Year: 1869




Within few days the Pacific Railroad will
be completed, and the iron horse will speed its
way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Yes, the cars that leave this side of the Conti-
nent will sweep over three thousand miles OF
continuous railroad, and land passengers,
mails and freight at San Francisco on the
other side. What stupendous achievement
this of science, enterprise, progress and OF
liberality on the part of the government! 1t
is one Of the greatest, if not the greatest,
achievements of this wonderful age or in the
history of the world. Whether we look at the
work itself, SO extraordinary and costly, or at
the surprising results to flow from it, there Is
nothing comparable.in the progress of this or
any other country. The herculean labors
of the thousands of men employed, the
astonishing energy displayed, the re-
moval Of almost insuperable obstacles
of nature in tunnelling and overleap-
ing vast mountains and striding the most
formidable Gallons, seem possible only to
race of giants. A work that it was supposed
would take fourteen years to complete will be
completed in five years. Looking at the
science and almost superhuman energy dis
played, as well as at the enormous cost, the
construction of the Pacific Railroad is theme
as worthy really of grand epic as the siege Of
Troy or any other event in history.


When the last rail of the Pacific road is laid
and the cars are coursing from ocean to ocean
travel and trade round the globe by steam
power will be complete. We shall be able to
60 round the world, from west to east or from
east to west, by the power of steam, in little
over two months. We can take the cars from
New York to San Francisco and then the Pacific
mail steamships to China, which will be
reached in month; thence by the British
lines to India and to the Mediterranean by
way of Egypt, by steamship and rail to Eng
land, and home again across the Atlantic. Or
we can make the circuit of the globe the
other way in about the same time.


If any of the grand old navigators Of former
times, whose ambition was to circumnavigate
the globe and who took years in making the
effort, could wake up and see what is accom-
plished in this day how astonished they would
be-. Yet we shall see greater things still.
improvements in the use of steam or in ma
chinery, or in the application Of some other
motive power, will send us by and by more
rapidly over the oceans and continents. Then
it will not be long before that other mighty
and mysterious agent of modern progress, the
magnetic telegraph, will girdle the earth and
bring all nations within speaking distance Of
each other Truly we live in a wonderful age.
The Imagination can hardly outstrip the march
of discovery and development.


But, to return to the Pacific Railroad, it is
curious fact that this grandest of modern i'm
provements has been the source Of the greatest
corruption and fraud. The Union Pacific Com
pany at its first meeting Of stockholders in
Boston the other day made great efforts
to represent its work and officers in
the most favorable light. Mr.. Brooks,
one of the government directors, used the
whtewash brush very lavishly, and endeavored
to make it appear that neither the government
pany was grossly libelled. AS a government
director il was that gentleman's duty to see
that the work was well done and the public
not defrauded, yet it is notorious that the road
is not constructed as well as II should have
been, and that the enormous sums of money
and lands granted by the government have been
shamefully misapplied that in fact, the
Pacific Railroad has been stupendous job in
the hands of few spectators, who were at
the same time managers of the company, the
Credit Mobilier and the contractors for con-
structing the road. The facts have been
partly developed already and time will show
the rest. A great part of the road,
probably, will have to be reconstructed soon,
and it is not likely any means will be found to
make those disgorge who have become rich by
cheating the government and people. There
are too many members Of Congress and other
prominent public men in the Pacific Railroad
and Credit Mobilier ring to hope for that.
Still, as was said, Notwithstanding all this evil
great good must come to the country through
the Pacific Railroad, and in consideration of
that the people may patiently endure the ras-
cality connected with it. The resources of
the country will be greatly developed, the
trade with China and the other countries
across the Pacific Ocean will be vastly stimu-
lated, and this iron way will do much to make
the United States the commercial and civiliz-
ing centre of the world.


A QUEER TRANSITION Providence
journal has ceased its diatribes about the
Sprayue- Ives Abbott Brown Nye-- Burnside