.'H. ^mntifUH i .J:^ J M 7^ I if / •Or-CAilFO/,^ ^OFCAIIFOPlv -i^ V ?=> -ip '^/.Va3AINil3WV' ^^t-LIBRA!ii(y/ , ^L-uDr\/ T\/-^.n-\^^ '^Mf^nl\n■^(\' .OF-CALIFO% -^OFCALIFO% RAILWAYS AND OTHER WAYS. M U m (iiHiK BEING REMINISCENCES OF CANAL AND RAILWAY LIFE DURING A PERIOD OF SIXTY- SEVEN YEARS ; WITH CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES OF CANAL AND RAILWAY MEN — EARLY TRAM ROADS AND RAILWAYS — STEAMBOATS- AND OCEAN STEAMSHIPS — THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH AND ATLANTIC CABLE — CANADA AND ITS RAILWAYS, TRADE AND COMMERCE, WITH NUMEROUS INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES, HUMOROUS AND OTHERWISE, OF CANAL, COACH AND KAIL. MYLES PENNINGTON The oldest railway officer living, still in active service, aad first Goods Manager of the Preston and Wyre and North Staffordshire Railways of England, and first (Seneral Freight Agent, of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. '■ Now, mj- lads, you will see the day when mail coaches will g^o bv railway, and it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to w^^lk on foot." — George Stephenso?i, iS2^. TORONTO : WILLIAMSON & CO, 1894 Entered according to Act ot Parliament of Canada, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture, by Williamson & Company, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four. HE 8G9G41 SIR JOSEPH HICKSON. SIR JOSEPH HICKSON, K.C.M.G., LATE GENERAL MANAGER OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY OF CANADA, "^hie SBork is ^eiicateii, WITH FEELINGS OF ESTEEM AND ADMIRATION, BY HIS HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. Toronto, Canada, October, 1894. LIST OF PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. The Author opp. Title Sir Joseph Hickson . . . . . : . . opp. Dedication. Hon. John Eoss . . . . . . " Contents. Sir Henry Tyler . . . . . . . . " Introduction. S. P. Bidder 21 Sir James Allport . . . . . . . . . . 57 Group of I860. Walter Shanly, Hem-y Bailey, James Hard- man and Myles Pennington . . . . . . ... 81 Prince of Wales Medal — Victoria Bridge . . 95 W^illiam Hendrie . . . . . . . . 105 John Shedden 107 C. J. Brydges 119 Thomas Swinyard . . . . . . 121 W. K. Muir 125 Joseph Price . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 L. J. Seargeant . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Wm. Wainwright . . . . . . . . 157 Edmund Wragge . . . . . . . . . . 159 Jas. Stephenson . . . . . . . . . . 161 Abraham Fell 167 W. J. Spicer 169 E. P. Hannaford 171 Cross Section View, showing Strata and Construction of St. Claii- Tunnel . . . . . . . . 173 Ventila.ting Device for Piemoving Smoke . . . . . . 175 List of Portraits and Illustrations. PAGE. Joseph Hobson . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Sectional View, full length of Tunnel under St. Clair Kiver, Tunnel Engine Emerging from Portal . . . . 179 S. E. Callaway 183 John Burton 1 89 John Earls 191 Arthur White 193 Geo. Burdett Spriggs . . . . . . . . . . 195 A Souvenir of the Great Western Railway of Canada . . 199 James Charlton . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 David Pottinger . . . . . . . . . . 217 N. Weatherston 219 John Weatherston . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Alderman Hallam . . . . . . . . . . 259 Suspension Bridge {G. T. R.) over Niagara River . . 285 One Hundred Ton, St. Clair Tunnel Locomotive . . 301 Sir William C. Van Home 305 A Ship's Bill of Lading One Hundred Years Ago . . 323 Niagara Falls (Two views) . . . . . . . . . . S53 •J, B. Jones 379 Sir Hugh Allan 397 HON. JOHN ROSS. CONTENTS. Chapter I. — pages 21 to 38. The Author's Birth— His Father — John Hargreaves, the Carrier, 21 ; School-Boy Days— School in a Kitchen — School at " Sandy Johnny's," 22 ; " Go to see the Hanging" — Remove to Preston — Apprenticed to a Carrier — Pickford & Co., — Town of Preston— Its Guild — The Earl of Derby, 23 ; An Enthusiastic Carrier — Pen Portrait of John Hargreaves, 2-1 ; John Hargreaves as a Coach Driver — John Hargreaves and the Toll-Gate Man — Way Bills — Braithwaite Poole, 2.5 ; My First Railway— Its Gauge, 26 ; A Railway Episode— The Oldest Railway Man — Canal-Boat Robbers, 27 ; The Lost Fly-Boat — Game Poachers, 28 ; Rates of Carriage — A Clever Teamster — Joe Knows the Rates—" What a Merchant would Stand," 29 ; The "Deead Mon" — A Queer Question— Whiskey and Wool, 30 ; Canal Packet Boats — "The Swiftsure" — A pleasant Sail — The Mysterious Trunk, 31; Early case of "Burking" — How Johnny Morrison Balanced his Gash-Book, 32 ; Myles Beck's Cash-Book — Heavy Postage— Billy Bates, 33 ; I'll learn thee to make M.B.— The last Stage-Coach — " We miss the Cantering Team," 31 ; Liquor Sampling — An Old Custom — A Stage-Coach Journey, 35 ; A Runaway— Brandy Blossoms — A Visit to Liverpool— First Sight of a Locomotive — A Ride to Manchester— 15 Miles an Hour, 36 ; The Locomotive "Castle "—Runs Away, 37 ; "John Gilpin" — On Wheels, 38. Chapter II. — pages 39 to 53. My First Goods Managership -Preston and Wyre Railway— Fleetwood Then and Now — Thos. Drewry's Account of It— S. P. Bidder, C.E.— A Banquet— Geo. Stephenson Talks, 39 ; Sudden Termination of a Ball— My First Goods Classifi- cation—Bobbins and Dead Pigs — Preston and Wyre Railway Shares -How We Sold the Line, 40 ; First Excursion Trains— Morecambe Bay — A Trip by Steamer " Nile " — Verses, 41 ; The Poet Andertoa,42 ; His Lines on Railways- John King, Station Master— The First Teetotaler, 43 ; Curious Ideas about Railways— The Old Lady and the Telegraph, 44 ; A Big Enquiry about Clog Soles— Not Wood Enough in England to Make Them— Kill the Calf Without Prejudice— Sea Boulders and Railway Traffic, 45 ; Paving the Streets of Man- ii. ConteAits. Chester— A Testimonial to S. P. Bidder, 1847, 46 ; The Author's Address, 47 ; Mr. Bidder's Reply, 48 ; I Remove to Staffordshire— The " Knotty Line," 49 ; Ruins of Tutbury Castle — Mary Queen of Scots— Trent and Mersey Canal — Its Tunnels and Aqueducts, 50 ; An Ancient Act of Parliament, 1701 -The Three Celebrated Quakers, 51 ; Edward Pease, the Railway Pioneer— Thos. Edmond- son and the Railway Ticket Printing Machine, 52 ; Geo. Bradshaw, of "Brad- shaw's Guide"— The Baby Guide of 1844— The Giant Guide of 1894— Note by Thos. Drewry on Bradshaw's Death, 53. Chapter III. — pages 54 to 05. Early English Goods Managers- -Importance of Their Work — Power Over the Traffic of the Country, 54 ; Braithwaite Poole, President of Goods Manager's Conference — A Testimonial to Him — His Work on British Commerce, 55 ; His Parliamentary Evidence, 1845 — His Visit to Canada in 1859, 5G ; Sir James AUport — The Author's Recollections of Him, 57 ; The Old Third-class Travel, 58 ; The " Stand-up "—Change made by Sir James— Pullman Cars Introduced on the Midland Railway, 59 ; Railway Servants' Orphanage— His Death — Obituary Remarks, 60 ; How News of Hudson's Election was Conveyed to the London Times Half a Century ago, 61 ; Samuel Eborall — His Fat Book of Rates and Marginal Notes— Colin Eborall — His Successful Career as a Railway Manager — His Visit to Canada with Sir M. Peto— William Cawkwell, Agent at Brighouse —Goods Manager — Reached the Highest Railway Rank, 62 ; Samuel Salt, of Manchester— His Statistical Works— His Proverbs and Wise Sayings — Thos. Kay, Assistant to Mr. Salt, 63 ; Succeeds Him as Goods Manager — Frederick Broughton, Goods and General Manager on English and Welsh Railways, Comes to Canada as General Manager of Great Western Railway — His Lecture on Heraldry — His Sudden Death, 64 ; Other Early Goods Man- agers— W. L. Newcombe — Mr. Walklate — F. Ormandy, of Liverpool, 65. Chapter IV. — pages 66 to 70. English Railway Clearing House — Its Small Beginning in 1842— Kenneth Morri.son, its Founder — Its Greatness and Value, 66 ; Takes Note of Movement of Railway Plant — Fixes Terminal Expenses — Mr. Morrison attends Goods Manager's Conferences— Goods Managers as Ramblers, 67 ; K. Morrison puts on the Curb — "Kendal," means Windermere, 68 ; Geo. Dartnell Tries to Start a Clearing House in U. S. and Canada — Issues a Pamphlet on the Subject — How Cars were Lost — The Great Want of a Clearing House — My Witnesses in London, 69 ; A Cumberland Wrestler and an Irish " Cow-Boy " — How I Kept Them in Sight — How I Lost Them — An Irish Jig Among the Lawyers, 70. Contents. iii. Chapter V. — pages 71 to 80. The Railway Mania of 1845— People's Eyes had an Uncanny Look — We get up a Bur- lesque Scheme, 71 ; The " Gret Yed" (Wooden Head) to Preside — To Take in the Geese of Bleasdale Fell— An Application for Shares — The Rush for Scrip — A Parody, 72 ; Immense Subscriptions for Stock — A Clergyman's Scheme — How we got it up to Pay 5 per cent. , 73 ; A Dash of His Pen and it Pays 7^ per cent. — The Scheme Partially Carried Out 40 Years Afterwards, 74 ; Direc- tors Sold to Themselves Their Own Land at Their Own Price — How a Railway Secret was Discovered, 75 ; Speculations for the Church— A Visit to London During the Mania — What I Saw — Scenes in the Lobby of the House of Com- mons, 76 ; Celebrated Men of the Times — How Easy Money was Earned— King Hudson— His Strange Career — A Fortune Left Him was His Misfortune, 77 J His Early Work was a Good ^\ork for the Country -Makes £100,000 in One Day— Kc was no Worse than the Morality of the Period— The World Had Gone Crazy — Hudson's Final Ruin — Dies a Poor Man, 78 ; Price of Shares in 1845 — An Old Railway Share List— The Grand Crash of the Mania, 79 ; Groans, Moans and Suicide— Off to the Continent, 80. Chapter VI. — pages 81 to 94. A. Start for Canada Under the auspices of Peto, Brassey, Betts and Jackson — Thos. Brassey, the Famous Contractor — John Roberts, Goods Manager, 81 ; "Hot Scotch" and "Barley Bree "— " Wha'll be King but Charlie"— The Globe Letters— Grand Trunk Reminiscences— "The Battle of the Guages," 82 ; His- tory of the Guage— Great Mistakes, 83 ; Ohio Guage — A Locomotive Fixed It — Early Directors — President Hon. Jno. Ross— V. P. B. Holmes — Notes on Deaths of Sir A. T. Gait, James Beaty, and Hon. Jas. Ferrier — Sir Cusack Roney, Sec'y,, 84 ; His Interview With Napoleon— Dublin Exhibition, 1853— Comes to Canada— His Parliamentary Work on Grand Trunk Bills — S. P. Bidder, First General Manager— His Brother, the Calculating Boy — Blackwall Iron Wharves— Engineer on Preston and Wyre R'y.— General Manager of the North Staffordshire Railway, 85 ; General Manager G. T. R.— Many Troubles — Break at Montreal— Contentions with Ice and Snow — Rigid English Locomo- tives—A Magnificent Testimonial, 86 ; Mr. Bidders Address, 87 ; A Visit to Canada Some Years Afterwards- Meet Him at Niagara Falls— Brontere O'Brien- A Curious Coincidence— Richard Tfevithick Builds the First Locomo- tive in 1804, 88 ; His Son, F. H. Trevithick, is Frst Locomotive Superintend- ent on G. T. R.— He Left Early— A Bear Story, 89; A Whiskey Railway— A Terrible Calamity, 90 ; The Burning of the Boots, 91 ; Walter Shanly, Chief Engineer and General Manager— Jas. Stephenson, Supfc.— J. B. Jones, Assist ^nt G. M., 92 ; Cornelius Judge, Assistant G. M.— A Testimonial to Him— H. iv. Contents. C. Bourlier, Supt. St. Thomas ("Tommy Cod") Line, 93 ; Calves, Sheep and Passengers Ride Together— Passengers do not " Write to the Times," 94. Chapter VII. — pages 95 to 103. The Victoria Bridge— A Great Undertaking— Ice Shoves like the Glaciers of the Alps — Construction of Coffer-Dams — A Winter's Work More Than Lost, 95 ; A. M. Ross, Engineer — Hon. Jno. Young on the Subject of the Victoria Bridge — What Robt. Stephenson Said, 96 ; James Hodges and His Stafif of Bridge Builders and Mr. Ross Pull Together— G. R. Stephenson Attempts to rob Mr. Ross of His Well-Earned Fame— Hon. Jno. Young to the Defence— The Author gets a Letter of Thanks from a Son of A. M. Ross, 97 ; The Attack mainly the Cause of A. M. Ross's Death— First Crossing of the Victoria Bridge— Prince of Wales Drives the Last Rivet and Lays the Last Stone— A Commemorative Medal— One in the Author's Possession, 98 ; Victoria Bridge as a Thermometer— T. D. King's Experiments, 99 ; The Boulder Monument in Memory of 6,000 Immigrants— A Noble Deed— All Honour to the Bridge Builders— The Moose Deer and the Locomotive, 100 ; Subject for an Historic Painting— Fraudulent Freight Claims, 101 ; The Detective's Story— A Daniel Come to Judgment, 102 ; Putting on Another Horse, 103. Chapter VIII. — pages 104 to 109. Hendrie & Shedden— Visit to Montreal— The "Pickfords of Canada," 104 ; Wm. Hendrie, a Sketch— Jno. Shedden, a Sketch— The Shipping Note— Its Impor- tance—Number Issued in Toronto, 105 ; A Novel Shipping Note— Cartage Riots in Montreal— Shedden's Life Threatened, 106 ; Jno. Shedden's Important Contracts— His Terrible Death— Fatality to His Nephew— Monument in the Necropolis Cemetery, Toronto— Wm. Hendrie— Laying the Water Pipes of Hamilton— Adam Brov?n's Remarks, 107 ; No Leak in the Pipes— Wm. Hendrie's Many Railway Contracts— A Director of Banks— The Firm's Great Number of Employees— Make a Bid for Building the Canadian Pacific Railway —Note on Adam Brown— Post Master of Hamilton, 108 ; Cartage Business in Toronto in 1857 and 1888, 109. Chapter IX. — pages 110 to 121. B. Holmes, First Vice-President of Grand Trunk Railway- Collector of Customs at Montreal— Died at His Post— T. E. Blackwell Succeeds Mr. Holmes as V. P. —Mr. Blackwell as a Scientist— His Fondness foi Geology and Meteorology, 110 : One of the Earliest Weather Probs— His "Flying Ferry" at Sarnia— Contents. v. How Worked— Not a Success— The "Great Eastern" of the Lakes, 111; Probable Cause of Mr. Blackwell's Death — Henry Bailey— Assistant General Manager— Supt. of Portland District— Lieut.-Col. of G. T. R. Brigade— His Death at Brighton, England — Canadian Travel in the Olden Time, 112 : Early Railway Travel— Slow but Sure— 20 Miles an Hour— Snow Blockades— A Cold Night Ride to Quebec— Mason & Slidell Trouble— The Sleeping-Car, 113 ; A Crude One at Start — The Morality Question Considered — Pullman Cars Intro- duced — Dollars and Cents — My First Freight Tariff in Decimal Currency, 114 ; A Blessing to Shipping Clerks— English Currency and Decimal Currency Com- pared — A Sum for School Pupils, 115 ; The Imaginary Charm about Pounds Sterling— Early English Railway Managers— Some Unfit for Office — The Sea Captain— He Insults a Well-known Peer — A Stock-jobber with a Lisp, 116 ; His Experiments with a Rat Trap — John Brown in a State of Grog— Tells Gen'l, M. to " Come at a More Convenient Season " — Wilson's Terrier Saved its Master from a Severe Reprimand— A Polish Refugee — Sent to Cut Down Salaries — The Marine Surveyor — Inspects His Men Through a Telescope — The Polish Manager Would Make His Line Pay — He Would Double the Fares, 117 ; The Little Dandy Manager— A Model for Order — His Reverence for the Nobility — Manager Taken for a Waiter — The Drunken Gen'l. M. Gives His Men a Lesson in Politeness — Great Fun for All Round, 118 ; Canadian General Managers — Sir Casimir Gzowski, the First Genl. M. in Canada, 119 ; C. J. Brydges, the Napoleon of Railways — James Tillinghast, of the Northern and New York Central — Col. F. Cumberland— An Early Pioneer — A. Fell — His Life's Experi- ence on English, Canadian and L'nited States Roads— Thos. Swinyard— London and North- Western, England, 120 ; General Manager, G. W. R. — President Dominion Telegraph Co. — Commissioner Prince Edward Island Railway — Sir Joseph Hickson — An Active Worker in all Railway Departments — Honour of Knighthood, 121. Chapter X. — pages 122 to 127. S. P. Bidders Farewell Letter, 122 ; Presentation to Walter Shanly, 123 ; An Ad- dress, and His Reply,124 ; W. K. Muir — In Memoriam, 125 ; Sketch of His Rail- way Career in England, Canada, and the United States, 126 ; Narrow Escape at Desjardin's Bridge Accident — A Memento of Desjardin's Bridge — Model of a Locomotive — In Memory of Engineer and Fireman, 126 ; Joseph Price — Treasurer of a Chicago Line — same on Great Western of Canada — Succeeds W. K. Muir as General Manager— A Testimonial— Now Represents English Asso- ciation of American Bond and Shareholders in London, 127. Chapter XI.— pages 128 to 135. Three Nights in the Cars— A Bad Start, 128 ; The Beautiful Snow— The Sleeping- Car, 129 ; Stuck in the Snow— Stock of Rations Taken. 130 ; The Glass Tea- vi. Contents. kettle— Foraging Parties go Out, 131 ; Literature at a Premium— Two A.M. — Al Look-Out, 132 ; A Dead Engine— Dug Out, 133 ; Supplies Arrive— Con- ductors Adventures— The Snow-Plough, 134 ; Changes Cars— A Wreck, 135. Chapter XII. — pages 136 to 147. Portland— Its Steamboats— Cheeryble Brothers— Kimbals—Coyle— Brooks— A Colli- sion on the Atlantic — Only a Board Between Us, 136 ; No Shoddy in the Steamers —Earliest of "Old Probs "— S. T. Corser, Superintendent— Old, but Always Fresh and Rosy— A Sound Teetotaler, 137; J. S. Millar, Goods Manager- Organized Railway and Ocean Freight — Adapted for any Railroad Position — C. R. Christie, Superintendent— Sketch of His Railway Career— Erastus Wiman's Opinion, 138 ; Christie's Early Death— J. S. Martin— His English and Canadian Career — The Cloaked Figure — The Spectral Locomotive— Martm's Marriage, 139 ; An Incident of Maximillian— David Stark, Engineer and Sup- erintendent—A Successful Man— Wm. Kingsford, C. E.— His Work on Cana- dian Canals — His Great Work — The History of Canada, 140 ; Degree of LL.D. — Superintendent Webster— His Bunk on the Baggage Car— Always on Duty — Starts a Through Bill of Lading Office— Allan Line and G. T. R.— The Pioneers of the North- West — Hudson Bay Co.^Burbanks of St. Paul— Oxen Teams to Fort Garry, 141 ; First Rail and Ship Bill of Lading Introduced — The Author's Suggestion, 142 ; First Contracts at Cincinnati— Grows to be an Immense Trade— Some of Godfray Macdonald's Shipments, 143 ; To Canadian and U. S. Seaports^CmcJn.na'\-. ■ kHi- i*' A. B^^^T^'- ^Ih^ .y^JSM ^^w^^ — ^ '^j^Hjj^l^^Hjk ik^ ^^^^^ f^*^ *-l^^^^^^^^^l Bh^^ •;■' '^H ^■^^ |H^^ tii^^^^^^^^^^H ^K ,Tr?y ARTHUR WHITE. General Freight Agents. 193 two branches met in the offices at Palmerston, Saturday 3Yening, November 19th, and presented Mr. Tiffin with a very handsome ilkiminated address and a silver tea service for his wife. The address, which was signed by Messrs. E. A. Shea and H. Hynd- man, jr., of Palmerston, on behalf of the men, set forth the facts that Mr. Tiffin was leaving a portion of the division after having been in charge of it since its construction, twenty-two years before, and was thereby separated from some of the employees of the road who had been under his supervision during the whole of that period, and that most of those present had grown up from boyhood under him. Mr. John Quirk of Kincardine and Mr. John Forbes, Harriston, who made the presentation, expressed their regret in parting with one who had been so long associated with them. Mr. Tiffin, in repl}^ said he could never forget the kindness shown him. It had been his duty to maintain strict discipline, and after doing so for so long a jDeriod he was gratified to know they entertained such kindh' sentiments toward himself and family. A number of other speeches closed a very enjoyable hour. THE OLD GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY. The old Canadian Great Western was a famous railway educational institution, and will always be held in grateful remembrance by many who started their early career in its offices and who now hold lucrative and important positions on the Grand Trunk, Michigan Central, Chicago i.l' Alton, and other railways in Canada and the United States. In the lengthy list of names, I call to mind ALEXANDER MACKAY, a bright and intelligent boy who, about twenty-five years ago, was employed in our general freight offices at Hamilton in copy- ing and endorsing letters, etc. After serving there some years 13 194 Railways atid Other Ways. and gaining the rudiments of railway office freight work, he was promoted to the Great Western Railway office at Chicago, as an assistant to A. Wallingford, an old, trustworthy, and much esteemed agent of the Company in that progressive city. At Chicago Mr. Mackay soon made his mark and pushed his way to higher positions until he reached that of general freight agent of the Michigan Central Railway, which office he has held with high honour for many years, and long may he continue in it. M. 0. DICKSON, DISTEICT PASSENGER AGENT. I have much pleasure in referring to another old officer of the Great Western, viz., Mr. M. C. Dickson, whom I remember as the active station agent at Bothwell many years ago. Since then he has held different important positions on Canadian rail- ways. For some years he was general freight agent on the Northern Railway, and when that road merged into the Grand Trunk, Mr. Dickson was appointed district passenger agent for the G.T.R., Avith office at the Union Station, which position he still retains. GEORGE BURDETT SPRIGGS. Other Officers, hici dents and Anecdotes, 195 CHAPTER XVII. OTHER OFFICERS, INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. GEO. BURDETT SPRIGGS. OF this gentleman, the Station Agent, a monthly magazine, thus speaks in its issue of August, 1893 : " We are pleased to present to our readers this month, one of the prominent Cleveland traffic officials, one of the best kno^yn in railway circles and one who has a national reputation, Mr. G. B. Spriggs, general freight agent of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Eailroad (Nickel Plate). " The outline of his career is an interesting one, showing a steady rise from the lowest to the highest position in the freight department. Mr. G. B. Spriggs was born in England in November 1834, and at the age of eighteen entered the service of the London & Northwestern railway as junior clerk in the freight department at Eockingham. After a year's service in that position he was made corresponding clerk at Stafford Station. Two years of this work was sufficient to show his employers that he had the right stuff in him, and he was made corresponding clerk and chief accountant at Wolverhampton. In 1858 he was further promoted to the chief clerkship of the district goods manager's office, remaining in that position until 1862 when he accepted, by direct invitation from the management in Canada, the position of freight agent at Hamilton, Ont., on the Great Western Eail- way of Canada. From 1862 until 1870 his career was a series 196 Raihvays and Other Ways. of steadil}' ascending steps, being promoted from freight agent at Hamilton to through freight agent, and finally general freight agent, leaving the service on a change of management. From 1871 to 1877 he was assistant general freight agent of the Balti- more & Ohio S3'stem, and developed the freight business of the Chicago Division of that road from its opening in 1874, But in 1877, on the management retiring under whose regime he had left in 1870, Mr. Spriggs returned to the Great Western Rail- way as general traffic manager, with headquarters at Hamilton, Ont. In the summer of 1882, the Great Western and Grand Trunk being then about to amalgamate, the executive officers of the Nickel Plate began casting about for a man who could man- age the freight department of the new road and manage it in the manner necessar}^ for the success of the to be rival for a slice of the Vanderbilt business. Mr. Spriggs was the man who fitted the place exactly, and in August, 1882, he accepted the position he now holds." To the above sketch of Mr. Spriggs' very interesting railway career I have great pleasure in adding some further reminis- cences from my own personal recollections of him, when I was assistant G. F. A. on the old Great Western Eailway. In September, 1866, Mr. Spriggs felt himself compelled to resign his position of G. F. A. in consequence of ill-health and to return to England in the hope of improvement. On this occasion the officers and employees of the G. W. R. presented him with an address, an exquisitely fine gold watch and chain and a purse of gold. I give the following extracts from the Hamilton Times, Sept. 15th, 1866 : " Mr. Swinyard in a very pleasant speech alluded to the very opportune assistance which Mr. Spriggs had often afforded him in the many complicated questions which had arisen, and pronounced a very high encomium on the ability and character o^ Other Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 197 the gentleman about to sever his connection with the Company. He then read the address, to which Mr. Spriggs made the follow- ing reply : " ' Gentlemen, — I cannot too gratefully acknowledge the kind- ness and goodwill which are manifested towards me in every ex- pression of the address you have just now read to me, and which is subscribed by so many of my fellow officers and workmen. I am doubly grateful that this spontaneous evidence of regard should come at a time when I am about to leave the country and give up a connection which has been to me a source of pride and pleasure, and which I cannot sever without the deepest regret. " 'When I came to this country nearly four 3-ears ago, I was a stranger to all, but by pursuing a steady course and endeavour- ing to win the regard of those amongst whom my lot was cast, I soon discovered that the great principle of charity was not con- fined to the other side of the Atlantic, but that men's hearts were as warm here as elsewhere, and that if I long remained a stranger it would be my own fault. Four years have passed and the hand of friendship is extended to me from all sides, and I am almost bewildered to think that in the hereafter of our lives only the influence and not the presence will be felt. '"If I have been successful in the various offices I have filled under the Great Western Companj^ it is due as much to the efficiency of the freight staff generally as to my own exertions. My staff have always shown a willingness to co-operate with me in all matters of detail, and the good understanding which exists between us will ever yield me the utmost satisfaction, and I only regret that the generally bad state of my health compels me to break a tie which seems to have in it much more than the char- acter of a business connection. "We heartily second the wishes expressed in the beautiful address which was read to Mr. Spriggs, accompanied by our 198 Raihvays and Otlier ^Yays. regret that so excellent an officer, in a department of so very much concern to the public, should he compelled to leave from such a cause. "Mr.Ci-ampton was introduced by Mr. Swinyard to the heads of departments, as the successor of Mr. Spriggs." After Mr. Spriggs had been in England for a short time he found himself quite recuperated and he once more embarked for Canada. Mr. Swinyard then gave him the charge of the car and mileage department of the G. W. R. The details of his career afterwards have already been given. Mr. Spriggs' varied experience, in the three countries, has given him a knowledge of railway business possessed by few. He is now looked upon as one of the prominent freight managers in the United States. Mr. Spriggs' talents of a literary character are first-class, and had he have turned his attention in that direction he would undoubtedly have made his mark in tlie literary world.* I remember he, at one time, wrote a number of humorous letters which appeared in the Hamilton Times, under the nom- de-plume of a "Country Cousin," or "Cousin Joe." I regret that I have not any copies of them. * Referring to the resolutions, already quoted in full, passed at a meeting of the Central Traffic Association at Chicago, on the death of Thos. Tandy, the Cleveland Plain Dealer says : "They were written by INIr. George B. Spriggs, of this city. General Freight Agent of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Koad. As the eulo- gist of his Canadian friend, Mr. Spriggs has achieved special distinction by being the author of resolutions which leave the beaten p.ath of commonplace and give expres- sion in choicest diction to the feelings of the he irt at the loss which the associates and friends of Mr. Tandy sustained by his death. The tender of resijectful sympathy to the family of the deceased and the enumeration of the brilliant qualities which he possessed are expressed in language which is quite out of the ordinary set form? used on such occasions, and has caused the resolutioas to be extensively copied in the press. Mr. Sprigg.s' is not only one of the most thoroughly informed men in the country ou railway matters, but is also possessed of literary ability of a high order." 7^ o EC H D < K h w z o f/1 CO <: I?* - K- z o H O < Z W 5 p:; z o Oh Q ■ p: 03 H W X o a; O c^ O H 1 — • O A rc W Oh > __ P o o A CO fc w -< ci > re OtiLer Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 199 JOSEPH TAYLOK AUTHOR OF " FAST LIFE." In anotliei- part of this volume I have si3oken of railway men ■svho have dibhed into the mines of literature, as Poole, Salt and Auderten, and which show that men, however multitudinous their duties, man}' yet find some time to ramble into the fields of science, fiction or poesy. I now speak of a gentleman on this side of the Atlantic, viz : Joseph Taylor, who, when I first knew him, was a short- hand writer for General Manager Swinyard of the old Great "Western Eailway ; subsequently he was chief clerk to the late W. Iv. Muir, when that gentleman was General Manager of the G. ^\. E. Mr. Taylor possesses literary abilities of a high order, with a particular bent for writings of a humorous character. In 1874 he wrote a book entitled, "A Fast Life on the Modern Highway," illustrated and published by Harper Bros., New York. The work contained much valuable information in connection with railways and their mode of working, with characteristic sketches of railway officers, and several graphic, romantic and humorous tales. Mr. Taylor on retiring from the G. W. E. went to Detroit and joined the Detroit & Milwaukee Eailroad Company. Here he met Mr. James McMillan, " The Car-Building King," and the two became warm friends, and for eighteen years have been closely related in all business transactions, Mr. Taylor holding the 2)osition of Secretary to the Michigan Car Company, and, like Mr. McMillan and other gentleman connected with that great undertaking, has greatly prospered. The following is a selection from "Fast Life on a Modern Highway:" AN APPLICATION FOE, A SITUATION. " The following is from a fond, gushing parent, seeking em- ployment for his innocent lad, only tldytij-tn-o years of age : 200 Raihvays and Other Ways. " ' Respected and Dear Sir, — " 'Happy is the man that hath his kwivver full of them, as the Salmist says. I have got a sweet lad, he is quick as litenin, and is going into his 33th year. At his time of life most men would only be in their 21th year — he's so kwick. When he was a hinfant he would say he would be a railrode man. He is full of the thort of a railrode life ; and though I say it as should not, I never see a lad hoe turnips so kwick in all my days. He has wrote a verse which runs like a him ; it is as follows : ' I choose to be a brakesman, If I might be a flower ; To run along the top of cars, And screw up the brakes.' " ' He also wrote another him, which begins like these : ' How doth the busy boot-black, Improve each shining hour,' etc ! " ' Now respected Sir, can you help him to reach his gole ? He is cute to a degree. If you want a good operator, he could soon LEARN ! Do a good turn when you can, ' as the treadmill says to the Convict.' please note : He enters on his 33st year on Wednesday ; and it would be elegant to give him your offer on that date. ' " JAMES CHAELTON, CHICAGO. Mr. Charlton commenced his railroad career in England, about forty-five years ago. He came to Canada in 1857, and entered the services of the Great Western Railway Co., as a clerk in the audit office, and from time to time was advanced to higher positions, until he was appointed Auditor and General Passenger and Ticket Agent, which offices he filled with untiring zeal and much success. He is fairly entitled to be classed as one of Canada's early railway pioneers. Mr. Charlton retired from the G. W. R. service in 1870, to accept the position of General Pas- senger Agent of the North Missouri Railroad, and in 1871 he was I "^^c^ Other Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 201 appointed to a similar position on the Chicago & Alton road, which he still retains. As a railroad officer, in his particular department, he stands in the front ranks, and has no superior. Like most successful railway men he has sprung from the luorkers, and has pushed his way to his present high post of honour by sterling integrity and sheer ability. The Directors and Managers of the Chicago & Alton road have always paid great deference to Mr. Charlton's judgment and intrusted him with almost unlimited powers. Mr. G. is fond of literature and has come in contact with and enjoyed the friendship of many notabilities on both sides of the Atlantic, among whom I name Sir Charles Gavin Duffy, ex-Premier of Australia, and George Jacob Holyoake, of Brighton, England. Mr. Charlton is a good public speaker, and has occasionally come out as a warm politician. I remember the great assistance he rendered to Mr. Witton, his friend and fellow G. W. E. employee, in securing that gentleman's election as member of Parliament for the city of Hamilton. Mr. Charlton is a great admirer of the poetry of Piobert Browning, and some eighteen years ago he commenced the novel but laborious task of publishing Browning's works in the Chicago & Alton ofticial Eailroad Guide. This he carried on for some months, but found it was too great a tax upon his time, and he had to discontinue it ; still what he did had the effect of calling the special attention of the American public to Browning's poetry, as upwards of 10,000 copies of the Guide, in neat pamphlet form, were distri- buted freely all over the country every month. This is the only case in which I have seen the charms of poesy combined with the prosaic uses of a railway time table. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Charlton recently, and though the frost of winter had tinged the beard, giving him somewhat of a venerable appearance, his eye was still bright and 202 Railways and Other Ways. his step elastic, and lie seemed good to wield the "Baton" of the Chicago & Alton railroad for many years to come. WILLIAM EDGAR. Mr. Edgar was born at Birkenhead, England, on June 14, 1841. He came to Canada when a mere boy and was employed as a clerk on the Great Western Eailway. His promotion was rapid. I remember him as chief clerk to General Passenger Agent, Mr. James Charlton, about twenty-five years ago. Shortly after- wards Mr. Edgar was appointed District Passenger Agent for the Western Division, with office at Detroit, and when Mr. Charlton removed to Chicago to assume the General Passenger and Ticket Agency of the Chicago & Alton Eailroad, Mr. Edgar suc- ceeded that gentleman as General Passenger Agent of the Great Western and, on the absorption of that line by the Grand Trunk, lie was appointed Assistant General Passenger Agent of that road^ with office at Toronto. In 1884 Mr. Edgar reached the highest step, being promoted to the General Passenger Agency of the Grand Trunk system, with office at Montreal. This position he held with great credit until his untimely decease on the 13th April, 1892. Though only fifty j'earsof age when he passed away, he had been engaged on Canadian railways for thirty-four years, daring which time he rose, step by step, from the lowest to the highest rank in his 2)rofession. NICHOLAS J. POWER. Here is the record of another successful old Great Western employee : Mr. Nicholas J. Power, late Assistant Accountant of the Grand Trunk Piailway in Montreal, who has been appointed to the position rendered vacant by the death of Mr. William Edgar, was, like his jn-edecessor, one of the employees of the Great UtJicr Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 203 "Western Eailwaj^ who entered the Grand Trunk employ at the time of the absorption of the former road. He entered the service of the Great Western as a clerk in the freight department early in 1858, ^yhence he was transferred to the audit depart- ment, where he rose graduall}' until appointed General Book- keeper in 1838. He was next made Accountant in 1873, and in 1878 he became Chief Accountant, with the additional charge of the audit department. At the time of the fusion of the two roads in 1882 he was remoyed to Montreal to take a position as Assistant Accountant, which position he held until his well-deseryed i^ro- motion. Mr. G. F. Bell, late chief clerk to Mr. Edgar, who has been promoted to the position of Assistant General Passenger Agent, is also an energetic and capable servant. W. S. CHAMP, PAYMASTER. Mr. Champ's railway career has been a remarkable as well as a succesful one. When quite a youth he entered the office of Brackstone Baker* who was then secretary of the Great "Western Railway at Hamilton. Here Mr. Champ remained nine years under, at different times, W. C. Stephens and W. K. Hen- derson, Secretaries ; Thos. Piejmold, Financial Director ; Thos. Bell and Joseph Price, Treasurers. In 1863 Mr. Champ was appointed Paymaster of the G. W. Pi. ; this position he held, uninterruptedly, for fifteen years. In 1878 he was promoted to that of General Cashier for the Com- pany, which he held until the fusion of the Great Western with the *01d railway officers and residents of Ontario well remember genial, humorous Brackstone Baker, the Secretary of the Great Western ■ Railway, at Hamilton, Ont., in the Company's early d.iys. He was afterwards* Secretary for the G.\V.R. at London, England, for fifteen or twenty years. He from time to time visited Canada during this period along with the President, Sir Thos. Dakin, and other Directors. Mr. Baker was always welcomed by old friends and particularly by gentlemen of the press, he in early life having been connected with the newspaper press in London. England. On Mr. Baker's retirement from the Company's service the G.W.R. Directors awarded him a pension as a mark of their esteem for his long and faithful attention to the interests of the Company. 204 Railways and Other Ways. Grand Trunk Railway. The Hamilton Cashier office being now abolished, Mr. Champ in 1882 once more became Paymaster, now on the Grand Trunk, which position he still retains. It will be interesting to know that during Mr. Champ's twenty-seven years' occupation of the position as Paymaster, he has paid out in salaries and wages (mainly from his travelling pay-car) the enormous sum of sixty-two million dollars, and that practi- cally, luithout any loss. It is very questionable if another such record could be found on the American Continent. Mr. Champ has had some occasional "scares," but has never been attacked by robbers. He, of course, goes well armed, and, as a rule, a detective has his eagle eye upon the pay-car. Mr. Champ, as Cashier and General Cashier, has had an equally large sum of money passed through his hands, indepen- dent of the amount from the pay-car. Many interesting incidents might be related from Mr. Champ's out-look of twenty-seven years from a pay-car. One I may relate, as I well remember the circumstance, and which illustrates the immense value of an instant of time. A NARROW ESCAPE. Early one December morning, in 1866, the G. W. E. pay- car (with Mr. Champ only i^artially dressed inside) stood next to some freight cars on the main line at Komoka Junction during some shunting that was going on. Owing to a blunder (which could only be explained by diagrams), a long train of cattle came up at full speed, when Colin Pioss, track foreman^ seeing that a terrible crash was inevitable, called out in a stentorian voice — " Jump, Mr. Champ, jump." Mr. C. did not ask the " reason why," but sprang off, and the next moment the pay-car was smashed into a thousand splinters and buried in a wreck of locomotive, freight cars, living and dead other Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 205 cattle. Mr. Champ's gold watch, his clothing and a small sum of money were destroyed in the general wreck (1893). Mr. Champ died unexpectedly of pneumonia, March lith, 1894. The sudden death took his friends by surjn-ise, as he was in charge of his pay-car the previous day although not feeling well, and was assisted by Paj^master Fraser of the Northern Division. Mr. Champ was well known throughout railway circles, he having gone into the G. W. E. employ forty years ago. He was over twenty- seven years paymaster and about four years cashier, the latter at the time of the fusion of the G. W. K. and G. T. E. He was beloved and respected by all railway employees with whom he came in contact, and there was a general feeling of sorrow at his sudden demise. A widow, four sons and three daughters are left to mourn, one being Mrs. Henry Beckett, of John Gillard & Co., whole- sale grocers. FUKTHER EAELY OFFICERS. In writing of events and circumstances of long ago, and of the men whose faces were once so familiar, and who took such an active part in the working of our great national railway, one cannot but feel somewhat saddened to think that by far the greater number of them have passed away and joined the ever-increasing majority. Still it is pleasing to find that a few of the old staff of officers yet remain, whose names and faces I knew so well from thirty to fort}' years ago, and I cannot close these reminiscences without giving a passing glance to them as well as to those who have gone. H. K. RITCHIE, Mr Eitchie has had charge of the stationery business almost from the commencement of the Grand Trunk Eail- 206 Laihvays and Other Ways. way, and when it is considered that he has to supply upwards of 500 local stations, the general offices, out agencies, etc., with books and all kinds of stationery, it will be seen that it requires an amount of skill and attention equal to that re- quired in the management of a large mercantile house, and that Mr. Ritchie's office is no sinecure. I have often wondered how many billions of documents Mr. Ritchie has sent out. To make a rough guess, I should think the quantity Avould be quite sufficient to cover the surface of the Dominion with a paper carpet. ALEXANDER ERASER. Among the few men now remaining of the early Grand Trunk staff is Mr. A. Fraser. He has seen the line extend from its babe-like proportions of 290 miles to its present magnitude of 4,000 or 5,000 miles. In the exercise of his duties, as Travelling Auditor, he has, at one time or another, audited the accounts at every station in the G. T. R. system. In 1854 he entered the service as Time-keeper for Mr. E. Lawson, Divisional Engineer. In 1856 he was a junior clerk in the freight office at LongueiL In 1859 he was in charge of the freight office on Montreal wharf, when the business was taken to Longueil by ferry boats. When the Victoria Bridge was opened, Mr. F. was removed to Point St. Charles, as Freight Cashier, and remained there until 1864, when he was appointed Freight Agent and District Cashier at Point Levis and Quebec. Mr. Fraser relates that when there was no ice bridge at Quebec the winter freight and passenger service was done by French habitants, who used large canoes ; and it was a novel and somewhat fearful sight to see these fearless French- Canadians take over a hogshead of sugar or other bulky package in a canoe made out of a simple pine log. At an Other fleers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 207 early period, Mr. Tibbits, an enterprising gentleman, put on a strong-built steamer, " The Arctic," and did the winter ferry service for the Grand Trunk for many years. Mr. Tibbits had the honour of being the first to navigate the St. Lawrence at Quebec by steamer in mid-winter. In 1873 or '74, Mr. (now Sir Joseph) Hicksou, appointed Mr. Fraser as Traveling Auditor for the G. T. E., in which he continued up to 1891, w^hen he was further promoted to that of Paymaster, still retaining the Auditing of accounts at princi- pal stations west of Toronto, which positions he still occupies. Mr. Fraser was always a quiet, good-tempered fellow, and though he has " plodded the even tenor of his way " on the rough and smooth paths of the Orand Trunk for about thirty- eight years, time has dealt kindly with him, touching him with a very gentle hand, so that he is still enabled to attend to his highly responsible duties with much of the usual energy of youth. MA.JOR WALTER W"ILY. I remember that the late Major Wily started his railway career at Portland, Me., as clerk with Mr. I. S. Millar, who at that time was agent for the Grand Trunk Piailway there. This w^as about thirty-three years ago. loften heard Mr, Millar speak in very high terms of the ability of young Wily, and as one likely to make his mark on railways ; and in this opinion Mr. Millar was not mistaken. In after years Mr. Wily was promoted to different responsible offices on the Grand Trunk, as agent at Point Ed- ward (Sarnia), Travelling Auditor, etc., and he, for the last ten years, has had the superintendence of the large freight depart- ment of the G.T.Pi. at Montreal, including the business connected with the shipping interests at the wharves there, the whole re- quiring an amount of skill, energy and intelligence which few- possess. 208 Railways and Other Ways. Mr. Wily was born in Halifax, N.S., on March 5, 1837. He was the eldest son of Col. Wily, who was at that time attached to the 53rd Regiment, then stationed at Halifax. He moved to Montreal with his parents when quite a lad, and was one of the bo3^s at Caj^tain Dutton's Academy. Major Wily was one of the first members of the old Montreal Eifle Eangers. He afterwards was Major in the Grand Trunk Eifles,was stationed at Sarnia during the Fenian troubles of 1866, and was much beloved by his comrades in the ranks of our citizen- soldiers. Major Wily was one of the civilian veterans who turned out during the Eiel insurrection. The Major's death took place rather suddenly, on October 27th, 1892, in his 56th year. He has left a wife to mourn his loss. He has also one brother, Mr. Arthur Wily, who is attached to the Toronto offices of the Grand Trunk Eailway. At a meeting of the Montreal Corn Exchange Association Mr. Edgar Judge paid a high tribute to the memory of the late Major Wily and moved a resolution expressing the kindliest feel- ings of the Board, sorrow at the great loss of so useful a public officer, and deep sympathy for Mrs. Wilj^, his bereaved wife. MAJOR EOBT. L. NELLES. The following details are taken from the Eev. Dr. W. Cochrane's " Men of Canada :" Mr. Nelles was born on March 7, 1842, near York, County of Haldimand, Ont. His father, who was extensively engaged in lumbering and farming on the Grand Eiver, died when he was of tender age, so his education and training were entirely under the supervision of his mother and his uncle, the late Michael Har- court, M.P., father of the Hon. Eichard Harcourt, now Provincial Treasurer of Ontario. After completing his education, Mr. Other Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes, 209 Nelles spent a few years on the farm before entering upon busi- ness life. He was married on January 9th, 1862, to Agnes Thorburnj daughter of the late James Thorburn. In the same year he en- tered the service of the Buffalo & Lake Huron Eailway Co., (now part of the Grand Trunk Eailway) and has remained with the Com- pany ever since, occupying positions of trust in the service at dif- ferent points, until, from Caledonia, he was appointed traffic agent at Brantford. In 1887 he succeeded Mr. Jno. W. Loud, as freight agent of the G.T.E. at Toronto, that point being now the centre shipping and receiving depot of freight formerly done at different stations by five separate railway companies, viz., the Grand Trunk, the Great Western, the Northern, the Nipissing, and the Midland. Mr. Nelles's character as a freight manager stands high in Western Canada, being well known and much appreciated by the mercantile community. He has been connected with the active militia since the "Mason and Slide 11 " or Trent diffi- culty, and was in active service during the Fenian trouble. At present he holds the position of Major in the 37tli Battalion under Lieut-Col. Davis. GEORGE S. SPENCE. I remember Mr. Spence as far back as 1859. He was then a young man and employed as freight checker on the Grand Trunk at Toronto. At that time the whole of the freight busi- ness of the Company was done in the small brick warehouse, situated on the margin of Lake Ontario, at Queen's Wharf. This building was afterwards used by the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Eailway, and subsequently by the C.P.E. The G.T.E. agent at that time (1859) was Mr. J. B. Jones, who with five clerks and 14 210 Railways and Other^ Ways. twenty-five checkers and porters attended to the freight business at Toronto. Mr. Spence was from time to time promoted to higher posi- tions ; in 1864 as cashier and in 1871 as chief clerk, with charge of the accounts and the staff of clerks under him. The latter number had then risen to fourteen or fifteen, among whom was Mr. William Whyte.* In 1872 Mr. Spence was appointed freight agent at Toronto, which he held up to 1876, when he was transferred to Montreal, in charge of the freight accounts there. In 1883 we find him as travelling auditor over a portion of the old G.W.R. and W.G. & B., with headquarters at Toronto. In 1884 he was appointed to take charge of the freight accounts of the Grand Trunk at Toronto, in which position he still remains. Mr. Spence says the fusions of the Great Western in 1882 and the Northern in 1888 added vastly to the freight traffic at Toronto, so that the staff now required to conduct the immense business consists of M. E. L. Nelles, the agent, and some seventy- five officers and clerks and about one hundred and ninety checkers and porters. It will be seen that Mr. Spence has had thirty-five years of active railway service in many different de- partments ; and his quiet disposition and steady habits have brought him down to the present time almost as vigorous now as in the days of his youth. Mr. Spence considers that comparing the Toronto freight traffic of the G.T.E. for 1859 with that of 1894, the latter has increased fourteen times over the former. It must, however, be remembered that in 1859 the G.T.E. consisted of a single road, *Mr. Whyte subsequently became Grand Trunk freight agent, first at London, then at Toronto, also assistant superintendent. He afterwards joined the Canadian Pacific Railway, and for some years has held the high position of general superinten- dent of the Western Division of the C.P.R. at Winnipeg. Other Oncers Incidents and Anecdotes. 211 while DOW it consists of five amalgamated or leased lines, includ- ing the old Great Western with all its branches. THOMAS DOW. It may be said of Mr. Dow that he was born for a railway life, as he began his career in " The land of the mountain and the flood" in 1849, then only fourteen years of age, as a boy clerk at a small station on the old Edinboro' & Glasgow Railway, and after serving at three different stations, including Waverley station, Edinboro', he in 1863 embarked for Canada, arriving just in time to get an appointment on the Great Western Railway, then preparing for its opening. Mr. Dow's first post was that of a clerk at St. Catharines, and afterwards he was removed to Niagara Falls (Suspension Bridge). We next find him promoted to the position of cashier at the thriving station of Hamilton, and then to that of chief clerk to General Freight Agent G. B. Spriggs. At this time the author had charge of the local freight traffic of the G.W.R., and, being in the same office, saw much of Mr. Dow, and can bear testimony, if any were needed, to Mr. D.'s ability as a correspondent and first-class accountant. He afterwards acted as station agent for short periods at Sarnia, Paris and Guelph, thus gaining great experience in the various duties per- taining to railway work. For the last twenty-two years Mr. Dow has been the active agent and representative of the Great Western and subsequently of the Grand Trunk Railway at Windsor, which important position he still holds. THE PANTS AND THE MAIL BAG. Mr. Dow's reminiscences of the early days of the old Great Western Railway are replete with interest. He can tell some funny stories of those times. He says when the road opened the 212 Railways and Other Ways. country west of Loudon was a wilderness of forest. Trains were few and very irregular. At small wayside stations the night mail train did not stop ; it merely slackened speed, and the station master in charg e threw the mail bag into the baggage car. One moonlight summer night an agent at one of the way- stations felt sleepy, and being a light sleeper, he thought he might as well go to bed, trusting to the sound of the whistle to rouse him up, when he could draw on his pants and rush out in time to throw the mail bag to the train. But it was a warm night and the sleeper played music on the nasal organ, and dreamed of anything but noisy trains. Lo, a roaring whistle sounds in his ears ; he jumps up, in a bewildered state of mind, seizes both pants and mail bag and rushing on the platform in his night clothes throws his pants into the open door of the bag- gage car, retaining the mail hag in his hand. Then for a moment he looks on the moving train, when, to his astonishment, he just discerns a pair of pants held out by a mysterious hand from the baggage-car door. This leads him to see what he holds in his hand, and then, to his horror, he spies the mail bag, his old pants having gone on to represent Her Majesty's mail. There were no instantaneous photo men in those days, but had there been one and he could have taken a " snap shot " at that station man's phiz., photo man's fortune would have been made. What the Postal authorities said, when they received an ancient pair of pants instead of the mail bag, and how their risible facul- ties were set in motion thereby, Thos. Dow sayeth not. FOKCE OF HABIT. Mr. N. Weatherston tells another anecdote of the old G.W.R. He says there was a station master who had done night duty only, for a long time and had got so accustomed to it that he failed to distinguish that there was any difference between the Other 0-fficers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 213 running of night and clay trains, so far as the company's rules and regulations were concerned. The night train had to show a light when approaching and passing a station. One day the night man was put on daj^ duty, and when the noon train passed he reported the conductor as having passed his station u-itliout shoicing a light. JOHN SMITH, EX-DOMINION EMIGEATION AGENT, HAMILTON, ONT. Among the very few old faces which loom up to one's mem- ory is that of my old friend, Mr. John Smith, who as a boy com- menced his carrying career on the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal in Manchester, at a time when Eailwaj's were in their infancy. He left Manchester for Liverpool to take charge of the shipping department at the Duke's Dock, and afterwards conducted the joint agency of the Duke's and the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Piailway Lines. From Liverpool he was removed to Birmingham on the opening of the Great Western Eailway from Oxford to Birmingham, whence he emigrated to Canada in 1854, joining the Great Western Piailway under Mr. Brydges as agent for the Lake and Bail through traffic, in which he took a promi- nent part for four years, retiring from the service in 1858 to enter into business on his own account as Lake Carrier and Gen- eral Produce Merchant, conducting one of the largest businesses in Western Canada, being known as the " Barley King." On re- tiring from business he was appointed Grain Inspector by the Dominion Government, still keeping up his connection with railways as an advocate of branch lines and a promoter of muni- cipal bonuses for their construction. In 1874 he was appointed Dominion Immigration Agent by the late Hon. Alexander Mackenzie. In 1892, on the abolish- ment of the Agency, he was retired and placed upon the super- annuation list. But Mr. Smith could not rest upon his oars for we find him 214 Railways and Otlter Ways. again once more returning to his first love, and as active as ever, having joined the National Despatch Fast Freight Line in con- nection with the Ontario Agency, with offices in Toronto. WM. ORE, GENERAL FREIGHT AGENT, DULUTH, SOUTH SHORE AND ATLANTIC RAILWAY. The wanderings and movements of railway men are some- thing phenomenal. I am led to this remark, by scanning over a sketch of the railway adventures of my old friend, Wm. Orr. A brief account of his journeyings from one country to another and of his varied experience on Scottish, Canadian, and United States railways will be interesting. Mr. Orr began railway life on the Caledonian road, in Scot- land, some thirty-five years ago. He came out to Canada in 186B, and had charge of a section of the freight department of the Great Western Kailway ; but in a year or two he once more returned to Scotland to occupy his old position as Chief Clerk to the General Superintendent of the Caledonian. In a few months he was appointed Superintendent of the Scottish Central Eailway, with office at Perth, This position he held for a few years, when a strong desire seized him to cross the Atlantic again, and in 1870 or '71 we find him in Toronto as Superintendent of one of the then Narrow Gauge roads. In two years he joined the Canada Southern Eailway, as its Travelling Freight Agent, and removed to Buffalo, N.Y. In 1880 he became chief assistant to the General Freight Agent of that line. In 1883 he became Secretary of the the Middle and Western States Freight Associa- tion. For a short time he was the commercial agent at Chicago for the Wabash Railway, and, in 1887, he was appointed General Freight Agent for the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway, with head-quarters at Marquette, Mich., which position he still retains ; but he tells me that his department is about to be re- moved to the progressive and thriving city of Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior. 1 Dominion Government Raihuays. 215 CHAPTEE XVIII. DOMINION GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS. THE Canadian Government Eailways are made up of two divi- sions, the Intercolonial Division having a length of 1,144 miles, and the Prince Edward Island Division 210 miles, making a total of 1,354 miles. They are under the control of the Department of Eailways and Canals, at the head of which is a Cabinet Minister, the Honorable John Haggart ; and Mr. Collingwood Schreiber is Deputy Minister and Chief Engineer. Mr. David Pottinger is General Manager of the Government Eailways. My reason for introducing the Government Eailways in my book is that the Intercolonial was constructed under the com- missionership of Mr. C. J. Brydges, then General Manager of the Grand Trunk Eailway, and from the time it was first opened for traffic as a through line in 1876, its connection was neces- sarily with the Grand Trunk at Eiviere du Loup, and its business, therefore, closely identified with the latter road. The Intercolonial Eailway was constructed with a view of giving rail connections between the several Provinces of the Dominion of Canada. It, at first, had its western terminus at Eiviere du Loup, but it was found to be in the interest both of the Intercolonial and Grand Trunk that the former should extend to Levis, opposite Quebec ; and to attain that end the Grand Trunk disposed of the section of their line from Levis to Eiviere du Loup to the Government of Canada. 216 Baihcays and Other l]'^ays. The Intercolonial therefore now commences at the eastern terminus of the Grand Trunk, at Levis, opposite Quebec, both roads arriving at and departing from the same station. It then winds its iron way eastward, following the valley of the St. Lawrence, passing Cacouna, one of Canada's favorite summer resorts, and touching at Kimouski, the point at which Her Majes- ty's mails and passengers are landed during the summer season from the Ocean Mail Steamers ; and on reaching Ste. Flavie, it crosses the Gaspe Peninsula, following the beautiful valley of the Metapedia and Restigouche to the Baie des Chaleurs, upon the shores of which, in close proximity to the Eailway, may be seen " Dalhousie," one of Canada's lovely watering places, and passing through Moncton, has seaport termini at St. John, Point du Chene, Halifax, Pictou, Mulgrave and Sydney, the latter being its most eastern terminus. At Point du Chene and Pictou it connects with the Prince Edward Island Division by steamer. Halifax, one of its termini, is the winter port of Canada for the Ocean Mail Steamers, and a considerable traffic is done at this point both in ocean borne passengers and freight. The European mails are here despatched and landed during the winter* being usually put through by special train with great des- patch ; and a large interchange of traffic is conducted over this road between the several provinces, extending from ocean to ocean, the Intercolonial being an important link in the Trans- continental Piailways. To the tourist and pleasure-seeker the Intercolonial Eailway has many attractions, as game of all kinds abounds along its route. Those who carry a gun or rifle and are fond of a forest life have the opportunity of bringing down moose, caribou, bear, wild geese, brant, ducks and partridges ; while the rivers, lakes and ocean along the line teem with fish, from the tin}^ smelt to the white whale, including herring in shoals, the jolly fat tommy- cod. Dominion Government Bailways. 217 bass, speckled trout, halibut, salmon, tuladi, big sturgeon and fat iDorpoise, so that the fisherman can have his choice ; and if twenty-pounders are too small a fish, he can go in for bigger game and to some extent imitate the " Giant Angler :" " His rod was made of a sturdy oak, His line a cable which in storms ne'er broke, His hook he bated with a dragoa's tail, And sat upon a rock and bob'd for whale." As a field for the artist the Intercolonial may be said to stand at the head of all railways for its variety of scenery in river, lake, bay, gulf, island, mountain, valley, forest and ocean. Since the Intercolonial was first put in operation the traffic has developed surprisingly, it having increased nearly three-fold, and it forms one of the most important lines of transportation in Canada. The chief officers of the several departments of the Interco- lonial are men of practical experience, who have passed through the different grades of railway work, having won their present responsible positions by their own industry. DAVID POTTINGER. The public are apt to think that Government officials usually gain their appointments by patronage alone, without much regard to the fitness of the men for the particular posi- tions they are selected to fulfil ; but this has certainly not been the case with Mr. David Pottinger, as will be seen from the brief sketch of his railway career. He has risen, step by step, from that of a freight clerk to his present high rank as General Manager of Government Eailways, and that by his own intrinsic merit* steadiness and perseverance; and it may fairly be said of him> as was said of the late Sir James Allport, " He was the architect of his own fortune." 218 Railways and Other Ways. Mr. Pottinger was born in the town of Pictou, Nova Scotia, October 7th, 1843. He was educated in Pictou Academy, and entered the railway service in 1863 as a clerk in the freight office of the Nova Scotia Eailway at Halifax, where he continued until May, 1871, when he was appointed cashier of the same railway, and served as cashier until November, 1872, when the office was abolished by the amalgamation of the Nova Scotia Piailway with the Intercolonial Railway. From November, 1872, to August, 1874, he was station master of the Intercolonial Eailway at Halifax. In August, 1874, he was removed to Moncton, New Brunswick, the headquarters of the Intercolonial, and appointed general storekeeper of the Railway, in which position he con- tinued until February, 1879, when he was appointed Chief Superintendent. He occuj^ied this position until December 1st, 1892, when he was appointed General Manager of Government Railways, which position he still occupies. THE FOKEST FIRE OF MIRAMICHI, N. B. Though not in any way connected with the subject in hand, one cannot pass over that portion of the Intercolonial Railway in the neighborhood of Miramichi without reverting to the terrible forest fire of October, 1825. It was talked about in England when the author was a boy. In speaking of it, W. Kilby Reynolds, in his book, " An Intercolonial Outing," says : — " Briefly stated, the Miramichi fire was one of the greatest of which the world has any record. It swept over the country, from the head waters of the St. John River, in a sheet of flame one hundred miles broad, and burned all before it in an area of more than four thousand square miles, four hundred miles of which was settled country. It will never be known how many lives were lost. Cooney says there were one hundred and sixty, Dominion Government Raihvays. 219 but as many who perished in the woods were strangers without kindred to trace their disappearance, the estimate is undoubtedly a low one. The fire destroyed about a million dollars worth of property, including six hundred houses and nearly nine hundred head of cattle. The light of it was seen as far as the Magdalen Islands, and its cinders were, by the fury of the hurricane, scat- tered over the streets of Halifax." N. WEATHERSTON. Mr. Weatherston is a native of Scotland, and a son of Mr. John Weatherston, a narrative of whose railway life is given in this work. The son bids fair to equal, if not to surpass, the railroad record of the father. As a youth he entered the service of the North British Eailway Co., more than forty years ago, and he remembers selling tickets at Kelso Station, Scotland, to parties going to the first Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. He also assisted in the goods department on the same line Early in 1854 he was transferred to Hawick and had charge of the goods office there. In the autumn of the same year he decided upon emigrating to Canada, his parents having been settled there for two years. In January, 1855, he entered the services of the Great Western Railway of Canada, and was at first a clerk at Windsor station. In a short time he was removed to Dundas, in charge of the freight traffic there. In 1857 the late W. K. Muir was appointed Traffic Superintendent of the G. W. R. and he choose Mr. Weatherston for his chief clerk. Mr. Weatherston was afterwards appointed G.W.R. agent at Guelph, which office he successfully filled until 1865, when Gen- eral Manager Swinyard gave him the important post of freight and passenger agent in the City of Toronto, which he held with high honour for seven years. He resigned the Toronto agency in 1872 to accept the position of General Superintendent 220 Railways and Other Ways. of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Eailway, which he retained for three years, leaving it in 1875 to embark in the grain trade. On this occasion, to mark the high esteem in which he was held by the directors and employees of the company, his friends and the merchants doing business on the line, he was presented through the President of the Company, with a splendid gold watch and chain costing $300, and a purse containing a large sum of money, a testimonial unjDrecedented, when it is consid- ered that Mr. W. had only been three years in the service. Like most railway men who have been brought up on railways, Mr. W. had an itching desire to return to the old fold again, for in 1881 he was induced to accept the management of the Grand Junction Railway (Belleville and Peterboro'), which he held until that road was sold to the Grand Trunk, when he accepted a sum of money in lieu of a new railway appointment. Once more he went into the grain trade and continued at that until 1889, when he entered the service of the Dominion Government as Western Freight and Passenger Agent for the Intercolonial Eail- way of Canada, with headquarters at Toronto, which post he now holds. Mr. Weatherston, like many of his colleagues of the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways, commenced his railway career at the foot of the hill, and, step by step, by years of hard work, at length gained the summit, and can now look back with some degree of satisfaction to the struggles endured, since by them victory was achieved. Mr, Weatherston is still actively engaged in railway work, but it is of a more peaceful nature, free from the responsibility of moving trains, such as that which applies to railway superintendents, who, to some extent like the medical jDrofession, are liable to be called upon at any moment, night or da}^, and obliged to rush off by special express to some scene of grave casualty hundreds of miles from home. Of this Dominion Government Railways. 221 Mr. Weatherston has had his fall share, and it was quite time to take a rest from those head-exciting labours. In a talk with my old colleague of the G. W. K., he re- marked that, " Few railway men in the higher ranks have had outside business experience. My experience in the grain trade has enabled me to do much better for the railway than I other- wise could have done. The nature of my business kept me in touch with the railways, so that when I returned to the ' old love,' I did not feel the least bit rusty." Mr. Weatherston is Second Vice-President (1893) of the Association of General Freight Agents of Canada, also a member of the Canadian Ticket Agents' Association, in which he has been an office-holder. He is also a zealous and useful member of the Toronto Board of Trade. Mr. W. has been actively engaged in promoting trade between Canada and the West Indies in con- nection with the Intercolonial Eailway. This trade has now assumed large proportions, particularly in the Province of Ontario, and mainly through his efforts. 222 Railways and Otlter ]Vays. CHAPTEE XIX. THE STATION AGENT AND THE CONDUCTOR. THE LYING AGENT. SME of the most unlikely men were put on as agents on the early railways. I remember one, Sidney Abbot, a cock- ney, who was appointed agent at Preston, England, at a salary of eighty pounds sterling per annum. On my introduction to him he asked me to go round the town with him to look for a house. I showed him several cottages, the rent of which I thought would come within his means, but he pooh-poohed the idea and said he wanted a large house where he could keep four or five servants. On my hinting that his salary would hardly meet that, he replied that his salary was mere pocket money, and he had plenty of means. I began to think that I had got in company with some lord in disguise. Another day he said he was about taking a large contract from the Preston corpora- tion to build a sea wall and had to see the officials again in the afternoon. On his return from his second alleged visit to the corporation he informed me that he had completed the contract. I said to him, " Where are you to build the sea wall ?" and he replied, " On the moor.'" The moor was about two miles from the river and fifteen miles from the sea. I then found that Abbot was the greatest liar I had ever met. I and others wrote to him on business matters frequently, but we never got any replies. One day I asked one of his porters if he knew what on earth became of our correspondence, " Oh," he said, "Abbot The Station Agent and the Conductor. 223 throws your letters into the fire, and says that's the way to answer correspondence." The agent's term of office soon expired. THE HAPPY AGENT. Another cockney was put on at a rather important station where the freight business was large, and the agent soon got all the ofiice W'Ork into "sixes and sevens," when he was re- moved to Leigh station, near a quiet rural village. The little river Blyth ran along side the station, a nice rippling trout stream, famous as one of Izaak Walton's favorite resorts. Most of the trains passed the station without stopping, so the agent had little to do except to lower the " all right " semaphore signal and let the trains pass. When the agent reached the station he was so delighted at the change he was making from the perplexing and worrying life he had had at Burslem, that he out with his flute and played " Happy Land." A local rhymester thus parodied Henry Kussell's song — " I'm afloat — I'm afloat," (Leigh is pronounced Lee) : SONG OF THE HAPPY STATION AGENT. I'm at Leigh — I'm at Leigh, where the traffic is small, And there's little to look for but waggons of coal. Down, down with the signal, let the train hurry by, I'm at Leigh — I'm at Leigh, and I laugh till I cry. No abstracts to bother, no Scotchman* to suit, I've little to do but to fish or to shoot. I fear not the Audit, I heed not its law, While in a few minutes a balance can show. Quick, quick with my rod and throw in a line And I'll warrant a famous big trout shall be mine. Drop the semaphore down, let the train hurry by, I'm at Leigh — I'm at Leigh, and I laugh till I cry. * Referring to the Manager of the Railway Clearing House. 224 Raikuays and Other Ways. THE SWELL STATION MASTER. Mr. Mosely, once well known in England as manager for Picliforcl & Co., the celebrated carriers, became General Manager of the Eastern Counties Railway. On one occasion he paid a visit to one of the stations on his line, when he saw on the plat- form a tall young man dressed in the pink of fashion — shiny silk hat, patent-leather boots, immense shirt-cuffs and front, immaculate kids, slender cane in hand, curly ringlets hanging down his back — and as he strutted about he looked the embodi- ment of self-importance. Mr. Mosely was unknown to any one at the station, and he asked a porter who that was, pointing to the young man. " Oh, that's the station master," said the porter. Mr. Mosely then went up to the young man and said, *' When does 'the next train leave for London ? " The swell replied in the most supercilious tone, " Aw, doncht know ; ask the porter." Mosely then said, " My name's Mosely. I want you to send a telegram to our office in London." The swell's attitude at once fell below zero and he hurried off to the telegraph office. " Now," said Mosely, " write the message : ' Send John Brooks down to this station to take charge at once ' "; and then Mr. Mosely left the young man to meditate on the drama of " Pride shall have a fall." THE STATION MASTER. The duties of a station master, particularly at a small sta- tion, are often varied ; he may have charge of the ticket and goods office, the telegraph, the semaphore signals, and the switches. His occupation therefore is somewhat confining to one spot ; still he will generally find time for gardening and the cultivation of flowers ; or, if situated on the banks of some river or trout stream, in the Old Country usually carefully preserved, The Station Agent and the Conductor. 225 lie will generally, if a civil and obliging fellow, get permission to fish in the preserved waters. Some are experts in sketching and oil painting. One station master, I remember, filled his office windows with transparencies of mountain views. Some station masters make the grounds about the place gems of beautj^, and are noted for their knowledge of horticulture, and in the exhibits of rare plants and fiowers they are able to compete with professional gardeners. The station master is a sort of little king in the vicinity of his little palace, and one who is referred to on matters of public interest. He knows all that is going on in the outside world ; he hears the telegraph chatter, chatter, all day long, if he cares to listen to its never-ceasing voice, telling somebody hundreds of miles away of political events, who's in and who's out, that wheat is up and corn is down, and a hundred other things. Most station masters have hobbies of some kind. One may be a geologist, hunting fossils and relics of by-gone ages ; another will have a love for natural history and be a collector of birds and insects. One, I recollect, with his jack-knife cut curious chains out of oak and plaster-stone, which would have compared favorably with the products of Japanese or Chinese art. On the Churnet Valley division of the North Stafiordshire Eailway there is a pretty little Elizabethan style of cottage and station, named Bosley. It is beautifully situated on the banks of the Eiver Dane, a charming stream at the foot of Cloud Mountain. " I climb the Cloud— the Mountain Cloud, In heather dressed or murky shroud, And looking o'er the broad champaign, I ken the cottage by the Dane. " The old grey church among the tombs. The ancient yew, like funeral plumes, Its branches waving to and fro. O'er those who sleep in peace below." 15 226 Raihvays and Other Ways. FRANCIS ALISON. The present station master at Bosley had served his time to some trade which he found was affecting his health. He therefore put himself in training for the position of a station master, and after a time was appointed to Bosley station, where (with the exception of a short removal to another station) he has been ever since the line opened, about forty-five years ago ; and he is now the oldest emj)loyee on the N.S.E. Some years ago Mr. Alison, being somewhat of a musician, took it into his head to make a violin, and as he succeeded to his satisfaction and enjoyed the work, he continued to fill up all his spare time from his railway duties in the making of violins, and up to the end of 1893 he had made forty or fifty. Mr. A.'s son, my nephew, writing to me recently, said he had been on a visit to his father at Bosley, and when there he saw hanging in the little cottage, twenty- five new fiddles all in a row. Mr. Alison is now in his seventy-sixth or seventy-seventh year, and may still be seen polishing and varnishing his violins with all the earnestness of youth. LADIES AS STATION AGENTS. Some forty years ago employment for females was mainly confined to domestic service, attending in stores (shops), or working in cotton or other factories. To see a girl acting as a book-keeper was quite uncommon and looked upon with some degree of wonder as an innovation upon existing customs. Now lady book-keepers are numerous, particularly upon this continent. Other work for females has sprung up, as teaching in public schools, telegraph and telephone operating, short-hand and typewriting, post office work, ornamental work, painting, and a variety of other light and pleasant occupations. But this beneficent change has not been brought about without much grumbling, and many objections being made to The Station Agent and the Gonductor. 227 girls being so employed. A married lady said : " The girls com- peted with young men, thereby bringing down wages, which pre- vented the men from marrying, as they could not earn enough to keep a wife." Well, this may be true to some extent, but surely it is not the girls' fault, but rather that of their employers, who take advantage of the weaker sex by cutting down their wages. The remedy rests with the girls themselves, and they are fast finding this out. That girls can do work of the kind named, quite as well as men if not better, there is not a shadow of doubt, and they should be fairly remunerated for it. Some years ago I visited the Treasury Department at Washington, where a great number of ladies were employed as book-keepers, I was then shown and allowed to examine some of their ponderous ledgers and other books, and I must say that the writing and figures, for neatness and clearness, could not be excelled by the most accom- plished accountant. On the Grand Trunk Eailway there are three or four ladies who hold positions as station agents. One, I remember, when very young commenced learning railway office work by assisting her father, who was then agent at a western station. When her father died she succeeded him as station agent and has held the office ever since, and proved herself capable of attending to all the duties pertaining to it. The lady's way-bills and other documents are made out in a plain, round, business-like haad and will compare favorably with those of any other agent on the line. THE CONDUCTOR. Of the conductor or guard, as called in England, much in- teresting information might be given did space permit. They are an intelligent and responsible body of railway employees. They see humanity in all its varied phases and are experts in physiog- nomy. In their daily duties they have to use much forbear- 228 Raihvays and Other Ways. ance in dealing with the whims and caprices of some of their passengers, and are expected to be civil and obliging under all circumstances no matter however antagonistic are those with whom they come in contact. A conductor is supposed to be a moving cyclopedia, one who can answer all questions however intricate and far from the mark. Like the captain of an ocean steamship he feels that the safety of his passengers is mainly dependent upon his forethought and care. Most conductors have risen from lesser positions in rail- way work and are therefore well posted in all matters connected with the movements of trains. It is with great pleasure that I have to remark that con- ductors, as a body, have a great thought for the comfort and happiness of their families in providing for a "rainy day." In illustration of this I need only refer to their grand life insurance association, denominated, " The Order of Railway Conductors," in reference to which conductor W. R. Hill, of the G.T.R. has kindly furnished me with some interesting details. The association was established twenty-seven years ago, but the system of life insurance now in force only commenced about ten years ago. No member is insured for less than $1,000, or more than $5,000. The Order embraces all passenger conduc- tors in the United States, Mexico, the Dominion of Canada, and some parts of South America. On April 30, 1893, the total number of members was 11,761. The total amount received from assessments and all other sources during the whole period up to April 30, 1893, was $1,239,252. The total amount of benefits paid during the same time was $1,190,376, and total amount expenses, $48,876. The Order has no accumulation of funds ; all its liabilities are met by a direct assessment upon its members. The Station Agent and the Conductor. 229 The total working expenses for April were: for salaries, $355; postage, stationery and printing, $370 ; the three latter were for supplies and work for more than a month. Taking the above amount for salaries as a fair average for each month, it makes the total for the year the small sum of ^4,260, which proves that this large association is worked upon the most economical principles, and therein lies the secret of its great success. During the month of April seven deaths occurred, princi- pally from accidents, and $18,000 was paid. In the last decade the order, it will he seen, has disbursed nearly one million and a-quarter dollars among the families of its members. How many hearts must have been soothed and cheered in their hours of deep affliction, by this beneficent insti- tution, those who have felt its friendliness alone can tell. Unlike ordinary life insurance companies, the Order pays the full amount of the life policy in case a member by loss of limb, eyesight or any other cause is disabled from following his duties as a railway conductor, Mr. Hill says his average assessment for the past two years has been three dollars per month, for which he has a life policy of three thousand dollars, as well as all the above named privileges. BY THE PIECE AND NOT BY WEIGHT. Alderman Hallam relates the following : Some years ago I was travelling on the cars from Hamilton to London . As soon as we got out of Hamilton the conductor came around to collect the tickets for Duudas and punch others. In two seats which faced each other there sat a lady and four children, with sundry bundles of wraps and satchels. The conductor, who was a solid, good-natured man, asked the lady for her ticket. She turned up her sweet little face. 230 Railways and Other Ways. and smiling, handed him the ticket. It was punched and handed hack. "Are these children yom-s ?" said the conductor to the lady. " Yes, they are my children," replied the lady. " Have you a ticket for that little girl ?" asked the conduc- tor. " I have no ticket. The conductor on the other section was a gentleman, and never asked me for a ticket for the chil- dren." The conductor replied, " He may be a gentleman, but he did not do his duty to the Company, and I wish to have the mone}^ or a ticket for the little girl, who is over ten years old." The lady began using her persuasive powers in the nicest way possible, but the conductor was immovable and demanded the ticket or the money, and when she found that the conductor would not be put off she began to show temper and cry and asked the conductor how much it was. " Four dollars," was the reply. Still she showed no signs of paying the money. The conductor said she had better hurry up and either give him the money or the ticket, or she or her little girl would have to get off at the next station. At this remark the lady's eyes flashed fire and she said : " You are not a father of any children, or you would never have said that my little girl must get off in a strange land, all alone ! " She excitedly put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her purse and reluctantly handed him the four dollars. In doing so she said : " Do you see that big fat man over there ? " " Yes, what of him ?" " Why he weighs more than I and my four chil- dren put together." " That may be, madam," he replied, "but the Company does not carry passengers by weight; it carries them only by the piece." Many kind traits in the characters of conductors might be mentioned. On one occasion, when travelling between The Station Agent and the Conductor. 231 Boston and Portland, the conductor of the tram showed a gentle- man (who sat next to me) a beautiful bouquet of flowers which he was taking to a sick person. The gentleman afterwards told me that the conductor seemed to take the greatest pleasure in doing some act of kindness, especially to the poor and friendless; and the beam of satisfaction in his face certainly gave one that impression. A good, genial, cheerful fellow was Conductor Mose, in the early days of the Grand Trunk. Old residents of Quebec will remember him as the " Fat Conductor " between Montreal and Quebec. Mose was a Cockney by birth. I think he had been on a railway in the old country and came out to Canada under the auspices of one of the G. T. E. Directors. Notwithstanding his Falstaff proportions, he was a conductor for many years, and afterwards station master at Point Levis. After being for nearly a decade in Canada, Mose went on a visit to see his friends in the Old Country. Mose did not seem to have enjoyed his long looked-for visit, for on his re- turn, when relating his experience, he said : " You know I went still full of old reminiscences of my youthful days, but I found most of my friends married and with lots of children. They seemed cold and frigid as the snows of Quebec and would eay, * Ah, how are you, old fellow, glad to see you,' and that was all. All the pleasant associations of early days had gone out of them. One Sunday I went to visit a rich friend living in a nice, flower- surrounded residence in the suburbs of London. So far as the good things for eating and drinking were concerned there was plenty, but, like my host, I had to lookgrave and sit bolt-upright in my chair and make no allusion to youthful times. I was glad to get back again to the city." One day, S. P. Bidder, (who had then retired from the G. T. R.) was crossing London Bridge, when he found Mose standing still on the bridge, evidently in a "brown study," wondering when and where he should go next. Mr. 232 Railways and Other Ways. Bidder roused Mose from his meditations by giving him a good shake and saying, " Hello, Mose." The latter, much astonished, told Mr. Bidder that he was sick of London and was making ready to return to Canada, preferring the summer heai and win- ter cold of Quebec to the smoky atmosphere of old London. When going over the Quebec & Eichmond Eailway some two years ago, I asked a French habitant (who sat next me) if he remembered Mose, the fat Conductor. " Certainement," said he, " he vas de grandest shentleman I ever did see — his face vas always full of great big smiles." A loving tribute to thy memory, good old Mose. " Take him for all in all I shall not look upon his like again. " WM. K. SNIDER. The name of Conductor Snider has, in Quebec and Ontario, become " as familiar as household words," as the earnest and popular Evangelical Preacher. He has from time to time occu- pied the pulpits of the largest Methodist churches and public halls from Windsor to Montreal. He was born on the 1st March, 1852, was educated at the public schools and Walker's Academy, at Guelph. At a very early age he commenced his railway career as a newsboy on the late Great Western Eailway, and has occupied the positions of brakesman, baggageman, freight train conductor, and for many years past that of passenger conductor, all of which he filled with satisfaction to the railway company and pleasure to the travelling public. Mr. Snider is a fluent speaker and his style is much like that of some of thebest leaders in the Salvation Army. He lets no opportunity pass, both in public and in private, of telling the good old story of " peace on earth, good will to men." He is a strong temperance advocate on true teetotal principles. JOHN WEATHERSTON. Diligent Lives. 233 CHAPTEE XX. DILIGENT LIVES. JOHN WBATHEKSTON. ME. WEATHEESTON'S career as a railway man is full of interest. In 1835, when thirty-one years of age, he com- menced his first work on the Normanton & Leeds Eailway, which was then being built by the famous George Stephenson, with whom Mr, W. was on intimate terms, and at one time Mr. S. presented him with a rule, covered with all sorts of mathematical calcula- tions, which he much prizes. In 1838 he superintended the lay- ing of the first rails into Euston Square station, London. In 1840 he was engaged in the same kind of work into the old City of York. In 1841 he was driving piles for the high-level bridge at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in the following year was doing the same service for the building of the Eoyal Border Victoria Bridge at Berwick-on-Tweed. He afterwards entered the service of the London & South Western Eailway Co., and held a respon- sible position in the head office. In 1852 he was induced to come out to Canada with Mr. C. J. Brydges, Managing Director of the Great Western Eailway, then in course of construction. Mr. Brydges appointed him Track Superintendent, a position he held for twenty-five years. Among other great undertakings in which Mr. W. was an active factor, may be mentioned that of laying down a third rail on the G. W. E., so as to admit of the American narrow gauge cars passing over the G. W. E. ; but the greatest achievement by far was changing the whole gauge 234 Railways and Other Ways. of the G. W. R. from its original one of 5ft. Gin. to the American one of 4ft. 8|^in., and this was done without the stoppage of a single train. Mr. W. left the service of the Great Western in 1 877, and for some years was engaged on the Michigan Central Railway. After leaving that company he, on his own accomit, built eighty miles of railway for Mr. William Hendrie, from Gay- loi'd to Mackinac in Michigan. When this was completed he went to Montreal and entered the service of the Dominion Government as Road Superintendent of the North Shore Railway ; and when the Canadian Pacific took the road over, Mr. W. continued with the latter company as Track Superintendent between Montreal and Sudbury. While fulfilling the duties of this position he met with an accident, which almost cut him off. It was at Calumet on the C.P.R. A loose wheel threw two cars off the track and over an embankment. Mr. Weatherston was in one of the cars, and was badly hurt. The flesh was torn off his face, exposing the bone ; and besides receiving other internal injuries, his spine was severely injured. At this time he was four score years of age and was laid up for nearly a year ; but fought through it and in spite of the doctor's predictions that he must die, he once more stood forth a man of vigour, fully prepared for new and even greater feats in the railway world. After this he removed to Hamilton, the city which had so long been his former home, and purchased a residence there ; and he now seemed likely to rest upon his oars. He was a shareholder and a director of the Hamilton & Dundas Railway, which was at a very low ebb and had not been paying for some years. Mr. W. complained much about this, and said the road was eaten up in expenses. The direc- tors felt worried and in sheer despair said : " Take the road your- self, Mr. Weatherston, and see what you can make of it." "I will," said he. A lease was at once made out for a term of years, and Mr. W. was put in possession. At this time the road was much Diligent Lives. 235 run down and the first thing the lessee did was to put the line in good working order. He then set himself to reforming the management by undertaking the whole thing himself and, as the Hamilton Spectator said, in its able sketch of Mr. Weatherston's career which appeared in its columns on August 21 st, 1890, and to which T am indebted for most of the above details, "he be- came general manager, freight and passenger agent, chief engineer, locomotive and track superintendent, ticket clerk, cashier, book- keeper and paymaster," assisted only by his son, then quite a boy. Mr. W. fairly lifted the little railway out of chaos and made money for himself and for the company. When the lease expired, in July, 1890, the directors were so well satisfied with his work that they wanted him to renew the lease. This he declined, but agreed to continue on until other arrangements were made. When he retired from the service he was in his eighty- seventh year and had been engaged on railways for fifty-five years. When I called upon him last fall I found him looking about the same as he did thirty years ago ; his hair and beard were only slightly tinged with the frost of age, and, as he said, he was by no means disabled for work, only he thought it was about time to give up active employment. Mr. Weatherston was born on the 31st January, 1804, in the border county of Berwickshire, Scotland. In early life he was employed as a surveyor and land- scape gardener on the estate of the Duke of Eoxburghe. His love of horticulture still continued. Like George Stephenson, he was fond of flowers, and knew how to cultivate them ; and amid his many duties he found time, by rising with the sun, to follow up his favorite pursuit. His garden at the corner of Victoria Avenue and the track at Hamilton, was a marvel of beauty. Travellers in the cars, as they passed the locality, gave manj^ an admiring glance to the charming spot, particularly when the roses were in 236 Railways and Other Ways. fall bloom. About thirty years ago I remember Mr. W. used to exhibit his flowers at the annual horticulture show in Hamilton, and, as an amateur, cleared off nearly all the prizes ; so much so, that in time he ceased competing in order to give some chance to others. Many old residents of Ontario will remember Mr. G. Lowe Reid, the efficient and popular Chief Engineer of the G.W.E. from its commencement, and who held the position for twenty-four years. In 1890 Mr. Eeid wrote Mr. Weather ston from Brighton, England, and from his letter the following extracts are made : " Although it is seventeen years since I left Canada, I have by no means forgotten you. I have been constantly informed of your movements and enterprise. I have heard with great pleasure of your very successful career and of the substantial position you have attained since you left the G.W.E. Indeed, I suppose you are the only survivor of the chief track and bridge inspectors whom I left on the line when I returned to England in December, 1872. I was myself particularly fortunate in having as my chief practical helper such a reliable and efficient assistant as yourself. I rejoice in your well-earned prosperity and pray that you may still have a good many years of tranquil enjoyment in the autumn of your long and useful life." Mr. Weatherston, now in his ninetieth year, is still hale and hearty, living with his wife and the younger branches of his family ; and at this time of the year (June, 1893,) he may be seen in the early morning among his floral companions, as in the days of his youth ; and he bids fair to see the advent of the next century. THE IRISH BOY. The following narrative is given to show how trust, steadi- ness and energy, if persevered in, are sure to lead to success : Diligent Lives. 237 In 1852 and '53, 1. M. Grant, secretary to Sir Cusack Eoney, in connection with the Dublin Exhibition, employed an Irish boy to run messages and other work. Shortly afterwards Mr. Grant came to Canada as assistant secretary in the Grand Trunk Eailway service. One day the same identical message boy pre- sented himself before Mr. Grant at Montreal, to that gentleman's great astonishment. The boy, Mr. Grant found, had started out from Ireland alone, and managed somehow to make his way to Canada and hunt him up. Superintendent Martin was at that time living as a bachelor in an upper room of the station at Longueuil, or Eichmond, and he engaged the boy, James Murphy, to attend him, at the same time telling him to try and improve himself by attending a night school, and to learn telegraphing. The boy's education was then very limited. He improved, how- ever, very rapidly and soon acted as clerk and operator at Eich- mond, and afterward became station agent at Eichmond Junction, a position which he retained until a few years ago, when he was appointed Collector of Customs at Eichmond, One of the first things that James Murphy did, as soon as he was able, was, at his own expense, to bring out from Ireland his parents and other members of his family. Many years ao-o his friends in Eichmond and Melbourne were so pleased with his management and attention that as a mark of their esteem they presented him with a gold watch and chain valued at three hun- dred dollars. JOHN MILLER GRANT. My introducing a short notice of Mr. Grant here, may seem out of place, as regards time and position, but I feel sure that he must be glad to hear of the success of his old prot6<7e (James Murphy) the Irish Boy, of forty years ago. Very few of the G.T.E. early staff of officers now remain, 238 Raihuays and Other Ways. but among the few, I may mention Mr. Henshaw, one of the Grand Trmik Pay-masters, who is abrother-m-lawof Mr. Grant. Mr. H. informs me that that gentleman is still living in London, England. When Sir Cnsack Eoney resigned the Grand Trunk Railway Secretaryship, Mr. Grant succeeded him, and was for many years the General Secretary for the Company in London, after- wards retiring to go into the brokerage business. Going into a bookseller's store in Toronto, very recently, a very old relic was put into my hands, which proved to be a Notman photograph of a service of plate, bearing the following inscription : — " Presented to John Miller Grant, Secretary in Canada to the Grand Trunk Eailway Company, on the occasion of his leaving the Province, by his brother officers and others as a mark of their esteem and respect. — May, 1860." The author has much pleasure in adding the above brief record of an old friend of the early days of the Grand Trunk. THE FRENCH CANADIAN. Before the opening of the Victoria Bridge, Longueuil was an important station of the G.T.R. In summer, freight and passengers were taken over the river by steam ferry boats, and in winter in sleighs over the ice bridge, and the latter means of transit, as already related, was one of some peril and risk, A large staff of men was kept at Longueuil in charge of Foreman Louis Payette, a French-Canadian, a better man than whom could not have been found for that position. He spoke the two languages and knew how to deal with and govern men, and Louis always did his work well. One winter, I remember, the freight shed was surrounded with huge masses of ice, and Diligent Lives. 239 inside the building there was two feet of water, arising from an unusual ice-shove in the Eiver St. Lawrence. Much damage was done to freight, mainly English dry-goods via Portland, but nothing more could have been done than Payette and his men did in the emergency. About the time the Victoria Bridge was opened, Louis Payette left the service of the Comi^any to accept the position of prison warden for the jail of Montreal, which he retained until his death last year, a period of more than thirty years. A few months before his death I paid him a visit. He was then reclining on a sofa, weak but without pain, and it pleased him to talk over old times and the men of the early days of the Grand Trunk. (1892.) 240 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XXL THOMAS COOK, THE FAMOUS TOURIST AGENT. " The good begun by thee shall onward flow, In many a wider stream, and onward grow The seed, that in these few and fleeting hours, Thy hands unwearied and unsparing sow. Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, And yield the fruits divine in heaven's immortal bowers." AMONG the notable men which the early Temperance move- ment brought to the front, such as John Bright, the states- man, John Cassells, the London publisher, and others, may be named Thomas Cook, the world-renowned originator and manager of tourists' trips, who has done far more than any other man to develop the railway and steamship system all over the world. In early life Mr. Cook was a popular Temperance speaker. The author had the pleasure of hearing him several times about fifty-five years ago. Mr. Cook was a writer of considerable liter- ary ability. In 1844 he edited and published the National Temperance Magazine. A copy of the first volume is in my pos- session. Thomas Cook was born in 1808, at Melborne, in Derbyshire. He began to earn his living at ten years of age as a market boy at Derby. He was afterwards apprenticed to a wood-turner, and in 1832 he set up in business for himself at Market Harborough, as a wood-turner and cabinet maker. It was in that town that he first prominently associated himself with the Temperance cause, of which he was an ardent friend throughout his subse- quent life. Thomas Cook, the famous Tourist Agent. 241 He was in the habit of attending Temperance meetings in Leicester and neighboring towns and villages. In the spring of 1841, whilst walking from Market Harborough to Leicester to attend a Temperance meeting the thought occurred to him that it might be possible to carry at a cheap rate a number of tee- totalers from Leicester to Loughborough. He accordingly made arrangements with the railway company for the proposed excur- sion. The distance was only 11^ miles, and the reduced fare for the return journey was one shilling. The experiment was an unqualified success ; 570 passengers joined in the excursion. From this small beginning sprang the great system of tours which at the present time encircles the globe. Trips from Leicester to Liverpool were followed by trips to the Isle of Man and Dublin — a daring project in those days, but nevertheless a decidedly popular innovation. Scotland and Wales were next laid under tribute to this Napoleon of travel. Mr. Cook generally issued a guide for his cheap trips, and the author, when on the North Staffordshire Railway, remembers furnishing Mr. C. with some descriptive sketches of points of interest on that portion of the N. S. E. over which the Welsh excursion train had to pass. Thomas Cook died at Leicester, England, on July 19th, 1892, aged 84 years. The Manchester Weekly Times, in its obit- uary notice, said : — " As showing the immense development of his system and the progress made by the firm of which he was the head, we may state that in 1865 the whole personnel of the business consisted of himself, his son, Mr. John M. Cook, two assistants, and one messenger, and the total receipts for that year were not quite ±'20,000. In 1890 the firm had in operation 80,348 different series of tickets, giving travelling facilities over 1,823,959 miles of railways, oceans and rivers, with 350,000 miles of the railway and steamboat communications of the globe. 16 24*2 Railways and Oilier^ Ways. During that year 3,262,159 tickets were issued. To regulate the business and to conduct it in all parts of the globe the firm had 45 distinct banking accounts, 84 offices worked by a salaried staff, 85 agencies, and a staff of 1,714 permanent salaried mem- bers. There were, in addition, 978 persons, chiefly Arabs, for working the business in Egypt and Palestine, making a total of 2,692 employees of the firm." The Derby and Chesterfield Reporter of July 22nd, 1892, said: — "The personally-conducted trips to Palestine were com- menced in 1868, and later came the Indian tours and the voyage round the world. The Prince of Wales's two sons travelled in the Holy Land under arrangements confided to Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son ; while in the military expeditions in Egypt inesti- mable public service was rendered by the firm. When the relief expedition was despatched to Khartoum in the vain hope of sav- ing the heroic Gordon, Messrs. Cook were entrusted with the dut}^ of conveying troojDS and stores, and in the accomplishment of this task they had twenty-eight steamers running between Egypt and England, 13,000 railway trucks at their disposal, twenty-seven steamers and 650 sailing vessels on the Nile. They had also in their employment 5,000 fellahs in Lower Egypt. A very large proportion of the pleasure and the comfort and the cheapness of modern travelling is undeniably due to the energy, the integrity, and the resourcefulness of the late Mr. Thomas Cook, and he will long be remembered as an upright,^ single-minded, public-spirited citizen, who, so far as his organ- isation of travelling is concerned, may be pronounced to have been practically a man of genius." In addition to the great services rendered to society in all countries by Thomas Cook's achievement in introducing cheap and safe travelling to all parts of the world, which entitles him Thomas Cook, the famous Tourist Agent. 243 to be classed as a public benefactor, he will long be remembered in the Midland Comities of England for his many kindly acts of benevolence and his liberal help to an Orphan Asylum and many other kindred institutions. ALL ABOARD FOR JERUSALEM. When the author started his railway career in the year 1830, he little dreamt that in the year 1893 he would be able to read of the opening of a railway in Palestine, the " Garden of the Lord," the " Glory of all lands." Below is an account of this notable event taken from the Halifax, N.S., Herald of March 4th, 1893. The Jaffa & Jerusalem Railroad has been formally opened, writes United States Consul Selah Merrill to the state depart- ment. The event was celebrated on the part of the Mohamme- dans by an address from one of their priests of high rank in Jerusalem, after which three sheep were slaughtered on the plat- form as a kind of propitiatory sacrifice, and on the part of the company it was celebrated by a dinner given in the evening under the tents at the Jerusalem station. The greatest popular interest was manifested in this event, and for the first time in its history Jerusalem showed a little of the life and bustle which characterizes cities in the western world. The road just completed, the first ever built in Palestine and Syria, is a little over 53 miles long, 30 miles of which are on the plain land, and the remaining 23 in the mountains. There are no tunnels on the road, the builders preferring to go around bluffs that might be tunnelled rather than to bore through them. There are at least five deep cuttings among the hills and three or four iron bridges. The steepest grade is 2 percent., or about 100 feet to the mile. 244 Railways and Other Ways. The track is narrow gauge, exactly one meter in length. Be- tween Jaffa and Jerusalem, not including these, there are five stations. For the station in Jerusalem, which is one mile from the city, a little more than 8^ acres of land were purchased at a very high price — not less than $25,000— land which thirty years ago was sold for $1 per acre. This station is 2,476 feet above the level of the station at Jaffa, and the exact length of the road is 862- kilometers, or 536-10 miles. The cost of the road is not far from $2,000,000. The company was organized in 1890, and the concession was obtained in that year, three years being allowed for the construction of the road, but the builders completed it in 2|^ years. French money built the road, and the principal owners reside in Paris, where also is the headquarters of the company. Besides the peasants of the country, the builders employed in the construction of the road 300 Italians and a large number of Algerines and Egyptians. The men who did most of the stone work — blasting through hills, laying walls to support embank- ments and cutting stone for stations and bridges — were from Bethlehem and the nearest neighboring village to it, called Beit Jala, men whose ancestors have been stonecutters from ancient times.* "the impudence of steam." To')n Hood's Dream More than Verified. Godfrey of Boulogne and thou Richard, lion-hearted king. Candidly inform us now, Did you ever ? No, you never Could have fancied such a thing, * Joppa, formerly called Japhe, and now Jaffa, a city and port of Palestine, situ- ated on a rocky eminence on the Mediterranean coast, north-west of Jerusalem. It is one of the most ancient seaports in the world. — Bannister^s " Holy Land." ThoTnas Cool; the famous Tourist Agent. 245 Never such vociferations Entered your imaginations As the ensuing : " Ease her, stop her ! " *' Any gentleman for Joppa ? " " Mascus, Mascus ? " Ticket, please, sir ! " " Tyre or Sidon ? " " Stop her, ease her ! " " Jerusalem, lem, 'lem " — " Shur ! Shur ! " " Do you go on to Egypt, sir ? " " Captain, is this the land of Pharaoh ? " " Now look alive there ! Who's for Cairo ? " "Back her ! " " Stand clear, old file ! " " What gent or lady's for the Nile Or Pyramids?" "Thebes! Thebes ! sir !" "Steady!" " Now, where's that party for Engedi ? " Pilgrims holy, red-cross knights, Had you e'er the least idea, Even in your wildest flights. Of a steam trip to Judea ? What next marvel time will show It is difficult to say, " Bus," perchance, to Jericho — " Only sixpence all the way ! " Cabs in Solyma may ply — 'Tis a not unlikely tale— And from Dan the tourist hie Unto Beersheba by " rail". 246 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XXII. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. IN another part of this work I have referred to some of tho earliest railway managers in the Old Country who, as arrlc, were unfit for such responsible duties ; but they soon gave way to a better class of men, taken mainly from among the old canal agents who had had much experience in the carrying trade of the country. Railway managers, at the present day in all coun- tries, are a body of practical men in real earnest, whose influence is felt far and wide. There is a popular idea that a railway manager's position is a sort of sinecure ; that he is one who rides about in his private car, and has an annual pass over all lines on the continent, with power to come and go here, there and everywhere whenever the desire seizes him. There never was a greater mistake. A rail- way manager's life is one of never-ceasing occupation and excite- ment, that of one who burns the midnight oil and does not sleep upon a bed of roses ; who has to " work — work — work while the cock is crowing aloof," and who is liable to be freely assailed by the wail of the ever-complaining public, or the grumbles of far-off shareholders coming like the rumblings of distant thunder. Then the electric telegraph keeps its vigilant eye upon him and follows him like a spectre wherever he goes. Once, when travel- ling with a general manager, he exclaimed, " Oh, if only for a few hours, one could get beyond the reach of the telegraph ? " Another manager said " it would be an agreeable change to retire, and take charge of a railway level crossing and hold up a Railway Management. 247 flag when the trains went past." Goods managers or general freight agents, above all others, are fair game for many a kick from dissatisfied shippers, who try to worry you into the giving of an exclusive special rate for themselves ; also for a large class of fault-finders who question your policy and judgment. Upon this question I can si:)eak feelingly, having had some half a cen- tury's exj)erience in the business. In 1845, at the fag-end of the railway mania, it was my business to call upon a gentleman in Manchester who was a large shareholder in the railway upon which I was employed, and whose immense railway speculations had got him the title of " second railway king." At the time I called upon Mr. T , he was not in the best of tempers, as railway shares and scrip had a downward tendency, and I came in opportunely as one upon whom he could vent his wrath ; and this he did inmost unmeasured terms, accusing me and the other officers of our railway of every kind of mismanagement under the sun. I defended myself as well as I could, told him I had always done my duty for the interest of the companj'. "Yes," said he, "did you ever know a man when he was drunk admit that he was drunk? " I saw it was of no use having further talk with the rabid gentleman, and bid him good-day. I have already spoken of the importance and great- respon- sibility of the men who have the movement of the merchandise traffic of a country. Their brain duties are most arduous ; they cannot, like those in any other profession, leave their business in the office ; it goes with them to their homes and worries them in their dreams. In the early days of the Grand Trunk, some of my time was taken up in replying to pamphlets and English letters attacking €ur management. One wTiter criticising our merchandise class- ification, said, " to think that the Grand Trunk Goods Manager should have left out 'Divi-Divi' in his classification ! " Poole 24'8 Uailways and Other Ways. describes this article as being " like a pea-shell curled up, filled with yellow powder, and a few dark brown seeds, used in tanning, and imported from Maracaibo and Savanilla, chiefly into Liverpool and London." In order to answer that objection, I went around among some Canadian tanners and asked each one if he knew anything of " Divi-Divi." One said he " never heard of such a chap ; " another said he never heard of the article, that he used hemlock bark in tanning. This occurred thirty-four years ago. At the j)resent day " Divi-Divi" may, to some extent, be used in tanning leather, but it does not appear to have gained sufficient importance to call for its insertion in the Canadian freight classification. THE "pRO-EATa" question. Numerous are the discussions which have taken place in most countries upon the above knotty question during the last half century. It has come up in the Parliaments of England and Canada as well as in the Legislature of the United States. About twenty years ago the subject came up before a committee of the House of Commons at Ottawa, and I attended to give evidence, when I pointed out a fact which is generally lost sight of when the pro-rata question is under discussion, viz.: that the terminal expenses (which include station buildings, side tracks, switches, crossings, semaphore signals, the telegraph, storage, handling, weighing, loading, shunting, billing, etc.) were the same upon a ton of freight going 50 miles as they were upon a ton of freight going 500 miles ; nay, in most cases, terminals might only apply in the latter case to the forwarding or receiving station, while in the former case they would apply to hotli. On through freight, that is freight passing from road A over road B and on to C road, the terminal expenses on B were nearly if not quite nil. Anyone will at once see, that to cover these terminal expenses, short distance freight necessitates far higher rates Railway Management. 249 than that over long lengths of road, or what is termed, " through freight," and that to charge the same rate per ton per mile over short distances as that for long distances was neither reasonable nor just. FREIGHT RATES. In December, 1893, the following item appeared in the Toronto Empire, credited to the Philadelphia Press : — The decline that has taken place in freight rates in this country during the past twentj^-eight years is made plain in the following figures from the report of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway, which show the average rate per ton per mile received for freight by that company in the years named : Cents. Cents. 1865 4.11 1880 1.76 1866 3.76 1881 170 1867 3.94 1882 1.48 1868 3.49 1883 1.39 1869 3.10 1884 1.29 1870 2.82 1885 1.28 1871 2.50 1886 1.17 1872 2.43 1887 1.09 1873 2.50 1888 1.006 1874. . .. 2.38 2.10 1889 1.059 1875 1890 995 1876 2.04 1891 1.003 1877 2.08 1892 1.026 1878 2,80 1893 1.026 1879 1.72 The above figures are very startling, showing a gradual downward tendency of freight rates from 1865 to 1890, after which a slight re-action took place. Similar reductions have no doubt taken place upon other roads on this continent and give a reason why many of them do not pay, and why some have passed into the hands of Eeceivers. 250 Railways and Other Ways. While the average rate is given, it does not give any idea at what rate the great bulk of heavy freight is carried, such as coal, iron, grain, flour and other staple articles. According to freight tariffs, groceries, dry-goods and general merchandise are charged, as per classification, at from two to five cents per ton per mile, and they probably constitute twenty-five per cent, of the whole of the freight traffic, and these higher rates do much to increase the average, but this does not represent the figure at which the seventy-five per cent, of heavy freight is conveyed and the rate instead of being one and a quarter cents per ton per mile, will only be about three-quarters of a cent per ton per mile, a rate which barely pays running expenses. Then it must be remembered that the movement of produce is most irregular, much more being shipped at one season of the year than the other, and to accommodate it at busy seasons necessitates a large stock of railway plant (cars and locomotives) to be kept in readiness for it ; while during the slack season thousands of freight cars are laid up in sidings earning nothing and suffering decay from the sun and rain more than if they were at work and in motion. Further, heavy freight as a rule, is a one way traffic ; that is, a great proportion of the cars have to be returned empty. Let any one examine a west-bound freight train and he will find from fifty to seventy-five per cent, of the cars empty, and the cost of hauling them back is nearly as much as when running them loaded. In the early days of the Grand Trunk Railway the question of freight rates was very fully discussed by its managers, including all departments, the object being to fix upon a minimum rate for produce in full train loads for long distances ; and after carefully Railway Management. 251 considering the question of expenses, as locomotive-power, wear and tear of cars, maintenance of way, agencies, return of empty cars and other minor charges, it was not deemed desirable to go below one cent 2)er ton per mile, for freight in train loads for distances of 500 miles and upwards, and though this rate would do little more than pay expenses, it was worth encouraging with a view of developing a general merchandise traffic at more remunerative rates. LOW PRICE OF WHEAT, SPRING OF 1894;. A farmer living near a market at the present price of wheat hardly pays expenses, then what must be the position of the farmer who resides 500 or 1,000 miles from a market. His case must indeed be deplorable. Does it not seem most important that a settler should select a farm as near a market as possible, though he may have to give a much higher figure for the land, as the cost of moving his pro- duce to market is of far greater consequence than anything else. A DISTANCE LIMIT. It will be seen, at a glance, when the price of wheat is low, as at present, there is a limit to the distance at which it can be carried, so as to give any profit to the farmer or the Eailway Company. Under such circumstances would it not be advisable, as often suggested, that a farmer residing at a great distance from a market should turn his attention more to producing other products rather than wheat, such as cheese, butter, eggs, poultry, live stock, etc., as such articles are not affected by freight 252 Railways and Other Ways. rates to anything like the same extent as wheat, as the following illustrations will show : A car with 500 bushels of wheat leaves a station 500 miles west of a principal market, on reaching that point its value is 6'J cents per bushel, say $300 GO Less freight at 15 cents per bushel 75 GO $225 00 The freight being 25 per cent, on the market value. A car containing 30,000 lbs. of cheese leaves the same station, on reaching the market its value is $3,000 00 Less freight at 50 cents per 100 lbs 150 00 $2,850 00 Freight being 5 per cent, on the market value. Wheat only is named, but the market will equally apply to corn or other grain. An Order of Merit for Heroic Deeds. 253 CHAPTER XXIII. AN ORDER OF MERIT FOR HEROIC DEEDS. A COLLECTION of heroic incidents in which railway employees have distinguished themselves would be a most interesting record, telling of feats of valour not surpassed by those of soldiers who have gained the Victoria Cross for remarkable acts of bravery. As an illustration, I give the details of two or three cases which came under my own observation many years ago. I am not aware whether the Humane Society takes note of such cases, but have no doubt it would do so if they were brought before its notice. It seems only right that the Government of a country should have some order of merit, or badge of honour, to be awarded to railway men for acts of courage in risking their own lives to save the lives of passengers under their charge. How often have w^e heard of engine drivers sticking to their posts when apparent death was before them ; and surely such noble fellows are worthy of something more than a mere money reward. SIE JOSEPH HICKSON's OPINION. In reply to an enquiry I made of Sir Joseph Hickson, on the above question, he answered as follows : " I do not know of any ' Order of Merit ' which is conferred upon railway servants in England ; but I do know that some companies have recognized, by money grants, in some cases, acts of bravery and forethought. I think your suggestion a very good one." 254 Railways and Other Ways. A PASSENGER TRAIN WITHOUT AN ENGINE DRIVER. Preston station was close to the mouth of a tunnel, beyond which were coal sidings and engines constantly moving and shunting waggons of coal. One day a locomotive superintendent was standing on the platform at the station when he saw coming along at a great and unusual speed, a passenger train, and, to his horror, he saw that the engine had neither driver nor fireman on board. The superintendent took in the situation in a moment, placed himself at the edge of the platform ; on came the rushing train and when the engine got opposite to him, he made one flying leap, secured a footing upon the locomotive and quickly reversed the engine, and before the train had got through the tunnel he had full control of the runaway, thus saving the train from wreck and a terrible loss of life to the passengers. When the people on the platform saw the train coming back in safety to the station, they cheered and hurrahed the locomotive superintendent, and the newspapers of the day gave him columns of praise ; but no badge of honor ever decorated his breast. It was afterwards ascertained that the engine driver and his fire- man had (at a station three miles from Preston) gone into a tavern to have a drink, and while there the engine started off without them. This curious prank of locomotives running off on their own account did happen sometimes in the early railway days, as shown in my account of the " Castle,' but not being posted in mechan- ics, I cannot explain how it occurs. To show that locomotives still run away, the following incident, reported in the London Daily Telegraph of Oct. 3, 1893, is recorded here : " A driver and fireman on the Great Southern & Western Railway, of Ireland, shut off steam yesterday and left the locomotive on an incline while they went into a public house. The engine started off. An Order of Merit for Heroic Leeds. 255 and going through Cork at forty miles an hour did not stop until near Queenstown. Extraordinary as it may seem, no damage was done." THOMAS HUNT. I have an impression that the actor in the case of the "train without a driver," was Mr. Hunt, with whom communication has recently been made. He says : " My memory is not very clear as to the runaway engine through Preston northwards, yet the incident may have happened and I may have thought so little about it as to allow it to pass from mj^ recollection. I was the only locomotive superintendent at Preston from early in 1839 to Aug. 1851, and if Mr. Pennington's remembrance of the incident is correct, I must have had a hand in it." This enquiry has brought out two other remarkable incidents which prove Mr. Hunt to have been a man of prompt action and invincible courage, and that in cases when a terrible death threat- ened him. I give the story of one of these incidents in his own words. Writing from Egerton Mount, Heaton Chapel, England, he says: "A goods engine arrived at Preston from Carlisle (I was then locomotive superintendent of the engines working the Lancaster & Carlisle Piailway), and having discharged its train at the warehouse, a spare driver was put on it to prepare it for a trip down to the Piibble to fetch up empty waggons, and, without any special reason for doing so, I accompanied the engine down to the riverside siding where, the waggons not being ready, we had to wait some time during which I, the driver and fireman left the engine and interested ourselves in observing what was going on there. During this interval I observed puffs of steam, at first very slight, escaping from underneath the barrel of the boiler of the engine, which at the moment I thought insignificant ; but, on further observation, the puffs increased in volume and frequency, and being about fifty yards 256 Railways and Other Ways. from the engine I walked up to and looked under the boiler and saw steam escaping between the joints of the clothing. I had not then the slightest idea of the cause, especially as I saw steam escaping slightly from the safety valve. However the quantity of steam escaping from underneath the boiler increased and I then went to the footplate end of the engine and saw that the index finger of the spring balance of the safety valve was at the bottom of the groove, which of course meant that the safety valve was fast ! How I got on to the footplate and unscrewed the nut of the spring balance, I don't know ; but immediately I gave the valve relief the steam escaped with a roar which brought every one in the immediate neighbourhood to the engine, and there being clouds of steam about they could not see me on the footplate and thought that an accident to me had been the cause of the escape. How- ever the steam soon cleared away and the escape from underneath the barrel ceased. On examination into the cause of this I found that the pivot on the safety valve had got slightly out of the centre of the valve and canted it off its face, thus allowing steam to escape at will. How and when this originated was never known. The clothing was removed from the boiler and the seam of the centre ring of plates forming the barrel underneath the boiler was found to have slipped, that is, the outer lap of the plate had moved on the inner lap one-sixteenth inch. Of course it is mere conjec- ture as to the moment the explosion would have taken place had I not relieved the valve, but there can be no doubt it would have been immediate, and as there were many workmen about, the consequences would have been serious." THE RUNAWAY GOODS WAGGONS. On the Stoke and Burton Division of the North Staffordshire Railway there was a very heavy grade (I think one in ninety) commencing close to Stoke-upon-Trent Station and extending An Order of Merit for Heroic Deeds. 257 upwards of two miles. Near the top of the grade was a tunnel and at the mouth of the latter there was a switch connecting the up with the down rails. One day a portion of a long goods train going up the grade broke loose from the rest when in the tunnel, owing to the breaking of a coupling, and the liberated waggons then started to run back with no one on board. The engine driver and his fireman took in the situation at once, uncoupled the balance of the train, crossed the switch on the doivn line, and gave pursuit after the run-away waggons, the speed of which was increasing every moment. After chasing them for a mile, the engine got alongside the escaping waggons, which by this time had attained a speed of fifty miles an hour ; one of the men then jumped from the engine on to one of the flying waggons, put on the brake, scrambled from one waggon to the other, putting on brake after brake, and before they reached the station at Stoke he had them under control and brought them to a stand without the slightest damage. Had the waggons not have been stopped, a terrible calamity was inevitable, for at the foot of the grade was a sliar}) curve and a row of cottages, and the waggons running at fifty or sixty miles an hour, must have crushed into these cottages with the force of cannon balls from a heavy batter}^ A BEAVE ACT " THERE's POODER IN." One night, long ago, three boatmen were sleeping in a canal boat in a carrier's warehouse at Kendal, Westmoreland, when they were aroused by the cry of " fire," and rushing up remem- bered that there was a stage-waggon, loaded with gunpowder, standing in the shed ; and by the time they got out of the cabin, the upper floor, right over the gunpowder (which was merely covered over with a tarpaulin) was in flames and sparks falling all round. The three boatmen did not hesitate a moment, but made 17 258 Railways and Other Ways. for the waggon, seized hold of it, and seemed to be endowed with super-human strength, for they drew the wagon out of the ware- house into a place of safety. Crowds of the town's people had come down to see the fire, but soon got a hint that there was powder in the building and all of them ran off to a man, crying out as they ran, " there' s pooder in / there's jjooder in /" It may be asked, how were these three brave fellows rewarded for prob- able saving the town of Kendal from destruction ? " Oh, tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon." One lib- eral soul in Kendal gave the three men ten shillings (about eighty cents each). The author (only a boy at the time) felt indignant and wrote his first letter to a newspaper, calling attention to the matter, but nothing more was done. A BROWN-STOUT BATH. Though it is foreign to the subject in hand, I am tempted ta relate an anecdote about this fire. After the town's people had been assured that there was no more "pooder" in the build- ing they came down to assist in extinguishing the fire. Among them was a little dandy style of a man, whom everybody knew on account of the prominent position he took upon all public occasions, such as elections, town meetings, etc. As a talker he was a great man, but repudiated the idea of working with his hands. In the burning warehouse was a hogshead of porter standing, head up. The man in question being little, mounted on the top of the porter hogshead, where all the people could see him. Perched on this point of eminence, and with much gesticu- lation he gave his orders, calling out " men do this," " men do that," " throw water," when, lo and behold, the head of the cask gave way and down went the little man up to his neck in porter,. i ALDERMAN HALLAM. SEE PAGE 163. An Order of Merit for Heroic Deeds. 259 from which there arose a cohimn of froth, casting an halo of glory round his head through which his astonished face was just visible. It was said that this comical event almost paralyzed the people from doing any more work in putting out the fire, as they had to lie down and laugh, get up, lie down again and still laugh on. " Let them now laugh who never laugh'd before. And they who always laugh'd, laugh now the more. 260 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XXIV. RAILWAY CELEBRATIONS. THE BOSTON EAILROAD JUBILEE. " Now let us haste those bonds to knit, And in the work be handy, That we may blend ' God save the Queen,' With ' Yankee Doodle Dandy !'" THE above inscription was placed under the full-length por- traits of President Fillmore and Lord Elgin, which hung across Dover Street, Boston, during its celebrated Railway Jubilee, September 17th, 18th, and 19th, 1851. This Jubilee was to commemorate the union of Boston and Montreal in bauds of iron, and is now historical. The event was considered of sufficient importance, by the Boston committee of the City Council, to warrant the publication of a book of 300 pages, giving a detailed account of the celebra- tion, its decorations, festivities, speeches, etc., etc., from which I have culled a few extracts which may be of interest, even at the present day. The festival was remarkable from the number of notabilities who attended and took part in the proceedings, among whom were : President Fillmore ; Lord Elgin, Governor-General of British North America ; Hon. Jno. F. Crampton, the British Charge d' Affaires at Washington ; Hon. DanielWebster, Secretary of State, Washington; Sir Allan McNab, M.P.P.; the Hon Joseph Howe, Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia ; Hon. F. Hincks, Inspector General ; Hon. E. P. Tache, Receiver General ; Hon. Railway Celebrations. 261 Jos. Bourret, Chief Commissioner of Public Works ; Hon. J. H. Price, Commissioner of Crown Lands; Hon. Lewis T. Drum- moncl, Solicitor General for Lower Canada ; Hon. J. Sandfield Macdonald, Solicitor General for Upper Canada ; Hon. Hamilton H. Killaly, Assistant Commissioner of Public Works ; Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts ;Hon. Edward Everett, Boston; Hon. Josiah Quincy; Hon. Robert C. Winthrop ; His Honor Jno. P. Bige- low, Mayor of Boston ; Hon- N. F. Belleau, Mayor of Quebec ; Hon. Charles Wilson, Mayor of Montreal ; Hon. Jno. G. Bowes, Mayor of Toronto; Eev. E. Eyerson, D. D., Chief Superintendent of Education in Canada West ; Hon. Wm. Morris, M.L.C.; George Brown, Esq., M.P.P. ; Eobt. Bell, M.P.P., of Canada ; Alderman Magill, Hamilton ; Ben. Holmes. Esq., M.P.P. ; Judge T. C. Aylwin, Montreal ; Hon. John Molson, President of the Cham- plain & St. Lawrence Eailway; The Eev. Dr. Beecher, and his son, Eev. Edward Beecher; Eev. J. Jenkins, of Montreal; Thos. and W. H. Merritt, of St. Catharines. Among the many features of interest at the Jubilee was the monster procession consisting of guests, visitors and officials in carriages, school children in scores of decorated waggons, trades of all kinds with emblems of their art, military corps, benevolent and other societies and numerous bands of music with banners, English, Canadian and American, of all kinds. The procession took two hours to pass any given point, and was 3^ miles in length. The mottoes, generally run across the streets, which were seen along the line of route were much admired, and a few are here given. " Grand Railroad Jubilee, September 17th, 18th, 19th, 1851." " The Canadas and the Great West." 262 Eaihuays and Other Ways. " Welcome Canadians." " England and America," Perpetual Peace. The Queen, — the President." " Our guests from the British Soil, We bid them welcome To Yankee Land.' " Hon. Joseph Howe and the Colonial Railroads." " Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, united by Railway." " Montreal and Boston — United We Prosper." A PLEASING INCIDENT. Miss Paxton, representmgMassachusetts,wasescortedtothe carriage containing Lord Elgin, to whom she presented a fine bouquet, with this address : — " Massachusetts welcomes to the hospitality of her metro- polis, with cordial salutation, the distinguished Chief Magistrate of Her Majesty's Provinces in North America." * To this his Lordship replied in substance as follows : — " I shall preserve this as a token of the kindness and hospi- tality of the State of Massachusetts and the City of Boston, and also as a valued memorial of the fair representative of the State." On Lord Elgin's arrival at Boston, Mayor Bigelow tendered to him a public welcome and said : — *' We recognize you, not only as the ruler of extensive and important provinces, but as the principal representative on this continent of the venerated land of our ancestors. It is told of Samoset, the Indian Chief, that his first salutation to the Pil- grims at Plymouth, was ' Welcome, welcome. Englishmen.' " Our festival may be considered, in some sort, as the cele- bration of a conjugal union between Canada and the Ocean. We can dispense with the golden ring, which was used in the Railway Celebrations. 263 espousals of Venice with the waters of the Adriatic ; for this union is effected by bands of iron, which at once attest its perpetuity and strength." In replying, Lord Elgin said : — " I am quite overcome by this kind and cordial reception ; but gentlemen, I have been travelling all day, and my throat is so full of dust that you will excuse me if I do not attempt to follow the Mayor in his most eloquent address. "But there is one thing he has said, which I cannot allow to pass unnoticed. He has suggested that we should consider this celebration the ' conjugal union of the Canadas with the Ocean.' Whatever may be my object in coming to Boston, I assure you, Sir, that I do not come to * forbid the banns.' " A great banquet was held in a gorgeous Pavilion erected on the Common. The tables comfortably accommodated 3,600 per- sons. Interesting speches were made by President Fillmore, Lord Elgin, Maj^or Bigelow, Hon. Daniel Webster, Governor Boutwell, Hon. Francis Hincks, Hon. Charles M. Conrad, Hon. Joseph Howe, Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Josiah Quincy and others. I have only space to give a few brief extracts from the speeches made. The President, who was laboring under a slight indisposition, said : " I meet you as citizens of Boston. On this festive occasion we know no party distinction. Nay, more, we scarcely know a national distinction. There are gathered at this board the Briton and the American, living under different laws, but thank God, representing two of the freest nations under the sun. The asperity that was engendered by the revolution which separ- ated us from our mother country, I am happy to say, has long since disappeared, and we meet like brethren of the same family. 264 Railways and Other Ways. Speaking the same language, and enjoying the same religion — are we not one ? " I trust, fellow citizens, that the unfortunate necessity which compels me to leave you thus early on this occasion, will induce no one to leave the table on my account. I trust partic- ularly that his Lordship, the Governor-General of Canada, will remain with you." Lord Elgin rose and said : " One single word. I should have felt it my bounden duty to follow the President of the United States out of this room, if he had not interposed to prevent me from doing so. But I do not forget that while I am on the territory of the United States, I am under his authority. As, therefore, he has imposed upon me his commands to remain with you, most certainly I shall remain. And I must say that I never received an order, which more completely jumped with my own wishes." Lord Elgin responded to the sentiment, " The health of Her Majesty, the Queen," in a most interesting and somewhat amus- ing speech, from which a few extracts only can be given. " Gentlemen, as I have the honour to address a company which consists, in the greater part, of persons who live under different institutions from myself, perhaps I may be permitted to observe that we British subjects, honour and respect our Queen, not only beause of her exemplary character, her many public and private virtues, and the singular tact and firmness which has enabled her to secure the well-being of her own people, and to promote cordiality and good will among the nations of the earth, but also because we recognize, in the constitutional and heredi- tary throne upon which she is seated, the symbol of our national unity, and the type of the continuity of our existence as a people. " Allow me, gentlemen, as there seems to be in America some little misconception on these points, to observe, that we. Railway Celebrations. 265 monarchists though we be, enjoy the advantages of self-govern- ment, of popular elections, of deliberate assemblies, with their attendant blessings of caucuses, stump orators, lobbj-ings and log- rolling — and I am not sure but we sometimes have a little pipe laying almost,if not altogether, in equal perfection with yourselves. I must own, gentlemen, that I was exceedingly amused the other day, when one of the gentlemen who did me the honour to visit me in Toronto, bearing the invitation of the corporation of the City of Boston, observed to me, with the utmos t gravity, that he had been delighted to find upon entering our Legislative Assem- bly at Toronto, that there was quite as much liberty of speech there as in any body of the kind he had ever visited. I could not help thinking, that if my kind friend would only favour us with his company in Canada for a few weeks, we should be able to demonstrate, to his entire satisfaction, that the tongue is quite as ' unruly ' a ' member ' on the north side of the line as on this side. " I find from the most authentic records, tha*t the citizens of Boston were altogether carried away by panic when it was first proposed to build a railway from Boston to Providence, under the apprehension that they themselves, their wives and their children,their stores, and their goods, and alltheypossessed, would be swallowed up bodily by New York. " I hope that Boston has wholly recovered from that panic. I think it is some evidence of it, that she has laid out fifty millions in railways since that time. I give you, gentlemen, ' Prosperity to the trade and the City of Boston.' " The Hon. Edward Everett, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, made a most eloquent speech, concluding as follows, — " I do not know. Sir (turning to Lord Elgin), but in this way, from the kindly seeds which have been sown this week, in your visit to Boston, and that of the distinguished gentlemen who have pre- 266 Raihvays and Other Ways. ceded and accompanied you, our children and grandchildren, as long as this great Anglo-Saxon race shall occupy the continent, may reaj) a harvest worth all the cost which has devolved on this generation." Hon. Joseph Howe, Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia (the old man eloquent), made a famous speech, concluding thus : ** I hope. Sir, that many years will not pass away before you are invited to a railroad celebration on British soil, and this I promise you, — that when that day comes, even if our railroads should not be as long as yours, the festival shall be as long, and the welcome as cordial." Mayor Bigelow's address at the banquet was a burst of eloquence, from which I give a few pearls " at random strung." " This meeting is held to celebrate the triumphs of the arts of peace ; to rejoice in the result of enterprises which tend to culti- vate good will among men, to promote their material interests, and augment the sum of human happiness." " Boston takes occasion, in this presence, to acknowledge with honest pride, that her founders were Britons. We claim as New Englanders, that the history of the British people, until a comparatively recent period, is our history, — that the poets, statesmen, philosophers, patriots, and warriors, — in a word, the myriads of the good and great, who for many centuries contri- buted to the happiness and glory of the British Isles, were the brethren, the fellow-countrymen of our ancestors." " Hills have been cut in sunder, valleys have been filled up, and running w^aters have been spanned, to facilitate the commun- ication with every section of the land. Our iron pathways are our rivers, and they more than compensate for deficiency of natural channels. They follow the routes, and terminate at the exact points, indicated by our judgment or wishes. They allow of velocity of transit of which no water courses admit ; they are Raihuay Celebrations. 267 never frozen by the winter's blast, nor is their passage dangerous in autumnal storms." The Mayor closed with the following peroration, — " To- morrow our festival will have terminated ; our tents of Jubilee will be struck, and many of you will be far away on your return to your pleasant homes. But to-day you are our honoured guests. I bid you welcome, rulers and ruled, statesmen, scholars, soldiers, farmers, mechanics and merchants. Welcome ! ye from the banks of the Ottawa, the Chaudiere, the St. Lawrence, the Ni- agara, and the St. John. Welcome ! from the shores of Erie, Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Superior. Welcome ! from the borders of the Penobscot, Kennebec, Connecticut, Hudson, Dele- ware, Susquehannah, and Potomac, — the waters of the Sunny South, and of the valley of the Mississippi, and her tributaries. Welcome ! from every city, town and hamlet which is here represented. Welcome ! Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans and Americans. Welcome ! thrice welcome ! are you all to the Pilgrim City, and the Pilgrim Feast !" Several addresses were presented to Mayor Bigelow and the City Council of Boston, viz : — 1st, by the Canadian Ministers, through the Hon. Francis Hincks ; 2nd, by Mayor Wilson and the Corporation of Montreal ; 3rd, by Mayor Bowes and the Cor- poration of Toronto ; 4th, by the citizens of Toronto, signed by Alex. Manning, A. M. Clark, Fred. Perkins and fifty-two others. This address closed with the following beautiful sentiment : " The destinies of the world for good or for ill, for peace or for war, are suspended in the united hands of the two great nations to which we respectively belong ; and we sincerely pray that the sentiments of fraternal regard with which we have felt inspired during the celebration of your great festival may be perpetual, and that peace and happiness under the joint influence of our respective rulers may forever pervade the earth." ^68 Railways and Other Ways. KAILROADS IN THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. The New England States made early and rapid progress in developing her railroad system. The first road was the Boston & Worcester partially opened in April, 1834, and the Boston and Providence in June the same year. In September, 1851, the railroads in operation were as under : — Maine 281 miles. New Hampshire 455 Vermont 366 Massachusetts 1142 Ehode Island 50 Connecticut 551 2845 And 567 miles in course of construction. A GRAND TRUNK CELEBRATION. In November 1856, Montreal was a scene of gaiety and splendour, the occasion being the celebration of the opening of the Grand Trunk Eailway from Montreal to Toronto and Strat- ford. The streets were crowded with thousands of visitors from all parts of Canada and the United States ; there were balls, military parades, trade and society jprocessions, torch-light marches, firework illuminations, etc. The Mayors of Boston, Cleveland, and Portland, "hobnob- bed " with the Mayors of Montreal and Toronto. The Governor- General of Canada fraternized with the Governor of the State of Maine. A large workshop, newly built by the Grand Trunk, at Point St Charles, was turned into a gorgeous banquet hall, with seating accommodation for 4,400 guests, all of which was filled. Railway Celebrations. 269 Speeches were made by the Governor- General, the Governor of Maine, General Sir William Eyre and other notabilities. The Mayor, in his address, said that in 1839 there were only 15 miles of railway in Canada ; in 1849, 50 miles ; and in 1856, 850 miles. The Montreal Herald, in describing the banquet hall, said that the table cloth was close upon one mile in length. In winding up the banquet, a Chicago editor made an elo- quent and soul-stirring speech, which will be read with interest at the present day, and is well worth preserving. A copy of it, taken from the Montreal Herald of November 13th, 1856, is here- with given. "After the regular toasts had been disposed of quite a call was made for representatives of the Western commercial cities. C. Davidson, commercial editor of the Chicago Daily Tribujie, being reporting near the stand, was called up and said : — '' The scenes of this occasion, here in the banquet hall, and elsewhere, the ' gay dance of bounding beauty's train,' the warm pressure of the hand which has been extended to welcome us, makes this an era in the life of each of us. We cannot be insensible to the generous and cordial festal and fraternal feel- ings with which we have been greeted in the heart of British American Empire. We have been made to forget that we are in a foreign land. With accents of our own native speech to speak us greetings, with tones of welcome that bear favored sounds to our ears, we have been made to feel the truth of the maxim that one touch of nature makes all the world of kin. We feel that we are among neighbours and kindred. Many of us have, separ- ately and as strangers, traversed joui country, floated on your St. Lawrence, amid its inspiring scenery, which has, to some extent, realized the grand impressions which swelled the soul of _ Jacques Cartier, when in the balmy month of May of 1535, he 270 Railways and Other Ways. glided down the stream, and first gazed on the wonders of your country, and of your still overshading Mount Koyal. " We have, many of us, trodden your thronged streets, and walked beneath the shadows of your mighty cathedral, and have realized in your city that monument which Anglo-Saxon genius never fails to rear on every arena of its exertion. "We know your history and have watched your stages of development in transition since, a feeble colony, you first began to subdue the wilderness and triumph over the severities of climate, until this your hour of expanded and prosperous growth ! Of your frontier perils, when your soil was yet warm with the footprints of the Mohawk, your woods rang with the Huron's war whoop, and your clear skies tinged with the smoke of the Iroquois' wigwam — and your streams, which now throb with the ceaseless stir of steam, and cloud up with the white sails of commerce, were disturbed only by the plash of the Indian's paddle, or the soft cadences of the voyageur's evening song. Part of the school- boy impressions, which have woven themselves into imperishable memories of our hearts, are those which commemorate the hero- ism of Wolfe and the chivalry of Montcalm. But these remi- niscences, which thus throng the mind, belong to the past and are committed to the keeping of history. Our feelings and our busi- ness are with the present, lovingly as we might linger over the past. " In the glow of this banqueting hour, and in the warmth of our welcome, we foretaste, as we hope, a nearer and closer inti- macy of the Northwest and the Canadas. Nature had already indicated the identity of interest and feeling which should exist between you and us, in those island seas and magnificent streams which traverse and border upon your country and ours. In such facilities of intercourse, she bade us strike a fellowship of com- merce and alliance of fraternity. The city of Chicago, for which Eaihuay Celebrations. 271 I speak, rears a rapid and marvellous prosperity on the shore of waters which on their way to the ocean, sweep beneath the sha- dows of your own Montreal — breezes, laden with the perfumes of distant prairies, there swell the sails of a commerce which bears you the products of innumerable prairie acres, now smiling with the rewards of industry and teaming with the evidences of advancing civilization. The instincts of business men here and in the states, with the sagacity worthy of their parent stock, dis- cerned where the mart of commerce must take its eastern way, and capital has already struck out the path. The severity of Northern climates has been obviated, and steam has triumphed over space. A continuous chain of iron ways makes Montreal harbor but 32 hours distant fiom the piers of Chicago. " To-day, therefore, this communication, commemorated in this brilliant banquet, inaugurates an era in the relations of Chicago with you, and concerns us personally in your own pros- perity. You have signalized to us this union with you by a warmth, a generosity and splendour of hospitality which must live forever in the memory of our hearts. The few hours of time which separate you and us leaves Montreal no longer a stranger to Chicago. The Eed Cross of St. George and the Stars and Stripes will float together in our respective harbors, and the strains of ' God Save the Queen' may, we hope, mingle not in- harmoniously with the notes of * Yankee Doodle ' among Ameri- can and Canadian tars. We feel that our interests are mutual, and our hearts should be kindred. We hope that in our com- minglement of cordial courtesies we foresee a more direct, kindly, and general intercourse beteen the two queen cities of the North. The Eeciprocity Treaty, fortunately and opportunely, promotes and encourages a commercial, and, to some extent, a social inti- macy which will intertwine more closely the interests of the regions of the lakes, and of the St. Lawrence, etc., as one of the 272 Railways and Other Ways. great commercial ports of the West, Chicago is deeply interested in the moral and material henefits of such an intercourse. Her commercial and business men will necessarily more and more mingle and establish relations with your business men ; such relations necessitate and nurture those kinds instincts and sen- timents which take their form in the amenities and courtesies of life. It will be the pride and the pleasure of the city of Chicago to cultivate, extend and perpetuate with your olden city, such relations as these. I know I speak the voice of her citizens here, and of that larger mass of her citizens at home, when I o£fer you the sentiment to which they will all respond : ' The continued prosperity of Montreal.' " THE GEORGE STEPHENSON CENTENARY. This event was celebrated with great eclat at Newcastle-on- Tyne, on June 9th, 1881, to do honour to the memory of "the Father of Railways," when, says Mr. H. C. Knight, in his interest- ing story of " The Eocket," "There was a great procession of modern railway engines, which started from the Central Railway Station, and proceeded amidst the cheers of thousands, to Wylan, George Stephenson's birth j)lace, eight miles distant. These engines, sixteen in number, were the finest modern science could construct. On reaching Wylan, they were placed for exhibi- tion along with five old original locomotives, namely, the Killing- worth (the first that Stephenson ever made), the Hatton Colliery engine, the old Darlington engine, No. 1 Locomotive from Dar- lington, and Stephenson's old "Victor " from the North-Eastern Railway. A special train followed, carrying the Mayors of Newcastle and other towns, with many jpersons of local celebrity. Opposite George Stephenson's birthplace it stopped : the Mayor of New- castle alighted with his friends, and in honour of the day planted Railivay Celebrations. 273 an oak-tree. The next event was a procession of members of the corporation, public bodies, trade societies, and workmen of New- castle, Jarrow and South Shields, together with the miners of Northumberland, some 40,000 altogether." DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS OF THE G.T.R. IN 1856. The following list of Grand Trunk Railway Directors, Officers, Agents and Contractors appeared in the Montreal Herald of November 13th, 1856. President — Hon. John Eoss. Vice-President — Benj. Holmes, Esq. London Directors. — Thos. Baring, Esq., M.P.P.; George Carr Glynn, Esq., M.P.P.; W. Hollaston Blake, Esq.; Kirkman D. Hodgson, Esq. Canadian Directors. — James Beat}', Esq.; Hons. F.Lemieux, William Cayley, Sir Allan McNab, Peter McGill, L. T. Drum- mond ; G. Crawford, Esq., M.P.P.; W. H. Ponton, Esq.; E. F. Whittemore, Esq.; John Rose, Esq., Q.C. Directors in Portland, as stipulated in the Lease of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Road. — W. John Smith, President ; John B. Brown ; John M. Wood; C. E. Barrett; J. S. Little; Phineas Barnes ; Hon. G. J. Shepley ; James L. Farmer ; Rufus E. Wood; Solomon H. Chandler. contractors' DEPARTMENT. Contractors for the Road from Trois Pistoles to Toronto, in- cluding the Victoria Bridge : Messrs. Peto, Brassey, Betts and Jackson. Agents : — At Montreal, James Hodges ; Point Levi, James Reekie ; Brockville, W. Ellis ; Gananoque, R. Crawford ; Kingston, F. J. Rowan ; Port Hope to Toronto, Geo. Tate ; Contractors from Toronto to Sarnia, Messrs. Gzowski, Holton, Gait and McPherson. 18 274' Railways and Other Ways. Engineers' Department. — A. M. Eoss, Chief Engineer ; Wm. Betts, Secretary to Chief Engineer ; Samuel Keefer, Assistant Engineer; W. Shanly, ditto ditto, Toronto ; W. Kingsford, Superin- tendent, Toronto : F. H. Trevithick, Locomotive Superintendent ; E. Wingate, Eesident Engineer, Point Levi ; S. S. Bennett, Eesident Engineer, Portland ; D. Stark, Eesident Engineer and Manager, Island Pond. Managers' Department. — S. P. Bidder, General Manager ; Henry Baily, Assistant to ditto ; M. Pennington, Goods Man- ager ; James Hardman, Traffic Auditor. Superintendents. — S. T. Corser, Portland ; S. T. Webster, Point Levi ; I. S. Martin, Brockville ; G. W. Purkis, Superinten- dent of Telegraphs, Montreal ; W. S. McKenzie, Locomotive Superintendent. Secretary's Office. — Sir C. P. Eoney, Secretary in London ; John M. Grant, Assistant Secretary, Montreal ; W. H. A. Davies, Accountant ; Charles E. Barrett, Treasurer, Portland. Paymasters. — S. B. Haskell, Portland ; D. Davidson, Long- ueuil. Agents. — G. A. Holmes, Montreal Depot ; J. S. Millar, Port- land ; Geo. Dartnell, Travelling Agent. SENATOR JAMES MCMILLAN, OF MICHIGAN. About 30 years ago I remember a youth in Hamilton named James McMillan , a son of Mr. McMillan, a Scotchman, who for more than 20 years was the popular wood agent for the Great Western Eailway. James went to Detroit and was appointed as purchasing agent for the Detroit and Milwaukee Eailroad, which position he held for some years. In 1864 he and three others organized the Michigan Car Company with a capital of $20,000. Its success and progress was very rapid and it did an immense business. Very recently the Michigan Car Company and a rival concern, the Peninsular Car Company of Detroit, joined hands ; Railway Celebrations. 275 and now the consolidation of the corporation consists of the fol- lowing companies : — The Michigan Car Company, the Detroit Car Wheel Company, the Detroit Pipe and Fomidry Company, the Michigan Forge and Iron Company and the Peninsular Car Company. This is the combined daily capacity' : One hundred freight cars. Two hundred tons of castings. Eight hundred car wheels. One hundred tons of cast-iron pipes. One hundred and fifty car axles. One hundred and fifty tons of bar iron. The capital stock of the corporation is 88,000,000, and 5,000 men are on the pay roll. James McMillan is chairman ; Col- onel Frank J. Hecker, President ; Joseph Taylor, Secretary. Mr. McMillan is at the head of perhaps forty corporations. His friends estimate that he is worth six million dollars. It is pleasing to find that he is, while in life, doing some good with his money. His generosity is spontaneous and un- affected, and his heart for suffering mankind is so big that he practically built and now largely supports a magnificent and faultless free hospital, bearing the name of his beloved daughter. When the Michigan Car Company started business a box car sold for about S900. Now 1,000,000 can be bought for $550 each. The total number of freight cars in the United States is put at 1,200,000 ; if placed in line they would form a train 6800 miles in length. The average life of a box car is 8 years and 140,000 freight cars wear out every year. It will therefore be seen that there is a steady and lasting work for car builders for all time to come. [For the above details I am mainly indebted to the Chicago Herald of November 12th, 1892.] 276 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XXV. RAILWAYS- THEIR HISTORY, FOR an account of the first railways we must go back more than 200 j^ears. They were brought into use for the removal of coal and other minerals ; the rails were simply planks laid ex- actly straight and parallel to each other, and in the course of time cast-iron was used. The term tram-road or plate-way was usually applied to those roads. A Mr. Outram made some im- provements on the plate-way roads, and they became known as " Outram roads," but for shortness got the name of " tram roads." The rails, in some cases, had a flange on one side, such as described in another part of this work. Samuel Smiles, in his life of Geo. Stephenson, says, " The first iron rails are supposed to have been laid down at White- haven as early as 1738. This cast-iron road was denominated a plate- way from the plate-like form in which the rails were cast. " The Duke of Bridgewater when congratulated by Lord Kenyon on the successful issue of his canals, made answer with far-sighted shrewdness — ' Yes, we shall do well enough if we can keep clear of these d d tram-roads — there's mischief in them!'" GEOKGE STEPHENSON AND THE FIRST STEAM RAILW^AY. Geo. Stephenson the Pioneer of the Locomotive and Railway was born at the colliery village of Wylan, about eight miles west of Newcastle-on-Tyne, on June 9th 1781, and died at his county house of Tapton in Derbyshire on August 12th, 1848, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Raihvays — Their History. 277 His first great success was the openiug of the Stockton and Darlington Eailway on September 27th 1825 ; his next the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Eailway on the loth September, 1830. F. S. Williams, in his " Our Iron Eoads," in describing the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Hne says, " The train moved off at the rate of from ten to twelve miles an hour, with a weight of eighty tons, with one engine — ' No. 1 ' — driven by George Stephenson himself; after it six waggons, loaded wdth coals and flour ; then a covered coach containing directors and proprietors ; next twenty-one coal waggons, fitted up for pas- sengers with which they were crammed ; and lastly, six more waggons loaded with coals. Off started the procession, with a horseman at its head with a flag, but George Stephenson soon told the horseman to get out of his way, and put on the speed to fifteen miles an hour." No. 1 Engine cost only £500. THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. The Stockton and Darlington Eailway was undoubtedly the pioneer of these great undertakings, but it was the Liverpgol and Manchester Eailway which set the whole civilized world in com- motion and gave a stimulus to railway enterprise. The public opening of the railway took place on the 15th September, 1830. Eight locomotives had been constructed by the Messrs. Stephenson and placed upon the line. The whole of them had been repeatedly tried, and with success, weeks before. The completion of the work was justly regarded as a great national event and was celebrated accordingly. The Duke of Welhngton, then Prime Minister, Sir Eobert Peel, Secretary of State, Mr. Huskisson, one of the members for Liverpool and an 278 Railways and Other Ways. earnest supporter of the project from its commencement, were present, together with a large number of distinguished person- ages. The " Northumbrian " engine took the lead of the procession and was followed by the other locomotives and their trains, which accommodated about 600 persons.* At Parkside, seventeen miles from Liverpool, the engines stopped to take in water. Here a deplorable accident occurred to one of the most distinguished of the illustrious visitors pre- sent, which threw a deep shadow over the subsequent proceedings of the day. The " Northumbrian " with the carriage containing the Duke of Wellington, was drawn up on one line, in order that the whole of the trains might pass in review before him and his party on the other. Mr. Huskisson had, unhappily, alighted from the carriage, and was standing on the opposite road, along which the " Eocket " engine was observed rapidly coming up. At this moment the Duke of Wellington, between whom and Mr, Huskisson some coolness had existed, made a sign of recognition, and held out his hand. A hurried but friendly grasp was given, and before it was loosened there was a general cry from the by- standers of " Get in, get in." Flurried and confused Mr. Huskisson endeavoured to get round the open door of the carriage which projected over the opposite rail ; but in doing so he was struck down by the '' Eocket " and falling with his leg doubled * The engines with which the line was opened were the following : 1. The "Northumbrian," driven by George Stephenson. 2. The "Phoenix," by Robert Stephenson. 3. The " North Star," by Robert Stephenson, senior (brother of George). 4. The " Rocket," by Joseph Locke. 5. The "Dart," by Thomas L. Gooch. 6. The "Comet," by William Allcard. 7. The "Arrow," by Frederick Swan wick. 8. The " Meteor," by Anthony Harding. (S. Smiles' Life of George Stephenson . ) Baihvays — Their History. 270 across the rail, the limb was instantly crushed. His first words, on being raised, were : " I have met my death," which unhappily proved too true, for he expired that same evening in the neighbouring parsonage of Eccles. A tablet to his memory may still be seen at Parkside opposite the spot where he met his death. LOKD BROUGHAM S TRIBUTE TO THE CONSTRUCTORS OF THE RAILWAY. " When I saw," said he, " the difficulties of space, as it were, overcome ; when I beheld a kind of miracle exhibited before my astonished eyes ; when I surveyed masses pierced through on which it was before hardly possible for man or beast to plant the sole of the foot, now covered with a road and bearing heavy waggons, laden not only with innumerable passengers, but with merchandise of the largest bulk and heaviest weight ; when I eaw valleys made practicable by the bridges of ample height and length which spanned them ; saw the steam railways traversing the water at a distance of sixty or seventy feet perpendicular height ; saw the rocks excavated and the gigantic power of man penetrating through miles of the solid mass, and gaining a great, a lasting, an almost perennial conquest over the powers of nature by his skill and industry ; when I contemplated all this, was it possible for me to avoid the reflections which crowded into my mind not to jDraise man's great success ; not in admiration of the genius and perseverance he had displayed, or even of the courage he had shown in setting himself against the obstacles that matter offered to his course — no ! but the melancholy reflection that these prodigious efforts of the human race — so fruitful of praise, but so much more fruitful of lasting blessing to mankind — have forced a tear from my eye by that unhappy casualty which deprived me of a friend and you of a representative ? " 280 Railways and Other Ways. EARLY RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. A section of 14 miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Kailway was completed in 1830 and opened for traffic. It was worked by horse power. In the next year a locomotive engine, the first of American manufacture, was placed on this line. In the same year an English engine, weighing six tons, was obtained for the Mohawk and Hudson, but this proving destructive to the per- manent way, an engine of American make, weighing only three tons, was substituted in its place.* In 1832, the South Carolina Kailway was opened, also the New York & Harlem, and the Camden & Amboy, in New Jersey. The Boston & Lowell, in the State of Massachusetts, was commenced in 1831, and the Boston & Providence, and Boston & Worcester, in the fol- lowing year. These three roads were completed in 1835. All these schemes were crude and ill-judged. (Trout's "Eailwaysof Canada.") THE FIRST RAILWAY IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. In 1836 the first attempt at working a railway in Canada was made. The St, Lawrence & Champlain (now the Montreal & Champlain), was opened in that year. The rails were of wood^ with flat bars of iron spiked on them ; and from the tendency of this class of rail to curl or bend upwards as the wheels passed over it, it became known as the " snake rail." The first loco- motive used on the line was sent from Europe, accompanied by an engineer, who, for some unexplained reason, had it caged up and secreted from public view. The trial trip was made by moonlight in the presence of a few interested parties, and it is _ *A comparison— The weight of the Locomotive, now in use (1892) for hauling trains through the St. Clair Tunnel at Sarnia, when in actual service, is found to be approximately one hundred tons. Raihvays — Their History. 281 not described as a success. Several attempts were made to get the " Kitten " — for such was the nick-name applied to this pioneer locomotive — to run to St. John, but in vain ; the engine proved refractory and horses were substituted for it. It is related, however, that a practical engineer being called in from the United States, the engine, which was thought to be hope- lessly unmanageable, was pronounced in good order, requiring only "plenty of wood and water." This opinion proved correct, for after a little practice the " extraordinary rate of speed of twenty miles per hour was obtained."* Ontario's first railway, 1853. " Forty years ago to-day," says the Toronto Empire, of May 3, 18v)3, " the first railroad in Ontario was opened. It was then called the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron. Later on it became the Northern, and to-day it is part of the great system controlled by the Grand Trunk, and taps all the choicest agricultural and picturesque portions of the northern part of Ontario. " The late F. C. Capreol was the chief promoter of the road, his object being to control the traffic, both passenger and freight, of lakes Ontario, Simcoe and Huron. The locomotive that drew out several filled passenger coaches from Brock street station on that memorable morning of May 16th, 1853, was constructed at James Good's foundry, on the corner of Yonge and Queen streets, and was transported to the starting point on *A great change in railway speed has taken place since the days of the " Kitten," as will be seen from the following incident : I am at Toronto, two miles from the Union Station. It is 7.30 a. m., August 7, 1892 ; a ring is heard at my door ; my son has arrived from Montreal by the Grand Trunk ; he says he " came by No. 5 Express, timed to leave Montreal at 10.1-5 p. m., but the train did not leave until 11 p. m., yet arrived on time in Toronto." Deducting refreshments and other stops, which would exceed one hour, it made the actual running time fifty miles an hour, and as my son said, " it did not seem anything extraordinary or unusual, so smoothly did the train skim along." 282 Raihvays and Other Ways. a movable track, over a week being consumed in the undertaking. The train carried its passengers to Belle Ewart, that being as far as the roadway was safely constructed. It was a long dreary journey both going and returning. There are surviving now not more than half a score of persons who attended the opening ceremonies." A LOTTEKY AND AN OLD RAILWAY SCHEME. The Northern was not the first railway promoted by Mr. Capreol. The following curious advertisement appeared in the Upper Canada Gazette, of December 24th, 1840 : " Notice is hereby given that Frederick Chase Capreol, of the City of Toronto, in the Province of Upper Canada, will apply in the next session of the Legislature for leave to bring in a bill to authorize him to construct a substantial railroad, w^ith all the necessary station houses, entrances, &c., &c., for the speedy conveyance of goods and passengers between Kingston and Montreal, and to raise the funds for the same by way of lottery, to carry it into effect as soon as possible. " Toronto, 27th March, 1840." From the Empire of August 15th, 1893, I take the following short sketch of RICHARD BOND, who enjoyed the distinction of being Canada's first locomotive engineer : *' One of the pioneer railroad constructors in America passed away on Sunday, in the person of Mr. Richard Bond, who had been living with his daughter, Mrs. Atkinson, at 32 Sheridan avenue, Toronto. Mr. Bond, who was in his 82nd year, came to this country from Chorley, Lancashire, England, in 1852, to build the St. Andrew's & Quebec Eailway in New Brunswick. Raihuays — Their History. 283 He was the first man to run a locomotive in British North America. Two years later he came to Upper Canada and superintended the construction of the first bridge on the Great Western Eailway. It spanned the Humber River. Mr. Bond did some work in the Old Country also, having when there last, inspected the construction of the great Grimsby docks. He left three sons and three daughters." 284 Raihvays and Other Ways. CHAPTEE XXVI. G. T. R. AND C. P. R. SYSTEMS. THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY SYSTEM. THE following concise summary of the lines now included in the Grand Trunk system in Canada, in addition to the Grand Trunk proper, is taken from the Port Huron Daily Times, Tunnel Opening Edition, 1890 : Quebec Branch. Three Eivers Branch. Eouse's Point Branch. Hemmingford Branch. Montreal & Champlain Junction Ey. Beauharnois Junction Ey. Jacques Cartier Union Ey. Kingston Branch. Gait Branch. Waterloo Branch, London & St. Mary's Branch. Midland Eailway. Northern Eailway. Northern & Pacific Junction Ey. Hamilton & Northwestern Ey. Great Western Eailway. Wellington, Grey & Bruce Ey. London, Huron & Bruce Ey. Brantford, Norfolk, & Port Burwell Ey. CO < <: Pi < o w o Q o CO W CD P CO G. T. R. and G. P. R Systems. 285 Welland Kailway. Grand Trunk, Georgian Bay & Lake Erie Ey. Buffalo & Lake Huron Ey. Brantford Branch. Petrolia Branch. Peterborough & Chemong Lake Ey. Cobourg & Harwood Branch. The total mileage of the railways in Canada owned, leased or operated by the Grand Trunk Company is 3,136 miles. In the United States the lines leased by the Grand Trunk Company and operated by it, are : Atlantic & St. Lawrence Ey. Lewiston & Auburn Ey. Norway Branch. Champlain & St. Lawrence Ey. United States & Canada Ey. Chicago, Detroit & Canada Grand Trunk Junction Ey. Michigan Air Line Ey. The total mileage of these is 360 miles. The lines in the states of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, controlled and operated in harmony with the Grand Trunk, but under separate management, namely : Chicago & Grand Trunk Ey. Grand Trunk Junction Ey. Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Ey. Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Ey. Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw Ey. Aggregate, 676 miles. The Grand Trunk system therefore comprises in the United States and Canada, 4,172 miles of railway. It also controls a line of steamers running between Milwaukee and Grand Haven. The Grand Trunk Company are owners of the boats which have performed the car ferry service between Fort Gratiot and 286 Railways and Other Ways. Point Edward, and between Detroit and Windsor. They also hold a controlling interest in the International Bridge across the Niagara River, near Buffalo, and are lessees of the Suspension Bridge crossing the same river below the Falls. By arrangements with the Central Vermont Railroad and its connections, the traffic of the Grand Trunk Main Line has access to Boston and New England points. The Great Western Section of the Grand Trunk has through connection via the Niagara frontier with the New York Central ; West Shore ; New York, Lake Erie & Western ; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western ; Lehigh Valley & JBome ; Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroads. At Detroit it connects with the Wabash Railroad and the Detroit, Lansing & Northern Railway, and at Hamburg Junction with the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railway. The St. Clair Tunnel constitutes the central link between the two divisions of the Grand Trunk system East and West of the St. Clair and Detroit rivers. GRAND TKUNK RAILWAY PAY ROLL. "We employ in Canada on Grand Trunk property, no fewer than about 20,000 people, of whom, roughly, one-third are in the traffic department, one-third in the mechanical department, and one-third in the way and works department — that is to say, G,000 and 7,000 in each of these departments. The pay rolls amounted for the year 1892 to £1,760,000 sterling, and in 1893 to £1,733,000, or $8,432,000." (Sir Henry W. Tyler, at the half- yearly meeting, April 30, 1894.) THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. For the following brief sketch of the C. P. R.'s history I am indebted to " The New Highway to the Orient," kindly furnished me by Mr. W. R. Callaway, its popular District Passenger Agent : G. T. R. and C. P. R Systems. 287 " The Canadian Pacific Railway Company was organized early in 1881, and immediately entered into a contract with the Government to complete the line within ten years. "The railway system of Eastern Canada had already advanced far up the Ottawa Valley, attracted mainly by the rapidly grow- ing traffic from the pine forests, and it was from a point of con- nection with this system that the Canadian Pacific Piailway had to be carried through to the Pacific coast, a distance of two thousand five hundred and fifty miles. Of this, the Government had under construction one section of four hundred and twenty- five miles between Lake Superior and Winnipeg, and another of two hundred and thirteen miles from Burrard Inlet, on the Pacific coast, eastward to Kamloops Lake in British Columbia. The company undertook the building of the remaining nineteen hundred and twenty miles, and for this it was to receive from the Government a number of valuable privileges and immunities, and twenty-five million dollars in money and twenty-five million acres of agricultural land. The two sections of the railway already under construction were to be finished by the Government, and together with a branch line of sixty-five miles already in opera- tion from Winnipeg southward to the boundary of the United States, were to be given to the company, in addition to its sub- sidies in money and lands ; and the entire railway, when com- pleted, was to remain the property of the company. "With these liberal subventions the company set about its task most vigorously. While the engineers were exploring the more difficult and less known section from the Ottawa River to and around Lake Superior, and marking out a line for the navvies, work was commenced at Winnipeg and pushed westward across the prairies, where one hundred and sixty miles of the railway were completed before the end of the first year. During the second year the rails advanced four hundred and fifty miles. The 288 Railways and Other Ways. end of the third year found them at the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and the fourth in the Selkirks, nearly a thousand and fifty miles from Winnipeg. " While such rapid progress was being made west of Winni- peg, the rails advancing at an average rate of more than three miles each working day for months in succession, and sometimes five and even six miles in a day, armies of men with all modern appliances and thousands of tons of dynamite were breaking down the barriers of hard and tough Laurentian and Huronian rocks, and pushing the line through the forests north and east of Lake Superior with such energy that Eastern Canada and the Canadian North-West were united by a continuous railway early in 1885. "The Government section from the Pacific coast eastward had meanwhile reached Kamloops Lake, and there the company took up the work and carried it on to a connection with the line advancing westward across the Rockies and the Selkirks. The forces working towards each other met at Craigellachie, in Eagle Pass, in the Gold or Columbian range of mountains, and there, on a wet morning, the 7th of November, 1885, the last rail was laid in the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway." CANADIAN PACIFIC BAIL WAY, 1893 AND 1894. Comparative receipts and expenditure for the past two years : 1892. 1893. Passengers 3 5,556,316 40 % 5,656,204 90 Freight 18,330,540 19 12,673,075 38 Mails 483,922 58 496,134 49 Express 302,259 34 333,975 39 Parlor and sleeping cars 331,202 73 380,470 10 Telegraph and miscellaneous 1,405,110 53 1,422,457 18 Total $21,409,351 77 $20,962,317 44 Expenses 12,989,004 21 13,220,901 39 Net earnings $8,420,347 56 $7,741,416 05 G. T. R. and C. P. R. Systems. 289 Mileage of the road 6,327 Mileage of other roads worked 776 Mileage under construction 115 A WINTER JOURNEY FROM WINNIPEG. When the first talk was heard about building a railway around the rock-bound shores of Lake Superior to Fort Garry, and over the almost unlimited extent of prairie, and on through the mighty Eocky Mountains, and still on to British Columbia, grave men shook their heads and said " it can't be done," and " if a railway was ever made, it could never be worked in winter^ and if a train was sent out, it and its passengers would be heard of no more until the melting of the snows in spring." The following cutting from the Montreal Star of January 18, 1893, shows how futile were the prognostications of the ivise men of 20 years ago, and what was done even in mid-winter, and that one of the severest during the last half century. The occa- sion, which called forth this remarkable railway run, was a sad one, viz : that of Mr. Montagu Allan going from Winnipeg to Montreal to attend his lamented brother's funeral : "Mr. H. Montagu Allan arrived in town this morning from Winnipeg, having come on by C. P. R. special. His train made remarkably good time for this season of the year, having covered the distance from Winnipeg to Montreal, 1425 miles, in 45t hours, an average of 31 J miles an hour. Between Winnipeg and Fort William the average time made was 35 miles an hour." THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA. A correspondent of the Toronto Glohe, March 4, 1893, gives the following description of the Prairie Province, its . resources and possibilities : " By many Manitoba is considered a small section of country situated somewhere " out west," and where the climate is too 19 290 Railways and Other Ways. severe to even think about. It will pay anyone who is really anxious to know something of this young province to take a map of North America and closely study the location and extent of Manitoba. It is as nearly as possible the exact centre of the North American continent. By the Canadian Pacific railway, Winnipeg, the capital of the province is 1,424 miles from Mont- real, the Atlantic seaport, and 1,482 miles from Vancouver on the Pacific. The area of Manitoba is 116,021 square miles, equal to about 74,000,000 acres. The southern boundary is the 49th parallel of latitude, and, by examining a map of the world, you will observe that Manitoba lies further south than England, Ire- land, Belgium or Holland. The general feature of the country is that of a broad, rolling prairie. In contemplating the bewilder- ing extent of this realm of prairie, many have pictured it in their minds as a dreary, lonesome expanse of a dead sea level. Noth- ing can be more erroneous. The country, though termed prairie, is by no means a treeless plain, devoid of hills and other topo- graphical features pleasing to the eye. The surface varies from a gently undulating to a high-rolling prairie ; and belts of hills^ several hundred feet in height, and clad in forests of the evergreen spruce, pine, oak, elm, birch and poplar, while bluffs of timber dot the undulating surface of the plains. " Scattered throughout the province there are numerous rivers and small lakes, whilst in the eastern boundary and in the northern and northwestern parts there are such large bodies of waters as the Lake of the Woods, 1,500 square miles in extent; Lake Winnipeg, 280 miles long, and containing 8,500 square miles ; Lake Winnipegosis, 1,936 square miles, and Lake Mani- toba, with an area of 1,900 square miles. Winnipeg, the capital, is about 400 miles from Fort William and Port Arthur on Lake Superior, from which points vessels proceed direct to the Atlan- tic tidewater at Montreal. G. T. R. and C. P. R. Systems. 291 "In 1881 there were about 275 miles of railway in the Province ; in 1891 there were about 1,375 miles of railway. Increase in ten years, 1,100 miles." AN INCIDENT OF THE NORTH-WEST. When Mr. Eeith and I were at St. Paul, Minn., in .June, 1859, we found that the principal talk at the hotels, at the time, was that of floating a steam packet from the Minnesota river to the Eed Piiver of the North, and news of the event was anxiously looked for. It may be remarked that the Minnesota river empties itself into the Mississippi a few miles below Minne- apolis. It was said that the Minnesota and Bed rivers took their rise near each other, between which there were certain shallow lakes or ponds, and that in spring time the waters rose suffici- ently to float a vessel from one river to the other. We heard, afterwards, that the exi^eriment was a failure, and that the steamer was finally taken to pieces, carried across to the Pied Kiver and then put together again ; and that, I believe, was the first steam-boat that navigated the Eed Eiver of the North. HOW PATRICK SWORDS FOUND HIMSELF IN THE NORTH-WESTERN TERRITORY. Old residents of Canada will remember Swords' Hotel, at Quebec and at Toronto, the latter of which was ultimately developed into the present fine Queen's Hotel. Swords' Hotel was a favorite resort of the Members of Parliament and when that angust body alternated between the two cities, Mr. Swords followed in its wake. He once told me how he came to the North- West and Canada, which must have been somewhat of a romantic nature. He said that when a boy he went on board a ship in the port of Liverpool, I think, or London, and boy-like wanted to see what a ship was like below decks. He explored it thoroughly, and 292 ■ Railways and Other Ways. then being tired, he went to sleep in a corner and was not observed by any of the crew. When he roused up he found the ship in full sail, some miles from land, and that he was in for a long voyage to York Factory, Hudson's Bay. I regret that I did not get a detailed account of his adventures, which must have been very interesting. However, Mr. Swords remained in the country, and prospered, and eventually drifted down to Quebec, and he must have done well as he was able to go into the hotel business, which he continued until quite an old man. Some Railway Statistics. 293 CHAPTEE XXVII. SOME RAILWAY STATISTICS. RAILWAYS OF THE DOMINION. SO much has ah'eady been said about Canadian Railways, that in this chapter it is only necessary to give, with respect to them, the following brief summary to show their extent, cost and volume of business. The figures are for 1893 : Number of roads 65 Miles in operation 15,020 Paid up Capital 1872,156,000 Working expenses $36,616,000 Net earnings 815,426,000 Passengers carried 13,618,000 Freight carried tons 22,003,599 Train mileage 44,385,000 RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. Up to 1888 the railways in the United Kingdom foot up to 19,812 miles, and the paid up capital for their construction was i^864,695,963 sterling, or S4,208,22o,861. The number of persons employed in working the railways (exclusive of those employed in the construction of new lines) is about 375,000. The number of railway tunnels above one mile in length is twenty-eight, the longest of which is the one under the River Severn 7,064 yards — say nearly 4^ miles. " ON THE LINE." A sixteen-page monthly paper (price one half-penny), with the above title, has been published in England for the last eleven years, it being the "Journal of the United Kingdom Railway 294 Raihvays and Other Ways. Temperance Union," now consisting of 15,000 members, devoted to pure temperance on teetotal principles. It gives reports of temperance meetings of railway employees, and much interesting matter connected with railways and temperance all over the kingdom, and is doing a good work. The Secretary, Mr. A. C. Thompson, No. 4. The Sanctuary, Westminster, S. W., has kindly sent me Number 133, of On The Line, which contains a report of a lecture delivered by Mr. K. Burns (City of London Y. M. C. A.), entitled " Eailway Travelling and Railway Signal- ing in various ,parts of the world," from which I make the following very valuable extracts : " They all knew the necessity and importance of using the most effectual means for securing the safe working of railways, and with a view to bring home to them the extent of the business carried on by railways, he had taken out the figures for the year 1892, The railway capital at the end of that year was ^£944,000,000. Probably by this time it had grown to i>'970,000,000, and that would make it £300,000,000 greater than the National debt. He mentioned the capital cost rather in the way of parenthesis, as the actual and working figures were those which showed the traffic passing over the railways. During the year 1892, there were no less than 864,000,000 passengers, exclusive of season ticket holders, carried on the railways of this country, and 310,000,000 tons of goods. The train, or profitable mileage, incurred in carrying this traffic amounted to 327,000- 000 miles. Now, the point he was coming to was this. This vast traffic had been carried with comparative safety, and why ? They knew the answer as well as he did. It was because of the per- fection to which the signal arrangements and other means for the protection of traffic had been carried, and what was of equal, or indeed, he should say, of paramount importance, the discipline of the staff and the strict observance of the regulations. No Some Raihvay Statistics. 295 system, however perfect, could ensure safety unless carried out by trained, intelligent, and sober men, and be was very happj^ to think that they had in the railway service a body of men so well trained and disciplined and so zealous in the performance ofthei duties." RAILWAY PLANT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.* At the close of 1892 there were on the railways of the United Kingdom on the 31st December : Locomotives 17,439 Passenger Carriages 40,079 Vans, Carriages, Trucks, &c 14,751 Waggons 575,430 Tans and other goods vehicles , 12,611 LOCOMOTIVES. The locomotives owned by the five leading lines were as under : London & North-Western 2,712 Midland 2,172 Great Western 1,690 North & Eastern 1,560 Lancashire & Yorkshire 1,171 COST OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL ENGLISH RAILWAYS.-j* The London & North-Western Railway, the leading one in Great Britain, is a wonderful organization, and is the richest transportation company in the world. It has a capitalization of $523,430,000, or more than fou?- times as much as the greatest American railroad ; yet it has but 1,890 miles in operation. The Midland comes next with 8170,000,000, and the Great Western is third with 8381,430,000. The five next roads in order of resources are the North-Eastern, Lancashire & Yorkshire, North British, Great Eastern, and Great Northern. Their aggre- gate capital is $1,207,655,000. * The English " Railway World," September, 1893. tUtica, N.Y., "Globe," Sep. 30, 1893. 296 Railways and Other Ways. RAILWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES. The following figures appear in a recent number of a railroad journal, showing the growth of railroad mileage of the United States, by decades, for the past sixty years : In 1830 23 miles. " 1840 2,818 ♦' " 1850 9,021 " " 18(30 30,626 " " 1870 52 922 " " 1880 93^296 " To June 30, 1890 163,597 " Between 1^80 and 1890 the increase was 70,301 miles. Illinois still keeps the lead, as for many years, as the State of greatest railway mileage. The order of precedence in this respect among the States having 4,000 miles or more at the com- mencement 1891 w^as as follows : 1 Illinois 10,129 2 Kansas 8,900 3 Texas 8,710 4 Pennsylvania 8,700 5 Iowa 8,416 6 Ohio 7,988 7 New York 7,746 8 Michigan 7,106 9 Missouri 6,142 10 Indiana 6,106 11 Wisconsin 5,615 12 Minnesota 5,545 13 Nebraska 5,407 14 Georgia 4,593 15 California 4,336 16 Colorado 4,291 The young State of Kansas has become second, while New York has now taken seventh place. The total capitalization of railways in the United States up to June 30th, 1890, was $9,871,378,389, or nearly ten billions of dollars. The number of passengers carried by the railways of the United States during the year ending June 30, 1890, was 492,- 430,865. The number of tons of freight carried during the same period was 636,541,617- Gross earnings from operation for the vear, $1,051,877,632. Some Railway Statistics. 297 Total number of employees (exclusive of those employed by Express companies) on United States railways on June 30, 18905 749,301. THE LONGEST RAILWAY. The longest railroad in the World, in any one country, with- out a break, is in the Dominion of Canada, viz : miles. From Mulgrove, Nova Scotia, to Levis (South Quebec) — Intercolonial 734 Levia to Toronto, G. T. R 50.5 Toronto to North Bay, G. T. R 228 North Bay to Vancouver, B.M., C. P. R 2,542 4,009 The next longest railway is in the United States, viz : miles. Vancebero to Bangor, Maine .c 114 Bangor to Portland 44 Portland to Boston 108 Boston to Chicago, via Albany and Bufialo 1,047 Chicago to San Francisco 2,357 3,670 In the above calcalations the shortest distances are not taken. RAILWAYS OF THE WORLD. A press despatch from Washington, Nov. 22, 1892, gave the following information : The census office to-day issued a bul- letin of the statistics of railway mileage of the world in 1890. It shows that out of a total railway mileage for the world of 370,281 miles, the United States have no less than 163,597 miles, or 44.18 per cent, of the whole. Europe has 136,865 miles ; Asia, 18,798 miles ; and Africa, 3,992 miles, making an aggregate of 159,665 miles. Germany has 25,969 miles ; Austria and Hun- gary, including Bosnia, 16,467 miles ; Great Britain and Ireland, 19,939; France, 22,586; and Italy, 8,117 miles.* * The Washington census department omitted to say that there was a country to the north of the United States, called the "Dominion of Canada," and that it had 15,000 miles of railway, including a length of 4,000 miles without a break, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 298 Railways and Other Ways. LOCOMOTIVES OF FIFTY- SIX YEARS AGO. The Toronto Telegram of Feb. 22, 1893, called them rare old relics, when it reported their passage through to the World's Fair at Chicago : — " There arrived at Toronto Junction, from St. John, N.B., two Intercolonial flat cars, containing the two oldest locomotives in existence — the ' Samson,' 1837, and the ' Albion,' 1838. There were also a tender and passenger coach, the latter up- holstered in white satin, in a splendid state of preservation. It is about the size of an old-fashioned stagecoach and like one in appearance. They left for Chicago last night, for the World's Fair. " The engines are queer pieces of mechanism, as compared with those in use to-day. They have perpendicular cylinders and connecting rods, with the old Hook motion. The fireman fired up from the front end where the smoke boxes now are, with a return flue from the front end, the fire boxes and smoke boxes being side by side there also. The ' Samson ' is mounted on a wooden frame, plated with iron, while that of the 'Albion' is of iron and stands on plates rivetted to the boiler. They were built at Durham, England, in the years mentioned above, and have come direct from France, where they were on exhibition." THE FAMOUS " ROCKET." " The * Samson,' and the ' Albion,' are no doubt the oldest locomotives now upon this Continent, but they are not the oldest in existence, as Geo. Stephenson's famous old ' Eocket ' still exists, and it was built when George IV. was King." Dr. Samuel Smiles, in his life of George Stephenson, says : " The immense consequences involved in the success of the ' Rocket ' and the important influence in the locomotive contest, in which Some Railway Statistics. 299 it came off the victor, exercised upon the future development of the railway system, might have led one to suppose that the directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Eailway would have re- garded the engine with pride and cherished it with care, as warriors prize a trusty weapon which has borne them victoriously through some grand historical battle. The French preserve with the greatest care the locomotive constructed by Cugnot, which is to this day to be seen in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris. But the ' Eocket ' was an engine of much greater historical interest. And what became of the ' Eocket ? ' The directors of the Liverpool & Manchester Eailway Company sold it in 1837 ! Heavier engines were brought upon the road, and the old ' Eocket ' was regarded as a thing of no value. It was purchased by Mr. Thompson, of Kirkhouse, the lessee of the Earl of Carlisle's coal and lime-works near Carlisle. He worked the engine on the Midgeholm Eailway for five or six years, during which it hauled coals from the pits to the town. There was wonderful vitality in the old engine, as the following circum- stance proves. When the great contest for the representation of East Cumberland took place, and Sir James Graham was super- seded by Major Aglionby, the ' Eocket ' was employed to convey the Alston express with the state of the poll from Midgeholm to Kirkhouse. On that occasion the engine was driven by Mark Thompson, and it ran the distance of upwards of four miles in four and a half minutes, thus reaching a speed of nearly sixty miles an hour — proving its still admirable qualities as an engine. But again it was superseded by heavier engines ; for it only weighed about four tons, whereas the new engines were at least three times the weight. The ' Eocket ' was consequently laid up in ordinary in the yard at Kirkhouse. It was subsequently purchased by Mr. Stephenson, and is now preserved in the loco- motive works at Newcastle-upon-Tyne." 300 Raihuays and Other Ways. There may it long remain as a memorial of its builder, George Stephenson, the greatest genius of modern times.* THE ST. CLAIR TUNNEL LOCOMOTIVES. The engines used to pull the trains through the tunnel and up the steep grade after emerging, are the largest in the world, having ten driving wheels, and weighing nearly 200,000 pounds. The boilers are 74 inches in diameter, the fireboxes 132^ inches long and 42|^ inches wide, and the cylinders are 22 inches in diameter, with 28-inch stroke. These monster engines were built especially for this service by the celebrated Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, Pa. SPEED OF THE LOCOMOTIVE. A question may be asked : Has the locomotive reached the maximum speed at which it may be run with safety ? Mr. C. J. Bowman Cookes, in his admirable and interesting work on " British Locomotives," recently published in London and New York, gives some instances of great speed attained by British locomotives, one of which may be stated as follows : " On February 7, 1893, the 7 ft. compound engine, No. 1309, when working the 3.30 p.m. up Scotch express from Crewe to London, ran from Standon Bridge to Norton Bridge, a distance of 4f miles, in three minutes. Speed, 87 miles per hour ; ap- proximate weight of train and engine, 240 tons (537,600 lbs.) ; gradient, 1 in 650 and 1 in 505 down." The now celebrated locomotive, " 999," of the New York Central Kailway Co., which was on exhibition at the World's Fair, in an exj)erimental trial, attained the enormous speed of a mile in 32 seconds, a rate of 112^ miles an hour. * A model of the " Rocket " was on exhibition at the White City, Chicago, during the World's Fair. g 3 w w ^; H o H Q W P^ Q P W O Some Railway Statistics. 301 ■ Upon this question of speed, Mr. Cookes makes the following just and invaluable remarks : " It should, however, be borne in mind by those persons en- trusted with the timing of passenger trains, that such speed as these must not be quoted as precedents for ordinary working. Under favorable circumstances they may be attained by engines in a high state of efficiency ; but locomotives, like human beings, while able when put on their metal to exhibit extraordinary powers, are also like them subservient to natural laws, and there- fore give better satisfaction when their j^owers are normally exerted within reasonable limits only. It is far more satisfactory to the public generally and to railway companies themselves, when trains are timed at such a speed as will enable them to be worked punctually under all circumstances." THE LONG LIFE OF A LOCOMOTIVE. In another part of this work I have referred to Mr. F. Trevithick, the first locomotive superintendent of the Grand Trunk Eailway ; previously he had been locomotive superinten- dent of the London & North-Western Eailway Works at Crewe. "In 1847," Mr. C. J. B. Cooke says, " Trevithick constructed an engine now well known in locomotive history. It was called the Cornwall, and had single driving wheels, 8 ft. 6 in. in diameter." The peculiar features introduced in this engine it is un- necessary to explain. Mr. Cooke continues : " The * Cornwall ' as originally con- structed, was not a success, and it was subsequently re-built at Crewe. It is still running (1893) on the London k North- Western Eailway, although not able to work main line express trains of the present day." 302 Railways and Other Ways. ACCIDENTS — STAGE COACHES VS. RAILWAYS. When an accident happens upon a railway it is sometimes terrible in its results and people are apt to run ojf with the idea that travel by railway is both risky and dangerous ; but if they will compare it with the stage-coaching times they will find that the accidents by the old mode of conveyance were enormously more in proportion to the number of passengers carried than by railways. The author has a vivid recollection of two stage coach up-sets in one week, occuring near his father's residence in England, and of seeing unfortunate passengers carried by on stretchers, with shattered limbs and perhaps in a dying state. In the old coaching days, before railways and telegraphs, news travelled slowly, and the news of many a coach mis-hap seldom spread further than the immediate neighbourhood where the accident took place ; while at the present time a railway accident happening to-day is known all over the globe to-morrow. The author would here remark, that he has travelled more or less on railways for sixty years, and, for one half the time, his journeys were from ten to twenty thousand miles per annum, yet he was never in a railroad accident ! THE SUN AND THE LOCOMOTIVE BY GEO. STEPHENSON.* " One Sunday when Dr. Buckland and Mr. Stephenson had just returned from church, they were standing together on the terrace near the Hall, and observed in the distance a railway train flashing along, throwing behind it a long line of white steam. ' Now Buckland,' said Mr. Sephenson, ' I have a poser for you. Can you tell me what is the power that is driving that train?' 'Well,' said the other, 'I suppose it is one of your big engines.' ' But what drives the engine ? ' ' Oh, very likely a canny Newcastle driver.' 'What do you say to the light of the sun?' *Sarauel Smiles' life of Geo. Stephenson. SoTYie Raihvay Statistics. 303 How can that be?' asked the Doctor. ' It is nothing else,' said the engineer ; ' it is light bottled up in the earth for tens of thou- sands of years — light absorbed by plants and vegetables being necessary for the condensation of carbon during the process of their growth, if it be not carbon in another form, and now, after being buried in the earth for long ages in fields of coal, that latent light is again brought forth and liberated, made to work as in that locomotive, for great human purposes.' ** The idea was certainly a most striking and original one ; like a flash of light, it illuminated in an instant an entire field of science." THE LOCOMOTIVE AND THE ENGLISH LAKES. One summer's day, long before railways had penetrated the English Lake region, my brother, a friend and I made a pilgrim- age on foot, from Kendal to Windermere to get our first view of that charming lake among the hills, and to spend a day sailing over its crystal waters. This incident calls to one's mind the celebrated sonnets written by Wordsworth when he heard that the Lake region was going to be invaded by " Puffing Billy " and railway coaches. I give one of the Sonnets on the projected Ken dal & Windermere Railway. " Is there no nook of English ground secure From rash assault ? Schemes of retirement sown In youth, and mid the busy world kept pure As when their earlier flowers of hope were blown. Must perish ; — how can they this blight endure ? And must he, too, the ruthless change bemoan, Who scorns a false utilitarian lure Mid his paternal fields at random thrown ? Baffle the threat, bright scene from Orrest head Given to the pausing traveller's rapturous glance ; Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance Of nature ; and, if human hearts be dead. Speak, passing Winds ; ye Torrents, with your strong And constant voice, protest against the wrong." October 12th, 1844). 304 Railways and Other Ways. The Hon. Edward Everett, in his famous speech at the Bos- ton Railway Jubilee, referred to the above as follows : — " Mr. Wordsworth was a kind-hearted man, as well as a most distinguished poet, but he was entirely mistaken as it seems to me, in this matter. The quiet of a few spots may be disturbed ; but a hundred quiet spots are rendered accessible. The bustle of the station house may take the place of the Druidical silence of some shady dell ; but, Gracious Heavens ! Sir, how many of those verdant arches, eutwisted by the hand of God in our path- less woods, are opened to the grateful worship of man by these means of communication. " How little of rural beauty you lose, even in a country of comparatively narrow dimensions like England — how less than little in a country so vast as this — by works of this description. You lose a little strip along the line of the road, which partially changes its character ; while, as the compensation, you bring all this rural beauty, — ' The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The power of groves, the garniture of fields.' within the reach, not of a score of luxurious tourists, but of the great mass of the population, who have senses and tastes as keen as the keenest, and who but for your railways and steamers would have gone to their graves and the sooner for the privation, without ever having caught a glimpse of the most magnificent and beautiful spectacle which nature presents to the eye of man — that a glorious combing wave, a quarter of a mile long, as it comes swelling and breasting towards the shore, till its soft green ridge bursts into a crest of snow, and settles and dies along the whispering sands !" RISEN FROM THE RANKS. In perusing the many sketches of railway men in this work, it will be noticed that nearly all of them have risen from the I SIR W. C. VAN HORNE. Some Raihuay Statistics. 305 ranks, and I now give from McClure's Magazine for January, 1894, a list of a number of men in the United States, who, from the most humble beginnings, have risen to the highest eminence in railway positions. " The best engineman has been a fireman ; the best con- ductors are made of brakemen ; the best officials are promoted from the ranks. Mr. John M. Toucey, General Manager of the New York Central, was once a trainman. President Newell, of the Tjake Shore, used to carry a chain in an engineering corps on the Illinois Central. President Clark, of the Mobile & Ohio, was a section man, afterwards a fireman. Another man who drove grade stakes is President Blockstand, of the Alton. Allen Manvill, the late president of " the largest road on earth," was a storehouse clerk. President Van Home,* of the Canadian Pacific, kept time on the Illinois Central. A man named Town, who used to twist brake-wheels on the Burlington, is now Vice- President Town, of the Southern Pacific. President Smith, of the Louisville & Nashville, was a telegraph operator. Marvin Hughitt, of the Chicago & Northwestern, began as a telegraph messenger boy. President Clark, of the Union Pacific, used to * Sir William Van Horne, — The high honour of Knighthood was conferred upon Mr. Van Horne by the Queen, on Her Majesty's birthday, 1894. The following sketch of Sir William Van Home's unique railway career is taken from the Toronto Mail of May 28th: "He was born in Will county, Illinois, in February, 1841. Thirty-two years ago he entered the service of the Illinois Central Railway as a tele- graph operator at Chicago. Subsequently he served the Michigan Central in several capacities. From 1866 to 1872 he was connected with the Chicago & Alton Railway as train despatcher, superintendent of telegraphs, and assistant superintendent of the railway. In 1872 he became General Superintendent of the St. Louis, Kansas & Northern Railway. From 1874 to 1878 he was General Manager of the Southern Min- nesota line, being President of the company from December, 1877, to December, 1879. From October, 1878, till December, 1879, he was also General Superintendent of the Chicago & Alton Railway. In 1880 Mr. Van Horne became General Superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and remained in this position for two years. It was in 1882 that Mr. Van Horne joined the Canadian Pacific Railway as manager, and it was in 1885, under his able direction, that the last spike was driven in that road at Eagle Pass by Sir Donald Smith. In 1884 the Manager was made Vice-President ; and on August 7, 1888, he was appointed the supreme head of the great corporation." 20 306 Railways and Other Ways. clieck freight and push a truck on the Omaha platform. The Illinois Central, I believe, has turned out more great men than any other road. President Jeffrey, of the Denver & Eio Grande, began in the Central shops, at 45 cents a day." RAILWAY COMPETITION. Competition is popularly said to be the life of trade, but if the maxim was reversed to that of the death of trade, it would be nearer the mark. A person who starts a new business and appears to be doing fairly well in it, is sure to be followed by a competitor, and one or both soon go to the wall. No undertakings have suffered so much as those of railways by a reckless competition. No sooner was the Liverpool & Manchester Eailway opened than a fight began between it and the canals. I remember, at one time, raw cotton was carried from Liverpool to Manchester at sixpence per ton, which, of course, did not pay for handling. Then, as soon as two railways ran between two important points, a war of rates at once broke out, each cutting his neighbour's throat and his own at the same time — a sort of dual suicide, while the public looked on, laughed and shared the spoil, at the cost of the unfortunate shareholders. After much fighting terms would be come to, and all would for a time be serene, to break out again in fresh quarters upon the loosening of some screw in the agreement. Railways, on this continent, have suffered more than those in Great Britain from ruinous competition. Many remedies have been tried and state laws enacted to prevent cutting of freight rates and passenger fares, but none have been very suc- cessful. The subject is one beset with many difficulties, but still it is one which Companies should successfully grapple with. Some Railway Statistics. 307 The different schemes for preventing competition may be enumerated as under : 1. When there are two or more roads running between -competing points, they shall be operated by one management. 2. An agreement between comi3eting companies shall be entered into, fixing rates and fares, and a severe penalty levied upon any company for a breach of the agreement. 3. The earnings of all roads running between competing points to be put into one purse, and divided among those lines interested, upon some scale to be agreed upon. 4. Each company shall deduct 50 per cent, of its gross earnings of freight and passengers conveyed between competing points, depositing the remaining 50 per cent, in a common purse, the latter amount to be divided between the roads in the agree- ment upon some equitable scale. COMMENTS ON THE ABOVE SCHEMES. 1. This may be looked upon as impracticable without a general amalgamation of all the Companies concerned. 2. This system, though often tried, is liable to be broken in some way by drawbacks in tonnage or rates, almost impossible to discover as long as the contractor and shipper keep faith with each other. 3. The one purse system for all the earnings seems to be defective, as a question might arise as to who is to carry the freight. One Company might say, why bother about the freight as long as we get a share of the earnings, whether we carry the freight or not ; and between the Companies the traffic might be neglected. 4. Any system to be successful must deal fairly with all, and each Company must have an interest in securing all the 308 Raihvays and Other Ways. freight it can, and this can only he done by deducting a certain per centage from the gross earnings for working expenses, and depositing the balance in a common purse for division among those Companies under the agreement. I name 50 per cent, in each case, but that is a matter for consideration. This seems to be the only feasible scheme, as it gives each Company an interest in conveying all the freight it can, and as it participates in the purse earnings, it removes the temptation to cut rates, since by doing this, it would be doing an injury to itself. It is no gain to a country that its great powers for trans- porting merchandise from one locality to another, should be an unremunerative one to its projectors. It may, apparently, by low rates of freight, be a public benefit in reducing the price of food, clothing and other things, but such benefits are more than counterbalanced by a loss to thousands who have invested their money in railways, and they have a fair and legitimate claim for some consideration from the community. Governments are greatly responsible for much of reckless railway competition, inasmuch as they granted charters to com- panies for the building of parallel lines of road when there was not traffic enough to support already existing lines ; but there is another powerful factor of competition looming in the distant horizon, like the cloud no bigger than a man's hand. I refer to the Electric Motor Eailway. At present this new power is mainly confined to towns and cities and their surburbs, but it is threatening to creep along the highways and byways all over the country, tapping its local traffic at every point. The cost of these electric roads is insignificant when compared with the cost of the locomotive railway. The road bed of the electric line is already made; no deep cuttings to excavate, and few bridges to build. Eailway companies would do well to hoist the caution signal ; there is danger ahead ! ! ! Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 309 CHAPTER XXVIII. CANAL, RIVER, LAKE AND OCEAN SAILING CRAFT. FREIGHT TRAFFIC ON THE GREAT LAKES. THE following account of the freight traffic on the lakes is taken from the Toronto Globe of Sept. 20th, 1893 : " The vessel traffic passing through the Detroit Eiver is greater than passes any other point in the world. In the year 1889 it was 36,203,606 tons. The last census of the United States shows that during the 234 days of navigation of 1890 there were carried on the great lakes in the United States foreign trade 2,003,047 tons of cargo and in the domestic trade of the United States 28,295,959 tons of freight. These figures throw a flood of light on the nature of the traffic on the lakes. It is largely domestic business — that is, exchanges of commodities between United States ports. The vast bulk of it is repre- sented in the traffic between Buffalo at one end of the system and Chicago and Duluth at the other, with the intermediate towns taking an exceedingly prominent part in the rivalry. The traffic eastward is largely grain, lumber and iron ore ; that west- ward is largely coal. The grain for export is bound either for Montreal or New York, that for domestic consumption is absorb- ed proportionately by all the lake ports along the route. The lumber is almost all for domestic consumption — for Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Sandusky, Erie and Buffalo. These are all depots for interior towns, such as Pittsburg, Newark and Cincin- nati, and for the populous country south of Lake Erie. The iron ore is in demand to a greater or less extent . in all of the cities 310 Railways and Other Ways. mentioned, and the extent of this traffic may be estimated when it is stated that from the Lake Superior region alone 7,000,000 long tons of ore are annually shipped. Of the westward-bound traffic coal is the main article. It is shipped from all the Lake Erie ports, Buffalo, Ashtabula, Cleveland, etc., which are nearest the coal areas." THE GREAT CHAIN OF INLAND LAKES. Height Length. Breadth. above the Sea. Superior 355 miles. 160 miles. 600 feet. Huron, with Georgian Bay 280 " 190 " 578 " Saint Clair 26 " 25 " 570 " Erie 240 " 80 " 565 " Ontario 180 " 65 " 232 " Michigan 320 " 80 " 578 " THE FIEST CANADIAN CANAL. " The Chambly, the first Canadian Canal, 11 1 miles in length, was constructed to overcome the Chambly Rapids, which run almost interruptedly from St. John's to Chambly, the dif- ference of level being 74 feet. The work was commenced 1st Oct., 1831, but owing to financial troubles was not completed until the 17th Nov., 1843, when the canal was opened for naviga- gation. This difficulty being removed the route is open from the Saint Lawrence, by the Eichelieu river at Sorel, to Chambly, thence by the Chambly Canal to Saint John's, through Lake Champlain to Whitehall, and thence by the New York & Champ- lain Canal, 67 miles, to Waterford on the Hudson Eiver, distant from New York, 153 miles, thus forming a water navigation be- tween Montreal and Quebec and New York." — Kingsford's "Can- adian Canals." Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 311 THE ST. LAWRENCE CANALS. These very important works, the Hnks which connect the western lakes through the Saint Lawrence with the seaboard at Montreal, are as follows : — Feet. Miles. 1. The Lachine Canal, 5 locks, mean rise 44| Length 8^ 2. The Beauharnois Canal, 9 locks, mean rise 82^ " llj 3. The Cornwall " 6 " " " 48^ " IH i /Farren'sPt. " 1 " " " 4 " | S ^i, \ Rapide Plat " 2 " " " lU " 3f 4. -^ ^ < Iroquois ] g-^ /junction " 3 " " " 15| " Tf ^ V Gallops j 43f Includingfor comparison the Welland canal, 27 lock.s*330 " 28 Fall on portions of the St. Lawrence, not requiring locks 15f Height of Lake Erie above Montreal harbour 551| — (Kingsford's "Canadian Canals," 1865.) THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. Attempts to sail boats by steam power were made soon after James Watt'sf inventions and discoveries, in connection with the steam engine, were made known. Chambers's Information for the People says : " We do not consider it of the least moment to mention how or by whom steam propulsion was first discover- ed ; the merit of this and every other great invention is alone due to the person who brought it into practical use." "In 1807 Fulton introduced the use of steam-propelled vessels on the Hudson, between New York and Albany. In 1812 Bell introduced a similar mode of steam navigation on the Clyde *A.nother canal between Lakes Erie and Ontario has since been built deeper and with larger locks, admitting vessels of 1,500 tons. + James Watt was born at Greenock, in Scotland, June 19th, 1736, and died on the 25th of August, 1819. 312 Raihvays and Other Ways. at Glasgow ; and two or three years afterwards steamboats were common on British rivers, and on the sea around the coasts." Mr. Fulton's steamer, referred to in the above, was the *' Clermont," " which " (quoting from Dr. Fleming's paper) " was launched on the Hudson in 1807. She was built b}' Mr, Fulton in conjunction with Mr. Livingston. She was 130 feet long with a breadth of 161^ feet. Her engines were made in England. She attained a speed of five miles an hour. She proved a practical success, and carried goods and passengers between New York and Albany for some years. If we have the best grounds for stating that to Canada is due the honour of sending to sea the pioneer ocean steamship, we must acknow- ledge that in the United States was produced the first steamboat in the world, regularly and continuously engaged in the passenger traffic." FIRST STEAMBOAT IN CANADA. " The first steamboat that ran between Quebec and Montreal appears to have been built in 1809, by Mr. John Molson, well known as the father of steamboat enterprise on the St. Law- rence." " Upper Canada was onl}^ a little later in availing itself of the facilities of steamboat navigation. The 'Frontenac,' the first Lake Ontario steamer, was not built till 1816. She cost £15,000, which is nearly three times as much as any other boat on that lake cost for the next decade."* Upon the same subject. Dr. Fleming says : " Two years after the steamer ' Clermont ' made her trial trip on the Hud- son, the first steamboat appeared on the St. Lawrence." Dr. Fleming was indebted to Dr. S. E. Dawson for the following inter- esting details : " On November 3, 1809, the steamer ' Accommo- dation,' carrying ten passengers, left Montreal on Wednesday, at two o'clock in the afternoon, and arrived at Quebec on a Satur- *J; M, &. E. Trout's "Eailways of Canada." Canal, liiver, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 313 day, at eight o'clock in the morning. She anchored every night, and that practice was continued for many years on the St. Lawrence." " THE JOHN o'gAUNT." The progress and spread of steam navigation, in its early days, must have been slow, for, as a small boy, I remember the first steamer which entered the seaport town of Lancaster, England, say nearly seventy years ago. The sensation the event produced was quite sufficient to rivet it upon my memory. It was announced that on a certain day the steamer " John O' Gaunt," from Liverpool would arrive at Lancaster, and fully 10,000 people from all parts of the country flocked in to see the wonderful ship. Among the crowd on the wharf stood a woman who kept a " turnpike " (toll gate) on the highway, and near a fat, jolly, humorous man, one Bob Harrison, a bailiff. When the steamer sailed up to the wharf the woman cried out, in perfect astonishment, "Why deary me its got wheels." *' Yes mam," said Bob, with all the gravity of a judge. " Its made to go by land or water, it'll be coming through your turnpike one of these days — you'll not know what to charge it." " Nooa," said the woman, " we've nout sich as that queer looking thing set down in our toll tables." EAELY OCEAN STEAMSHIPS. "The ' Savannah,' 350 tons burden, was built in New York in 1818. She was rigged as a sailing vessel, steam apparently being used chiefly as an auxiliary, in calms or with light or head wind. Her total cost was about $50,000, including engines and all rigging. She carried 75 tons of coal and 25 cords of wood. Moses Kogers was her captain, and Stevens Eogers, the first officer, or sailing master as he was called. The * Savannah " 314 Railways and Other Ways. sailed from New York on March 28, 1819. The voyage to Liver- pool was made in 22 days, 14 of the 22 under steam. She then visited several of the continental ports of Europe before return- ing to the United States. Pecuniary troubles coming upon her owners the ' Savannah ' was sold. Her engines were removed and she ran between New York and Savannah, as a sailing packet for several years. She ran ashore on Long Island and went to pieces in 1822, a few months after the death of her commander." — {Buffalo Illustrated Express, of Dec. 4, 1892, which gave a sketch of the "Savannah.") The " Savannah " would seem to have been the first vessel to have made, use of steam, as a propelling power, in crossing the Atlantic, but she was a full-rigged sailing ship and entirely independent of steam, and she only made use of that on a part of the voyage ; still she is entitled to all honour and credit for her bold venture, and to take her place as one of the earliest attempts at ocean steam navigation. THE " ROYAL WILLIAM." Fourteen years now passed before we hear anything more of ocean steam navigation. Then we turn to Canada and find that a steamship was built at Quebec, the " Royal William," which made a complete passage from that port to London, icholly under steam. For the story of that memorable event I am indebted to Dr. Sanford Fleming, who, on December 17, 1892, read a very interesting paper before the Canadian Institute at Toronto on Ocean Steam Navigation, Early Steamboats, etc., from which I make the following extracts : " 1. The first steamship to cross the Atlantic was built by a joint stock company at the yard of Campbell & Black in Quebec in 1830-31. 2. The designer of the ship and superintendent of its construction was Mr. James Goudie, born in Quebec, 1809, and Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 315 died 1892. 3. The ship was launched in the spring of 1831 with more than ordinary ceremony. 4. The ship was towed to Mont- real to receive her machinery, and on being fitted for sea, her first voyage was to Halifax. Before setting out for England she traded between Quebec, Halifax and Boston. She was the first British steamer to arrive at the latter port. 5. In the list of owners appear the names of the three brothers, Joseph, Henry and Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, Nova Scotia. 6. Her dimen- sions were : length, 176 feet ; hold, 17 feet 9 inches ; breadth, out- side, 44 feet ; breadth between paddle-boxes, 28 feet. She had three masts, schooner-rigged; builder's measurement 1,370 tons, with accommodation for 60 passengers. 7- She left Quebec for London August 5, 1833, called at Pictou, Nova Scotia, to receive coal and overhaul machinery. She restarted from Pictou August 18, with seven passengers, 254 chaldrons of coal, and a light cargo. She encountered a teriffic gale on the Banks of New- foundland, which disabled one of her engines. The passage from Pictou to London occupied 25 days. 8. Ten days after her arrival in London she was chartered by the Portuguese Govern- ment to enter the service of Dom Pedro. 9. In 1834 she was sold to the Spanish Government, was converted into a war steamer, and under a new name, the * Ysabel Segunda,' was employed against Don Carlos." Dr. Fleming further says that " To his mind it is incon- testably established that the memorable voyage of the Pioyal William in 1833 must be held to be the first passage across the Atlantic under steam. She undoubtedly proved to be the pioneer of Atlantic steamships. It cannot be disputed that she was the forerunner of the Cunard line, and as such was equally the fore- runher of the thirty-four other lines which to-day run regularly between America and Europe." 316 Railways and Other Ways. STEAM SHIP " GREAT WESTERN." Messrs. Chambers, in their "Information for the People," when speaking of ocean steam navigation, make no allusion to the "Eoyal William," from which I infer that they were unaware of her existence. Quoting from their work published in 1842, they say : "The first steamer to make the voyage across the Atlantic, and form a means of regular communication between Britain and the United States was the " GREAT WESTERN," a steamship ' of 1,340 tons burden, and was the first large vessel which plied regularly on that route. She departed from Bristol, England, on the 7th of April, 1838, and reached New York on the 23rd of the same month." THE " SIRIUS." At the time (1837) when the " Great Western " was building at Bristol, another steam- vessel, the " Sirius " was being built at London. It was these vessels that made the first race, the " Sirius " making the trip measured from Queenstown, in 18^ days, and the " Great Western" in 14^ days. The "Sirius" having had nearly four days' start, came into New York a few hours ahead of the winner. The " Sirius," the smaller vessel, 700 tons, was four days longer on her trip, all her coal was consumed, and she reached only by burning spare spars and by going at reduced speed. She sailed for home again on May 1, 1838. She made but one voyage ; it not paying, she was placed upon the channel service between Cork and Dublin. The foregoing, on First Atlantic Steamships, was written more than a year ago. I now give, from the Toronto Telegram of Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 317 June 29, 1894, another interesting statement and ceremony about the Quebec steamer. TABLET UNVEILED IN MEMORY OF THE OLD " ROYAL WILLIAM." Ottawa, June 29. — At the Intercolonial Conference here yesterday, after the address to Her Majesty congratulating her on the 57th anniversary of her coronation had been adopted. Lord Aberdeen (the Governor-General) read the following letter received from the secretary of the Eoyal Society, Dr. J. G. Bourinot, C.M.G. :— " Ottawa Ont., June 26, 1894. " To His Excellency the Governor-General : " My Lord, — The two Houses of the Canadian Parliament have orders that a brass tablet should be placed in the wall of the corridor leading to the library of Parliament with a suitable inscription ' commemorating the departure of the Eoyal William from the port of Quebec in 1833 — the first vessel to cross the ocean, wholly by means of steam.' " Your Excellency is already familiar with the leading cir- cumstances connected with this interesting historical fact. The brass plate ordered by Parliament is now ready to be put in place, and it is felt that no more fitting time could be chosen than at the close of the opening meeting of the Colonial Conference. On behalf of the Eoyal Society and associated societies, who were first to move in doing honor to the builders and navigators of the ' Eoyal William,' I express the hope that your Excellency will be pleased to place the commemoration plate in its permanent position. If it be agreeable to j^our Excellency, I enclose the list of gentlemen who, it is thought desirable, should witness the proceedings : " The delegates to the conference, the Speakers of the Senate and Commons, Cabinet Ministers, Mr. Gustavus Wicksteed, who 318 Raihuays and Other Ways. saw the ' Eoyal William ' launched 63 years ago and took jDassage in her trial trip ; Mr. Horace Wicksteed, who boarded the ' Eoyal William ' on her arrival in England and dined with the captain ; representatives of the Eoyal Society and associated societies. I have the honor to be, " Yom- Excellency's most faithful servant, " (Signed) J. G. Boubinot." The Conference then rose, after which the Governor-General unveiled the brass tablet in commemoration of the dej)arture of the ' Eoyal William,' the first vessel to use steam power wholly in crossing the ocean from Quebec in 1833. His Excellency said Canadians should be proud this vessel was built in Canada. He mentioned the presence of Mr. G. W. Wicksteed, who was on board the ' Eoyal William, 'and his brother,Major Wicksteed, who met her on her arrival. After a few remarks from Mr. G. W. Wicksteed the company separated, after cheers for Her Majesty. The " Eoyal William " was the pioneer of the grand era of Atlantic steam navigation, and now steamships almost monopo- lize the ocean. As a sequel to the above, I give a record of the remarkable progress made in size, tonnage and speed of Atlantic steamships since the advent of the celebrated " Eoyal William." ATLANTIC STEAMSHIPS. " The American transatlantic liner and auxiliary cruiser 'Cit}- of Paris ' arrived in New York harbor at 1.02 o'clock, a.m., July 27, with a new record for the westward voyage and for a day's run. Her time for the run was 5 days, 15 hours and 58 minutes. The best previous trip was that of the 'Teutonic,' which ended in New York, Aug. 19, 1891, in 5 days, 16 hours and 31 minutes ; and before that the ' Majestic ' held the 460 478 496 501 505 519 510 504 517 520 290 263 Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 319 record. The best day's run of the * Teutonic,' and the best that had ever been made, was 517 knots. On this last trip the 'City of Paris' made one day's run of 519 knots, and one of 520. The daily records of the three vessels in their record breaking trips were : City of Majestic. Teutonic. Paris. First day 470 Second day 501 Third day 497 Fourth day 501 Fifth day 491 Sixth day 317 2,777 2,778 2,785 "The following table, except the * City of Paris,' last trip, we printed last x\ugust from the New York Sun. It gives the highest records as they were made from year to year : Year. Ship Days. Hrs. Miu. 1866— Scotia 8 2 48 1873— Baltic 7 20 9 1875— City of Berlin 7 15 48 1876-Germanic 7 11 37 1877 -Britannic 7 10 53 1880— Arizona 7 7 23 1882— Alaska 6 18 37 1884— Oregon 6 11 9 1884 — America 6 10 1885— Etruria 6 5 31 1887— Umbria 6 4 42 1888— Etruria 6 1 55 1889— City of Paris 5 19 18 1891— Majestic 5 18 8 1891- Teutonic 5 16 31 1892— City of Paris 5 15 58 "A speed of 520 knots a day gives 21 "667 knots an hour, -which is equal to 24*92 statute miles. To be perfectly candid, the 'City of Paris' is still flying the British flag." — American Engineer, August, 1892. 320 Eaihvays and Other Ways. QuEENSTOWT^, May 12, '93. — The new Cunard steamship "Cam- pania," Capt. Haines, which sailed from New York for Liverpool 'May 6, arrived at Queenstown at 9.30 o'clock this morning, having made the passage from Sandy Hook to Queenstown in five days, seventeen hours and twenty-seven minutes, the best passage eastward yet made by any steamer. The passengers cheered enthusiastically upon coming into the harbor. HER LATEST TRIP. Campania left Queenstown 12.51 p.m., 12th August ; passed Sandy Hook Lightship, 5.45 p.m., 17th August, 1894. Time : 5 days 9 hours- and 29 minutes, being 3 hours and 18 minutes less than any previous record. A. F. "Webster, Toronto Agent. RELATIVE SIZES OF GREAT STEAMERS. The following figures show the relative sizes of some of these big ships : Great Campania. Paris. Teutonic. Eastern.* Lencrth 620 527 555 092 Beam 65 63 57.6 82 Draught 32 29 26 31 Horsepower 30,000 20,100 17,000 7,000 Tonnage 17,000 10,500 9,680 25,000 * It may be of interest to record some further details of the Great Eastern, which the author had the pleasure of inspecting when she was at New York and also at Quebec. She was moved by screw and paddle-wheels, and could spread 6,500 square j-ards of canvas. She had four decks, ten boilers and five smoke stacks, 112 furnaces, ten anchors and six masts. Her depth was fifty-eight feet ; across paddleboxes 114 feet ; weight of iron used in construction 10,000 tons ; computed speed eighteen miles an hour. Could carry 10,000 troops, or 800 first-class passengers, 2,000 second-class passengers, 1,200 third-class passengers, total 4,000. To walk around her deck was a quarter of a mile. She was said to have been 5 000 tons larger than Noah's Ark; capital employed was £1,200,000 sterling. Designed by E. K. Brunnel, F.R.S. Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing. 321 CANADIAN SHIPS AND THEIR TONNAGE. In answer to a question in the Canadian House of Com- mons in 1893 the Secretary of State gave a statement of the number of Canadian ships and their tonnage. It was as fol- lows : — No. of No. Sailing Steamers. Vessels. Tomiage. New Brunswick 101 946 181,779 Nova Scotia 123 2,731 425,690 Quebec 275 1,408 162,628 Ontario 755 1,347 141,750 Prince Edward Island 21 196 22,706 Manitoba 54 81 6,418 British Columbia 173 298 33,448 Total 1,502 7,007 974,419 INCREASE IN THE SIZE OF OCEAN STEAMSHIPS. The following outlines will show at a glance the comparative sizes of the first with the latest and most splendid tj'pe of trans- Atlantic steamers. It needs no comment to emphasize the progress that has been made in this line in less than 60 years. Length. Sirius 178 feet. Scotia 400 " Britannic and Germanic 470 " Umbria and Etruria 520 " City of New York and City of Paris 560 " Teutonic and Majestic 582 " Campania and Lucania 620 " (Cincinnati's " World's Progress," July, 1893.) Her mishaps were many and her successes were few, but the latter were great ; one was her celebrated trip with troops from Liverpool to Quebec and another the laying of the Atlantic Cable (a continuous wire-rope of 20,000 tons) in July 1866, and picking up the lost Cable of '65, in mid-ocean ; events which must ever be memorable in history. Sad indeed were the hearts of thousands when the news came that the hulk of the Big Ship had been broken up and sold as old iron. " Her last sea fight was fought, Her work of glory done." 21 322 Railways and Other Ways. To the above may be added : Length, The Royal William (Quebec Steamship of 1833) 176 feet. Great Eastern 692 " " They that go down to the sea in ships, That do business in great waters ; These see the works of the Lord, And His wonders in the deep." — Psalm cvii, wv. 23, 24. A ship's bill of lading, one hundeed years ago. These ancient ship's bills of lading, quaint in style and somewhat old-fashioned in the wording, breathe a lovable spirit, as they offer up a prayer, that He, who " rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm," may guide the good ship in safety to her destined haven. No one can tell of the benefits which have arisen from these pithy little sermons constantly coming before the eyes of mariners in their daily toil, and they must, in numerous cases, have led them to better thoughts, and influenced their future lives. Since the flotilla of steamships has almost taken possession of the ocean, the good, old, prayerful bills of lading have ceased to be, and the form, nowadays, omits all words of a sacred character, as if steamships were independent of the Creator's power, and did not require any special care for their safety; still, even steamships are not exempt from " The peril of waters, winds, and rocks," as even they sometimes meet with sad calamities. I am indebted to the Station Agent, a monthly journal published at Cleveland, 0., for the fac-simile of an original Ship's Bill of Lading issued one hundred years ago, appearing on opposite page. Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing. 323 TISSUE COPYING OF WAY BILLS. In the freight (goods) offices of the early English Eailways, our system of taking tissue copies of way-bills (invoices), was by using a damping brush or damping box in order to prepare the tissue paper, and I remember it was a slow, tedious and unsatis- factory process. In damp, murky weather we did not get very good impressions, as the ink would run, making many blurs. On the Grand Trunk Eailway, for many years, the clerks have had a system of copying way bills, abstracts and other documents in a much more expeditious way, and by using ordin- ary care, getting the best possible copies. Their plan is to have a number of square pieces of cotton cloth, cut a little larger than the document to be copied ; these are dumped into a washing tub of water, with a wringer attached to the tub ; when copying is to be done, as many cloths as are wanted are passed through the wringer and the water all squeezed out ; they are then ready for use. h. sandwich of cloth, tissue paper and way-bill is then formed, and placed pile upon j)ile to any number up to two hundred. The bale of sandwich matter is then put under the copying press and the whole perfectly copied in a few minutes. When necessary, three or four copies of each document can be taken at the same time. Damping box, brush and blotter are not needed. The cloths get well marked with ink in time, but it does not come off. They, of course, require replenishing when they get very inky. The author has copied scores of sheets of manuscript in this way ivithout a "press, simply by standing upon the letter book a few minutes ; but then it must be understood that he " carries weight," turning the scale at two hundred pounds. 324 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEE XXIX. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. " Rise from your dreams of the future — of gaining some hard fought field, Of storming some air fortress, or bidding some giant yield ; Your future has years of glory, of honor, God grant it may. But your arm will never be stronger, or the needs so great as to day." THE intimate connection between railways and telegraphy must be my reason for making some remarks and relating some incidents in reference to the latter. The telegraph may be called the pilot of railways, as it has, at all times, had much to do with their safe working. One of the first, if not the first, railway in England to adopt the Electric Telegraph was the Preston & Wyre, a single line of 20 miles, opened in the year 1840. I was an agent on that railway, and one of my duties was to learn and operate the telegraph. I remember, we used three wires for the purpose, viz., one to ring the bell, and the other two to transmit messages, the signals being given on an instrument somewhat like a clock's face. It had two handles which worked two dials on the face of the machine. One night, a friend, who had paid some attention to elec- tricity, and myself tried some experiments to test the earth as a conductor of the electric fluid. One experiment was as follows : We cut the wires connecting Preston with Fleetwood ; I then held one of the wires in my teeth, the power was put on, but no effect was produced. I then touched an iron turn-table sunken flush with the ground, with one end of the wire, when I instantly received a smart electric shock. This experiment was repeated several times, always with the same result, and proved to our The Electric Telegraph. 325 satisfaction that one wire, with the earth as conductor, was all that was necessary to complete the circuit. I merely relate this as an exhibit of our curiosity, without claiming to have dived deep into the mysteries of electricity. Our telegraph at that time was in a somewhat crude state. We had much trouble to keep the batteries in good working order, and the signals on the dial plates (Wheatstone's system) were often very faint. Still, for working a single line of railway, we found the telegraph most valuable. When the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was opened in 1853, the telegraph system was an independent department of the Company's, and Geo. W. Purkis was the first superintendent, a gentleman much esteemed by all who knew him. He died at an early period. The agents and operators erected a monument to his memory in the cemetery of a village near Brockville, Ont. A. G. Davis was the next superintendent, who remained in office until the telegraph line merged into the hands of the Montreal Telegraph Company, which for some time had been under the superintendence of HARVEY PRENTICE DWIGHT, a gentleman who is fairly entitled to be named as the Father of Telegraphy in Canada. I have many pleasant memories of Mr. Dwight in the early Grand Trunk days, and always found him obliging and wishful to attend to our wants in connection with telegraph communication. Mr. Dwight, like many remarkable men of genius, has risen from the ranks, with no special outside power at his back to push him forward, other than that of his own steadiness of conduct, and indomitable energy and perseverance. Born in a quiet country town, at Belleville, Jefferson County, N. Y. State, in 1826, educated at a small county school, and, at the age of 14, commencing the battle of life in a general store ; in a few years more, still a youth, he starts for Canada, and 326 Railways and Other Ways. in 1847 he becomes an operator of the Montreal Telegraph Company, in the first year of its existence. After remaining at Montreal some years, he is next found at Toronto as Western Superintendent of the same Company. In about 1875 Mr. Dwight had to grapple with opposition in the shape of the Dominion Telegraph Company. After a severe struggle, inju- rious alike to both Companies, and lasting throughout a decade, the two contending parties shook hands and joined a new organization, viz., The Great North Western Telegraph Company, in 1881, and Mr. Dwight was chosen as its General Manager. When Erastus Wimanresigned the Presidency of the G.N.W., Mr. Dwight was unanimously appointed to succeed that gentle- man as President of the Company, he having reached, as it may be said, step by step, from the foot to the very topmost rung of the ladder, where he now governs a telegraph system of from 30,000 to 40,000 miles of wire ; which extends its bands to the Maritime Provinces, to Michigan, Vermont, New York, and away beyond the Bed Kiver of the North; with offices numbering 2,000, and an immense staff of employees, by whom Mr. Dwight is respected and beloved. Among other veterans in Canadian Telegraphy are Mr. 0. S. Wood, of Montreal, and Mr. Geo. Black, of Hamilton. Mr. Wood, who has so long been connected with the Montreal Telegraph Company, has assisted in and seen its rise from mere babyhood to its present large proportions of 15,000 miles, all in the Dominion of Canada. The Toronto Monetary Times, in a recent article upon early Telegraphy, said : " So embarrassing did the pressure of public telegraphy become when, some thirty years ago or more, rail- way and public business was done over a single wire line, that Mr. 0. S. Wood, of the Montreal Telegraph Company, set himself to overcome the difficulty by stringing more wires in order that the tw^o services might be separately accommodated." The Electric Telegraph. 327 Mr. Geo. Black, like Mr. 0. S. Wood, has also a long record in telegraphy. His love of his occupation has carried him far beyond the ordinary superintendence of the system, viz., to that of an inventor and discoverer in electricity ; and he now takes his stand amongst the noted scientists of the day.* GRAND TRUNK OPERATORS. Several of the G. T. R. operators, in after years, rose to eminence on railways in the Dominion, as well as the United States. When the general freight office of the G. T. R. was in a room of the St. Lawrence Hotel at Montreal, about 36 years ago, I had, as telegraph operator in the office, a youth named James Walsh. On visiting Chicago, many years afterwards, I found that Mr. Walsh was then a man of note in that city, and a superintendent of one of its railways. * In the early clays of telegraphy the duties of an operator were often combined with other official work. The following from the Toronto Monetary Times may be quoted as an illustration. The story was told by a commercial traveller in a western paper : — "On a certain cold, rainy winter night," said the drummer, " I was left at a small station on a western branch road to wait for the train that was to take me somewhere. There was nobody around, and I must have looked lonesome, for the brakeman came up and tendered me his sympathy. " ' Hard place, ain't it? ' he said, looking around on the general dismalness. " 'Rather,' I responded, 'when a man has to wait in it for four hours.' " ' Oh, well, you may have some company,' he said, encouragingly. " ' who? ' I asked, for I could see no one. " 'Well,' he said slowly, as if making a calculation, * you'll find in the station the telegraph operator, the station agent, the baggage master, the train despatcher, the ticket seller, the storekeeper^ the accident insurance agent, the express agent, the postmaster and one or two other officials.' "And then he jumped for his train. " I went into the dimly lighted station and looked about for my prospective companions. Nobody was visible except a sandy-haired man at the telegraph instru- ment. ' ' ' Where are the others ? ' I inquired, much surprised. " ' Others what ? ' he answered. " ' Why, the others the brakeman told me were here. The telegraph operator, the station agent, the baggage master, the train despatcher, the storekeeper, the ' " The man at the instrument began to grin. ' That darn brakeman ! ' he said, ' He's a funny fellow.' And I found that all the nine functions he had described were performed by the one sandy-haired man in the station." 828 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEK XXX. STORY OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE. " I'll put a girdle round about the Earth in forty minutes." — Puck, in Midsummer Night's Dream. ONE summer day, in the year 1858, I. S. Millar and I were strolling- up the streets of Portland, Maine, towards the Post Office. On aj)proaching the building we saw grave lawyers, clergymen, merchants and others in a frantic state of excitement, throwing up their hats, huzzahing and capering about in the middle of the street. We concluded that the usual quiet and sober people of Portland had been suddenly smitten with some strange mania, or had broken loose of the " Maine Liquor Law," and were holding high revel on the occasion. On reaching the scene we were told, in exulting terms, that " the Atlantic Cable was laid," and that messages had just passed between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan. Millar and I then joined in the throwing up of hats, and gave three British cheers for the two great notabilities. Shortly afterwards I mounted the hurricane deck of a ferry steamer bound for Peak's Island, where my family were rusticat- ing. On approaching the Island I waved an impromptu flag and announced the important news to the Islanders. At night bonfires were lit, rockets sent up, guns fired and dances got up on the sandy sea shore. The Atlantic Cable, the new child of genius, after conveying a message from the Queen, and a reply from the President, and Story of the Atlantic Cable. 329 a few more messages, exhausted itself — it flickered, it sank — it died, to rise again in all its majesty and might a few years afterwards. From the Montreal Gazette, of August, 1858, I herewith give a copy of the first two messages by the Atlantic Cable, which will be read and re-read with great interest in distant ages through- out all time. queen's message. Trinity Bay, Nfld., Aug. 17, 1858. The Queen's Message was completed at 5 o'clock this morn- ing. It was commenced yesterday. During its reception the operators at Yalentia desisted in sending it, in order to make some slight repair. Through a mistake, the part received was sent as if it constituted the whole message. The following is the Queen's Message in full : — To Hon. the President of the United States : Her Majesty desires to congratulate the President upon the successful completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has taken the deepest interest. The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in fervently hoping that the Electric Cable, which now connects Great Britain and the United States, will prove an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem. The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of the United States. 330 Railways and Other Ways. REPLY. Washington City, August 16, 1858. To Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain : The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her Majesty the Queen on the success of the great international enterprise accomplished by the science, skill and indomitable energy of the two countries. It is a triumph more glorious because far more useful to mankind than was ever won by con- queror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty and law throughout the world. In this view will not all nations of Christendom spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be forever neutral, and that its communications shall be held sacred in passing to their places of destination, even in the midst of hostilities. James Buchanan.* cyrus w. field, the father of the atlantic telegraph. (Died at Ardsley, N. Y., on July 12, 1892. Aged 73 years.) Few men have passed through such an eventful life as that of Cyrus W. Field. Commencing active business life as a boy at one dollar per week, in A. T. Stewart's store in New York, he gradually pushed his way, and by pluck, ability and industry, rose to eminence and wealth. As the founder of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable system, his name will be commemorated and handed down to the remotest period of time. * It would seem from the above that the President sent his reply to the Queen before Her Majesty's message was sent off. This is explained at the head of the Queen's message, which really commenced on the 16th August. story of the Atlantic Cable. 331 A BRIEF STORY OF THE CABLE. The first cable voyage was made in the summer of 1857, when the steamer "Niagara," with Mr. Field on board, paid out the cable for 200 miles, after which the electrical continuity was lost. Then it was found and all went well again, until sud- denly the cable parted. That ended the first lesson. Undaunted Mr. Field started a second expedition on June 10th, 1858. The cable broke again and was lost to view. Still determined, a third expedition started on July 17th, and August 15th the cable was laid, signals being sent from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, to Valentia, Ireland, with ease and rapidity. (See messages.) But on September 1st the current suddenly ceased. Notwithstanding these repeated failures, the last expedition endued Mr. Field, his friends and the public with faith and hope, and vigorous measures were taken to raise capital. The Anglo- American Telegraph Company was formed. The famous mam- moth " Great Eastern" steamship was chartered. The New York Herald of July 12th, 1892, tells of the grand triumph of Cyrus Field, as under : THE END AT LAST CROWNS THE WORK. " Finally the new cable and its ponderous machinery were completed and put on board the 'Great Eastern' in June, 1866. The shore end was successfully laid and made fast to the cable on the steamer. Once more the attempt was to be made, and the world waited in suspense. Frequent disasters made every one cautious. Nothing was done in haste. Accompanied by her attendant, the ' Great Eastern ' left Valentia on Friday, the 13th of July. Moderate speed was the order. For fourteen days and nights Mr. Field scarcely closed his eyes. It might almost be said he saw every inch of the cable as it was paid out over 332 Railways and Other Ways. the enormous drums. The weather was fair and the water com- paratively smooth. Of course the good people of Merrie England had a great advantage over their hopeful cousins on this side of the ocean, as they were in daily communication with the opera- tors on the ship. Mr. Field reported every night the progress made, and all the English papers printed his messages. The greatest excitement was indicated in New York, where hope went out to meet the expedition, but hope had no connecting wire. On Friday morning, the 27th of July, 1866, the enormous hull of the leviathan was discerned by watchers on the Newfoundland coast, and with guns firing and bunting floating, with a trail of wire 2,000 miles long behind her, the ' Great Eastern' steamed majestically into the harbor of Heart's Content and dropped her anchor in front of the telegraph house — all safe, all well. On his knees in his cabin Mr. Field gave thanks to God for His goodness and then sent word home. As the Newfoundland Bay cable was not completed, there was a delay of two days in its reception. On Sunday morning, July 29, while the church bells were ringing all over the land, and Trinity's chimes in New York were ringing, ' Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,' the following mes- sage was received and delivered by Herald extras in every part of the city : — Heart's Content, July 27, 1866. We arrived at nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid and in perfect working order. Cyrus W. Field." henry m. field, d.d. In a letter to the New York Independent the Eev. H. M. Field paid a beautiful tribute to the memory of his deceased brother, from which the following extracts are made : — "Hardly had our Civil War closed before the attempt was renewed to lay a cable across the Atlantic, with the advantage Story of the Atlantic Cable. 333 of having the monarch of the seas, the ' Great Eastern,' to carry the burden of twenty thousand tons of iron coiled in her mighty bosom safely across the deep. An attempt on such a scale ought to succeed ; and it did almost, for twelve hundred miles were laid when the cord snapped again, and all was over for another year. One more battle was to be fought before God gave them the victory. In 1866 the cable was stretched from shore to shore. But even that was not enough ; for hardly was it landed before the great ship swung her head to the sea to search for the lost cable of the year before. For one month she dragged the bed of the ocean at a depth of two miles, till the lost treasure was reclaimed, and dragged away like a captive at the chariot wheels. One day that summer a message came to me at my home among the hills, w'hich startled me by its date : * On board the Great Eastern,' for I knew she was still at sea, so that the message must have crossed the ocean twice, back to Ireland on the cable which she bore, and then from Ireland to America. The message ran : ' We are now within a hundred miles of Newfoundland, and expect to land the cable to-morrow.' The next day saw it done, and when the gallant English sailors drew it up on the sandy beach of Trinity Bay, there were many who felt somewhat as Columbus must have felt when he had discovered a new world, for next to the discovery of anew hemis- phere was that triumph of science and human skill whereby two hemispheres were united together ; so that there was a degree of truth in the splendid tribute which John Bright soon after paid to ' his friend Cyrus Field,' when he spoke of him as ' the Colum- bus of modern times, who by his cable had moored the New World alongside the Old ! ' " Such an achievement is enough for any man, and should not iDe obscured by the recent sadness and gloom. It seems a strange and inexplicable mystery that the last months of a life so honor- 334 Railways and Other Ways. ed and useful to mankind should be overcast by domestic sorrow. But so it has been in the lives of many of the greatest benefactors of their race : ' Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather, And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand. ' But for all this he has had all there was in life of success, honour and fame. We must not complain if he has had also his bitter experience, on which as a dark background all the brightness of such a career stands out in greater relief. " And now we have brought him away from the great city where he passed his busy life, back to the quiet valley where he was born, and laid him down in the shadow of the encircling hills. ' Bury me there,' he said, ' by the side of my beloved wife, and by my father and mother ! ' The grave has closed over him, and in that place of rest all his sorrows are buried. Only the work that he has done remains. That is enough. The hemispheres that he has ' moored side by side ' will never be separated. Thereby distant nations and races are brought nearer together — a service to commerce and civilization, and to the brotherhood of man, which the world will not willingly let die." THE LATE FREDERIC NEWTON GISBORNE. The Toronto Empire of August 31, 1892, gave the following sketch of Mr. Gisborne's life and work : — ** The late Mr. Frederic Newton Gisborne, whose death was chronicled this morning (Aug 30th, 1892), was born in Lan- cashire, England, May 8th, 1824. Mr. Gisborne, with his younger brother Hartley, sailed for Canada in July, 1845. Mr. Gisborne purchased a farm at St. Eustache, but finding such pursuit uncongenial and noting the successful advent of the electric telegraph in England and the United States, he became one of Stm^y of the Atlantic Cable. 335 the first operators of the Montreal Telegraph Company, for which corporation he opened a station at Quebec. Mr. Gisborne after- wards became associated with a number of Quebec capitalists in the formation of the British North American Electric Telegraph Association, for the purpose of connecting the Maritime Provinces with the Canadas. He was appointed general manager of the association, and was deputed to visit New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where he explained the new science to the Legislatures then in session, and lectured before the public on the practical value of telegraphic communication throughout the continent. From 1849 to 1851, he was superintendent of the Government lines at Halifax, and while in this position was led to take a great interest in experiments for conveying electric signals through submerged uninsulated metallic currents. Having visited New York and obtained assurance of all the capital re- quired, he retm*ned to Halifax and laid before Hon. Joseph Howe the then astounding project of a submarine cable connection between Newfoundland and Ireland. Thus, to Mr. Gisborne is due the credit of the conception and primary practical movement for trans-Atlantic telegraphy. On Nov. 20, 1852, he laid the first ocean cable on this side of the Atlantic, connecting Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick. In the winter of 1853-54 he again visited New York, and there for the first time met Cyrus W. Field, who took an active interest in the scheme for an Atlan- tic cable and organized the company of which Mr. Gisborne became chief engineer. The work was completed, after much labour, in October, 1856. He was also noted for the variety of his inventions, and during his life was the recipient of nine medals from the Pioyal Society." The above statement, while it gives credit to Mr. Gisborne as the suggestor of the Atlantic Telegraph, does not take from Cyrus W. Field any of the honours conferred upon him as the 336 Railways and Other Ways. genius who successfully carried out the gigantic undertaking, and the words of the Eev. Sidney Smith may aptly be quoted as bearing on this and other important inventions and discoveries. He says : " That man is not the discoverer of any art who first says the thing ; but he that says it so long, and so loud and so clearly, that he compels mankind to hear him — the man who is so deeply impressed with the importance of the discovery that he will take no denial, but, at the risk of fortune and fame, pushes through all opposition, and is determined that what he thinks he has discovered shall not perish for want of a fair trial." SUBMARINE CABLES IN THE WORLD. As a sequel to the story of the Atlantic Cable, the following cutting from the Electrical World of July, 1892, is given to show the immense progress made in the laying of submarine cables during the last forty years: " The various governments of the world own together 880 cables, having a total length of 14,480 miles, and containing 21,- 560 miles of conductors. The French Government, which takes the lead as to length of cables, has 3,460 miles in 54 cables. As to number, the Norwegian Government comes first with 255 cables, having a total length of 248 miles. Finally, as to the length of conductors, the English Government comes first with 5,468 miles of conductors, divided among 115 cables, having a total length of 1,588 miles. " Private companies to the number of 28 own 288 cables, having a length of 126,864 miles, and containing 127,682 miles of conductors. The French companies, only two in number, the Compagnie Francaise du Telegraphe de Paris a New York, and the Societe Francaise des Telegraphes Sous Marins, have eigh- teen cables, with a total length of 7,249 nautical miles. The Story of the Atlantic Cable. 337 most important of the private companies is the Eastern Telegraph Company, which operates 7o cables, with a total length of 25,347 miles. " The total number of cables in the world is 1,168, with a total length of 140,344 miles, and 149,193 miles of conductors. This is not sufficient to reach to the moon, but would extend more than half way there. " This great length of cable has been nearly all made on the banks of the Thames, but Italy now has a cable factory, and France will soon have two. To lay and repair the cables requires the constant service of a specially equipped fleet of thirty-seven vessels of 56,955 tons." The New York Telegraph Age has the following item :" On December 3 the President's message was transmitted direct from the New York Bureau of the United Press to San Diego, Cal., via the Postal, Canadian Pacific and Pacific Postal telegraph lines. There were twelve repeaters in the circuit, situated as follows : — Albany, 150 miles; Montreal, 343 miles; Sudbury, Ont., 444 miles ; Fort William, Ont., 553 miles ; Winnipeg, Man. ,426 miles ; Swift Current, N. W. T., 511 miles ; Donald, B. C, 513 miles ; Portland, Ore., 367 miles ; Ashland, Ore., 316 miles ; San Fran- cisco, Cal., 402 miles ; Los Angeles, Cal., 473 miles. San Diego is about 122 miles south of Los Angeles, which made a total length of the circuit 5,080 miles, which was without doubt the longest circuit ever successfully worked for any length of time. The message consisted of 5,211 words, and the time occupied in transmitting the same was 3 hours and 42 minutes." 22 338 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEE XXXI. THOMAS ALVA EDISON, THE WIZARD OF MENLO PARK. " In olden times along the street, A glimmering lantern led our feet When on a midnight stroll ; But now we snatch, when night comes nigh, A piece of lightning from the sky, And stick it on a pole." ATEAVELLEll passing over the Grand Trunk Eailway from Port Huron to Detroit some 33 or 34 years ago would have noticed a newsboy about 14 years of age who sold fruits, candies, newspapers and books to passengers in the cars. I often saw him ; and Superintendent Christie pointed him out to me as a remarkably ingenious and intelligent boy, who printed a little weekly newspaper on board the car. The sheet was about 12 by 16 inches, printed on one side only, and called " The Grand Trunk Herald," and contained jokes, incidents and sketches of the emploj^ees and others — a sort of "Paul Pry" in its way. The boy had no press, the impressions being taken by the pres- sure of his hands. The paper was of a primitive kind, but quite readable and had a fair circulation at three cents per copy. This newsboy, editor and publisher was Thos. Alva Edison, who afterwards became and now is the famous Electrician, Scientist and Inventor,whose phonograph alone, if he had invented nothing else, would have commemorated his name to all time. Mr. Edison was born in Milan, Erie County, Ohio, ten miles from Lake Erie, on February 11, 1847. Edison's wonderful career may be dated from the following incident. One day he was at Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park. 339 Mt. Clemens, a station on the Grand Trunk Eailway near Port Huron, when a two year old boy, son of J. A. Mackenzie, the station agent, rambled on the track just as a train was rushing up. Young Edison, at the risk of his life, flew to the rescue and saved the child. Out of gratitude for the noble act, Mr. Mackenzie volunteered to teach Edison the telegraph, and in a few months he had fitted himself as an operator and was employed at Port Huron at $25 per month ; subsequently he became night operator at Stratford, Canada West, on the G. T. E. Here he applied his ingenuity in a novel way, which shows, at least, how fertile must have been the young operator's brain. The operators w^ere required to report " six " every half hour to the Circuit Manager. Young Edison, instead of reporting in person, rigged a wheel with Morse's characters cut in the circumference in such a way that when turned by a crank it would write the figure " six " and sign his office call. The watchman turned the wheel while Edison slept. P. H. Carter, now of the Grand Trunk Eailway freight depart- ment at Toronto, in 1863 was agent for the Company at Stratford, and he remembers young Edison, a boy of about 16 or 17 years of age, as a night operator at that station. One night Edison got a message from the despatcher to hold a certain train. Edison repeated back the message without showing it to the conductor, who left supposing all was right. Edison ran out of his office to stop the train, but was too late. Luckily the line between St.Mary's and Stratford is a straight one, and the drivers of each approach- ing train saw each other in time to stop and avoid a collision. The case was of course reported and Mr. Carter and the operator were summoned to Toronto for an investigation. Superinten- dent Spicer gave Edison a good talking to, told him the offence was a criminal one, and he was liable to be sent to the peniten- tiary. Just then Mr. Spicer was called out to see some one, and 340 Railways and Other Ways. Carter and Edison were left alone. After a few minutes Edison put on his hat, saying, " I'm not going to wait here," and off he went, making as quick a passage as he could to the home of his parents in Port Huron, Mr. Edison's career since the days above narrated would be a history of the most remarkable inventions and discoveries of modern times. The patents taken out by him are legion. Edison's biographer, J. B. McCliire, M.A., in speaking of Mr. E.'s patents says : "A single invention is sometimes covered by from 15 to 20 patents, the patent laws not allowing one patent to cover all the essential points. Edison's stock telegraph instru- ment is covered by 40 patents ; his quadruplex telegraph by 11,. and his automatic system of telegraphy by 46. A CHAT BETWEEN EDISON AND A REPORTER. The following interview appeared in the London, Ontario, Advertiser, Sept. 1, 1881 : — " Well, I should say so," and the way he drawled it out seemed to establish a certain familiarity at once. The speaker was Thos. A. Edison, the celebrated electrician, the " Wizard of Menlo Park," and the remark was made in reply to an Advertiser's representative's query. " Mr. Edison, I believe ?" " I'm kind of stuck here," he continued ; " I intended going on to Port Huron to see some relatives, and the trains failed to connect." "If I recollect aright," said the reporter, "you are no stranger to this part of the country." " Stranger ? Why no, I used to be telegraph operator at Stratford, down here. By the way, I ran two trains into each other there." Mr. Edison then went on to repeat the circum- stance of the affair, and he related the facts with as clear a Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park. 841 comprehension of them as if they had just occurred. "The trouble was," he said, "in leaving such a young fellow in charge. I was only sixteen or seventeen ; but no accident happened. However, I was summoned before Mr. Spicer, the superintendent and so was the agent, P. H. Carter." " I know Carter," said the reporter ; " he is a good friend of mine, inasmuch as he is responsible for me being in Canada." "Is that so?" said Edison. " Well, if you see him, tell him I recollect him and ask to be remembered. But how is he responsible for you being in Canada ? You are an American ? " " Well, what part of the United States do I comg from ? " queried the reporter. Edison buried his head in his hand and thought a while, *' You are from New Orleans," he said. The reporter chuckled as he called to mind that he came here from — well, from a climate that is not by any means the same as New Orleans.* " Y^es," said Edison, in reply to further queries, " that story you read about the paper I used to get out on the trains is true enough. You see, Mr, Storey — you know Storey?" "He's the Chicago Times' man. Well, he owned the Detroit Free Press then, and he had a lot of type to sell. I called on him and asked him about it. The upshot of it was that he gave me 300 pounds of type. I have heard lots of people say they don't like Storey. I don't know about that, but I do know he gave me 300 pounds of type, and I have never forgotten it." " I never take anything but lemonade," Edison said, in response to the reporter. As they stood together quaffing, the reporter said, " Are you ever called upon by magicians to get up tricks for them ? " * The reporter, Mr. A. Bremer, is a native of the Province of Newfoundland, P. H. Carter being a native of the same Island. 342 Railways and Other Ways. " Very often," said he, " but I do not do much in that line. If they tell me what they want to produce, I tell them how to do it, but I do not originate the tricks." " Now you won't mind if I get this a little mixed ; you see I have taken no notes." "Why, that's what I'm used to," smilingly replied Edison, as the couple shook hands. EDISON — HIS BABY AND THE PHONOGRAPH. Three or four years ago the Edison family had a new baby girl,and Mr.Edison started a series of experiments with it and the phonograph, such as testing the strength of its lungs every three months. When the baby crowed, or got mad and yelled, or began to chatter, the j^honograph, which stood by, made a note of it, all of which are to be reproduced when baby has long left baby- hood behind and matured into a bright young lady. Then she is to hear herself describe herself when a baby, and what manner of baby she was ; and she will not need to take her mother's or nurse's word for it. May baby and its parents live to see that day, and long years afterwards. PROFESSOR FARADAY ON ELECTRICITY. When asked to give his opinion concerning the nature of electricity, Faraday gave utterance to the^ following : " There was a time when I thought I knew something about the matter ; but the longer I live, and the more carefully I study the subject, the more convinced I am of my total ignorance of the nature of electricity." The World's Columbian Exposition. 343 CHAPTEE XXXII. THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. THE latest, largest, most costly and most magnificent of World's Fairs opened May 1, 1893, and closed October 31, 1893. The exhibition at London in 1851, the first of its kind, was mainly held in one building, the renowned Crystal Palace, erected in Hyde Park. It was 1,851 feet long, by 456 broad and 66 feet high ; and the transept 108 feet in height.* The World's Fair at Chicago in 1893 was held in Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance, comprising 630 acres, 200 acres of this was covered by the exposition buildings proper, and 90 acres by States buildings and those of foreign countries. The one building devoted to Manufactures and Liberal Arts was about 1,700 feet in length, 800 feet wide, and 237 feet high. The following table taken from the Chicago Inter- Ocean will be found interesting. It must not be misunderstood, however, as * The transept or crystal arch, which added so much to the beauty of the exhibi- tion building, owed its origin to three or four venerable, wide spreading elm trees, which stood midway on the ground plan of the building and when their destruction was threatened, the whole of the people of London joined in the old song : " Woodman spare that tree, Touch not a single bough." Sir Joseph Paxton, the architect of the Crystal Palace, came to the rescue of the old trees, by throwing his grand arch of glass over them, and in them, that sum- mer the Ijirds built their nests. But the old trees did not like this kind of protection, for, when I last saw them, at the close of the exhibition, the poor trees looked weary and wilted, as if longing for gentle showers and the pure breath of heaven. Kumour said tha* the trees died a few months after the Crystal Palace was removed. 344 Railways and Other Ways. it is based upon information of an unofficial character, admissions both paid and free are counted. In the Date. 1851 1876 1889 1893 Where held. London Philadelphia Paris Chicago .... Number of Admission Days. 141 159 179 179 Total Admissions. Largest Admissions for One Day. 6,039,195 9,910,966 28,149,353 27,529,401 109,915 274,919 420,139 "761,942 The total receipts of Paris exhibition were up to October, 31st, $9,500,000. The total receipts at Chicago for admissions alone were $10,626,330. From concessions, $3,699,581. RAILWAYS AND THE WORLD's FAIR. From the opening to the close of the World's Fair the twenty- one railroads brought into Chicago 3,335,000 passengers, and as most of this number would attend the Exposition on an average of about six times each, an estimate of what the railways did for the fair may thus be realized. "Ih-Q Ghicdigo General Manager iov November, 1893, had the following remarks : The chorus of vilification and slander that assailed the railway management in the early months of the fair, turned to praise in the latter weeks and days, when the carrying capacity of the roads was tested to its utmost, and everyone from manager to train boy worked night and day for the comfort and safety of the travelling public. Before the first of October the railroads and fair directors thought they had seen crowds, but during the three days preceding Chicago Day all records were broken and even the best expectations of those who had antici- * Chicago Day. TIte World's Columbian Exposition. 345 pated a great rush were more than reahzed. On October 8, the day before Chicago Day, the rush was tremendous. No less than 200 passenger trains arrived in Chicago on that day. Allowing an average of twelve cars to a train and seventy-five persons to each car, the summary foots up as follows : Trains 200. Cars or Coaches , 2,400. Passengers 180,000. THE FERRIS WHEEL. " The Ferris Wheel was to the World's Fair at Chicago what the Eiffel Tower was to the Paris Exposition." The Ferris Wheel, in machinery, was so far beyond any- thing of the kind which had ever been seen before that some- thing about its ponderosity, magnitude and construction is well worth being recorded. The following details are condensed from the New Yorli Mechanical Neivs of November 1, 1893. Geo. W. Ferris was born at Galesburg, Illinois, in 1859. When quite a youth he was employed as a civil engineer on railways, and soon became famous as a bridge builder. His most notable achievement in this line was the building of the great Cantilever Bridge across the Ohio at Cincinnati. Twenty-five thousand dollars were spent in planning the great wheel before a dollar had been laid out in the wheel itself. Mr. Ferris' enthusiasm was contagious and he was able to induce capitalists to invest S300,000 in the scheme. The foundations for the structure extended 40 feet under- ground. The main axle weighs 70 tons, the largest ever forged, being a steel rod 32 inches thick and 45 feet long. 346 Railways and Other Ways. The highest point of wheel is 265 feet, diameter, 250 feet, and circumference, 825 feet. On the wheel are 36 cars, each seating 40 persons, or 1,440 when full. Each car weighs 13 tons and is 27 feet long, 13 feet wide and 9 feet high. With its passengers the wheel weighs 1,200 tons. It moves noiselessly and there is no jar at starting. The motive power is a 1,000 power engine. A charge of 50 cents was made for each passenger and they were carried round twice, being nearly one-third of a mile in space. During the first four months of the fair the wheel paid for itself, after which the management of the World's Fair began to share in the profits. To show her confidence in her husband's workmanship, Mrs. Ferris was the first, along with the engineer, to make the grand ascent. The wheel was sold to a syndicate for $400,000 and is now, probably, one of the attractions of New York. THE MAMMOTH CHEESE. The cheese trade of the Dominion has become such a large industry, especially in the Province of Ontario, that a short account of it, and its exhibits at the World's Fair, Chicago, may be of interest to all readers. About thirty years ago I remember going to see one of the earliest cheese factories in Ontario. Little did I then dream of what the industry would become in a few years, and of its vast importance, alike to the farmer as well as the railways and ocean steamships. The first export of cheese to Great Britain was made in 1865. The WorlcVs Columbian Exposition. 347 The total exports of cheese from Canada to Great Britain in 1892 was 1,500,000 boxes, or about 48,750 tons. By the last trade returns Canada exported more cheese to Great Britain than the United States, thus establishing this country as the greatest cheese exporting country in the world. It was, therefore, highly appropriate that a cheese exhibit should have been made by Canada at the World's Fair. The Dominion dairy commissioner. Prof. Robertson, attended to it. The mam- moth cheese was the chief feature of the exhibit. It weighed eleven tons and required 207,000 pounds of milk. It was made at the Dominion experimental dairy station at Perth, under Prof. Robertson's supervision, by Mr. J, A. Piuddock. The immense cheese was six feet high and nine feet in diameter. The pyramid of Canadian products, having the mammoth cheese for the centre piece, was crowned with the smallest cheese ever manufactured. It was about the circumference of a half dollar and three-quarters of an inch thick. In some cases Canadian cheese took all the awards, in others from 75 to 90 per cent, of the exhibits. The big cheese was in first-class condition at the close of the Exposition, notwithstanding the ordeal it had to pass through, it being under a glass-roofed building all summer, where the tem- perature frequently rose to over 95 degrees. It suffered slightly on the top on its ocean trip to England. A sample of the mammoth cheese was sent from England to Toronto last May, and was tasted by members of the Board of Trade, and pronounced of excellent quality and flavour. BABIES AT THE WORLD's FAIR. Mothers who could not leave their babies at home brought them to the exhibition, and deposited them in the Children's 348 Railways and Other Ways. buildings, where the Kttle tots of humanity were registered — duly checked, and labelled like an ordinary piece of baggage. Every care was taken of the babies by kind and motherly nurses. According to the Inter-Ocean (Nov. 1st, 1893) although 10,- 000 babies had been checked during the last season, not one remained in pawn, as it were, to tell the tale. But on Saturday, Oct. 28th, the record was broken. A boy two months old, registered as the infant son of John Johnson, was checked, and remains to this hour unclaimed. FUNNY INCIDENTS AT THE WORLd's FAIR. An elderly man and his wife entered the grounds at the Mid- way station. As soon as inside they looked around to get their bearings, so as to make a good start. The keen eye of the lady saw " exit " over a turnstile, and she at once suggested that they take this in first and keep the main buildings to the last. The next moment they were standing in the street, and the mistake cost them one dollar for readmittance. A family party paused in front of a mixed group of statuary, labelled, " Executed in terracotta." "How dreadful," said a tender-voiced woman, " and executed in Terra Cotta. I wonder where that is?" A woman inquired of a guard : " Please sir, which building are the lagoons kept in ? " " In the marine cafe," was the wag's reply, " and they feed them at 12.30. If you go there now you will be just in time to see the fun." Trade and Commerce. 349 CHAPTEE XXXIII. FORT GARRY -ONTARIO— BIG NUGGET- TRADE AND COMMERCE. HON. DR. SCHULTZ. IN 1860 the North-West was indeed "the great lone land." There were a few store-keepers at Fort Garry, with whose names I was familiar at that time. I remember the Messrs. Ashdown, who are still largely engaged in business at Win- nipeg. Another was Dr. Schultz, the present Lieut. -Governor of Manitoba. Thirty or more years ago the Doctor visited Montreal and brought a letter of introduction to me from the Messrs. Burbank, of St. Paul, Minn., the Eed Eiver carriers, and I had the pleasure of introducing him to some of the principal merchants of Montreal. During the first Louis Eiel rebellion the Doctor passed through a tremendous ordeal. His store was looted, and he had to make his escape and travel hundreds of miles on snow- shoes in mid-winter. If the traitor, Eiel, had caught the Doctor he would most likely have met with the same fate as that of poor Scott. It is to be hoped that some day, the Hon. Dr. Schultz will give to the world his autobiography, which must be a most interesting one, particularly as regards the early days in the North-West, a subject which is becoming more valuable from year to year. — May, 1893. 350 Railways and Other Ways. PROVINCE OF ONTARIO, 1892. A magnificent map of the Province of Ontario, prepared by Elliott & Son, of Toronto, under the direction of the Bureau of Mines, has been placed in the Imperial Institute, London, England. It is 22 feet long and 15 feet wide. For the first time the new territory north of Lake Superior is placed on a map on the same scale as the older portion of the Province, showing what an enormous extent of country it really is. " The map proper was accurately drawn by Mr. Fisher. In the left-hand upper corner are some statistics which will prob- ably amaze the Britishers who may see the map. The area of the Province is given at 222,650 square miles, of which 187,000 square miles of land remain unsold. The whole area of Great Britain and Ireland is only 121,115 square miles, or over 60,000 less than the portion of Ontario still in the hands of the Crown." Some facts relating to the TRADE AND COMMERCE OF THE DOMINION for the year 1892, taken from the returns of Mr. George Johnson, Dominion Statistician, Ottawa, Ontario, February, 1893 : Miles of railway 1.5,000 Tons of shipping employed 43,802,384 Value exports Canadian cattle S7,748,949 Value exports Canadian cheese $11,632,412 Value exports Canadian sheep $1,38.5,145 Value exports of products of farms $50,703,124 Barrels export apples, number 690,951 Value exports apples $1,444,835 Value products of Canadian fisheries * $18,978,078 Value exports of products of mines .$5,905,471 Value e.xports of manufactured wood .$19,802,165 Value e.xports of home manufactures $25,846,153 Production of coal, tons • 3,623,076 Consumption of coal, tons * 5,855,874 * Items marked thus are for year 1891. Trade and Commerce. 351 DOMINION FISHERIES. The to'^al value of the fisheries of tlie Dominion of Canada has already been shown in the statistics of commerce. The cod fisheries of the Maritime Provinces, the white-fish, herring, bass, sturgeon, and salmon-trout fisheries of the great lakes, and salmon fisheries of the Fraser River, British Colum- bia, are unequalled by any other fisheries in the world. Mr. Todd (a recent visitor from the Pacific Province) gave the Toronto Globe some interesting information as to the salmon fisheries of the Fraser Eiver. Mr. Todd said his firm (J. H. Todd & Son), packed 35,000 cases of salmon this year (1893), that each case contained four dozen one pound cans. The total packed for the season was 425,000 cases— say 10,200 tons. They are mainly shipped to the United States, Great Britain, Australia and the Provinces of the Dominion. A RAILWAY clerk's LUCK THE BOULDER NUGGET OF GOLD. One of the "outcomes" of the London great Exhibition of 1851 was the building of Wyld's Great Globe in Leicester Square. This was in size and somewhat in shape of the Cyclorama struc- ture in the City of Toronto. The mapping of the Globe was done on the inner surface of the big dome, upon a certain scale of inches to the hundred miles. The rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans were shown by indentations of the surface, wliile the islands, continents and mountains stood out in relief according to their elevation above the sea. Galleries inside the Globe enabled the visitor to walk from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from America to Europe in a few minutes, and get a good idea of the comparative height of mountains and length and breadth of rivers, the size of lakes and seas, and the magnitude of oceans. I visited this 352 Railways and Other Ways. remarkable Globe in 1853, and I found that in it, among other interesting exhibits, was the KING OF ALL NUGGETS OF GOLD, and that one of its owners was William Poulton Green, whom I had formerly known as a clerk on the London & North-Western Railway at Wolverhampton, who informed me that he and three other companions found the nugget on Canadian Gully, four miles north-west of Buningyong, and about two miles from Bal- larat, in the Province of Victoria, Australia. The strata in which the monster nugget was found was of fine blue clay, resting upon a blue slate rock, sixty-six feet from the surface. In shape it was that of an immense tongue ; the gold spotted here and there with small specks of quartz. The metal was of the finest quality ; purer by several carats than the standard of gold. It was the largest mass of pure gold ever discovered in the world, its weight being one hundred and thirty- four pounds, eleven ounces, and the presumed value iJ10,000 sterling (or *48,700.) Mr. Green said that when they discovered the nugget at the bottom of the hole, the first thing they did was to cover it up again and think, and wait until night. In the meantime one of the men was despatched for an armed escort, and in the gloom of night they secured the nugget, placed it on the back of a horse, and marcL^ 1 off for Melbourne, leaving one of the number to sell the hole. Next day the news of the astonishing discovery spread like wildfire, and miners from all quarters came to the spot. The hole was then put up to the highest bidder and fetched seven or eight hundred pounds sterling. The four men then took ship for England, and there I found them, exhibiting the nugget at sixpence per head in Wyld's Great Globe. The nugget was found on January 31st, 1853, and I saw it on July 6th the same year. oef NIAGARA FALLS, CANADIAN SIDE. MAID OF THE MIST. STEAMER THE FALLS FROM QUEEN VICTORIA PARK. THE PREMIER OF ONTARIO, SIR OLIVER MOWAT, AND PARTY VISITING CAVE OF THE WINDS. Trade and Commerce. 353 Mr. Green said that a small nugget or two were found in the same hole, but not enough to pay for its cost. The nugget was so smooth that it could be made to shine by rubbing it with the hand. What struck everyone at the first sight was its smallness compared with its weight, but when at- tempting to lift it you found that you had got hold of something as regarded weight, that you had never handled before. The nugget was placed on a bench in the best possible position for being lifted and by placing it against my chest I did manage to raise it from the bench. There was on exhibition, at the same time, models of the largest nuggets on record, but they all sunk into insignificance when placed beside the famous nugget of Canadian Gully. I left for Canada shortly afterwards and never heard how the big nugget was finally disposed of. QUEEN VICTORIA AND SIR GEORGE E. CARTIER. (From the Toronto Empire, December 31, 1892.) While the late lamented Sir George Etienne Cartier was dis- cussing Canadian affairs with the Queen of England, during the few days the great French-Canadian statesman was a guest of Her Majesty at Windsor Castle, England's Queen said, " Mr. Cartier, I hear that the Victoria Bridge at Montreal is a very fine structure. How many feet is it from shore to shore?" "When we Canadians build a bridge," he answered, "and dedicate it to your Majesty, we measure it not in feet but in miles," and it is said that the Queen was so pleased with Cartier's reply that the conversation turned exclusively upon Grand Trunk affairs for an hour after. 23 354 ■ Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEE XXXIV. FACTS, FIGURES AND INCIDENTS. QUEBEC VS. NEW YORK — A COMPARISON. IN my boyhood Quebec was often spoken of in the old country as a very remote spot somewhere not far from the North Pole. One schoolmaster used to relate an incident which once took place at Quebec. It appears that an English regiment was wintering there, when the officer, to test the intensity of the cli- mate, filled a bombshell with water and then plugged it up, and exposed it to the weather. After a time the shell burst with a loud report, just as our water pipes do, sometimes, by ice expansion Another schoolmaster was wide off the mark in another way. He, somehow, had formed a tropical idea of Canada, for when my boys told him that they were going to that country, " Why," said the schoolmaster, " you'll kick cocoanuts in the streets in Canada." Another strange notion may be mentioned. Ex-Mayor , of Hamilton, visited the old country, accompanied by his daughter. On one occasion they were at a party, when Mr. noticed two ladies intently eyeing his daughter. By-and- bye he heard one whisper to the other : " Why, I do not see much difference in color ; she is quite as good a color as ourselves." The ladies had evidently formed a Eed Indian idea of Canada. With a view to remove some of the wrong impressions as to the geographical position of Quebec, as respects its distance from England, I once had some distances printed in a Grand Trunk tariff, a copy of which I now give. These show that Liverpool via Quebec is nearer to Chicago by three hundred miles than it Facts, Figures and Incidents. 355 is via New York. The ocean distances were furnished to me by the late Sir Hugh Allan, and may be relied on. Distance from Liverpool via New York. Distance from Liverpool via Quebec. To 3658 3885 3924 3693 3307 3588 3564 3567 Detroit, Michigan Chicago, Illinois Milwaukee, Wisconsin Cincinnati, Ohio CONSCIENCE MONEY. One occasionally reads that the British Chancellor of Ex- chequer has received certain sums of money from unknown parties, who at some time or other had defrauded the Govern- ment in the non-payment of duties, etc., and in course of time the consciences of these individuals asserts its power, and they are led to make restitution. Now, as public bodies, and especially railway companies, are supposed " to have no souls," I never heard of a railway cor- poration receiving any conscience money except in the one soli- tary case quoted below, and this, be it observed, occurred at To- ronto, Ont., and I think we may safely challenge the railway world to produce another such document. Extract from a railway manager's scrap book : — " N. Weatherston, Esq., " Toronto, May Ist, 1869. "Agent G.W.R. " Sir, — Please place to the credit of the railway the enclosed $141.78. Please to keep this silent and make no endeavour to find out the donor. Suffice it to say that I am indebted that amount to the railway. " F. G. M." "^^ * Mr. Weatherston said that it was never discovered who the party was and that the money was placed to the credit of profit and loss in the Great \Vestern books. 356 Railways and Other Ways. FEELING AGAINST BRITISHERS. When the road was opened through to Portland, and the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Eailway was leased to the G. T. K,, there was a strong feeling amongst the Americans against Brit- ish management and new regulations. A rhymster of Maine wrote some verses in denunciation of the new-comers, which verses were printed and extensively circulated. One regulation of the G. T. E. was that of putting on a broad Scotchman to collect and examine passengers' tickets at the Portland end of the road, which was thus described : — ' ' One hops each day to Falmouth, To keep conductors straight. And croaks out " Tackets gentlemen, The cars will ham to tvait." " These Yankees Hre a thieving set. By them we have been fooled — What ansvs'er you to such a charge, Hobbs, Watterhouse and Gould ?" * The general manager was thus spoken of and his end pre- dicted: — " This end the road is aacred ground, And Yankees wish to run it. Wolves, here, have crept in unawares. And Bidder has begun it ; Be careful, do not leap too far. But cool and candid keep, Or you may leap, as Patch once did,f Your everlasting leap." This feeling, however, against Britishers soon disappeared, and Mr. Bidder became a great favorite at Portland, and when he retired from the service 166 of the American employees subscrib- ed most liberally towards Mr. Bidder's testimonial. * Three conductors. + Sam Patch leaped down Genesee Falls and lost his life. Facts, Figures and Incidents. 357 In 1859, another song came out, no doubt from the same quarter, from which it will be seen that a great change had taken l^lace in the sentiments towards Mr, Bidder, and the denuncia- tion now falls upon Mr. Keith, owing to his proposed reduction in the wages of the Grand Trunk employees : — THE SONG OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY LABORER. BY PHILIP DOKMKR, FIREMAN. When rose-lipped June, enraptured, bent To sip the falling dew, A Reith conceived the foul intent To clap on us the screw Of ten per cent. But where's the man. Who speeds the rail along, But will take up, with heart in hand, The chorus of my song ? May he who dares, with pirate hand. Our " little all " assail, Storm-tost, behold no more the land, But perish in the gale. When honest bluntness is our theme. To Bidder we recur ; For manliness, the very nanie Of Shanley we revere ; But when we think of every ill That pirates can bequeath, Each object serves our minds to fill With reveries of Reith. May he who dares, etc. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SPEECH. As I have been accustomed to the railway terms on both sides of the Atlantic I sometimes use one term and sometimes another. The following are a few of the differences in the vocabu- lary. AMERICAN. ENGLISH. Telegram. Wire. Ticket office. Booking office. Buying a ticket. Booking. Railroad. Railway. 358 Railways and Other Ways. AMERICAN. ENGLISH. Railroad track Permanent way, or line. Rails. Metals. Depot. Station. Switch. Points. Street car. Tram car. Freight train. Goods train. Cars. Carriages, or coaches. Conductor. Guard. Engineer. Driver. Fireman. Stoker. Locomotive. Engine. Baggage. Luggage. All aboard. Seats, please. Trains meeting. Trains crossing. Freight car. Goods van, or waggon. General freight agent. Goods manager. Freight way-bills. Goods invoices. Lumber. Timber. General superintendent. General manager. HOW SOME RAW COTTON VANISHED. During the American Civil War, when cotton was at a famine price, a car-load on its way to Portland took fire near that city, and all was consumed except three or four bales. These were only slightly singed. The track-men had no water, but they had plenty of snow, so they carefully buried each bale in a grave of snow. Then congratulating themselves, they said, " There, we have saved them at any rate," and went their way. Next day they brought a truck to remove the cotton, and found the mounds of snow just as they had left them ; the men set to work to remove the snow, but, much to their astonishment, no cotton could be found — true there were square holes, exactly the size of cotton bales, and at the bottom of each hole two or three inches of black ashes. The cotton had slowly been burnt while under the snow. Freight men may learn this lesson from the above — Never trust to snow to put out a fire. Facts, Figures and Incidents. 359 " EN YO GOT ANY TRUNKS." That was what a man said who entered the Ticket and Freight Manager's office in Montreal. J. B. Jones, who was present, saw that there was a wrinkle of fun in the enquiry, and being somewhat of a wag, replied," Yes, we have got one trunk ;" then led the man into a back closet and pointed out to him an old dilapidated trunk which had passed through the hands of a hundred baggage smashers, and had not a whole bone in its cracked sides, and was only held together by many strings. The man said he wanted a "bran-new trunk, not an old rip like that." Mr. Jones said," That is all the trunk I have, but I can sell you a ticket to Detroit." A glimmer of enlightenment seemed to creep through the man's muddled brain, and he began to see that he was not in a trunk store, but in a railway ticket office, and got out as quick as possible, scratching his head with great energy. HOW THE MAINE LIQUOR LAW WAS CARRIED OUT. Soon after the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Eailway was leased to the Grand Trunk Eailway, and when the " Maine Liquor Law " was fin full force in that State, some barrels of whiskey were stored in the freight shed at Paris (Me.) station. After being there for a few days an order came to ship the whiskey to some other point. When the porters went to remove the barrels they found that all of them were empty. On tracing out the mystery it was found that some one had crept underneath the platform, and with an auger had bored holes through the floor and right into the barrels, and thus let the liquor all run out. As no trace of the whiskey could be found, and as no drunken men were seen about, it was concluded that this was a summary method of most effectually carrying out the principles of the "Maine Liquor Law." 360 Railways and Other Ways. ACTON COPPER A BIG POCKET. About thirty-five years ago, copper was discovered at Acton, Eastern Townships. The ore cropped out at the top of a small hill near the Grand Trunk station. For sometime its owner offered the mine for sale, but people fought shy of it, and did not care to invest in it, until the Hon. C. Dunkin and his brother-in-law, W. H. A, Davies, chief accountant of the G.T.E., two shrewd gentlemen, went down to Acton to inspect the locality, and finally purchased the land and minerals for a few hundred dollars. " They then let the mine to a Mr. Sleeper, on a royalty, who at once commenced working it ; and he soon found that it was of immense value. It could hardly be called a " mine," as that term is ordinarily understood ; for on removing the surface crust of earth the rich copper ore was at once expos- ed, and the working of it was much like that of blasting a stone quarry for rubble stone, and that in full daylight. Mr. Sleeper shipped the copper ore to Boston, and for many months hundreds of tons were so sent, often in train loads on the G.T.E. The mine was a matter of much investigation by the geolo- gists, who considered that its formation was unusual, and that if the copper ore extended any great distance it would certainly be a new feature in mineralogy, but this they doubted, and Sir Wil- liam Logan said it would be found to be what is termed "a pocket," and would ultimately work out. The wiseacres of the time had a great laugh at what they considered the geologists at fault, but Sir William was right. The mine did really work out, but the Grand Trunk Railway carried many thousands of tons of the copper ore to Boston before the big pocket was empty. It was a most j)roductive investment for the three gentlemen con- cerned. I have no statistics as to the tons carried and the amount realized, but I know it went into the hundreds of thous- Facts, Figures and Incidents. 361 ands of dollars, and that Mr. Davies found himself a rich man and soon retired from the services of the Grand Trunk Co. The success of the Acton mine filled the Eastern Townships with " Prospectors," who, for many a day, might have been seen pick and hammer in hand, and satchel on shoulder, looking very mysterious, and very knowing ; penetrating the woods, hills and dales in every direction in search of the much coveted treasure, and though copper was found in small quantities in many different places, no more rich deposits turned up like that of the big " pocket " of Acton. AN ENGINE DRIVER' S FEAT. In the old country are numerous over-head arched bridges. I remember seeing a feat performed by an engine driver which most people would think was impossible. It was this, when he approached a bridge he picked up a bit of coke and threw it above the bridge and caught it as it fell at the other side ; of course he lost sight of the coke, which went over while he went under the bridge. This driver had studied the laws of motion and knew that a body sent from another body, when in motion, retained the mo- tion of the latter until it fell. Did the driver throw the coke over the bridge ? No ! Had he done so, no speed of his locomotive would have overtaken it until it reached the ground. He threw the bit of coke upwards, higher than the bridge, and the momentum gained from the train's motion carried the coke over the bridge at the same speed as the engine. Passengers who jump off a railway train when in motion and get maimed or killed are ignorant of this most important law, and are not aware that their bodies, so to speak, are charged iritJi the train's motion, and the tendencj' when they jump is to throw them forward to the ground. This law of mo- 362 Railways and Other Ways. tion should be experimentally taught to boys at school and would be the means of saving many lives. MOVING BODIES. I remember, when a boy, I had a practical experience of moving bodies, as follows : I was upon a canal boat sailing at a speed of about three miles an hour, when we met a passenger packet boat going at four miles an hour. When the latter came up it passed the canal boat within two or three inches of it and I stepped from one to the other which was quite easy as there was a railing on the packet to take hold of. The shock I got was very extraordinary. Each part of my body seemed to be trying to separate from its fellow part, the one wanting to go east and the other west at the same time. I felt the effects for some time afterwards. The explanation is very simple. My body was charged with the motion of the canal boat, which was suddenly arrested by the contrary motion of the packet boat, and hence the shock pro- duced. THE NEW DOMINION OF CANADA. The confederation of the British North American Provinces took place in 1867. In February, 1893, a writer in the Montreal Gazette gave the following list of the then surviving FATHEKS OF CONFEDERATION. 1. Sir W.P. Howland, born 1811 ; 2. Hon.R. B. Dickey, born 1812 ; 3. Sir A. T. Gait,* born 1817 ; 4. Sir Ambrose Shea, born 1818 ; 5. Sir. S.L. Tilly, born, 1818 ; 6. Sir F. B. T. Carter,t born ^ Sir A. T, Gait died on September 19th, 1893. t Mr. P. H. Carter, who has been on the Grand Trunk Railway staff, at differ- ent points, for the last thirty-eight years, is a native of Newfoundland and a brother of Sir Frederick B. T. Carter. Facts, Figures and Incidents. 363 1819; 7. Sir Oliver Mowat, born 1820; 8. Sir Charles Tupper, born 1821 ; 9. Hon. William McDougall, born January 18, 1822 ; 10. Hon. T. H. Haviland, born November, 1822; 11. Hon. Peter Mitchell, born 1824 ; 12. Sir Hector Langevin, born 1826 ; and 13. the Hon. A. A. McDonald, born 1829. Among those who still occupy prominent positions in Can- adian public life may be mentioned Sir Oliver Mowat, Premier of Ontario ; Sir Leonard Tilley, Lieutenant-Governor of New Bruns- wick ; the Hon. Peter Mitchell ; Sir Hector Langevin, until recent- ly Minister of Public Works for Canada ; the Hon. William Mc- Dougall, a well known writer on constitutional questions, and Sir Charles Tupper, High Commissioner for Canada in Eng- land. GREATNESS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. " It embraces a fifth of the habitable globe, of which the Dominion forms nearly one-fifth of the whole. An empire five times as large as that which was under Darius ; four times the size of that under ancient Ptome ; sixteen times greater than France ; forty times greater than United Germany ; three times larger than the United States. Australia alone nearly as big as the States ; India nearly a million and a quarter square miles, Canada 600,000 square miles larger than the United States with- out Alaska, and 18,000 square miles larger with it !" * An empire nearly 9,000,000 square miles, with a population of 310,000,000. * From a speech by Dr. Beers, of Montreal, delivered at Syracuse, N.Y., Oct. 25th, 1888. 364 Railways amd Other Ways. CHAPTER XXXV. ANECDOTES-FISH AND OTHER STORIES. THE STURGEON. THIRTY-FIVE years ago this fish was considered of little or no value in Ontario. At Point Edward, Sarnia, the fishermen hated to see a sturgeon come up in their nets, as they tore the meshes of the net, and their custom was to knock the fish on the head and then throw it into the lake again. One day Superintendent Martin was at Point Edward when a sturgeon was caught, some 70 lbs. weight, and the fishermen were about to throw it into the lake as usual, when Martin bought it for a quarter, and had it nicely packed and expressed to Engineer Trembicki, of Montreal ; on reach- ing there Mrs. Trembicki would not allow, as she said, " the nasty thing to come into her house." Next morning Mr. Sturgeon was seen looking through the window of Dolly's Chop House, in Great St. James street. Since then the sturgeon has become an article of value and in demand for shipment to the United States, and fisher- ies have been established on the north shore of Lake Huron for taking the sturgeon. The fish, it would seem, are very plen- tiful. A Pittsburg gentleman, who recently paid a visit to those fisheries, said: "One night the men made a single haul that brought seventy-five big sturgeon, all weighing above twenty pounds each, three-fourths of them averaging above sixty pounds each, and one of the very biggest of the lot — the boss sturgeon of the season — bringing down the steelyards at 161 pounds. That Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stories. 365 night, with our four hauls, we took 215 sturgeon, at an average weight of above 50 pounds. None weighing less than 20 pounds are slaughtered and dressed for the smoked-fish industry in Detroit, there to be sold fresh in steaks and roasts, or smoked and dried to be disposed of as " halibut " ready for table use. The roe, or eggs, of the sturgeon are regarded as a great delicacy by those who have cultivated a somewhat exclusive and high- toned appetite for it . THE STUEGEON AND THE FEENCHMAN. One day our agent at Sherbrooke wired me for a rate for fresh fish in carloads from there to Boston. Now, Sherbrooke being an inland town, I was somewhat puzzled to know where " fresh fish in carloads " were to come from. True the rivers St. Francis and the Magog joined at Sherbrooke, and a pike or two, or "A lusty trout, and here and there a grayling," might now and then be caught, but hardly become much of an article to increase our trafinc receipts. Shortly afterwards this was explained by a big burly native of France, walking into the G.T.E. general office at Montreal, who told us that he and some Boston capitalists were about to develop the fisheries of Lake Megantic, and their intention was to lay down a tram road from Sherbrooke to the lake, some forty or fifty miles, to bring down the fish and carry the supplies up. He further said that the lake fairly swarmed with fish, more particu- larly sturgeon, that recently he had "rowed four miles, in a boat on the lake, and that the fish were so thick that the boat could hardly get through them." He said it was " intended to ship the fish in ice by the Allan steamships to Liverpool ; that the stur- geon was a " royal fish " which commanded a very high price, while the roe or spawn of the sturgeon was considered as the 366 Railways and Other Ways. most dainty of all dishes in England." He told us this tale with all the gravity and plausibility of a judge. At Lake Megantic sheds and cottages were put up, wharves made, fishing boats, nets, etc., supplied, men sent up to catch the fish. The Grand Trunk made something for carrying the fishing outfit and the men, but they did not get a single dollar for car- rying the fish. The scheme soon burst up and the Boston capi- talists found that they had been led into dreamland by the burly Frenchman. THE FRENCHMAN AND THE GRAPES. The fishing story, above related, would be incomplete with- out giving the addenda to it, in the form of a grape story. Some seven or eight years after the events narrated above, I was on the staff of the Great Western Railway at Hamilton, when one day there waddled into my office the identical burly Frenchman. I knew him at once, and told him so. He was rather taken aback at this, but he soon rallied and said, " Yes, I did once know some of de shentlemen of de Grond Tronc," and went on to say that he and gentlemen of Montreal had formed a company for the cultivation of the grape vine on the European plan ; that they had purchased lands at Cooksville, Ontario, and were building extensive wine vaults, and were going to manufacture brandy. He said the people of Can- ada did not know how to cultivate the grape to make it valuable ; that he was bringing over practical men from the grape districts of Europe, who thoroughly understood the business, and that a great revolution in grape culture in Canada would be the result. The Frenchman exhibited the same degree of seriousness and plausibility as he did when he told us the fish story. He was the greatest genius in that line I ever met, and no wonder that Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stoics. 367 be induced merchants, lawyers, and at least one judge, to join him in the scheme. I think out of all this outlay one solitary carload only of wines and liquors were shipped to Windsor, and shortly after- wards a fire took place where the stufi' was housed ; the whole went uj) in smoke and the burly Frenchman disappeared from the scene. The loss to the Grape Company was very large, and its history and wind-up since would make another chapter which I cannot give. At the same time we must give the Frenchman some credit. The men he imported were no shams, they gave many useful hints as to grape culture, which have been carried out with great suc- cess, as evidenced by the splendid exhibition of grapes at our annual fairs — approaching in appearance and quality those of Europe. A QUEER BED AT FARGO. Mr. J. B. Jones tells a story of once staying over night at an hotel in Fargo, North Dakota. When he got into his bed he felt something hard beneath him, and, being of a curious turn of mind, he thought he would investigate the matter in the morning, and to make sure of the hard intruder, whatever it was, he w^orked it into a corner of the bed and secured it with a knot. On rising in the morning Mr. Jones ripped the part of the bed open and the outcome was a big cob of well-seasoned corn. When he went down stairs the landlord asked him if he had slept well. " Fairly-f airly," said Mr. Jones, "but Fargo beds are rather queer institutions. I took this (producing the cob of corn) out of mine,'' to the great astonishment of the landlord and the roaring laughter of the bystanders. It is many years since this occurred, but Mr. Jones still treasures up that corn cob as a souvenir of the city of Fargo and its queer beds. 368 Railways and Other Ways. JACK MAGUIRE, THE BAGGAGE-MAN. " When in Chicago recently," said N. Weatherston yester- day, " I met Crane, who was playing * The Senator ' to crowded houses." I had not seen him to speak to since he was with the Holmans. I knew him well in those days and all the Holman family. " During a very pleasant chat he burst out with, ' What was the name of that baggage-man when you were the Great Western agent ? Jack , Jack , the man icith only one arm?' 'Jack Maguire ? ' I suggested. 'Yes, Jack Maguire.' Then he went on: ' I will never forget what I am going to tell you so long as I live. You remember that in those days the Holmans put on a new piece every night, and great was their anxiety after the first act as to how it would please the audience. One night after the first act they gathered round me and said, ' Billy, do you think it is going to take ? ' 'It will take all right,' I said, ' for I saw Jack Maguire clapping his hands.'" OUR FIRST TRIP TO PORTLAND — A WARM BED. My first visit to Portland was made in company of Mr. Eoberts in the fall of 1853. On reaching Island Pond at night we had to stay there until morning to take the train on to Port- land. Island Pond was then just emerging from the wilderness, and things generally had not settled down. A long wooden shed had been hurriedly built, divided into stalls for sleeping accom- modation for passengers and workmen ; the beds generally con- tained three individuals, but Eoberts and I, as a great privilege, were allowed one bed between us. Ptoberts got into bed first, and exclaimed," Why, it's warm." "Yes," said I, " I have been making some enquiries about the ways and means of this place and find that the beds are always occupied, something after the ' Box and I Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stories. 369 €ox ' style, you know ; one was a day sleeper and the other a night sleeper, and their landlady made her beds do double duty." Each stall was separated by a thin board partition from its fellow, and the uncouth sounds that came from the two or three dozen snorers made night hideous. In a short time a fine hotel sprang up at Island Pond, and it became a nice place to spend a day or two, fishing and boating on the little lake, or scouring the wild woods, gun in hand in search of game. TO MEET HIM AT MIDNIGHT. One day I got a telegram from a man, en route from Cincin- nati, to meet him at midnight at Point St. Charles, Montreal, to make a contract for many thousands of barrels of pork to Liver- pool. Now, as the train arriving from the west at midnight did not go any further, I did not see any necessity, nor did I care to go two miles at that untimely hour to meet my nocturnal visitor, but next morning I went round to all the hotels to hunt the porkman up, but no such gentleman could be found. I then wrote to our agent at Cincinnati, who replied that all the western cities in the Union could not supply one-half the barrels of pork named, and further that the man was a " crank," who by the time he reached Kingston was wild and crazy and the police had to take charge of him. I considered that I had had rather a for- tunate escape, for if the man had come on to Point St. Charles, and I had met him, he might have demanded a low rate at the point of a revolver, and said " a cheap rate or 3^our life." THE " TOSSICATED " (tOSSED ABOUT) EXCURSIONIST. One rainy night I entered the compartment of an English first-class carriage at Fleetwood to go to Preston. The compart- ment was made to seat six passengers, but a dozen men and "women crowded in. How we all sat I cannot now call to mind, 24 370 Raihvays and Other Ways. but we were a pleasant company and many funny stories were told. One of the women related her experience of her first rail- way journey. She spoke in the broadest Lancashire dialect, as nearly as I can remember, as follows : "Ah live at Blegburn (Blackburn), and ah gete (got) up at fewer (four) o'clock this morning, and tuk shanks gal (walked) to Prayston (Preston), (10 miles) ; when ah gete theer ah bout (bought) a ticket fo Fleetwood. Be that taam (time) ole (all) kerridges wor cramed wy folks (passengers) and theer wure nout left fo me and a thasen (1,000) skirmists (excursionists) bod (but) oh lot o goods waggins, so ah gete into one we a hundred moor folks, and then th' train started, bod we hedent (had not; gooen (gone) two hundred yards, when ah seed (saw) annuder train coming up rete lords (towards) us and we o set up a yell as mote hev bin heered (heard) a maale (mile) off. The engine pitched int hawer waggin and tornd it rete ower and we o went flying and gete sich a tossicating abaut as a nare felt afoor (before). Bonnets wure creshed as flat as pancakes and close (clothes) wur wrageld (rumpled) and ripd up, theer wur lots o bloody noses bod non ot folks wur much hort, 'cept a big lad et hed his leg put aut a joint, and he somehaw gete into anuder waggin and goed to Fleetwood, weer heed to stay undert doctor's hands. Well, ah wurent gooing to be dun ante a my trip, soa ah scrambled to anuder waggin and away th train started, and when it crossd th sote (salt) watter on a brig (bridge) or piles as they cawed it, two maales long, ah wur rete feared et we mote (might) be tossicated intath watter. When ah gete to Fleetwood ah staarted rete away fort goo and see t' ships and hev a drink o sote (salt) watter. By-em-by ah wur guiled (persuaded) et hev a sail in a smo (small) booet (boat) and ah wur tossicated abaut an thout (thought) naw aam gooing et be drawnd sure. When ah gete to th land et started to rain lak cats and dogs, and ah med Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stories. 371 rete (right) away fort station. On reaching theer ah found it jamd up wy folks and a pushed 'mong em and wur tornd (turned) rawnd and rawnd and tossicated here and tossicated theer til nearly ote hreath wur drove haut o ma stummick (body). Et last Ide th good luck et scrambled int this kerridge." She then in the most emphatic language said : " Ah nare (never) went fro whom (home) afoor (before) and aal (I'll) nare goo agen." HOW CLAIMS WERE SETTLED IN THE EARLY DAYS. The accident referred to in the foregoing account of the ex- cursionist's travels, occurred at Preston, on the Fleetwood Eail- way, where that line is crossed by the Lancaster Railway. A Fleetwood excursion train crowded with passengers, mostly in cattle waggons, was passing the crossing when a Lancaster train came up, and, though nearly brought to a stand, the engine over- turned one of the waggons and tumbled ninety or one hundred passengers out without doing much damage, except to that of clothing. I remember that all next day I sat in my office holding a sort of levee, settling claims for loss and damage arising from this railway accident. Bonnets and hats of all manner of crushed forms and indentations, torn shawls, dilapidated dresses, fragmentary umbrellas and other things, were brought for my inspection by the unfortunate excursionists, and the different de- grees of damage pointed out by them, and claims handed in, all of which were settled promptl}' and upon fairly reasonable terms. In those early railway days passengers had not made the discovery that a railway accident was a mine of wealth to many of those who happened to be in it, and that a railway company might be mulct in fabulous amounts for damages without its claimants having the slightest consideration or sympathy for the unfortunate shareholders who formed the railway company. 372 Raihuays and Other Ways. Mr. Williams relates a passenger's adventures as follows : " An old lady was going from Brookfield to Stamford and took a seat in a train for the first and last time in her life. During the ride the train was thrown down an embankment. Crawling from beneath the debris unhurt, she spied a man sitting down, but with his legs held by some heavy timber, ' Is this Stamford ? ' she anxiously enquired, ' No, madam,' was the reply, ' this is a catastrophe.' 'Oh!' she cried, 'then I hadn't oughter got off here.' " HOW FRIENDSHIPS WERE QUICKLY MADE. "I have never," says another traveller, "got so well acquainted with the passengers on the train as I did the other day on the Milwaukee & St. Paul Eailroad. We were going at the rate of about thirty miles an hour, and another train from the other direction telescoped us. We were all thrown into each other's society, and brought into immediate social contact, so to speak. I went over and sat in the lap of a corpulent lady from Manitoba, and a girl from Chicago jumped over nine seats and sat down on the plug hat of a preacher from La Crosse, with so much timid, girlish enthusiasm that it shoved his hat clear down over his shoulders. Everybody seemed to lay aside the usual cool reserve of strangers, and we made ourselves entirely at home. One young man left his own seat and went over and sat down in a lunch basket, where a bridal couple seemed to be wrestling with their first picnic. Do you think if he had been at a celebration at home that he would have risen impetuously and gone where those people were eating by themselves, and sat down in the cranberry jelly if a total stranger ? I shall rather think not. Why, one old man, who probably at home led the class-meeting, and who was as dignified as Koscoe Conk- ling's father, was eating a piece of custard pie when we met the other train, and he left his own seat, went to the other end of the Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stories. 373 car and shot that piece of custard pie into the ear of a beautiful widow from Iowa. People travelling somehow forget the aus- terity of their home lives, and form acquaintances that sometimes last through life." HOW A SMALL PIG WAS CHAXGED TO TWO DOGS AND THEN INTO A HORSE. " I have been a rector for many years," says a traveller, " and have often heard and read of tithe pigs, though I have never met with a specimen of them. But I had once a little pig given to me which was of a choice breed, and only just able to leave his mother, I had to convey him by carriage to the X station ; from thence 23 miles to Y station, and from thence 82 miles to Z station, and from there, 8 miles by carriage. I had a comfort- able rabbit-hutch of a box made for him, with a supply of fresh cabbages for his dinner on the road. I started off with my wife, children and nurse ; and of these impediments piggy proved to be the most formidable. First council of war was held over him at X station by the railway officials, who finally decided that this small porker must travel as " two dogs." Two dog tickets were therefore procured for him, and so we journeyed to Y station. There a second council of war was held, and the officials of the Y said that the officials of X (another line) might be prosecuted for charging my piggy as two dogs, but that he must travel to Z as a horse, and that he must have a huge horse-box entirely to himself for the next 82 miles. I declined to pay for a horse- box. They refused to let me have my pig. Officials swarmed around me ; the station master advised me to pay for the horse- box and probably the company would return the extra charge. I scorned the probability, having no faith in the company. The train (it was a London express) was already detained ten minutes by this wrangle, and finally I was whirled away bereft of my pig. 374 Railways and Other Ways. I felt sure that be would be forwarded by tbe next train, but as that would not reach Z till a late hour in the evening, and it was Saturday, I had to tell my pig tale to the officials, and not only so, but to goto the adjacent hotel, and hire a pig-stye till the Monday, and fee a porter for seeing to the pig until I could send a cart for him on that day. Of course the pig was sent after me by the next train, and as the charge for him was less than a half- penny a mile, I presume he was not considered to be a horse. Yet this fact remains — and it is worth the attention of the Zoological Society, if not of railway officials — that this small porker was never recognized as a pig, but began his railway journey as two dogs and was then changed into a horse." A SMALL DOG IN A LADY's MUFF. Early railway officials had very peremptory orders given to them (by the directors) which were liable to be carried out to the letter, rather than the spirit of the law. I knew a station agent who took great pleasure in ferreting out dogs, which sometimes were smuggled on board trains. One day he spied the nose of a little pup peeping from out a lady's muff, when he said, " madam, you have got a dog, it must have a dog's ticket, be i)aid for, and go in the carriage ' boot ; ' dogs are not allowed to travel in the same compartment as passengers," and poor little pup (about the size of a two months kitten) was put in the "boot," to the great grief of the lady. THE MONKEY PASSENGER. A railway porter going through a passenger train in England to examine the tickets, spied a baby of a monkey peeping with great gravity from under a passenger's arm, when he said to the latter, "You'll hevto pay for that hanimal, we'll charge it as one dog." " But it isn't a dog," said the passenger. " Well then," said the porter, "we'll co it an hinsect." Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stories. 375 KEEP OUT OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Mr. Thompson, formerly Collector of Customs at Coaticook, once told me that when he was stationed at a custom house on the boundary line, he offended an American in some way by carry- ing out the law in connection with the department. It must be remembered that there was no visible line at the' point in question to indicate where Queen Victoria's territory ended and where " Uncle Sam's" began, except certain posts at considerable distances from each other. One day Mr. Thompson was taking a quiet stroll into the coun- try and paying no attention as to whether he was walking in Canada or the United States, and not dreaming that the lynx eye of an U. S. detective was watching his (Thompson's) movements, when all of a sudden he was pounced upon and taken prisoner. Mr. T. protested against such an unwarrantable thing as that of capturing one of Her Majesty's Officers of Customs. " Ah — ah, my fine fellow, I have you," said the detective, " Queen Vic. has no power here, you are in the United States." After being detained some time, and undergoing an examination Mr. Thompson was allowed to return to Canada. He then re- ported the circumstances to the Minister of Customs at Quebec, from whom he received the following \evy curt reply: — "You should keep out of foreign countries." " BOWLED OUT." At the early half-yearly meetings of the North Staffordshire Eailway Mr. Haywood and other shareholders were in the habit of making strong remarks about the expensive station buildings at Stoke-on-Trent. The structures were of the Elizabethan style of architecture, and very fine. The arcades were paved with Minton's encaustic tiles, beautiful in design and execution. 376 Railivays and Other Ways. It was of them that the shareholders complained most. John Lewis Ricardo, the president, did not answer these complaints for a time, but at last got up and said that much had been said about those ornamental tiles and their expense, and he thought it was just as well to tell them that for those richly de- corated floors they (the company) were indebted to the Messrs^ Minton's, who had presented the whole of them to the company. This remark produced roars of laughter and Mr. Haywood ex- claimed : " I am bowled out." A COAL STORY. Geologists had declared that there was no coal in Upper or Lower Canada, that the age of the surface strata was far older than that of the coal formation, notwithstanding this about 34 years ago there came to Montreal, on the wings of the telegraph, the astounding fact that coal had been discovered at Bowman- ville. We, of the Grand Trunk, were in great glee and threw up our hats ; we saw, in imagination, trains of the black and valued mineral moving in every direction. The excitement in all the towns and cities between Quebec and Windsor was immense. The geologist survey gentlemen were at a discount. A specimen of the newly discovered coal was sent to a learn- ed professor at Toronto, and he gravely asserted that it was " a pure specimen of indurated bitumen.'" Few people understood what that meant, but all the same thought it must be something good and hurrahed again. Another specimen reached Sir William Logan, and he at once said that it was " undoubtedly good coal," but (confound those huts) quietly said he " thought it had come from Newcastle- on-Tyne." Then the people were " as mad as hatters," and said Sir William knew nothing. The coal was reported to have been discovered by a farmer when digging a well, and crowds of people rushed to the spot and Anecdotes — Fish and Other Stories. 377 large sums were offered for the mine, when some shrewd fellow made a fatal suggestion, "that the mine should he examined." " Just so," said the speculators and others about the well, and at once a derrick was rigged up and men sent down who began to send up coal, say to the extent of 300 or 400 lbs., when a voice from the bowels of the earth said, " There is no more coal." It vf&s Newcastle-on-Tyne coal and had been "planted" by the farmer. There was then a general cry to tar-and-feather the man, but they finally hooted him from the place, and I heard after- wards that he sold his farm and quitted the country. OPENING OF AN ENGLISH EAILWAY IN THE EAELY DAYS. Braithwaite Poole used to have a fund of railway anecdotes which he was wont to relate at the Goods Manager's dinners. One, I remember, was in reference to an opening of an early English road, but it cannot be well told in words, as it requires a consummate actor to do full justice to it, but Poole did it to perfection. He said that the directors of the line, before its final opening, made a tour of inspection, to see that station agents and men were all at their posts, and that all was ship- shape and in tidy order. The public on the line of route were so delighted at the opening of the railway that they determined to give the directors a right royal reception, and among other things, refreshments, with champagne, in no meagre quantity, were provided at every station. At the first station the station- master was called up, " Now," said the president, " we shall expect you to keep perfectly sober, attend promptly to your duties, keep the station clean and tidy, be civil and obliging to passengers, and above all to remember that any act of intoxication, insubor- dination, or incivility will meet with instant dismissal." The directors then joined the public in health-drinking, amid a battery of cork-artillery ; then on to next station, where the 378 Railways and Oilier Ways. same flourish of trumpets, and the same advice to the station- master were repeated, and at the next and the next station ; but now the eilects of the champagne began to tell, president and directors began to talk all at once in rather a thick voice, as " be you the shation-master, keep per-(hic)-fectly shober — acts of in- (hic) -civil- (hie) -ity meet with in-shanly dish-(hic)-miss-al." By the time they neared the end of the line, they began to see a station-master in every man, and each of the directors seized hold of one of the public, and addressed him as the station-master, telling him " to keep sho-(hic)-ber, or he'ed be dish- (hie) -mish- (hie) -ed." The directors came back at the bottom of the railway coach in various attitudes of prostration, looking as though they had passed through a pulp mill. SHUNTED AND STUCK. Another about Crewe Station : — Poole said that a lady com- plained to the directors of the London and North Western Kail- way that she had been grossly insulted by one of the porters at Crewe station. An enquiry was made into the matter, and the superintendent called upon the porter to explain his conduct. The man spoke in the broad Lancashire dialect, and said, he " never 'suited a lady," he said, " ah M'or gooing past a lot o' kerridges and ah seed a woman i'one o'em and ah hoppendth door, and ah said, yo mun ger a'at or yole be shunted and stuck." Meaning that the lady must get out as the coach would be .shunted into a siding, and she would be left behind. INSTRUCTIONS ON A CLOCK. In a railway station in Iowa is the following placard over the clock :— " This is a clock ; it is running; it is Chicago time; it is right; it is set every day at 10 o'clock. Now keep your mouth shut." Anniversary — My Valedictory. 379 CHAPTER XXXVI. ANNIVERSARY MAMMOTH CAVE PRINTING PRESS MY VALEDICTORY. CELEBRATING THE 40tH ANNIVERSARY OF LANDING IN CANADA. MR J. B. JONES, of Toronto, agent of the Dominion line of steamships, and Mr. Myles Pennington, of the Grand Trunk Eailway, on Friday evening last, celebrated in the way of a private banquet at the residence of Mr. Jones, Simcoe street, the 40th anniversary of their landing in Canada. Messrs. Jones and Pennington came out from England on the SS. "Sarah Sands," one of the ocean pioneers of the St. Lav^rence route. On the festive board, round which the celebrationists and a small companj^ of friends gathered, there stood a miniature model of the "Sarah Sands," her hull represented by an oblong crystal, and her decks, smokestack and top works artistically constructed of flowers. Close to the ship ran a miniature rail- way, with a tiny G. T. R. locomotive upon the rails, both roadway and engine partially hidden by the choicest specimens from the floral kingdom. These pretty decorations, so appropriate to the occasion, were designed and arranged by the Misses Jones. AN INTERESTING JOURNAL. During all the years of his residence in Canada, Mr. Penn- ington has preserved intact a journal of the events of the passage out from the old sod. The document, which the writer has named " Outward Bound," is rather interesting as a description of an Atlantic voyage at a time when steam navigation had not as yet emerged from its primitive stage. Dinner concluded, Mr. 880 Railways and Other Ways. Pennington read for the entertainment of his friends a number of extracts from this journal. A few of these extracts are given below : — July 22nd, 1853.— On board the " Sarah Sands," the Isle of Man in sight. The vessel is a full-rigged sailing ship, with an auxiliary screw. She is a sure and a safe ship, but a slow one. Cannot make much progress against a head wind, and may be twenty days in reaching Quebec. Note : — Her actual time from Liverpool to Quebec wa& twenty-three days. A STORM AT SEA. July 23rd.— A storm at sea. Mrs. P. awoke me this morning at two o'clock, with the pleasing intelligence that the ship was about to turn over. Now there was hurrying to and fro ; in hot haste the stewards ran from berth to berth, uncom- fortable sounds were heard on every hand, and the passengers groaned and moaned, and bitterly lamented that they had come to sea. At breakfast this morning only one solitary individual made his appearance in the first cabin, and he contented him- self with a basin of gruel. July 25th. — Incidents of the storm : Capt Usley has been tumbled out of his berth for the first time in his life ; the bar- ometer has gone down to 28 2-10, lower than he ever saw it before. A child died during the night. A sea struck the ship and almost drowned some of us in six feet of brine on deck. July 26th. — A funeral at sea. The body of the child that died yesterday was this morning launched into the deep, amid the solemn silence of the passengers and crew. The doctor read the funeral service. We now begin to look upon the ship as a kind of home^ and walk the deck with a sailor's swing. Anniversary — My Valedictory. 381 August 1st. — Barometer, 30 2-10, being two inches of mercury higher than it was on the twenty-fifth. The sea smooth and lake-Hke. August 3rd. — I make the acquaintance of a priest on board, one L'Abbe Chappi, superior of the Brothers of St. Joseph of Mars, in France. He gives me lessons in French and I give him lessons in English. He says pronouncing the English words will break his teeth. August 5th. — We see lots of stormy petrels ( " Mother Carey's chickens,") which the sailors say contain the souls of drowned sailors. South Belle Isle in sight. " Land ho ! " North Belle Isle — Aurora borealis — a glorious sight. August 9th. — Gulf of St. Lawrence — A butterfly flies over the ship, though we are out of sight of land. August 12th. — The St. Lawrence river. The Island of Orleans. Get a glimpse of Montmorency Falls. Arrive at Quebec, the Gibraltar of Canada. August 13th. — Mr. Jones tells me now, that a few days ago the coal in the " Sarah Sands " took fire, and that it was with some difficulty that it was put out. We were saved from a terrible calamity. This circumstance was only known to two or three of the passengers at the time. Thus was prevented a panic. TORONTO AND MONTREAL IN 1853. When Mr. Pennington had finished reading the journal, a general conversation ensued, regarding the great strides that have been made in the matter of ocean navigation, and regarding the development of Canada and her commerce since the time of the " Sarah Sands." In 1853 it took the old " Sarah " twenty-three days to cross the Atlantic, whereas re- cently the " Campania" made the run from Sandy Hook to Queens- 382 Railways and Other Ways. town, in five days, fourteen hours and twenty-seven minutes.* Forty years ago one solitary ocean steamship made Montreal her port, and not long since as many as twenty-three Atlantic steamers were counted at one time in the harbor of the eastern metropolis. When Messrs. Pennington and Jones arrived on this side, the G. T. E. was just putting on its swaddling clothes, as it were. There were then only two hundred and fifty miles of railway in the two Canadas. To-day the total railway mileage of the Dominion is 15,000. The year he landed, Mr. Pennington's son gathered mush- rooms in a field near the present site of the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, and at that time green fields and orchards stretched away just north of Queen street in this city (Toronto). (Toronto Empire, August ISth, 1893.) A VISIT TO THE MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY, JUNE, 1861. Piailway officers, in their travels through the country, have opportunities of seeing some of nature's wonders. On one occasion I was on a business trip in Kentucky, and being near the celebrated Mammoth Cave, I paid a visit to it and wrote a description which appeared in some Canadian, United States and English papers. As the narrative may be of interest to my readers, I repeat it here : — This gigantic freak of nature is situated 95 miles from Louisville, Kentucky, and is reached by a ride of 84 miles on the Louisville & Nashville Eailroad to Cave City station, and a stage drive of nine miles beyond. There is an hotel near the mouth * The steamship " Labrador " of the Dominion Line, sailed from Liverpool on the 6th July, 1893, and left Moville, Ireland, on the 7th at 3.07 p.m., arriving at Quebec on the 14th at 4.0.5 p.m., deducting 4-5 minutes' detention at Rimouski landing mails, thus making her net time 7 days and 13 minutes between Moville and Quebec. The " Labrador" reached her wharf at Montreal on the 15th July at half- past one p.m. Anniversary — My Valedictory. 383 of the cave, with accommodation for 200 guests, and there, in ordinary seasons, assemble people from all countries, attracted by the fame of this king of caves ; but this season will (unfor- tunately for the proprietors) be an exception to the general rule. Men's minds are too much occupied with the din of war to care much about natural curiosities ; although the State of Kentucky is still quiet, it is surrounded by the burning lava of war, which may at any moment burst its bounds and overspread this beau- tiful country.* The Mammoth Cave was discovered, some 60 years ago, by a hunter, who chased a wolf into the entrance, then thickly over- grown with wood. It was a hot morning last June, that the writer, with a friend, and " Nick," a negro guide, started to explore the cave, having first secured a basket of provisions, four lamps, and some Bengal lights. The thermometer stood at 85° in the shade, but on approaching the entrance to the cave its near presence was felt by the sensible and agreeable change of temperature, until coming opposite the mouth, when the cool air came out with a rush, like a current of air passing through an ice-house. The temperature inside the cave is said to remain at 59° all the year round. The entrance presented a large, dark, irregular, gloomy-looking vault ; but after descending an incline for a short distance, we entered the main avenue, five miles in length, from forty to sixty feet in height, and from 50 to 100 feet * March, 1862. — The vicinity of the cave, since my visit has been the scene of bloodshed and strife. Bowling Green, Green, Cumberland Rivers, and "Fort Donnelson," all places of note during the fratricidal war, are at no great distance. As an incident of the present war, and in connection with my visit to the Mammoth Cave, I may relate that my companion explorer referred to above, when travelling through Michigan some three months afterwards, was pounced upon by the United States police as a spy, or one giving aid to the Confederate States, and without a trial was hurried off to Fort Lafayette, from thence to Fort Warren, where he was confined for about three months ; but finally liberated at the instance of Lord Lyons. A heavy claim has been made upon the American Government for his unwarrantable imprison- ment. My friend is a British subject and holds a commission in the Canadian Militia, t never heard that he recovered anything (1894). 384 Raihvays and Other Ways. in width. In one part are the remains of three or four huts, where, many years ago, a kind of hospital was estabhshed, on the supposition that the dry state of the air and even tempera- ture might be beneficial to some of the "ills that flesh is heir to " ; but the experiment failed, the parties, no doubt, finding that the light of the sun was absolutely necessary to the preser- vation of health. During the war of 1812, these peaceful haunts resounded with the busy hum of men, and the lowing of oxen, for the purpose of manufacturing saltpetre. The vats and wooden pipes are still in a good state of preservation ; even the hoofs of the oxen and the ruts of the cart wheels are visible in the clay, now hard and dry as stone, and in one spot we picked up some frag- ments of Indian corn cob, where the oxen had been fed. The top of the cave was in some places perfectly smooth and white, as if plastered ; in others, coloured with various dark shades, presenting grotesque figures of an Indian and his squaw, a spread eagle, an ant-eater, etc. In another, the roof, which was 100 feet in height, was fretted with small glittering spots, resembling the starry heavens on a bright clear night, which, by a little artistic skill of the guide, became overcast by a dark cloud, and the moon appeared to rise in a far distant part of the cave. This scenic display of " Nick's " was perfection. The sides of the cave presented an endless variety of fantas- tic forms, cut and shaped with all the lines of oddity as well as beauty, and bore evident proof of being formed by the action of water, at some remote period, when a great river must have rolled through these caves. Another avenue of two miles in length, and about the same as the other in height and width, contained some immense stalactites, forming a venerable Gothic chapel, with pulpit complete ; when illuminated by a Bengal light, the interior of A nni versary. 385 York Cathedral and Westminster Abbe}^ sink into insignificance when compared with this gorgeous spectacle. Enormous columns, formed by the dripping of water, support the massive roof, covered with an endless variety of apparently carved work of the most complicated description. " Nick " said that a marriage was solemnized here some years ago by a romantic couple, who persuaded a clergyman to officiate on the occasion. The lady had, it appears, promised her mother that she would never marry a man on the face of the earth, so (as Nick said with a chuckle) she went into the earth, and thereby got a husband and kept her vow at the same time. Continuing our journey, we arrived at what appeared to be the end of the cave in that direction, but the guide entered a narrow slit in the rock called "Fat Man's Misery." Now the writer has a certain rotundity of form ; hence he thought this was the termination of his travels, but by going sideways he managed to squeeze through, and came out into the Fat Man's Misery, only three feet high, from which we passed into the Happy Eelief, a large roomy hall. We then began to descend, and the tinkling of water was heard in the distance. A short walk brought us to the river Styx, a dark and gloomy-looking water, which we crossed by a wooden bridge. Near this was the "Bottomless Pit," down which we threw a blazing piece of paper and we watched it fly from one side to the other until it reached the bottom, 100 feet below. A little further and we came to a small lake, over which we crossed in a boat, continuing on for about a mile through a variety of immense vaults, and among huge rocks hanging over the roof and spreading over the floor of the cave in wild disorder, as if shaken by an earthquake ; while at other places the rock was smooth and worked as if with a chisel, presenting in one case a beautiful arch, which having no particular name, we called " Victoria Bridge," and Nick promised 25 386 Railways and Other Ways. to jot that down for the benefit of future explorers. Echo river was then reached ; it takes its name from the remarkable echoes that may be heard. A shout or pistol shot is repeated 20 or 30 times, until the sound dies away in the distance. In winter, or during great floods in the rivers without the cave, this one rises and fills the cave for many miles, high as the roof, rendering that portion impassable. Entering a flat-bottomed boat, we pushed ourselves along a distance of three-quarters of a mile through the most intricate passages under shelving rocks, where we had to lie down in the bottom of the boat ; then out into a large high tunnel, or into an immense dome, which when illumi- nated by a Bengal light, shone as if sparkling with a canopy of diamonds. The river is four hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and is in many places forty feet deep ; it is celebrated as containing the eyeless fish, one of which our guide caught, along with two small cray-fish. We examined them closely when alive, but no vestige of an eye could be seen. The writer brought them away as trophies, and now has them preserved in spirits.* We travelled on until we reached a point six miles from the mouth of the cave, when the writer's lamp showed signs of extinc- tion, and on asking the guide for oil he said he had none, and the deposit was three miles beyond. This was rather startling news, for we had crossed the river, the boat was consequently on our side, no one therefore could reach us ivithoat a boat, and should all the lamps go out, to return was impossible. " Nick " " guessed " that the lamps would hold out, but we had no faith, and commenced a retreat at a good pace ; but upon approaching Echo river, " Nick " was observed to kick the sand near a shelv- ing rock, and out came a bottle of oil, which he had deposited * October 1894. The fish still retain their shape at the bottom of the closely sealed vial, but the apple-whiskey, put in to preserve them, has nearly all made its escape. Anniversary. 387 there a year before ; it was white and thick, but after softening it, we were able to trim all the lamps, and go on our way with much satisfaction. After re-crossing the river, we turned down a branch of the cave where we had to crawl upon our hands and knees for several hundred feet, until we came to " Mammoth Dome," 100 feet in height, the sides quite perpendicular, with immense grooved pillars, formed by running water, which was still dripping down the sides. Another avenue brought us to " Gorham's Dome," and the guide told us to place ourselves before an opening in the rock, much like a small window. He then disappeared with all the lamps, and shortly after an immense hall was gradually brought into view, 200 feet in height, and of great extent. The sides, by the action of water, have been worked into immense columns with fretted cornices of the most complicated kind, as if touched by the chisel of an accomplished sculptor. The roof was hung with stalactites, and as the water oozed down the side, which glistened and reflected back the Bengal light thousands of times, it presented a picture of dazzling splendour, of which no words can give even a faint idea. Another part of the cave was called the " Hall of Monu- ments." These consisted of pyramids of stones piled up by visitors. Canada, England, and other countries had its pile, also most of the States of the Union. Here was Maine in close prox- imity to South Carolina, Alabama with Massachusetts, and so on. Little did the builders think that in a few years they or their children would be at deadly strife with each other, and that the " Glorious Union " would be tarnished by the blood of its citizens. *' Washington Hall," another famous dome of lofty dimensions, was next visited, the roof of which was covered with fine pointed spar resembling frost work, which, when illuminated, shed forth myriads of brilliant scintillations. We did not go as far as ♦he " Maelstrom," which is nine 388 Railways and Other Ways. miles from the entrance of the cave. It is described as a terrible looking pit of unknown depth. It is said to have been explored by a young man some years ago, but the guide doubted the truth of his statement. We were told that to visit the Mammoth Cave, with all its branches, a person must walk a distance of 90 miles ; as there is only one entrance, the ground must be gone twice over, making the extent of the cave 45 miles in length. We, of course, only got a cursory glance at some of its principal points of attraction, and came out after a six hours' visit, having walked about 14 miles. On emerging from the mouth we found the heat overpowering ; the sudden change from 59° to 90° was much like going into an oyen. This spring another large cave was discovered, about seven miles from the Mammoth Cave. It has been explored for many miles, and is full of immense stalactites, yet free from the hands of destroyers, who in the Mammoth Cave have broken and car- ried off hundreds of rare curiosities. THE PRINTING PRESS. The following article on " The Press," by the author, ap- peared in the Fleetwood (Eng.) Chronicle, March 9th, 1844 : — " The Press ! " all lands shall sing ; The Press, the Press we bring ; All lands to bless : Oh, pallid want ! oh, labour stark ! Behold we bring the second ark ! The Press, the Press, the Press. — Ehenezer Elliot. There are many inventions which tend (when properly^ directed) to the welfare of mankind, among which stands pre- eminently above all others, the noble art of printing. What a great change has this art produced in the world ; all other in- ventions sink into insignificance when compared with it ; it The Printing Press. 389 indeed may be looked upon as the forerunner of other inventions and discoveries, for it has acted as a stimulus to the minds of men, inasmuch as it has given them the means to leave a record of their thoughts, inventions, and discoveries behind them, for the benefit of future generations. The Press has done more towards the spread of civilization than all the other inventions and discoveries ever made. By the Press, knowledge of the best kind has been printed in all languages and extensively circulated in all climes, thereby bene- fiting commerce, uniting nation with nation, humanizing and improving all, and inculcating the principles of Christianity in all parts of the known globe. The Press may be made a powerful engine either for the spread of virtue or of vice, but it is cheering to reflect that it preponderates on the side of virtue, and that a marked improve- ment is continually going on. Even the penny papers which deluge the whole country, are fast undergoing a change for the better ; of course, many have been unexceptionable since their commencement ; such as the Penny and Saturday Magazines, Chambers's Journal, etc., but what I wish to be understood, is, that those publications which have been denominated the Penny Trash are improving ; some are leaving out the outrageous cari- catures and disgusting advertisements which have disgraced their columns, w^hile others, such as the Family Herald have sprung up, giving an amount of interesting, amusing and valuable intelligence, which must not only reform the penny papers, but have a very beneficial effect among the great bulk of the people who are in the habit of reading these publications. The Press has done much towards our comfort and hap- piness ; the broad sheet is continually issuing forth, placing the passing events of the day constantly before us ; in it we behold not only what is going on in our own town, our own country 390 Haihvays and Other Ways. but we have the latest intelligence of events which have taken place in all parts of the world. The Press has given to all classes the means to acquire knowledge; the most humble individual can now wend his way through the flowery beds of poesy ; can ramble through the mazy fields of fiction ; can climb the rugged steep of Mount Vesuvius, and look into its burning crater with Sir William Hamilton ; can visit the ice-bound shores of the North Pole with Captain Eoss ; can sail in thought over the great Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and round the world, with Capt. Cook ; can explore the catacombs, pyramids, and ancient relics of Egypt with Belzoni ; can examine the geological structure of the globe with Professor Sedgwick; can analyze the minerals and subtle fluids of the earth with Sir Humphrey Davy ; can penetrate space itself with the telescope of Sir John Herschel; can in fact bring back the past, look on the present, and speculate on the future, with the great and the good men of all nations. He who invented the art of printing, and they who have brought it to its joresent state of perfection, cannot be sufficiently eulogized ; they deserve a world's thanks, for they have made " Dead letters thus with living nations fraught Prove to the soul the telescope of thought ; To mortal life a deathless witness give, And bid all deeds and titles last and live : In scanty life eternity we taste, View the first ages, and inform the last : Arts, Hist'ry, Laws, we purchase with a look, And keep, like Fate, all nature in a book." Petroleum. 391 " Many a row Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naptha and asphaltus, yielded light As from a sky." — Paradise Lost. PETROLEUM. In process of time we get so accustomed to the use of an article that we quite forget its value. He who can go back, in memory, to the days of the rush-light, the farthing candle, the " short eights," the expensive parafine candle and wax taper, can fully appreciate the discovery and use of petroleum as an article for illuminative purposes, and which is now much cheaper than the old rush candle, a score of which would not give as much light as an ordinary common coal oil lamp. It may seem somewhat out of place to introduce such a sub- ject here, but the Author has thought that some little reference to this wonderful product might be interesting to his readers : — The origin of petroleum or, as it is termed, coal oil, is a sub- ject which has been much discussed by geologists, and many different opinions have, from time to time, been given as to how it was produced in such large quantities. I remember hearing, more than thirty years ago, a lecture on the subject by the late Dr. T. Sterry Hunt. His theory seemed the most probable. I cannot give it in the Doctor's exact words, but give it as nearly as I can recollect. He said that in some very remote period of the earth's history the ocean in certain localities was, by more than a tropical sun, kept in a tepid state, and that there grew upon its surface extensive beds of rich and luscious sea weeds and plants, intermixed with soft gelatinous animals in enormous quantities, that these drifted into bays and creeks many feet in thickness, and by some great convulsion of nature they were buried in the bowels of the earth and subjected to immense pres- sure, which converted them, after many centuries, into the black 392 Railways and Other Ways. oil or petroleum we now see flowing on the earth's surface, or pumped from great depths. Petroleum is not a " new gift of nature." It has been known by the Eed Indians for centuries, and was used by the " Six Nations " as a medicine under the name of " Seneca Oil." The " gum beds " or congealed oil, which covered some acres of land on lot 16, second concession of Enniskillen, Ontario, had long been known ; and it was here in 1858 that the late J. M. Williams, ex-M.P.P., and Kegistrar of Hamilton, Ontario, first discovered flowing petroleum and applied it to practical use. The freightage of coal oil from Petrolia has been a source of large revenue to the railways, especially to the Grand Trunk. The following statement by C. M. Sinclair appeared in the Illus- trated Buffalo Express of October 13, 189*2 : PETROLIA OIL WELLS. There are 3,535 wells. During 1891 there was shipped from Petrolia a total of 892,271 barrels of petroleum, and during the ten years ending on December 31, 1891, a grand total of 6,770,354 barrels, or about 1,354,070 tons. TESTIMONIALS TO THE AUTHOR. On January 1st, 1848, testimonials, consisting of a litho- graphic view of the departure of the Queen and Prince Albert from Fleetwood, and a very elegant eight days' time-piece, were presented to Myles Pennington on his leaving the town of Fleet- wood for Stoke-on-Trent to fulfil an engagement as Goods Mana- ger of the North Staffordshire Eailway. The first, by the Society of Eechabites, of which Mr. Pennington was a member, and the latter by the officers and workmen in the employ of the Preston & Wyre Eailway. Mr. Pennington in returning thanks, and bid- ding adieu to his friends and associates of eight years, said, speaking of the capabilities of Fleetwood as a port, that he believed it was destined to become one of the most important on the Lancashire coast. (Abridged from the Fleetwood Chronicle). The Authors Valedictory at Eighty Years of Age. 398 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE AUTHOR'S VALEDICTORY AT EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE. " Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty ; For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors to my blood ; Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility ; Therefore, my age is as a lusty winter — Frosty but kindly." — Old Adam, in Shakespeare's "J.s You Like It." IN bringing this work to a close, the author, now probably the oldest railway man living in the world, takes the liberty of making a few general remarks, by way of a valedictory, to rail- way employees, who now form such a large and important body of men in all parts of the civilized globe. It will be admitted by all that no undertaking requires such a steadiness of character and clear-headedness as that of the workers of a railway. They have at all times in their charge an immense amount of property, and what is more imj^ortant, the very lives of their passengers. It is safe to say that the great body of railway men, as to their general character for intelli- gence, probity, and sobriety, are equal, if not superior to any other class of men, and that a constant imjDrovement is going on. The author remembers that on the early English railways much trouble arose from old habits of drinking amongst the employees, which in many cases caused loss of life and property. 394 Railways and Other Ways. It is satisfactory to know that this evil is much reduced ; but it still exists. The author has seen so many good men and brother officers come to grief, ruin and an early death by an indulgence in alcoholic liquors, that he has long since come to the conclusion that the only safety valve is that of total abstinence from the article in whatever shape or guise it may be offered. If there is one thing more than another in the author's past life to which he looks back to with pleasure, it is that, when a very young man, he was led to take an active part with others in the organization of the first strictly temperance or teetotal society, and if spared long enough may, from a personal stand- point, give a correct history of those remarkable and beneficent institutions which, during the last sixty years, have done so much to soberise a world. The use of alcoholic liquor, as an article of diet, is unnecessary and always more or less injurious to men in health. This is borne out by the evidence of thousands, especially working men, who have abstained for thirty or forty years. Lord Brassey (a higher authority could not be produced), in his book on " Work and Wages," says : " The taste for drink- ing among a large number of working people in this country (England) has been excused on the ground that hard work renders a considerable consumption of beer almost a necessity. But some of the most powerful among the navvies are teetotal- ers. On the Great Northern Railway there was a celebrated gang of navvies who did more work in a day than any other gang on the line, and always left off (tn hour earlier than any other men. Every navvy in this poic erf ul gang was a teetotaler.'" Some years ago the author visited a county gaol to see its governor (a former railway officer), and in a talk with him the author was pained and astonished to find that two men, once his associates, who had held high positions on railways in England The Author's Valedictory at Eighty Years of Age. 395 and Canada, had on more than one occasion been brought to the gaol on a charge of drunkenness and confined in prison cells. Another case which came under the author's observation was that of three railway men who came to Canada and held good situations on Canadian railways ; but in a few years two out of the three fell victims to strong drink, lost their situations, and have long since passed away. Any one of mature years will, on looking back, call to mind cases as disastrous as the above, of friends and connections whO' have been led to ruin by this same terrible evil, and such things call upon us in the strongest language to speak out and spare not, and to say with the Queen's physician, Sir Andrew Clarke,* "It is when I myself think of all these evils of intemperance that I am disposed, as I have said elsewhere, to rush to the opposite extreme — to give up my profession ; to give up every- thing and to go forth upon a hol}^ crusade, preaching to all men,. * Beware of this enemy of the human race.' " Solomon, The Wise, says : — " Look not thou upon the wine when it is red ; When it giveth his colour in the cup ; When it moveth itself aright : At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder." — Prov. xxiii. 31, 32. HENRY ANDERTON. The following beautiful lines, by Henry Anderton, are here- with given in grateful remembrance of a dear old friend and brother railway-colleague of the author. The poet was born in * Sir Andrew Clarke died November 6th, 1893. He was Gladstone's adviser, and was also consulted by the late Sir John A. Macdonald and the late Sir John Abbott. 396 Railways and Other Ways. 1808 at Walton-le-Dale, Preston, England, and died at Bury, June 21st, 1855:— " How beautiful is all this visible world ! "—Byron. There's something bright and glorious In the Sun's first earthward glance When from his bed he riaeth Like a giant from a trance ! Or when the eye o'erpowering With his full meridian ray, O'er Heaven's cerulean pavement, He hurries on his way ! There's something vast and glorious In the Sea, the deep profound, Who claspeth like a lover The Earth, his mistress, round ! As an infant's sleep unruffled, Or tossing the glittering brine, Dark, dread, and pathless Ocean, What majesty is thine ! There's something fair and glorious In this little speck of ours. In the plumes of her wing'd warblers. And the painting of her flowers ! In her fresh and vernal carpet, In her pebble-troubled rills, In her wild, untrodden forests. And her everlasting hills ! There's something far more glorious In the faith that says " I know, From the void and formless chaos. Who bade these wonders grow ! " Bend ! revei'ently, my spirit ! Before that Being fall. Whose wisdom first created. Whose power sustaineth all. As Tiny Tim said : " God bless us all. SIR HUGH ALLAN. A ddenda. 39 < ADDENDA THE publishing of this work has been unavoidably delayed for some time, but this, to some extent, has been an advantage, it having enabled the Author to much enlarge the scope of the work by adding, at least, twenty-five per cent, to its contents, and giving many more illustrations than were first intended when the circular, announcing the book, was issued. The Author has added several more sketches of railway men — has said something about the Columbian Exposition ; the trade and commerce of Canada ; much more about ocean steamships — has made some remarks on competition, freight rates, wheat carrying, emigra- tion, etc., all of which are burning questions of the day. He has also given some original articles, written by the Author long ago, including a visit to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, the Author's Fortieth ^Anniversary in Canada, etc., etc. The subjects dealt with have been numerous, and as the Author had mainly to depend upon his memory for the details, he has doubtless omitted many things which he would like to have said. Some subjects have come up after the last chapter was in print and are now given here. SIR HUGH ALLAN. In the early years of the Grand Trunk Eailway, the Author saw much of, and had often to consult, the late Sir Hugh Allan, particularly as regards the through bill of lading system between railway and steamship, explained in another part of this book, S98 Railiuays and Other Ways. and the work would be incomplete without specially referring to Sir Hugh Allan, as he was undoubtedly the father of ocean steamship navigation between Great Britain and Canada. Sir Hugh was a man of wonderful energy and will power. He and his brothers fought through difficulties which would have deterred most men, and made them to despair and give up the fight as one perfectly hopeless ; but Sir Hugh's motto was " Onward," and he and his brothers finally triumphed. Considering Sir Hugh's many duties, it was amazing how he got through his work. In the early history of the line, during winter when the steamer sailed from Portland on a Saturday, Sir Hugh might have been seen the night previous taking his seat at Longueuil (Montreal) in a Grand Trunk ordinary car bound for Portland, Me. ; there sitting bolt upright for ten or twelve hours trying to dose as best he could. There were no cosy Pulman sleeping cars at that time where a man might rest his weary head. After attending to the business in connection with the steamship, and seeing her off from Portland, he would return, having another dreary night ride to Montreal. I remember hearing Sir Hugh state that sometimes, when he had visitors at his home, and they might remain until near mid- night, when they had gone home he would go into his home office and there work a couple of hours before going to rest, and, notwithstanding this, he would be the first at the breakfast table next morning. The following interesting sketch is taken from that valuable work, " Dent's Portrait Gallery " : " Mr. Hugh Allan was born at Saltcoats, on the Firth of Clyde, in Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 29th September, 1810. His father, late Captain Alexander Allan, was a shipmaster, who had all his life been employed on vessels trading between the Clyde Addenda- 399 and the St. Lawrence. Hugh was the second son of his parents. At the age of thirteen he entered into the counting-house of Allan, Kerr & Co., at Greenock, in the shipping trade, where he remained about a year, when his father advised him to emigrate to Canada. He sailed from Greenock in the ship Favourite on the 12th April, 1826. His father was the captain of the vessel, and his elder brother was the second officer. Hugh soon obtained a situation in the commercial estab- lishment of Wm. Kerr & Co., Montreal. The business was dry goods, etc. He was thus engaged three years. The business, as a whole, did not suit his taste. He returned with his father to Greenock, where he remained the winter. He again sailed from Greenock for Montreal on the 5th April following, in a new vessel belonging to his father, the Canada. He then entered the services of the late Mr. James Miller, who then carried on an extensive shipping business in Montreal. After spending five years in the emj)lo3^ of Miller & Co., Mr. Allan was admitted as a junior partner. In 1838, Mr. Miller, the senior partner in the firm, died. The style of the firm thenceforward became Edmonston & Allan, which subsequently became Edmonston, Allan & Co. Under various changes of st^de, the- firm has steadily increased in prosperity, and its business has grown to momentous proportions. Its present style is Hugh and Andrew Allan, Andrew being a younger brother of Sir Hugh. In 1851 the firm first began to build iron screw steamships. The Canadian, the first vessel of that description, made her first trip in 1853, and in the following summer the service of mails was commenced which continues to this day. The his- tory of the firm from that time down to the present is the history of Canadian maritime commerce. During the visit of Prince Arthur to this country in 1869, he was the guest of Mr. Allan at his princely residence of Eavenscraig, in Montreal, and at his 400 Railways and Other Ways. summer villa on the shores of Lake Memphremagog. For his courtesies to His Eoyal Highness, and in recognition of his great services to Canadian and British commerce, Mr. Allan was, in 1871, knighted by Her Majesty as Sir Hugh Allan of Ravenscraig. Sir Hugh is a Director in many important commercial, banking and other enterprises, of some of which he was the original promoter. Principally among these may be mentioned the Merchant's Bank, the Montreal Telegraph Co., etc." (1880.) Sir Hugh Allan, while on a visit to England, died very sud- denly in London, in December, 1882. The Allan Line, as stated above, commenced with the Canadian in 1853. Her consort, the Indian, was built the same year, followed by the North American and Anglo-Saxon in 1854. The total fleet now consists of thirty-three fine steamships, the value of which, in round numbers, may be estimated at from seven and a-half to eight million dollars. INDEX. Aberdeen, Lord, 317, 318. ' Accountant's Error, 166. Act of Parliament, 51. Accidents, Coach, 302,371. Acton Mine, 360. Agents, Station, 222-227. Allport, Sir James, 57, 61, 217. Allan Line, 141. Allan, H. M., 289. Allan, Sir Hueh, 142, 355, 397, 400. Allan, Andrew, 399. Allan Montague, 289. Alison, Francis, 226. Anderton, Henry, 42, 43, 199, 392. "Angels of Mercy," 167. Anniversary, 40th, 379, Apprentice, 23 Applicant. 199. Apple Shipments, 143. Arnold, Kichard, 161. Arkwright, Sir E,., 23. Ashdown's, 319. Atlantic Cable, 328, 336. Audit Office, 134. Aylwin, Judge, 261. Babies (World's Fair), 247. Baby (Edison's), 342. Bates, Billy, 33. Bailey, Henry, 112, 151. Baker, Brackstone, 203. Barlow, Peter, 178 Bath (Queer One), ' 258. "Barley King," 213. Beaty, James, 84. Beck, Myles, 33, 34. Betts, Contractor. 81. Beecher, Dr. and Edward, 261. Bear Story, 89. Bell, G. F., 203. Bell, Eo'iert, 146, 261. Bell, John, 147. Bell, Thomas, 167-203. Bell's Steam Boats, 311. Beers, Dr., 363. Belleau, Hon. N. F., 261. Bidder, S. P., 39, 46, 49, 77, 81, 85, 88, 119, 122, 231, 3.56 Bidder, Geo., 85. Bigelow, Hon. Jno. P., 261, 267. Billings, L., 136. Bills of Lading. 142, 144, 322. Blackwel], T. E., 98, 111, 172. Black, Geo., 327. Blockstand, Pres., 305. Bond, Richard, 282. Boatmen (Canal), 27. Boulders of the Sea, 45. Boots (Burning), 81. Bourlier. H. C, 93. Bowes, Hon. J. G., 261. " Bowled Out," 375. Bourret, Hon. Jos., 260. Boutwell, Governor, 261. Bourinot, Dr. J. G., 317. Bradshaw, Geo., 53. Broughton, Fred., G4, 168, 187. Brassey, Thos., 81. Brassey, Lord, 81, 392. Brassev, Lady, 81. Brown^ Adam, 107, 108. Brydges, C. J., 112, 120, 153, 167, 169, 181, 184, 186, 189, 213, 215, 233. Brooks, Joseph, 136. Bride, Thos. Mc. 108. Brunnel, E. K., 320. Brown, Hon. Geo., 261.' Bridgewater. Duke of, 213, 276. Brougham, Lord, 279. Browning, Robert, 201. Bright, Hon. John, 240, 333. British Empire, 363. Bremner, A., 341. British Management, 356. Buckland, Dr., 302. Burns, R., 294. Burton, John, 189. Burbank & Co., 349. Buchanan, President, 328, 330. 402 Index. Cartage Agency, 109. Campbell & Black, 314. Cave, Mammoth, 382. Cawkwell, Wm., 62. Carter, Sir F. B. T., 362. Carter, P. H., 91, 339, 341, 362. Cassell, John, 240. Cars (Three Nights in), 128. Cartier, Sir George E., 98, 148, 353. " Castle " (Locomotive), 37. "Campania," Steamship, 320. Canadian Pacific Railway, 286. Callaway, S. R., 182. Callaway, W. R„ 286. Canals, 50, 310. Capreol, F. C, 281. " Catastrophe," Station, 372. Cable, Atlantic, 328, 336. Cables of the World, 336. Centenary, G-eo. Stephenson's, 272. Celebrations, Railway, 260, 273. Chappi, L'Abbe, 381. Church and Speculation, 240. Cheerible, Bros., 136. Christie, C. R., 138. Charlton, James, 200. Chicago, General Manager, 344. Champ, W. S., 203. Cheese, Exhibits, 347. Cheese, Shipments, 143, 251. Cheese, Mammoth, 346. Chambers, Information, 316. Chaplin & Home, 169. Cincinnati "Enquirer," 144. "City of Paris," Steamship, 31S. Circuit (Telegraphic), 337. Clearing House, 66, 69, 166. Classification, 40, 168. Clergyman's Scheme, 73. Cleveland " Plain Dealer," 198. Claims, Freight, 101, 103. Clark, President, 305. " Claremont," Steamer, 312. Clark, Sir Andrew, 392. Clark, A. M., 267. _ Columbian Exposition, 343. " Cornwall," Locomotive, 301. Coach, Stage, 34, 36, 302, 371. Collision, Sea, 1.37. Coyle, Capt., 136. Corser, S. T., 137. Coleridge, Poet, 89. Conductor, 227, 232. Cook, Thomas, 240, 243. Cook, John M., 241. Cook. C. ^^^^l•LlBRARY6^/.; 3 1158 00569 1752 r^ HE 2808 P38r 1891; UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 929 787 o rrtr' 7tm i