12 Conservative *
Me n t i o 11 has
AN EARLY
INDUSTRY. been made ill TIIE
CONSERVATIVE of
the extraordinary lightness and freedom
with which the inhabitants of the river
towns organized railroads at one period
of their history. Nebraska City was
not a bit behind her rivals in that indus
try ; the following orgauizations went
on record in Otoe County in the years
1867 to 1809 alone. Others went be
fore and others again followed.
The Kansas & Nebraska R. R. Co. ,
which was to build from the Missouri
River , at the state line , up through
Richardson , Nemaha , Otoe , Cass and
Sarpy counties to a junction with the
Union Pacific somewhere in the last-
named county. Capital $5,000,000.
Work on the Union Pacific had been
in progress for two years at this time ,
and the road was open for business as
far as Cheyenne.
The Neuiaha Valley , Lincoln City &
Columbus R. R. Co. , designed to run
from Rule up the Great Nemaha , and
to Columbus on the Union Pacific by
way of "Lincoln City. " Capital $9,000-
000.
000.It
It will be perceived that nobody was
afraid of a few millions more or less in
those days ,
The Midland Pacific Railway Co. ,
whose object was "the construction ,
maintenance and operation of a line of
railway and magnetic telegraph" from
Nebraska City westward to a point on
the Union Pacific not over 100 miles east
of Fort Kearney ; with a branch to di
verge somewhere in Otoe County and run
southwest to the state line , in the gen
eral direction of Fort Riley. This com
pany actually got to work , and was af
terward consolidated , under the title of
the Nebraska Railway Co. , with Ne
maha County's historic line , the Brown-
ville , Fort Kearney & Pacific ; an organ
ization which has a story , with a moral ,
of its own. What advantages it brought
into the partnership it is not easy to see ;
a portion of its few miles of graded
right-of-way is still visible , a few miles
this side of Browuville. The line laid
out in the prospectus , with the excep
tion of the Fort Riley branch , is largely
that followed at present by the B. & M.
Railway.
The St. Louis , St. Joseph & Nebraska
R. R. Co. , which proposed to build from
the point in Richardson County where
Walnut Creek crosses the state line , up
the Great Nemaha and down Salt Creek ,
by way of Salem , Humboldt and Tecumseh -
seh , to Saltillo and Lincoln , being the
route now occupied by another line of
the B. & M. system.
The Nebraska City & Southwestern
Railway Co. , designed to run in the di
rection named , through Otoe , Johnson ,
Pawnee , Gage , Saline and Jefferson
counties to the Republican River , and
thence westwardly to the Colorado line.
The St. Louis & Nebraska Trunk R.
R. , whose northern terminus was to
iiave been Omaha , and its line to have
run through or near Bellevue , Platts-
mouth , Nebraska City , Brownvillo and
Rule , and thence across the line into
Kansas.
And finally the Weeping Water &
Platte Valley Rail Road , which waste
to begin at Nebraslta City and run up
the valley of the Weeping Water , in
tending to tap the Union Pacific at
three points , Fremont and two others.
This project has an apparent likeness to
the B. & M.'s present lines to Columbus
and Schuyler.
THE IJOY'S IDEA ! , .
If boys are known by the literary he
roes they keep , the results of a recent
"enquete" by a boy's paper , published
in England , are not without significance.
Youug readers were requested to name
their favorite characters in fiction ; and
many lists were received. At the head
of them all stands D'Artaguan , and next
comes Sherlock Holmes a strange
bracketing of chivalry and shrewdness.
Among the classic admired beings we
find Hereward and Ivauhoe and John
Ridd and Uncas. Dickens has a scat
tered following , while Thackeray has
but a single hero figuring in the returns
Colonel Newcome , of course. Thack
eray himself , by the way , discussed this
whole question of youthful taste in fic
tion with his inimitable art. In "A
Lazy Idle Boy , " in "Roundabout Pa
pers , " ho confessed his own preferences
among romantic heroes , and his ap
proval of Dumas was as high as that of
the modern schoolboy , and as full in the
face of Mr. Ho wells' warnings against
all such mere nursery tales. New York
Post.
I * the course of
THEOTOES.
some amateur in
vestigations into the early days of Ne
braska , the writer has as yet failed to
find any individual old settler with a
good word to say for the Indians as he
knew them. They are generally dis
missed with a few disparaging adjec
tives , among which lazy and lousy nearly
always occur , as much perhaps for the
sake of their pleasing alliteration and
the readiness with which they stick in
the memory as for their aptness. And
yet even the despised Otoes had their
military record , and were entitled to
have embroidered on their colors , if they
had had any , the name of that famous
field whereon General Braddock was
met by the French , on his march to
ward Pittsburg , or Fort Duquesne , in
1755 ; from which Major George Wash
ington was the only British officer who
came away on his own legs , and after
which some people concluded that one
Benjamin Franklin , of Philadelphia ,
was not such a fool as they had sup
posed.
One is surprised at the idea of the
French having made such formidable
Grand Canon
of Arizona
220 miles long , 9 to 18 miles
wide , a mile deep , and painted
like a flower.
"The Greatest , Grandest , Most Wonderful
Sight in the Worldl"
Excursion rates via the Santa Fe Route.
Write for illustrated descriptive book and full
particulars to
General Passenger Office
The Atchison , Topeka & Santa Fe Railway
Chicago
