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American Railroad 1874 Harpers Monthly Magazine reprint
The American Railroad 1874 First printing Jan 1972 20 pages
T PURPOSE to give, as far as it can be given within the limits of a single magazine article, some account of the origin, history, and internal organization of the American railroad. Into the question so abundantly j discussed of late in the public prints and Periodicals, and now even in political caucuses and conventions, concerning the mutual rights and obligations of the railroad companies and the public, I shall not enter. Yet it may contribute something to a better understanding, and so indirectly to a solution of that problem, to have a clear idea of what a railroad corporation is, what are the hazards, what the toils, what the duties, difficulties, and dangers, of those who are connected with, and who have done most to create, develop, and carry on, these great highways of the present century, the arteries whit supply the who] body politic with vital circulation-trade and commerce
The traveler pin West steps to the ticket office of th Pennsylvania, th Erie, or the New York Central Rai road. He purchase his ticket for Sa Francisco. He give his trunk to a bap gage-master, gets for it a little piece of metal, and sees an cares for it no more A porter shows hir his place in the Pull boots, puts on his slippers, opens his bag, takes out his Harper's Magazine, and his traveling cares are at an end. For six days and nights he is rolled swiftly across the continent. Engineers and conductors change. He is passed along from one railroad corporation to another. At night his seat becomes a bed, and he sleeps as quietly, or nearly so, as if in his own bed at home. He traverses broad plains, passes over immense viaducts, whirls swiftly over mountain torrents on iron bridges, climbs or pierces mountains ; but he never leaves his parlor ; if need be, his meals are brought to him where he sits ; and at length, after a week of luxurious though weary traveling, in which he has been in the keeping of half a dozen different companies, and has traversed over three thousand miles of country, part of it uninhabited and desolate, he is set down in the station at San Francisco. He looks at the clock in the station-room, compares it with the timetable in his hand, and finds that his journey has been accomplished with all the regularity and punctuality of the sun.
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