Year: 1873

The article which appeared In the


APPEAL of Saturday, giving detailed


history Of this great highway from its


commencement down to the present


time, was received with very general


satisfaction by the public, and though


this gratified us very much, still we were


yet more glad to learn that it had the


effect we intended of satisfying the


people Of Memphis that in the hands


of Greenlaw and Tate this road


is to be managed in the true in


terests Of the people along the


line and in the terminal cities. We


had waited for the moment when we


could give the public this information


with some little impotence, for we


knew how the enemies Of the enterprise


were, by inuendo more than by direct
or open statement, trying to retard, and


even kin il. We knew how, like wise


acres, many men shook their heads and


sneeIed at the efforts Of the modern


mOund-builders in the Arkansas |
swamps, anaspredicted failure. They as


serted that q road could never be built
through the bottom, that every attempt
had proven a failure, and every effort
must prove futile. We had heard so
much Of this sort of talk, and were so
well informed OF the progress being
made by Gfeenlaw and Tate that we
longed to tell the story Of their success,
and silence the tongues that were SLAM
dsring and traducing them. The time
has come-the work is done. The AP-
PEAL announced the facts with words
of merited eulogy, and forthwith a
shout goes up from the people of
Memphis, Wen done, good and faith
ful servants" And they have done well
and deserve well. They have done
what was deemed impossible by many
intelligent railroad builders; they perse-
vered where others halted, wavered, |
and gave up, and deserve the highest |
mede Of praise; they deserve, too, that
their line, as the APPEAL has always /
held, unbiased by Colonel Tate or any
body else, that it should be made the
stem Of a funnel of roads leading /
north, south and west, for the rea-
son that Memphis having paid more
than half a million to secure this stem,
1t would be ridiculous in her to give an
other dollar to build competing line
through 3 country that will not, for
many years to come, be able to give it
any support. The first forty miles of
the Little Rock railroad should be made
a great highway for the Kansas City,
the Shreveport, the Jacksonport, the
Pine Bluff and the Pacific railroad, at
least until We have trade and population
sufficient to justify the immense outlay
that viii be attendant upon the con-
structiOn Of another forty miles of
swampy road. We say this in the in
tenest Of our people, from whom we are
there shall be another dol
.ar Of appropriation had for any railroad
that is not made plain to be bona fde
enterprise in the hands of honest and
intelligent men, who can come to US
with clean hands and prove there is nei-
-her triekery nor chieanery in what they
have embarked upon. And, if il is a
railroad to Kansas City OF to
it must be surveyed from the
nearest available point on the Little ,
Rock railroad, in order that We may be
'aved both the unnecessary ex-
1ense and the time that would
Je taken in bridging the swamp I
lgain. Memphis and Shelby county /
sill give, aud give without stint, but Z
hey viii give intelligently, and know !
ng for what they are paying their mon !
sy out. Z