Year: 1871

THE NORTH LOUISIANA & TEXAS


- RAILROAD.


There. was to be conference, the
past week, between the directors of
the Texas Pacific road and the agents
of the North Louisiana & Texas road,
away off in Virginia, with the view OF
A sale of the latter or consolidation of
the two. We have not heard what has
been the result probably nothing.


we are nearly ready to confess that
we have the slowest railroad company
in Christendom. The members ought
not, Of course, to be censured for not
throwing their road away; but, really,
it seems they might do something by
which they could reap handsome
profit, and still give the country the
beneAt of q thoroughfare the need of
which is pressing and universal in this
section, Some of the company, we
know, are willing, if not anxious, to
sell, and have urged different plans to
effect healthy reformation why
should not this dispositioH prevail with
ALI the members, and let the country
have the assurance that the road will
be speedily built?


Fhe present status of affairs works a
serious hardship upon the commerce
and the property Of North Louisiana.
1t is costing the people annually hum
dreds of thousands of dollars, for no
reason that they seem able to under
stand or appreciate. They would be
better off, undoubtedly, if no road had
ever been chartered from Vicksburg to
Shreveport, since, without the North
Louisiana & Texas obstruction, and
with an unoccupied route, road
would be constructed between the
points in less than two years.


There has been no end, however, to
the negotiations that have been had to
effect either sale or lease of the
road, or a contract to build it. We
have heard, periodically, for we don't
know how long, that something was
lust about to be arranged that would
electrify this whole section of country.
At one time, it was to be a sale OF the
road to some rich eastern capitalists;
at another, a contract was all drawn
up-nothing to be done but sign it
with the Stantons, or some other light
ming express railroad builders, to build,
and perhaps, equip, the road in 1s
months, or two years, from this city to
Shreveport.


And, periodically, we have rushed to
our desk to chronicle the joyful intelli-
gence, as stunning item of progress
las it really acould have been) that
would enthuse the country. The sue
ceeding week,we would have the alter
native, either to announce, with our re-
grets, that the intelligence was untrue,
or suffer the public to believe that we
had gone off half-cocked and probably
had only been trying our faculty of in
yention. Thus, we have been ticking
on dead beat, for nearly six years, be-
tween publications of desired changes
in one paper, and tlenials, expressed or
implied, in the next 1t has been the
most difficult, and mayhap the most
painful, case of parturition on record.
The umbilical cord of the Company ap-
pears to be tied in a thousand knots,
defying the skill of even the best New
York accoucheurs to unite it. If no
better plan can be found, the Csesarian
operation of a Bankrupt court would be
acceptable to us and to the country gen.
orally. = 5--r


If we have at last grown impatient in
the building of this road, we can truly
say that as journalist we have indulg-
ed the company with every degree of
forbearance. We have endeavored to
aid them in effecting some of their plans
and in pushing on their work, and
"many time and oft" we have declin-
ed to censure their acts when strongly
urged so to do. But we have grown
sick at heart waiting and waiting for
that which appears only stationery in
the dim and hazy distance. We desire
to see the country developed and the
lust demands of a suffering people prop
erly cared for and respected. Great
public works should not be suffered to
languish and fail indefinitely in purpose,
because private interests may be parti-
ally sacrificed, or individual prospects
marred, by pushing such works to COM
pletion. No railroad can be strictly |
private enterprise that may be operat-