Year: 1859




Before the close of the present year the Grand
Trunk Railway of Canada will be completed to De-
troit Michigan, a distance of eight hundred and
sixty-two miles in direct line with branches in
addition, which make up the aggregate Of eleven
hundred miles of complete railway. This is q
tremendous work, and the cost has been tremen-
dous, -dsproportionately great for the length
of road made 1t has cost sixty millions of dollars,
and we have heard Of few reports of grumbings of
the parties who have been obliged to launch out
this "grand cash in currency or credits. They
went to work like men, and shoudered their
burden Milo, the athlete did his OK for he knew
that he would only have to carry it furlong and
his task would be ended and the prize gained
which would repay him for His toll. They knew
what they had to do, and what was to be gained
by doing it, and made up their minds that the
arduous game was worth the costly candle, and
that while the reward would last forever, the
striving would be but for brief period.


i Let us see how this great Canadian enterprise
will compare with the majestic scheme which
makes the whole sovereign Southwest, with its
vast wealth and its acknowledged public spirit,
stand agast at the grandeur of its proportions,
which, seen through the medium of hesitancy and
doubt, loom up with magnited portentolsncss
that terrifes capital from graphing with them.
Let us see how the difficulties and outlay at cost of
which the Southern Pacific Railroad is to be ac-
complishcd compare with those which have been
successfully overcome by the grand Trunk Com
pany of Canada. That road was built through
country Of the most disadvantageous character,
with numerous rivers to be bridged, ravines to be
filled up hills and small mountains of earth or rock
to be dug or blasted away, and for half year the
rigorous climate cemented the and ice-cov-
cred earth to the hardness of stone itself, COM
pelling cessation of operations. and forcing the
company to great trouble and expense in re-
organizing their working forces and resuming con-
struction labors In the catalogue of bridging
items is included that magnificent and enormously
expensive work, the Victoria bridge, the cost of
which and everything else comes out of the sixty
millions that pay for the eleven hundred miles of
road. g@


From New Orleans to the city of Mazatlan, on
the Pacific, the distance is twelve hundred and
fifty miles; and from New Orleans to duayamas,
an eligible port oil the Gulf of California, is thir-
teen hundred miles; by the one route but one hun
drcd and fifty miles more of road are required than
have been built in Canada and Maine for sixty
millions, and by the other but two hundred more.
But this comparison of distances, favorable as is
amounts to nothing when the nature of the country
which one road traverses, and the other is to ira
verse, are contrasted. The Grand Trunk had to
meet and overcome natural obstacles at which we
have glanced above but none of these will stand
in the path of the Southern Pacific as it marches
onward to wed the Atlantic to the Western Ocean.
No wintry frosts will come, in scorn of the enter
prise of man, to CONCEAL the earth TO fnty hard
mess, and peremptorly command the workman to
stay his hand. No rivers will cross its way.
demanding Victoria bridges to triumph their
interruption, and no rocky nights will stand in
its pathway to be conquered by huge toll and
delay. But the route will lay through level
country, few inequalities of the earths surface in
terposng obstacles of an Importance which can
not be overcome by easy grades; for long spaces
the rails be laid with scarcely the necessity for
touching the soil with the spade and through all
the year temperate climate will ensure the unin
terrupted continuation of the work.


How then could the company contrive to prop
erly spend the sum of sixty millions on the road
a sum, too, of which heavy proportion is pos
aessed as q free gift in the franchises which have
been donated the corporation. The road can cost
nothing like what the Canadians have paid for
their Grand Trunk, and our Grand Trunk Southern
Pacific road will be the avenue of travel between
two worlds, the Eastern and the Western. The
most valuable portion of the Asiatic and European
and the Pacific coast trade will have New Orleans
for its shipping depot on this side, and the great
channel of commerce and travel will drain to the
city the specie of Mexico and the undcveloped
trade of all that country Yet, with all this mag
nfcent promise the timorous capitalists of this
section, which is to be inestimably benefited,
regard the enterprise fearully and hesitate to take
possession of the franchises, which have been
pledged them condtonally on their getting it un-
der vigorous headway. But console ourself
with the reflection that 'Rome was not built in a
day and that as certain as the sun continues to
rise for few years longer, so certainly will the
Southern Pacific Railroad be built. 1t is a question
of time, but we would have the time shortened
that is to develop the result.


TALK ON CHANGE