energy always cheerfully, and often freely; and,
by reason of their necessity to the economical bring
ing together of producer and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
and consignee-in the exchange or sale of products,
they may fairly claim to be indispensable agencies
for the highest development of the country.
Indeed. were it not for the great helpful work
done by them in the latter half of the last century,
q large part of the princely domain the United
States acquired by the louisiana Purchase, and
which has added millions to the population and bill
lions to the wealth of our Republic, would today be
virCin sod, untrod save by the feet of the untamed
Indian, the hoofs of the wild horse, the buffalo
and the unlimited game that. in the not remote
past, roamed unmolested over the vast plains of
the Wild West.
Many of those who read these lines will remem-
Der that the biographies used in their school days
made mention of and placed on the map, the Great
American Desert. In fact, as a desert, it's area at
that period was reckoned second to only the Great
Sahara of Africa.
The history of the progress of the last fifty
years fairly CLOVIS with the fame of the practical
achievements of steam railroads and those who
manage them.
They have given to the age a system of trans.
~portation which has so stimulated the products Of
agriculture and manufacturing and industries Of
every kind, that they have placed untold blessings
and luxuries within the reach of millions of peopl,
residing where formerly only thousands lived ant
could not then live there except in the wretchnes'
of want. and amid surroundings in which eve,
wealth could not provide the comforts now enjoy.
ed by the residents there who yet may be in hpmbl
circumstances.
Looking backward to the closing years Of The
fifth decade of the last century, we see a few ad.
venturous spirits who, not content to spend their
days in idle dreaming around the hearthstones of
civilization, dared fate in quest of fortune on the
: Pacific Slope.
In 1848, January 10Th, one of these, James w.
Marshall. discovered ~glittering fragments of vel
low stuff at some place in California which proved
to be gold.
The discovery led to investigation which estab-
lished the fact that the metal was to be found in
paying plenitude throughout a considerable region.
The news of the find, sparsely settled and poor
ly provided with roads though the country was,
spread like the blaze of a prairie fire and it was
not long in reaching the states.
The excitement it produced grew apace and. ere
another twelve-month rolled away, thousands Of
gold-seekers from the states were in California al
work washing treasure out of the Pactolian sand.
of rivers, whose streams long years before ha(
ceased to flow,
The glowing accounts, circulated through tn,
newspapers and by word Of mouth of the Colder
West and the possibilities of the intervening coun
try, tempted others to follow, until soon there wa
an unprecedented immigration to the New f
Dorado.
Then it was railroad promoters, builders an
operators, were impressed with the aphorism
Westward the Star of Empire takes its way" an
began to make ready to answer the call of the wild
Not many years elapsed, after the discovery Q
gold in California, before a railway line to conpec
the shores of the Atlantic with the Pacifc-th
East with the West-was projected.
Through the wilderness, around the mountain,
over the plains, the rails were laid and, within tt
decades from Jim Marshall's lucky find, the Iro
Horse was speeding across the continent, from sc
to sea.
In May, 1869, the last spike in the constructio
of the Central Pacific railroad was driven and Il
ambitious dream of an unbroken railway come
ton between New York and San Francisco. a dj
lance of $500 miles became thereby an accomplis
ed fact. More recently, the Northern, the Sout
ern, the Canadians and other Pacific railroads we
completed.
Then the genius for daring enterprise Al
great achievements on the part of the Ame
can railroad president and the general manager
his line, gave to the art of developing a section
q country the certainty of a science,
The talent, the skill, the energy-in a word, t
do or die spirit of the railroad president, the en-
neer and the manager rose to every occasion a
daringly, successfully met and overcame eve
difficulty.
Literally, they knew no such word as fail.
They found a very large proportion of wi