The mirror., 1922-01-26

WALTZ anu tcIIuOHt cdCn, hcHtuCky,
Oregon and Maryland each, New Jer-
sey, New Hampshire and Nevada each,
Colorado 1. 1t was the bounden duty of
said company to construct a railroad from
a point on the hundredth meridian west of
Greenwich, between the south margin of
the Republican river and the north mar
gin of the Platte river in the Territory of
Nebraska, to run out to the western boun-
Diary of the Territory of Nevada and then
connect with the Central Pacific Railroad
of California. All rails and other irons
were to be of "American manufacture and
of the best quality"
Subscribers were few, and, as might
have been expected in those days, Chicago
favored standard gauge, broad gauge was
desired by St. Louis, and s-foot gauge was
preferred by the Californians. Not before
March, 1868 came the final decision that
standard gauge was to prevail all along
the line. Then came dread of heavy ex-
penditures and the matter was discussed
from every possible point of view. Con-
gress in 1864 granted powers that startled
those who remembered old controversies
over state and federal authority, but char
ter and bonds were necessary. Whatever
it cost us the country had to join the
oceans.
During the sad four years of Lincoln
there were several times when it seemed
possible that the Union might be riven
asunder. Up to the end of 1862 the ma
,Jority of educated Englishmen believed
that the South would gain her indepen-
dence. There was a Strengthening of the
national credit after Gettysburg, but it
was not long before the draft riots clouded
the sky. All through the spring and early
summer of 1864 the insurgents were pre-
pared to meet every advance of Grants
troops with determined resistance. 1t is
not so wonderful that the Democratic con-
vention declared the war failure, al
though the tide was soon to turn. One of
the best articles in the British press of
that year did not pronouce the case of the
South hopeless until Farragut had dashed
into Mobile Bay. Lincoln for some time
regarded his reelection as improbable
There was a stern faith in the legislators,
who in 1864 made it possible to construct
the highway out to the Pacific. Do we
not all believe now that it was to be, that
road across the continent was part OF
the plan of the Most High?
Before 1865 was over the Union Pacific
had built forty miles of road More than
six times as much was built in the fol-
lowing year. On drove the workers of
1867. The contest between President
Johnson and Congress did not stop the
couriers of civilization, and on May s,
1869, the roads were joined, for the Union
Pacific had built 1886 miles from Omaha
and the Central Pacific $50 miles from
Sacramento.
Along the lines of the Pennsylvania, the
New York Central the Baltimore and
Ohio, and the other lines of the east there
were those who marveled at the work that
had been done. Men who had found trees
everywhere had never thought of building
railroad across the prairies, and won
dered how these western fellows got their
ties. Springs of water might be pain
fully lacking in the mountains The
desert was as wearisome to the modern
man as it had been to the ancients. Heavy
iron and needful machin- page 2, Col 81