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I m r Jsasi an
is seventy two years since the first
IT in the world was opened to
the public for general traffic The
Stockton and Darlington line of England
fregan operations Sept 27 1825 with
about twentj one miles of singie track
ffo day there are over 375000 miles of
railways intercrossing the earth In the
kTJnited States alone there are 180955
miles of tracks more than enough to gir
dle the globe fourteen times with single
rails while the combined railway systems
of the world would be sufficient to open a
ftrunk line between the earth and the
moon with over 335000 miles to spare
for branch lines and sidetracks The total
mileage of the United States is nearly
equal to that of all the other countries
put together Illinois with over 10000
miles of tracks leads all the other States
y
GEORGE STEPIIENSOX
Pennsylvania ranking next with over
5000 New York State has nearly 8000
The District of Columbia closes the list
with thirty miles
The first rail of the Stockton and Dar
lington road was laid May 23 1S22 and it
required three years and four mouths to
complete twenty one miles of single track
In 1SS7 the Manitoba system was extend
ed through Dakota a distance of 545
miles between April 2 and Oct 19 a few
days over half a year From the rude be
ginning in England less than three-quarters
of a century ago has grown a stu
peuduous system that hasrevolutionized
the commerce of the world that has rev
olutionized the world itself annihilated
epace and made subservient to the will of
man There are to day over 30000000
000 invested in the railroads of the world
one tent of the total wealth of civilized
nations More than 2000000 men are
employed in constructing equipping and
operating the railways of the United
States The standing armies and navies
of the world approximate in round num
bers 3500000 men the wealth destroy
ers How much more powerful is the
wealth producing army of American
workingmen who have changed the whole
basis of civilization from the military to
the industrial
When one studies the evolution of the
railway he is lost in wonderment at the
giant strides that have been made during
a period so comparatively short In the
early stages of its development it met
With the strongest opposition in many in
stances force being employed to prevent
its progress The stockholders of the
canal systems and the stage coach lines
and even certain classes of workingmen
under the mistaken idea that the exten
sion of railroads means a decrease in the
demand for manual labor united their
forces and fought their imaginary com
mon enemy Parliament took part in the
and the promoters of the in
froceedings
tial lines were subjected to the most scru
tinizing cross examinations When the
first road was opened a great concourse
of people assembled to witness the event
and while a few were there to rejoice
if the undertaking proved successful the
majority of the spectators were anticipat
ing the pleasure of seeing the bubble
burst This opposition continued for
tnany years and was only dissipated when
it had been demonstrated beyond dispute
that the commercial interests of the coun
try were advancing to a state that had
never been attained before the introduc
tion of the new traffic system
On this small stretch of track between
tockton and Darlington the great rail
ways of the world had their beginning
But even this small beginning was a long
time in coming It seems strange to us
now at the present day with the wonder
ful development of steam and electricity
brought so vividly before us and made a
part of our daily lives that men within a
period remembered by persons now living
Should be so blind to the advancement of
public and private interests as to actually
raise and organize an opposition to a sys
tem that has proved a greater benefit to
the nations of the earth than all the other
projects of civilization combined To day
we are familiar with the names of great
railway kings men who have operated
millions who have been the life or the
lieath f the stock market by the rise or
the fall of a finger We look with some
thing of veneration at the careers of John
W Garrett and Thomas A Scott and
even with a mixture of admiration at the
wealth producing powers and executive
abilities of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay
Gould But greater far greater than a
Garrett a Scott a Vanderbilt or a Gould
was George Stephenson the poor unedu
cated colliery fireman who worked out
between the long and cruel hours of man
ual drudgery and slavish toil the problem
of the railway for the traffic of the world
He saw a half century ahead of his time
Opposed by Capital
Despite the opposition of the moneyed
men and the learned engineers of the day
he fought his way inch by inch and by
the sheer force and tenacity of his pow
erful mind brought to a successful comple
tion a project that had been the compan
ion of his thoughts by day and a vision in
his dreams by night for many long and
anxious years
To George Stephenson and to him alone
belongs the credit of the magic develop
ment of the railway From the moment
when a boy he completed his first clay
model of a stationary engine from the
time when the steam hissed in his ungaia
ly Blucher locomotive to the day when
he saw his train rushing on toward Liver
pool he nurtured the idea of a grand
traffic way and when he died it was with
the peace of soul of a man whose life has
been one of enduring usefulness of un
ceasing benefit to his fellow man
The railway antedates the invention of
the practical locomotive although the his
tory of the one is contemporaneous with
the other Wooden railways upon which
coal was drawn from the mines by horses
were in use at an early day in Northum
berland and at Wylani where Stephen
sons father worked the first locomotive
was put in operation between the coal pit
and the loading quay In 1791 Saint
Fond a French traveler spoke in high
terms of the colliery wagonways in Eng
land which greatly facilitated the work
of the horses and he strongly urged upon
his own countrymen the economy with
which coal was thus hauled to the ship
ping places as an inducement to them to
adopt a similar mode of transit Wagon
roads of the same character were laid in
the colliery districts of Scotland at a com
paratively early period During the Scotch
rebellion in 1745 there was a railway be
tween the Tranent coal pits and the small
harbor of Cockinzie in East Lothian
These wooden tracks were the germ of the
modern railway With the advanced ideas
of the workmen improvements gradually
came and in some collieries thin plates of
iron were nailed upon the upper surface
of the wooden rails to afford protection
from friction It is probable that the first
iron rails were laid at Whitehaven in
173S Twenty nine years later five or six
tons of rails were cast for the Coalbrook
dale Iron Works in Shropshire and in
177G cast iron rails nailed to wooden sleep
ers were laid at the Duke of Norfolks
colliery near Sheffield The laboring peo
ple of the district were so incensed at
what they imagined was a trespassing on
their rights that they tore up the road
burned the coal piles and doubtless would
have seriously injured John Carr who
constructed the line had he not sought
concealment in a wood
Origin of Tramways
William Jessop laid a line at Loughbor
ough in Leicestershire in 17S9 using the
cast iron edge rail with flanges upon the
tires of the wagon wheels to keep them
from slipping off the tracks In 1S00 Ben
jamin Outram substituted stone props for
timber to support the ends of the rails
ton one of the inventors of steam naviga
tion conceived the idea of utilizing steam
in the propulsion of carriages but the
roads in Scotland were in such bad condi
tion that he got no further than to con
struct a model
The first model of a steam carriage in
England was made in 1784 by William
Murdock the assistant and friend of
Watt Murdock succeeded in making an
engine about a foot high that generated
enough steam by the aid of a spirit lamp
to rush along at quite a rate of speed over
a walk a mile in length One dark night
EARLr AMERICAN PASSENGER COACH
the pastor saw the little machine coming
snorting up the path and taking it for
the evil one sprang into the hedges on
the side with shrieks of terror
Kichard Trevethicks Success
About the years 1800 and 1802 the ques
tion of building railways for stage coaches
was discussed and it was further proposed
that stationary engines might be placed
at certain distances apart and by means
of circulating chains greatly lessen the
employment of horses While these plans
were being considered Richard Treve
thick a pupil of William Murdock built
a steam carriage for use on the common
highway He took out his patent March
24 1S02 The carriage had the appear
ance of an ordinary stage coach The
horizontal cylinder the boiler and the
furnace box were placed in the rear of
the hind axle and to the credit of the in
ventor it may be said that this was the
first successful high pressure engine con
structed on the principle of moving a pis
ton by the elasticity of steam against the
pressure only of the atmosphere In ad
dition to being well constructed Trove
thicks steam carriage possessed the qual
ity of moving quite rapidly along the
roadway
There were many inventors after Treve
thiek who sought a motive power to super
sede horses and while some produced very
STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON ENGINE AND OAR
This plan was generally adopted and the
roads became known as Outram roads
and subsequently being abbreviated
formed the words tram roads or tram
ways
In this way the early railways were
slowly improved As yet they were mere
toys Their usefulness was limited to
drawing coal out of the mines a short dis
tance to the place of shipment No one
had at this time proposed utilizing them
for general traffic purposes While the
rude railways and tramways were being
formed in the mining regions the inventive
genius of man was busily engaged in the
solution of a new mode of locomotion
Thus far the improvements had been al
most entirely confined to the roads and
the ivagons were still drawn by horses
The first person who seems to have con
ceived the idea of employing steam to
move vehicles on land as well as ships at
sea was Solomon De Caus who was lock
ed up at Paris as a madman in 1641 He
wrote a book on the subject portions of
which were embodied in the work by the
Marquis of Worcester entitled Century
of Inventions Savery a Cornish miner
proposed a method of propelling carriages
along ordinary roads but took no prac
tical methods to carry out his views In
1759 the subject was presented to James
Watt who in the specification of his pat
ent of 1769 gave a description of the en
gine proposed On several other occasions
the question of applying steam as a motive
IL mil I
HA
GRASSHOPPER LOCOMOTIVE -
power on land was brought to his atten
tion but he was too busily occupied per
fecting his condensing engine to further
consider the locomotive The first actual
model of a steam carriage of which there
is a written account was made by a
Frenchman named Cugnot who placed it
on exhibition in 1763 Afterward he
built an engine on the same plan but
when put in motion it projected itself
with such force as to knock down a wall
that was in the way and the machine was
set aside as a dangerous invention It is
still preserved as a memento of the early
efforts toward steam locomotion In 1772
Oliver Evans an American invented a
steam carriage to travel on ordinary
roads and obtained from the State of
Maryland in 1787 exclusive right to make
and operate it But no practical use ever
meritorious works none met the tests re
quired of them There were Blenkinsop
of Leeds who had an engine with toothed
wheels that ran upon a cogged rail Chap
man of Newcastle who employed a sys
tem of chains and Brunton of Derby
shire who invented a mechanical trav
eler to go upon legs working alternate
ly like those of a horse These and sim
ilar contrivances projected about the same
time show that invention was actively at
work and that many minds were trying to
solve the traction problem Blackett a
colliery owner of Wylam whose tramway
ran by the house where George Stephen
son was born was one of the most persist
ent of capitalists in his endeavors to ob
tain a locomotive to haul his coal wag
ons He had tried several of the un
wieldy inventions of the day and was be
coming the laughing stock of his acquaint
ances who regarded him as a monomaniac
on the subject of steam motive power
While Blackett was experimenting at
Wylam George Stephenson was racking
his brains to the same end at Killing
worth where he had been appointed
of the collieries Blackett
paved the way for Stephenson Profiting
by the failures of the locomotives of the
past Stephenson planned and constructed
his first locomotive in 1814 naming it My
Lord after Lord Ravenswood the prin
cipal owner of the Killingworth colliery
who advanced the money This locomo
tive which was afterward known as the
Blucher while a great improvement on
all previous machines was very cumber
some and clumsy It however answered
the purpose for which it was intended
very well and was regarded at the time
as a wonderful piece of mechanism The
inventor made many engines after that
but none gave him as much satisfaction
as this first rude locomotive
Among the men of this period who were
forming projects for the construction of
railways in the important districts of pop
ulation were William James of West
Bromwich and Edward Pease of Darling
ton James was exceedingly interested
in the question of traction power and
though he had made no personal inven
tions he performed as great a service to
the public when he found and appreciated
George Stephenson As early as 1803
James published an article in which he
stated he contemplated the projection of
a railway between Liverpool and Man
chester He had many other railway
propositions under way but nothing came
of them except to stimulate the demand
for better transportation facilities
Edward Pease was a man of an entirely
different character He was not so am
bitious as James and it seems he at first
only contemplated a horse tramroad be
tween Stockton and Darlington but as
he proceeded with the project and after
he had had an interview with Stephenson
he became an earnest convert to the loco
motive system What Pease first con
templated -was the means of selling coal at
the stations along the line of the proposed
railway He did not dream of the outlet
that would be afforded to other markets
1 came oX the invention William Symlng 1 and euch a thing aa a passenger convey- takes
ance never entered into his calculations
After one unsuccessful attempt in parlia
ment the Stockton and Darlington rail
way act was finally passed April 19 1821
The projectors did not originally contem
plate the employment of locomotives for
in the act they provide for the making
and maintaining of the tramroads for the
passage upon them of wagons and other
carriages with men and horses or other
wise The public were to be free to use
with horses cattle and carriages the
roads formed by the company on payment
of the authorized rates between certain
hours It is clearly obvious from this that
the projectors of the line had no clear
conception as to the scope and operations
of their railroad
Some time elapsed after the passage or
the act for the construction of the railway
before any steps were taken to carry it
into effect Toward the close of 1S21
Stephenson called on Pease and strongly
urged the adoption of the locomotive on
the new road The inventor made so good
an impression that he was soon after ap
pointed engineer of the line conducted a
personal survey of every foot of the route
and began active preparations for buildr
ing the road
Estimate of the Cost
In making his first estimate of the cost
he set down G200 for stationary engines
not even mentioning locomotives His
reasons for this will be apparent when it
is known that the whole question of steam
locomotive power was in those days
among practical and scientific men alike
largely in doubt He preferred to quietly
impress upon the stockholders the wis
dom of adopting a method he was confi
dent would prove a complete success
After visiting Stephensons locomotive at
Killingworth Pease and another stock
holder became convinced that it was the
proper system and in 1S23 an amended
act was passed permitting the use of this
power
Two years later the road was openeu
to the public and from the start proved a
great success The rails were of malle
able and cast iron and the gauge was four
feet eight and one half inches The first
engine the Active that was put on the
line was constructed by George Stephen
son It weighed about eight tons and
was capable of drawing about forty tons
in insignificant contrast with the Ameri
can consolidation locomotive of to day
weighing fifty tons and able to haul on a
dead level over 24000 tons while more
powerful engines are still being designed
No sooner did the coal and merchandise
trains begin to ran than new business re
lations sprang up between Stockton and
Darlington and the increase in freight
traffic called into existence a new pas
senger transportation Before his plant
was put in operation an attempt had been
made to run a stage coach between Stock
ton Darlington and Barnard Castle three
times a week but owing to the want of
support it was discontinued However
after the railway began running the
stages were again put on and did a thriv
ing business The railway company rec
ognizing the importance of this branch of
service started the first passenger coach
the Experiment Oct 10 1825 a fortnight
after the opening of the line It was
drawn by one horse and performed the
journey daily each way between Stockton
and Darlington accomplishing the dis
tance of twelve miles in about two hours
The fare was a shilling and each passen
ger was allowed fourteen pounds of lug
gage free The Experiment was not op
erated by the railway company but was
let to Pickersgill and Harland who paid
tolls for the use of the line This first
passenger coach was regarded as a won
derful conveyance at the time but it
would cut a rather poor figure if placed
beside the modern drawing car palaces
constructed at a cost of 20000 or over
Stephenson next constructed and equip
ped with his locomotive the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway which was opened
Sept 15 1830 Passengers were carried
the entire distance of thirty miles in a
little over an hour Inasmuch as it had
been previously considered a great feat
for the locomotives on the Stockton and
Darlington road to beat the stage coaches
and twelve miles an hour had been regard
ed as absolutely dangerous this new rate
of speed must have been looked upon as
something phenomenal The growth of
the railway from this date was rapid com
panies being formed in all civilized coun
tries
America quickly adopted the railway
system As early as 1827 a crude line
was opened between Boston and Quincy
for the purpose of importing granite for
the Bunker Hill monument In August
1829 the Carbondale railroad was opened
by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com
pany and extended from Honesdale Pa
to Carbondale a distance of about six-
B O RAILROAD 1830 35
teen miles It was the first road on which
a locomotive was used in this country
The engine was built in England under
the direction of Horatio Allen who en
joyed the distinction of being the first to
run a locomotive in America It was
called the Stourbridge Lion and arrived
at its destination Aug 9 1829
First Baltimore Ohio Road
In May 1830 the first division of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railway extending
from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mills a dis
tance of fifteen miles was formally open
ed but the passenger service was not in
augurated till July 5 of the same year
owing to the scarcity of cars Horse poweri
was employed until the road was complet
ed to Frederick m 1832
No man has to serve an apprentice-
ship in order to learn how to make mfih
a
FOE LITTLE FOLKS
A COLUMN OF PARTICULAR IN
TEREST TO THEM
Something that Will Interest the Ju
venile Members of Every Household
Quaint ActionH and Bright Sayings
of Many Cute and Cunning Children
Four Bedtimes
Cluck cluck cluck said the hen
Tis time this little chick went to bed
Or youll live to be a fowl
Which in the night will prowl
And be taken for an owl she said
Then without a single peep
The chick went off to sleep
Soft tucked up in its warm feather bed
Purr purr purr said the cat
Tis time this little kit was in bed
Or joull grow up to be a cat
That cannot catch a rat
And you wouldnt much like that she
said
Then the kitten in a trice
Slept and dreamed of catching mice
Wrapped in fur in her basket bed
Bow-wow-wow said the dog
Tis time this little puppy Avent to bed
For playing in the dark
Will take away your bark
And youll never make your mark she
said
Then the puppy stopped his play
And went to bed straightway
Curled up on his clean straw bed
Come come come said mamma
Tis time this little boy went to bed
To sleep through the night
And with the morning light
To awaken fresh and bright she said
But the boy did tease and tease
Let me sit up this once please
And at last was carried pouting off to bell
Farm Field and Fireside
How Indians Poisoned Their Arrows
On the deserts of Arizona are to be
found the most venomous the largest
most active and the most dangerous
rattlesnakes in the world Six feet is
an ordinary length for these reptiles
Recovery from their venom is exceed
ingly rare In August they become
large yellow bloated things and it is
at this time of the year that the Apache
Indians seek them to obtain poison for
their arrows A deers liver smoking
hot is torn out and laid before the
reptile He is punched and angered so
that he strikes it again and again the
morsel turning a blue black from the
poison even before the snake has fin
ished striking This delightful morsel
is then placed high on a pole to rot and
decompose in the sun after which it is
brought down and the arrows stuck in
to it they being afterward dried in the
sun to retain the poison a most horrl
ole custom among the worst Indians on
the continent
Odd Industry for Boys and Girls
Boys and girls of Brussels Belgium
have been having a lesson in the value
of small things The children attending
the public schools of the city were re
quested by their teachers to gather up
on their way to and from the school all
such apparently valueless objects as
old metallic bottle capsules tinfoil tin
cans paint tubes refuse metals and
other things and deliver their collec
tions daily to their teachers
In the period from Jan 1 to Oct 1
1895 or within eight months the fol
lowing amounts were collected Tin
foil 925 pounds old paint tubes 220
pounds bottle capsules 4415 pounds
scraps of metal 1221 pounds total
7871 pounds This apparent rubbish
was sold and the proceeds applied so as
to clothe completely 500 poor children
and send ninety sick ones to the coun
try and there still remained quite a
balance which was distributed among
the poor sick of the city
Taken Care Of
Little Girl You bad cat wheres my
bird
Cat Oh hes just gone inside Life
A Brave Girl
A girl of sixteen has had the gold
medal of the Royal Humane Society
presented to her for her brave action
in rescuing nearly fifty people from
death Her name is Grace Bussell and
her father was one of the first settlers
near the Swan river in western Austra
lia She used to help him in many ways
sometimes riding twenty miles a day
with the cattle and was as much at
home in the saddle as she was in the
kitchen
Now it happened one day in Decem
ber that a vessel was wrecked off the
coast about eight miles from the Bus
sells home The steamboat sprang
a leak and not being far from land the
captain tried to steer her in But she
ran aground and there she stayed with
the water gradually flowing into her
The lifeboat which was on board the
steamer was lowered but it leaked and
eight people who ventured in it were
drowned The surf ran so wildly that
no one dared to swim through it and
there was not a house or a person in J
sight
The girl of sixteen was riding along
with a native servant She caught sight
of the vessel and turning her horses
head towards the coast started at a
quick gallop When she reached Mi
sea she urged her horse into the angry
surf She rodeboldly on till she reach
ed the vessel With much difficulty
she took some of the children in her
arms and put them before her on tho
saddle then took women and larger
children So she went backward and
forward four hours till all were safe on
land the servant having ridden in to
bring out the last man
Tired and wet as the girl was sho
still had something more to do Thoso
forty eight people must have food and
protection before night came on So
Grace rode for help but by the time she
had gone the eight miles she was so
worn out that she fainted and it was
some time before she could tell what
had happened Her married sister
started off at once with food and wraps
for the shipwrecked people and the
next day they were all taken to Mr
Bussells home
Dont you think she deserved tho
medal
For Stormy Saturdays
I have found the following game an
admirable one for a stormy Saturday
The one who is it and nothing
pleases the little ones more than for
mamma to be the it thinks of the
name of some object beast bird or
thing then says Here am I
Children Where did you come from
I came from the country or city
or house as the case might be
Children What have you in your
trunk
Something that begins with the let
ter H or any other letter that suits
the case
Children Describe it
It has feathers two eyes and two
legs
Children Some kind of a bird
What kind of a bird
Children A bluebird
No a bluebird does not begin with
H
Children Can it fly very high
No It cannot In fact although be
longing to the bird kingdom it is not
what you would call a bird
A child Oh I know a hen
The successful guesser then becomes
the it
Mamma will find that this game not
only sharpens the wits of the children
but her own as well for many will be
the questions these bright little crea
tures will ask Much information will
thus be imparted
Finding the Fip we use a nickel The
nickel is placed in plain sight and the
finder is told he Is hot if near and
cold if far from it Once it was in
the tumbler of water and eluded the
searcher for some time Another time
it was in the middle of the floor Powers
of observation are developed in finding
the nickel and ingenuity in hiding It
In sight and yet not too plain
Queerest of Introductions
Speaking of introductions said the-much-traveled
man in the smoker re
minds me of the queerest one I ever
saw or ever heari of and in which I
was one of the principals I was cross
ing from Nova Scotia to Boston on a
schooner loaded with plaster a chance
that came to me in a country port
where I was staying for my health
As the boat saved me sixty miles of
stage coach riding to the town of Hali
fax where the nearest steamer travel
was to be found I took passage and
for ten days was tossed about on a sea
voyage that by steamer consumes thirty-six
hours -
There was another passenger a
tourist like myself and the captain
made several desperate efforts to get
us acquainted he knowing us both but
at each attempt before he could pro
nounce our names he was either called
on deck or the ship gave a lurch and
the introduction did not take place s
But one day when it was so rough
outside that we stayed in our bunks in
the captains cabin and the wind was
blowing great guns the skipper who
had come below for something stopped
to say- You two gentlemen ought to
be made acquainted Mr Smith Mr
Brown Mr Brown Mr Smith
That is the down East method of in
troducing people and as our names
were mentioned we each turned in our
bunks to salute the other the bunks be
ing on exactly opposite sides of the
cabin
But at that moment each one of us
shot from his bunk as if from the
mouth of a cannon and as we passed
at that rate of speed we caught each
others hand and shook it with a will
and had just time to acknowledge the
captains politeness by saying as we
flew past
Glad to know you Mr Smb7
Delighted to meet you Mr
Brown Chicago Times Herald
Has Twenty Dressmakers
It is well known that the German
Empress is an ideal housekeeper as
well as an ideal wife and mother Her
dread of waste goes so far that the
suits of her elder children are cut down
to fit the younger boys and her own
court dresses are altered again and
again so as not to be recognized when
they are worn at any court functions
Yet it is also reported that an army of
twelve dressmakers is always at work
for the Empress and that it is increased
to over thirty -whenever the Empress
is about to start on a journey New
gowns would after all be less
sive since the great Berlin artist in
dresses who makes the court costumes
for her majesty charges only about 75
for making a gown of state
Kissing Unwilling Girls Ijegal
Hollands court of appeals once de
cided in a case of assault by a young
man who kissed an unwilling girl In a
street of Utrecht that to kiss a person
cannot be an offense as it Is in the na i
ture of a -warm mark of sympathy -and
dismissed the case
Theatrical people are peculiar They
work when they play and play vrhenj
tney woriz
s
