AND OTHER WAYS. m^ mmmm l-^t^-^ X,f-r:nJ-; :^_v;..'ff ■vHr" Ih W"" Ml ^^i^^ .■^.'^/lifi. * LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Class ^^^n ^fi-^t^l^P^"^^ •5! ...J^^ '^f^^§^< w^ RAILWAYS AND OTHER WAYS. RAILWAYS AND OTHER WAYS ; 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 RAIL. WITH AN APPENDIX. MYLES PENNINGTON The oldest railway officer living, still in active service, and first Goods Manager of the Preston and Wyre and Xorth Staffordshire Railways of England, and first General Freight Agent of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. " Now, my lads, you will see the day when mail coaches will go by railway, and it will be cheaper for a working man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot."— Otorge Stephenmn, 1825. TORONTO : WILLIAMSON & CO. Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture, by Williamson & Company, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety •six. SIR JOSEPH HICKSON. SIR JOSEPH HICKSON, K.C.M.G., LATE GENERAL MANAGER OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY OF CANADA, WITH FEELINGS OF ESTEEM AND ADMIRATION, BY HIS HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. 9F THE Toronto, Canada, October, i^4yi^lVEftSITY 1 OF 189767 LIST OF PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PAOK. The Author . . opp. Title Sir Joseph Hickson opp. Dedication. Hon. John Ross " Contents. Sir Henry Tyler . . " Introduction. S. P. Bidder . . . . 21 Sir James Allport 57 Group of 18G0. Walter Shanly, Henry Bailey, James Hard- man and Myles Pennington 81 Prince of Wales Medal — Victoria Bridge 95 William 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 Clair Tunnel . . • . 173 Ventilating Device for Removing Smoke . . 175 List of Portraits and Illustrations. Joseph Hobson . , Sectional View, full length of Tunnel under St. Clair Tunnel Engine Emerging from Portal S. K. Callaway John Burton John Earls Arthur White Geo. Burdett Spriggs A Souvenir of the Great Western Railway of Canada James Charlton . . David Pottinger . . N. Weatherston . . John Weatherston . . Alderman Hallam Suspension Bridge (G. T. R.) over Niagara River One Hundred Ton, St. Clair Tunnel Locomotive Sir William C. Van Home . . A Ship's Bill of Lading One Hundred Years Ago Niagara Falls (Two views) . . J, B. Jones Sir Hugh Allan River, 177 179 183 189 191 193 195 199 201 217 219 233 259 285 301 305 323 353 379 397 Of CALIFO* HON. JOHN ROSS. CONTENTS. Chapter I. — pages 21 to 38. The Author's Birth— His Father— John Hargreaves, the Carrier, 21 ; School-Boy Day3— School in a Kitchen — School at "Sandy Johnny's," 22 ; " Go to see the Hanging " — Remove to Preston — Apprenticed to a Carrier— Pickford ft Co., —Town of Preston— Its Guild- The Earl of Derby, 23 ; An Enthusiastic Carrier — Pen Portrait of John Uargreaves, 24 ; 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 Cash- 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 Anderton, 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. Contents. Chester— A Testimonial to S. P. Bidder, 1847, 46 ; The A.uthor'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, 1761 - 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 65. Early English Goods Managers — Importance of Their Work — Power Over the Traffic of the Country, 54 ; Braithwait6 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, 56 ; Sir James Allport — 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 Morrison, 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 L(Mt — The Great Want of a Clearing House — My Witnesses in liondon, 69 ; A Cumberland Wrestler and an Irish " Cow-Boy "—How I Kept Them in Sight —How I Loet 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 npa 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 Vbit 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 ; His Early Work was a Good W 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'U be King but Charlie "-The Globe Letters— Grand Trunk Reminiscences— "The Battle of the Guage8,"82 ; His- tory of the Guage— Great Mistakes, 83 ; Ohio Gnage — 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. Bidder s Address, 87 ; A Visit to Canada Some Years Afterwards- Meet Him at Niagara Falls— Bron tare O'Brien- A Curious Coincidence— Richard Trevithick 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, Supt. — J. B. Jones, Assist ant 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— Passengera da 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 Victaria Bridge— What Robt. Stephenson Said, 96 ; James Hodges and His Staff of Bridge Builders and Mr. Ross Pull Together— G. R. Stephenson Attempts to rob Mr. Ross of His Weil-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 th« 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 Brown'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 Succeas— The "Great Eastern" of the Lakes, 111; Probable Cause of Mr. Blackwell's Death — Henry Bailey— Assistant Greneral ^lanager — Supt. of Portland District— Lieut. -Col. of G-. T. R. Brigade— His Death at Brighton, England— Canadian Travel in the Olden Time, 112 : Early Kail way 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 Tarifif 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 GenT. 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 Genl. M. Gives His Men a Lesson in Politeness— Great Fun for All Round, 118 ; Canadian General Managers — Sir Casimlr 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 United 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. Bidder's 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. — A 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. — Bar banks 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 — Cincinnati Enquirer on Through Bill of Lading System — A List of Rates, 144 ; Hardman and the Author's Visit, 145 ; The Author's Claim — Robert Bell — Prescott & Bytown Railway — His Wooden Track, 146 ; He Pushes Through — His Many Difficulties- -A Winter's Ride— John Bell, Q.C., of Belleville, 147. Chapter XIII. — pages 148 to 163. Hon. Jno. Ross, First G. T. R, President— Sketch of His Life— The Victoria Bridge —His Many Government Positions, 148 ; One of the First Senators after Con- federation — Hon. James Ferrier— A Pioneer of Canadian Railways, 149 ; Montreal and Champlain — Director of G. T. R. — His Many Good Works — W. A. Merry, Secretary of M. & C. R. — The Guage Considered— Geo. Reith — General Manager, 150 ; Our Trip to the West — The 10 per cent. Telegram— A Sensation— Resignation, 151 ; A Tin Testimonial— Sir Joseph Hickson— Fur- ther Sketch — English Experience, 152 ; Accountant, Secretary, and General Manager of Grand Trunk — Increase in Mileage— Change of Guage— Double Track, 153 ; St. Clair Tunnel— Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic— Lewis James Seargeant, General Manager, 154 ; Sketch of His Railway Career, 155 ; Contents. viL Director Habbard's Tefltimony in Favour of Mr. S(Murgeant, 156 ; Wm. Wain- Wright— His Many Railway Appointments— Aaaistant General Manager of Grand Trunk Railway, and Other Offices, 157 ; Edmund Wragge, CE.— His Experience on English Railways, 158 ; C^>e of Good Hope— CosU Rica- Canada's Narrow Gnage— Local Manager G. T. R., 159 ; James Stephenson— Operator— Ticket Clerk— Station Agent— Train Deepatcher— General Superin- tendent, 160 ; Director Hubbard's Eulogy on Major Stephenson, 161 ; A Native of Lancaster- -Chas.* Dickens on Lancaster— The Bonny Lane, 162 ; A Vioe-Royal Reception — Alderman Hallam, 163. Chapter XIV.— pages 164 to 171. The G. T. R. Audit Office— An Indostrioos Department, 164 ; J. Fred Walker- Traffic Auditor (1892)— Obituary (1893), 165 ; RaUway Accounts in Early Days -A Strange Blunder— The Morality of It, 166 ; Thos. Bell, of Leuning- ton, England— His Early Days on English Lines — In Audit Office on G. T. R. — His Great Western of Canada and Michigan Connections, 167 ; His Retire- ment from Railway Life — His Old Reminiscences— Death of Old Colleagues^ 168 ; W. J. Spicer— General Manager— Hiv Start with Chaplin & Home- Canada in 1854— Many Different Positions, 169 ; Now Charge of G. T. R. System West of Detroit- E. P. Hannaford -Chief Engineer of Grand Trunk —Change of Guage— Doubling of Track, 170 ; His Connection of 37 Years — International Bridge— Early Associates, 171. Chapter XV.— pages 172 to 183. St Clair Tunnel— The Fickle River- A Great Blow From the North— A Real "Underground Road," 172 ; Details of the Tunnel— Joseph Hobson, Its Engi- neer, 173 ; By Birth a Canadian— Chief Engineer^ 6. W. R.— Intomatiooal Bridge— Chief Engineer G. T. R. West of Toronto— Grand Trunk Railway— Four Great Works of Engineering Skill— Sir Henry Tyler— President of G. T. R, 174 ; Short Sketch of His Life-His Knighthood— M. P. for Great Yar- month— St. Clair Tunnel Banquet, 175 ; NoUble Railway Officers— Hon. Mr. Vidal and Hon. (now Sir) Senator Frank Smith— Hon. G. W. Rosa, of Ontario Parliament, present, 176 ; Governor Winan's Speech, 177 ; Sir Henry Tyler's Speech— Joseph Hobeon's Reply, 178 ; Robert Wright, Treasurer G. T. R.— Sketch of His Railway Career, 179 ; Charles Percy— Succeeds Mr . Wright— His Many Positions on G. W. R.. G. T. R., Midland, and Other Interests, 180 ; Joseph J . Tanning— Succeeds Mr. Percy as Assistant to General Manager — A Shtnrt Sketch of His Life in Connection with G. T. R., 181 ; Samuel R. Calla- way— His Start as a Boy— His High Positions on Many Roads, 182 ; Sir Joseph Hickson's Predictions Verified, 183. viii. Contents. Chapter XVI. — pages 184 to 194. C. J. Brydges joins G. T. R. -Many Changes -General Freight Agents— The Author, V. Stratton, 184 ; P. S. Stevenson— A Life of Many Vicissitudes— Desjardin Bridge— Always Cheerful— General Freight Agent for Many Years— A Money Present on His Retirement— John Porteous— (Succeeds Mr. Stevenson), 185 ; His Many Advancements— A Step Higher— Entertained by Montreal Mer- chants, 186 ; Now Manager of National Despatch Freight Line— Thomas Tandy — G. F. A. of G. T. R., 187 ; His Early Career— Sudden Death, 188 ; Tribute to His Memory, by G. B. Spriggs- John Burton— Sixth G..F. A.— Starts on G. W. R. — Holds Many Important Offices, 189 ; As Secretary to Railroad Managers in Canada— Succeeded Thos. Tandy — John Crampton — A Short Account of His Very Extensive Railway Career in Canada and the United States— John Earls— A Sketch of His 32 Years' Services on the G. T. R., 190 ; Now the Western District Freight Agent, 191 ; Arthur White— His Early Start on English Railways— His Long Connection with the G. W. R. and G. T. R.— Now Central District Freight Agent— W. R. Tiffin, 192 ; An Account of His 25 Years' Services on the G. T. R.— A Testimonial— Now Assistant Superintendent Western District of G. T. R.— The Old Great Western— A Famous Educational Institution — Alexander Mackay — His Start as a Boy Clerk on the G. W. R., 193 ; His Rapid Success at Chicago— Now G. F. A. of Michigan Central Railway — M. C. Dickson — Agent at Bothwell Station— G. F. A. on Northern — Now District Passenger Agent on G. T. R, at Toronto, 194. Chapter XVII. — pages 195 to 214. G. B. Spriggs— His Early Start on London & North Western Railway, England, 195 ; General Freight Agent on G. W. R. —A Testimonial, 196 ; Other Railway Con- nections in Canada and the United States — Now G. F. A. of the " NickelPlate " Road, 197 ; His Literary Abilities — Plain Dealer's Remarks on Mr. Spriggs Unique Tribute to the Memory of the Late Thos. Tandy, 198 ; Joseph Taylor- Secretary to G. W. R. General Managers— Secretary to Michigan Car Company —His Work— "A Fast Life on a Modern Highway," 199 ; A Selection From It — "An Application for a Situation"— James Charlton— General Passenger Agent of the Chicago & Alton Road— A Railway Pioneer— His Long Connec- tion with the Great Western, 200 ; Browning's Poetry and Railway Guide — Helps His Friend Witton in a Parliamentary Election— Notable Associates, 201 ; Wm. Edgar— Born at Birkenhead, England— His Career on G. T. R.— Succeeds Mr. Charlton as General Passenger Agent on G. W. R.— His Early Death-Nicholas J. Power-Starts on G. W. R. as a Boy Clerk in 18.58— A Successful Career, 202 ; Succeeds Mr. Edgar as G. P. A. of G. T. R.— W. S. Champ — Paymaster— His Long Connection with the G. W. R. and G. T. R., 203 ; Hi« Experience on a Pay-Car— Large Sums Paid Out— No Loss— Narrow Contents. ix. Escape— General Caahier, 204 ; Obituary, 205 ; Brackstone Baker— G. W. E. Secretary— His Visits With Sir Thoe. Dakin— H. K. Ritchie— SUtionery Department— An .Important Office— A Paper Carpet— Alex. Fraser- One of the Oldest G. T. R. Officers- As Junior Clerk— Freight Cashier— Freight Agent, 206 ; Travelling Auditor— Paymaster— Plods "The Even Tenor of His Way "—Good for Tears to Come— Captain Tibbits— His Steamer " Arctic "— Winter Navigation at Quebec— Major W. WQy— Joins G. T. R. at Portland, Me.— Freight Agent— Travelling Auditor— Wharfingfer and Agent at Montreal, 207 ; Fenian Troubles— His Death— Tribute to His Memory, by Edgar Judge —Major Kobt. L. Nelles- Commenced on Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway, 208 ; Agent at Caledonia— Brantford— Toronto — Important Position on G. T. R— Geo. S. Spence— Starts at Qaeen's Wharf— That Station in 1859- Many Different Offices on G. T. R., 209 ; Travelling Auditor— Agent— Accountant- Toronto Then and Now— Wm. Whyte— Agent— Assistant Superintendent- General Superintendent C. P. R., 210 ; Thoe. Dow— His Start on Scotch Rail- ways — Joins G. W. R. of Canada— Many Positions— Agent at Windsor for More Than 22 Years— Mr. Dow's Story of the Pants and the MaQ Bag, 211 ; Force of Habit, 212 ; John Smith— English Canals— Great Western in Its Early Days— Grain Inspector- Immigration Agent — "Barley King," 213 ; Wm. Orr— Starts on Caledonian Railway— G. F. A. on G. W. R.— Superin- tendent Narrow Guage— Many Different Positions on Scotch, United States, and Canadian Railways, 214. Chapter XVIIL— pages 215 to 221. Dominion Government Railways— Intercolonial— Grand Scenery, 215 ; The Sport- man's Paradise— The Giant Fishing, 216 ; Summer Resorts— David Pottinger— His Start as a Freight Clerk— Rapid Advancement— Greneral Manager of Gov- ernment Railways, 217 ; Forest Fire of Miramichi, N.B., 218 ; N. Weathers- ton — Starts as a Youth on Scotch Lines — Sells Tickets for the London Exhibition of '51— Comes to Canada, 219 ; His Various Offices on G. W. R. and Other Railways— A Handsome Testimonial, 220 ; Western Agent for Inter- colonial, 221. Chapter XIX.— pages 222 to 232. The Station Agent— The Lying One— The Happy One, 222 ; His Song : "I'm at Leigh," 223; The Swell Station Agent— "Pride Shall Have a Fall"— A Station Master's Duties- Many, but Finds Time for Other Pursuits — A Fiddle- Maker, 224 ; A Geologist- A Naturalist — A Little King— Cloud Mountain , 225 ; Francis Alison -Lady Station Agents, 226 ; The Conductor— His Re- sponsible Position, 227; A Moving Cyclopaedia— Their Benevolent Order— W R. X. Contents. Hill's Statement, 228 ; By Piece, Not by Weight, 229 ; Kind Acts of a Con- ductor, 230 ; Mose, the Fat Conductor, 231 ; His Visit to London— W. K. Snyder— The Evangelist— Tells the Good Old Story, 232. Chapter XX.— pages 233 to 239. John Weatherston— His Early Railway Work on Many Lines — Geo. Stephenson's Present— Joins Great Western in Canada — Track Superintendent, 233 ; Builds Railways in Michigan — Joins Government Roads and C, P. R. — An Accident, 234 ; Leases the Dundas Railway— A Cultivator of Flowers — A Charming Garden, 235 ; Geo. Lowe Reid's Eulogy— James Murphy— The Irish Boy— His Remarkable Career, 236 ; His Start as an Errand Boy — His Education — Rail- way Agent — A Testimonial — Collector of Customs — John Miller Grant — Sec- retary of G. T. R., 237 ; A Testimonial— The French Canadian— Louis Payette — My Best Foreman, 238 ; A Prison Warden — His Long Sickness and Death, 239. Chapter XXI. — pages 240 to 245. Thos. Cook— The Tourist— What Brought Him to the Front— His Temperance History— A Good Public Speaker— A Publisher, 240 ; His First Excursion— His Success as a Tourist, 241 ; Trips to All Countries— Prince of Wales' Sons- Cook's Staflf of Officers in Many Lands— Banking Arrangements— His Benevolent Institutions, 242 ; All Aboard for Jerusalem— A Railway from Joppa to Jeru- salem—Its Cost, 243 ; The Impudence of Steam, 244 ; Tom Hood's Dream, 245. Chapter XXII.— pages 246 to 252. Railway Management— The General Manager, 246 ; The Goods Manager— Divi-Divi not in the Classification— G. F. A.'s Important Duties, 247 ; The Pro-Rata Question— The Author's Evidence, 248 ; Freight Rates— An American Rail- way's Figures— Immense Reduction in Rates— The Road to Ruin, 249 ; A One- Way Traffic-G. T. R. Rates in the Early Days— The Question Well Consid- ered, 250 ; Low Price of Wheat— The Nearest Market— A Distance Limit- Change in Products, 251 ; Freight of Wheat and Cheese- Difference in Per- centages, 252. CHAPTER XXIII.— pages 253 to 259. An Order of Merit— Heroic Deeds of Railway Men— Sir Joseph Hickson's Opinion, 253 ; A Train Without a Driver, 254 ; Thos. Hunt's Heroism, 255 ; The Safety- Valve was Fast, 256 ; The Runaway Goods Waggons— A Brave Act— " There's Contents. xi. Pooder In," 257 ; A Waggon of Gunpowder and a Fire -A Town Saved— The Three Heroes— No Reward— A Brown-Stout Bath, 258 ; A Little Man's Plunge —"Laugh Now the More," 259. Chapter XXIV.— pages 260 to 275. The Boston Railway Jubilee— Union of the "Hub" and Montreal— Notabilities Present, 260 ; Lord Elgin— President Fillmore— Great Procession— Mottoes, 261 ; Massachusetts' Welcome to Canadians— Speeches, 262 ; Lord Elgin Does Not "Forbid the Bans"— A Great Banquet, 263 ; President Fillmore, Lord Elgin, 264, Daniel Webster and Sir Francis Hincks Speak, 265 ; Hon. Jos, Howe— Mayor Bigelow's Address of Welcome, 266 ; Toronto Citizens' Address — Beautiful Sentiment, 267 ; Railroads in New England States in 1851 — A Grand Trunk Celebration — Mayors " Hobnob " Together —Canada and Maine Fraternize, 268 ; A Big Table Cloth— C. Davidson, 269 ; A Chicago Editor's Speech, 270-272 ; Geo. Stephenson's Centenary— The Old Locomotive and the New— Visit Wy Ian— His Birthplace, 272 ; Grand Trunk Officers in 1856, 273 ; James McMillan— His Successful Career, 274 ; " Car-Building King' —A Big Company— Freight Cars in Use — Life of a Car— Senator of Michigan— Mc- Millan's Hospital, 275. Chapter XXV.— pages 276 to 283. Railways- Their History— " Outram Roads "—Duke of Bridgewater's Opinion, 276 ; Stockton & Darlington — Liverpool & Manchester, 277 ; Grand Opening — Death of Huskisson — Lord Brougham's Tribute, 279 ; The Eight Locomotives and Their Drivers, 278 ; First Railways in U. S.— First in Quebec Province, 280 ; First in Ontario — Railway Speed Then and Now, 281 ; A Lottery for a Railway— A Veteran Railroader— Richard Bond's Death at 82 Years of Age, 282-283. Chapter XXVI. — pages 284 to 292. Grand Trunk System of Railways, 284-285 ; Grand Trunk Pay Roll— Canadian Pacific Railway, 286-287 ; C. P. R. Traffic, 1892 and 1893, 288 ; A Winter Journey from Winnipeg by Montagu Allan's Special— The Province of Mani- toba, 289 ; Its Area, Lakes, Rivers and Prairies, 290 ; First Steamer on the Red- River— How Mr. Swords Got to Canada, 291. xii. Contents. Chapter XXVIL— pages 293 to 308. Dominion Railways' Statistics— Railways in United Kingdoms — "On the Line," a Monthly Paper, 293 ; English Railways — Capital — R. Burns' Lecture, 294 ; Railway Plant in United Kingdom — Cost of Some English Railways, 295 ; Railways in United States — Miles in Principal States — Capital — Employees, 296 ; Canada has the Longest Railway in the World — Railways of the World— The Dominion Left Out, 297 ; Locomotives 50 Years Ago, 298 ; The Famous " Rocket "—Its History, 298-299 ; St. Clair Tunnel Locomotive- Speed of the Locomotive—" 999," ; Bowman Cooke on Speed, 300-301 : Long Life of a Locomotive — F. Trevithick's " Cornwall, ' 301 ; Accidents — Stage- Coaches vs. Railways — The Sun and the Locomotive — Geo. Stephenson as a Philosopher, 302 ; The Locomotive and the English Lakes— Wordsworth's Sonnet, 303 ; Hon. E. Everett on Wordsworth — Beautiful Scenery Accessible by Railways — Risen From the Ranks, 304 ; Noted Railway Men — Sir W, Van Home — His Unique Career, 305 ; Railway Competition — Liverpool & Man- chester Railway and Canal Fights, 306 ; Plans to Prevent Competition — One- Purse System Considered, 307 ; Governments Responsible for Railway Compe- tition-Electric Motor Railways — A New Source of Competition — Hoist the Caution Signal, 308. Chapter XXVIII.— pages 309 to 323. Freight Traffic on the Lakes, 309 ; The Great Chain of Inland Lakes — First Canadian Canal, 310 ; St. Lawrence and Welland Canals — The First Steamboat — James Watt and the Steam Engine, 311 ; Fulton's Steamer " Clermont "-Dr. Flem- ing — The First Steamboat in Canada— John Molson, the Pioneer, 312 ; " .John O'Gaunt," Steamer, Arrives at Lancaster,England— Early Ocean Steamers -New York Boat " Savannah," 313 ; " Royal William " the First to Cross the Atlantic, 314 ; Dr. Sandford Fleming's Paper, 315 ; Steamship " Great Western " — " Chambers' Information "—The " Sirius " Makes One Trip, 316; Tablet in Memory of " Royal William "—Unveiled by the Governor General at Ottawa — Dr. J . G. Bourinot's Address — Gustavus and Horace Wickstead, 317 ; Cabinet Ministers and Conference Delegates Present, 317-318 ; Atlantic Steamships— "City of Paris"— New Record, 318 ; "Majestic" and "Teutonic's" Trips- Records of Ocean Steamships for Twenty-six Years, 319 ; "Campania" Beats all Records— Relative Sizes of Great Steamers— The " Great Eastern "—Some Accounts of Her — Description and Cost, 320 ; Canadian Ships and Their Tonnage— Increase in the Size of Ocean Steamers, 321 ; A Ship's Bill of Lading One Hundred Years Ago— The Prayer for Safety— The Good Words Abolished, 322 ; Tissue Copying of Way Bills— A Ready and Quick Method, 323. Contents. xiii. Chapter XXIX.— pages 324 to 327. The Electric Telegraph — The Author as an Operator— Preston & Wyre Railway — The Author's Experiments, 324 ; Superintendents Purkis and Davis — H. P. Dwight — A Sketch of His Career, 325 ; Reaches the Highest Telegraph Position, 326 ; O. S. Wood — Geo. Black— Superintendents and Inventors — Successful Opera- tors — Jas. Walsh — Many Duties of an Operator — A Brakeman's Wit, 327. Chapter XXX.— pages 328 to 337. The Atlantic Cable— Puck's Girdle Completed— The Cable of 1858— Hnzzahs at Port- land, 328 ; Queen Victoria's Message, 329 ; President Buchanan's Reply — Cyrus W. Field, the Pioneer— His SUrt in Stewart's Store, New York, 330 ; The Father of the Cable— The New Start in 1866— "Great Eastern " Shoulders the Cable, 331 ; Grand Success— Two Continents United, 332 ; Rev. Henry M. Field's Tribute to His Brother's Memor>, 332-333 ; "Clouds Gather "-Cyrus Field's Death— He Sleeps in the " Quiet Valley "— F. N. Gisbome, 334 ; His Early Suggestion of an Atlantic Cable — His Numerous Inventions, 335 ; Sub- marine Cables of the World, 336 ; Cable Construction — A Long Telegraph Circuit, 337. Chapter XXXI.— pages 338 to 342. Edison- The Wizard of Menlo Park— His Early Days on the G. T. R., 338 ; Hia Daring Exploit — His Adventure at Stratford — Edison and Carter Summoned to Toronto, 339 ; Edison's Legion of Patents— Interviewed by A. Bremner, 340 ; Mr. Story's Present of Type, 341 ; Edison's Baby and the Phonograph— Farady on Electricity, 342. Chapter XXXII.— pages 343 to 348. Columbian Exposition— First Crystal Palace— Note on the Transept— Jackson Park — Its Buildings, 343 ; Four Noted Exhibitions— Admissions and Receipts — Chicago Holds the Record — Railways and the World's Fair, 344 ; The Ferris Whetl— Sketch of G. W. Ferris— Cost and Magnitude of the Wheel, 345 ; Des- cription of the Wheel — Its Great Success — The Mammoth Cheese, 346 ; Canada's Cheese Exhibit — Greatest Exporting Country in the World — Babies at the World's Fair, 347 ; One Baby Over— The Record Broken— Funny Inci- dents at the World's Fair—" Exit " First Visited-" Executed in Terra Cotta " —"Where are the Lagoons Kept," 348. xiv. GontenU. Chapter XXXIII.— pages 349 to 353. *'The Great Lone Land" — Hon. Dr. Schultz— His Visit to Montreal — His Introduc tion to the Author — The First Kiel Rebellion —Dr. Schultz's Escape on Snow Shoes, 349 ; Province of Ontario — A Large Map — Some Statistics of the Trade and Commerce of the Dominion, 350 ; Dominion Fisheries— Salmon of the Pacific Province — A Railway Clerk's Luck— Wyld's Great Globe, 351 ; The Big Nugget of Gold, 352 ; Queen Victoria and Sir Geo. E. Cartier- -The Victoria Bridge, 353. Chapter XXXIV.— pages 354. to 363. Old Country Ideas of Canada — The Frozen Bomb-Shell— Kick Cocoanuts ?n the Streets— A Red Indian Idea of Canada — Quebec vs. New York, 354 ; A Com- parison of Distances — Conscience Money Paid to a Railway Co., 355 ; Feeling Against Britishers — Some Rhyming Ditties — "Tackets, Gentlemen " — General Manager's End Predicted, 356 ; Changed Feeling in After Years — Song of the G. T. R. Labourer — English and American Vocabulary, 357 ; How Some Raw Cotton Vanished— Don't Trust to Snow to Put Out a Fire, 358 ; "En Yo Got Ony Trunks " — How the Maine Liquor Law was Carried Out at Paris, Me . — What Became of the Whiskey, 359 ; Acton Copper Mine — " A Big Pocket " — Sir Wm. Logan's Opinion, 360 ; Hon. C. Dunkin, W. H. A. Davies and Mr. Sleeper, the Successful Owners — An Engine-Driver's Feat— Laws of Motion, 361 ; Moving Bodies — The Author Gets a Shake — The New Dominion, 362 ; Fathers of Confederation — Greatness of the British Empire — Dr. Beers* Speech, 363. Chapter XXXV.— pages 364 to 378. The Sturgeon of Lake Huron, 364 ; ' ' Halibut Steaks " — A Frenchman's Fishing Scheme, 305 ; Boston Men in Dreamland — The Burly Frenchman and Grape Culture, 366 ; All Ends in Smoke— A Queer Bed at Fargo, 367 ; One-Armed Jack Maguire— "Clapping His Hands "—A Warm Bed at Island Pond, 368 ; To Meet Him at Midnight — A Madman's Telegram — The " Tossicated " Woman, 369 ; Her First and Last Railway Excursion— (Lancashire Dialect), 370 ; How Claims for Accidents Were Settled 50 Years Ago, 371 ; How Friend- ships Were Quickly Made, 372 ; How a Small Pig Became Two Dogs, then a Horse, 373 ; A Subject for the Zoological Sof-iety — A Small Pup and a Lady's Mufif — The Monkey Passenger, 374 ; Keep Out of Foreign Countries— A Customs Collector's Caution — Minton's Encaustic Tiles — "Bowled Out," 375 ; A Coal Story- Sir Wm. Logan's Opinion — A Toronto Professor's Opinion — "Indurated Bitumen," .376 ; An Early Opening of an English Railway— Advice to Station Masters— Champagne — Director's See Double- -How They Came Home, 377 ; " Shunted and Stuck " — A Lady's Complaint — Instructions on a Clock, 378. Contents. xv. Chapter XXXVI.— pages 379 to 391. Our Fortieth Anniversary in Canada — J. B. Jones and the Author — His Journal " Outward Bound," 379 ; A Storm at Sea— The " Sarah Sands," 380 ; Toronto and Montreal in 1^53— The " Campania's " First Trip, 381 ; Railways in 1853 and in 1893— The " Labrador's " Quick Passage — A Visit to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky in 1361 ; My Friend Taken Prisoner by the U. S. Police as a Spy During the War, 382-388 ; The Printing Press, 388-390 : Petrol- eum—Its Origin— Its Discovery in Ontario— Some Statistics of Shipments, 391. Chapter XXXVIT.— pages 393 to 396. My Valedictory— An Address to Railway Employees — Old Adam in " As You Like It "—Total Abstinence the Safety- Valve— Lord Brassey's Navvies— A Prison Warden's Report— Sir Andrew Clarke's Opinion— What Solomon, the Wise, Says— Henry Anderton, the Poet— His Poem " >iature,"— In Remembrance— •• Tiny Tim's " Prayer, 393-396. ADDENDA. Explanation— Sir Hugh Allan— Father of Ocean and St. Lawrence Steamship Navi- gation—Sir Hugh's Energy and Pluck— Surmounts all DiflSculties— His Night Journeys— No Pullman Cars— Dent's Sketch of Sir Hugh's Life— Allan Line Starts with One Steamship in 1853, have now Thirty-three, 397-400. V ^»^A_H^ OF THE UNIVERSITY. OF hs- SIR HENRY W. TYLER. INTEODUCTOEY. In Canada and the United States the railroad is of greater value even than in England ; it is there regarded as the pioneer of colonization, and instrumental in opening up new and fertile territories of vast extent— the food-grounds of future nations. — Dr. Samuel Smiles' Life of George Stephenson. FACTS and incidents which relate to the early history of great public undertakings are always interesting, as tbey illustrate their usefulness and power for creating important changes in the countries where they are first inaugurated. Nothing has done so much to revolutionize the civilized world as the cutting of navigable canals and the building of railways. The first was the pioneer for the movement of heavy merchandise and passengers, in an easy and safe way, from one distant city to another, and though the speed of canal freight boats and passenger packets was slow, it was a cheap and pleasant mode of conveyance, and in its day did much to develop an interchange of traffic between distant places, and added greatly to a nation's prosperity, while it, at the same time, paved the way for the advent of its younger, but gigantic big brother, the steam locomotive railway. This last wonderful power has re- duced rates of freightage to a minimum, and has almost anni- hilated time itself in the transfer of passengers from one point to another. As the author was connected with the canal carrying trade from a boy of fourteen, and for many j-ears afterwards, and with railways since their commencement, he is able to speak with accuracy of many traits in their early history, and to relate incidents and events connected with them. He has tried to xviii. Introductory. render his work as readable as possible by making his sketches short and to the point, at the same time interspersing it with humorous and amusing anecdotes. Some years ago the author wrote a number of " Early Reminiscences of the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada," which appeared in the Toronto Globe. These were well received, and the author's friends asked him to issue them in a more perman- ent form. He now complies with that request, adding a number of other reminiscences of old-time memories of the early Grand Trunk; he has also gone back to the stage coach, stage waggon and canal " fly-boat " times, as well as those of the early Eng- lish railways, and has given some account of the men who were the pioneers in those great public institutions. The author has tried to tell the story of the Railway Mania of 1845, with its terrible effects on the morals of the people of Great Britain and other nations of Europe. In a sense, it maybe said that railways have lengthened the life of man for all practical purposes, whether it be for good or for evil, but we may safely claim that their general tendency pre- ponderates in favor of the good and happiness of the human race. To enlarge upon the immense progress made in all countries where railways have been introduced, would require volumes to tell, and would be something like an attempt — " To gild refined gold, to paint the lily. To throw a perfume on the violet." The author's long and intimate connection with the two Canadian pioneer railways, the Grand Trunk and Great West- ern, since their opening, now forty years ago, must be stated as a reason for his giving more than ordinary prominence to the sketches and memoirs of the men who have had the management of these great undertakings, and of many who are still the active Introductory. xix. workers on the Grand Trunk Eailway, and who, in many cases, have grown from youth to mature age in its service. The author has given special attention to the wonderful achievements of the electric telegraph, which has brought all nations within speaking distance, and is such an important factor in the safe running of railways. He has also collected from many sources some account of the first railways, steamboats and Atlantic steamships, all of which bear upon the great carrying trade by land and water. The author has had much hesitancy in sending forth his work for public perusal, knowing his inability to do full justice to a subject so vast and momentous in its results, but he is hopeful, that the book may add something to the history of railways in both countries, and also of the noted men (many of whom have long since passed away), who figured in the projection, construc- tion and management of these great iron roads which now inter- sect and cover all civilized lands. For much valuable and many interesting details, the author is greatly indebted to F. S. Williams' (England), " Our Iron Roads " ; Dr. Samuel Smiles' (England), *' Life of George Stephenson"; J. M. & E. Trout's "Railways of Canada"; Dr. Wm. Kingsford's "Canals of Canada"; and other Canadian writers ; also to the Derby and Chesterfield Reporter ,- Port Huron Daily Times ; Toronto GZoi>e ; ^oxonio Empire, and other Canadian and United States newspapers, as well as to many kind friends and brother railway officers. THE AUTHOR. Toronto, Ontario, 1894. V 5>p THE UNIVERSITY OF ^ALIFORiii^ / CHAPTER I. EARLY DAYS AND THE EARLY CARRYING TRADE. Lay down your rails, ye nations near and far ; Yoke your full trains to Steam's triumphal car ; Link town to town, and in their iron bands Unite the strange and oft embattled lands; Peace and Improvement round each train shall soar, And Knowledge light the Ignorance of yore. Men joined in amity, shall wonder long That hate had power to lead their fathers wrong ; Or that false glory lured their hearts astray. And made it virtuous and sublime to slay. — Charlet Mackay. WITHOUT attempting to give an autobiography of myself, it may be of interest that I should narrate some details of my boyhood days, and how, in early life, I became connected with the canals and railways of the old country. I was born at Lancaster, England, on May 13, 1814. My father, during a long life, was the agent for John Hargreaves, the famous carrier, at his "fly-boat" warehouse, Lancaster. His canal boats sailed from Manchester and Liverpool to Summit, a point on the Manchester and Leeds canal, from which place the communication with the Lancaster canal was made by a rail or tram road of five miles to the town of Preston, from there the route was again by canal to Lancaster and Kendal and thence by stage waggons, Scotch carts, &c., to Penrith, Carlisle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and intermediate towns. Mr. Hargreaves' stage waggons, drawn by four or six powerful horses, and his canal " fly-boats " were institutions of the country, and their arrival at the different towns and cities on the line of route was looked for, by the mercantile community, with as much 22 Railways and Other Ways. interest as the arrival of railway trains is at the present day. His "fly-boats " could hardly be said to fly, as the speed did not much exceed three miles an hour. SCHOOL BOY DAYS. One of my earliest recollections is that of attending an old lady's school, held in her kitchen, where I sat on a long wooden form along with a score of other little boys and girls. The schoolmistress was usually employed knitting and instructing us in spelling words of one or two syllables and in the simplest sums in arithmetic. The good old lady occasionally indulged in a quiet smoke, or read to us from a well-thumbed school book, a story of one Tom Brown, a poor boy who loved to learn, and by hard work and perseverance ultimately became a judge. My second school was one where there were 150 or 200 pupils. This school was nick-named " Sandy Johnny's," from the fact that we learned to write by using a stick and scribbling in shallow boxes of dry sand. The writing was erased by shaking the box ; for the little boys this method was a source of great fun. On the coronation of George the Fourth (1821), the scholars were all treated to cake and a glass of port wine and decorated with a gilt medal, and then marched through the town behind a band of music, much to the admiration of their parents and the gentry of Lancaster. My last school was called the "Lancastrian Free School," in which there wei;e 400 boys and only one teacher ; he carried on his school by making his advanced pupils into " monitors." I remember being dubbed as an " extra monitor," and my busi- ness was to teach other boys as much as I knew myself, which I am afraid was very little. At that time (1827) the Lancaster Assizes took place twice a year, and there was often one or more unfortunate prisoners condemned to be hung. The Early Days and the Early Carrying Trade. 23 executions took place at noon and on such occasions the school boys were let out half an hour earlier ^^ to go and see the hanging,*' which was supposed to give the boys a good moral lesson. It may be fairly said that I was born a carrier, as when a small boy I learned to make out goods (freight) way-bills in my father's office. MY CANAL AND KAILWAY RECORD. In May 1830 I removed to Preston,* where I was bound an apprentice to Mr. Hargreaves for five years, as a clerk in his fly-boat office there; he to pay my board bill, clothing etc., and I to render him a monthly account of my expenditure. The financial arrangement was not at all to the liking of a budding young man, for if a correct statement was made, it must have contained items like the following : — amusements lOd., fruit 6d., lent Bob. 8d., church Is., and so on. At last I openly rebelled against it, and Mr. H. then consented to allow me a weekly payment of sixteen shillings, which was continued until the end of my apprenticeship. PICKFOBD AND CO. THE GREAT CARRIERS. Pickford & Co. were the carriers between London, Man- chester, Liverpool and other towns. That company and Har- ♦ Preston, a large manufacturing town in North Lancashire, England, ie beautifully situated on a gentle eminence by the Ribble, one of the largest rivers in the north of England. Preston is about an equal distance from Liverpool and Manchester, say 30 miles, and 21 miles from Lancaster. Preston is of high Saxon antiquity, its records go back nearly a thousand years. It is famous for its "Guild," a grand festival held every twenty years, and which has been kept up for many centuries . The town is noted as having given birth to Moses Holden, the Astronomer ; Joseph Livesey, the Philanthropist, and father of the Temperance Reformation ; also of Sir Richard Arkwright, famed as one of the earliest inventors of cctton spinning machinery. The first cotton factory was built in Preston in 1791, since which " Horvocks' Cottons " have become known all over the world. The celebrated House of Derby has been more or less connected with Preston, and figured in its history for the last three hundred years, and members of the family have from time to time represented the ancient borough in the British House of Commons. The late Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada for a time represented Preston. In 1886 he was created a Peer of the Realm under the title of Baron Stanley of IVeaton, and is now the Earl of Derby. 24 Railways and Other Ways. greaves' formed the main carriers of England and Scotland, long before other noted carriers entered the field. The ancestors of John Hargreaves were carriers in the days of the " pack saddle," one hundred years or more before the renowned Macadam made British roads passable for heavy loads. One would not suppose that there could be anything lik& enthusiasm in such a matter-of-fact business as that of a carrier, but my father was really an enthusiast in the carrying trade. When a youth I used to visit him at holiday times, and when we had talked over the current events of the day, father would say, " Now let us talk about carrying." Heavy weights, fully- loaded canal boats down to the "fender," and big goods trains were first-class poetry to him. When I spoke of the mighty movements of thousands of tons of merchandise being conveyed by the new railways, he was then in his element. I suppose some of this heavy weight enthusiasm must have descended to- his son. A PEN PORTRAIT OF JOHN HARGREAVES. The artist who first gave a sketch of " John Bull " as that worthy gentleman has often appeared in Punch must have had Mr. Hargreaves in view when he drew the character, the likeness being perfect. I, my brothers and sisters, when children, had greai reverence for the imposing looking gentleman and gazed upon him as we would on a king ; with his large head, bulky body,, broad red face, prominent nose, mutton-chop sandy whiskers, dark red curly hair, " broad gauge " legs, ponderous and swinging walk, knee breeches, top shiny boots, massive gold snuffbox, heavy gold chain, with giant seals hanging from his fob, fine silk broad-brimmed hat, immense broadcloth black " top " coat, with pockets of capacious dimensions filled with papers ; a grand English gentleman such as might have been seen occasionally in the early part of this century. Early Bays and the Early Carrying Trade. 25 Mr. H. was a lover of horses and owned more than any other man, and understood more about them. All disabled and diseased ones were sent to his large farm and residence at Hart Common, near Wigan, where he doctored them himself. No one was his equal in driving a four-horse coach. Often, when a boy, I have seen him, whip in hand, driving the coach into Lancaster, while Jarvey, the coachman, would be seen sitting at his ease smoking a cigar, well knowing that the whip was in safe hands. He, Mr. H., visited hie out-stations, between Manchester and Edinbro', every three months, and collected the larger freight accounts himself. In addressing his letters to agents, or speak- ing to them, he never used the word " mister," and always spoke to them in a familiar style as, " Well, John," or ''Well, Thomas," as the case might be. JNO. HARGREAVES AND THE TOLL-GATE MAN. I once saw Mr. H. have a row with a big, fat, burly toll-gate man, which took place in the goods yard at Lancaster. The man commenced charging toll on Mr. H-'s delivery lorries as they passed through the toll-gate, and this he considered to be illegal. The face of Mr. H. was always red, but on this occasion it was like the rising sun. To give effect to his speech he mounted a box, and such a war of words commenced as I have not heard since. The toll-gate man said, " What are you, sir ? You are only a com- mon carrier." Mr. H. replied, "I am an uncommon carrier, I carry further than any man in England." Mr. H. beat the man out of his claim for toll, and the two finally separated without coming to blows, though very near it. WAY-BILLS. When English railways started, Braithwaite Poole, (the prince of " goods managers "), changed the old name of way-bill 26 Railways and Other Ways. to *' invoice" (not so understandable). When I came to Canada I resuscitated the old name " way-bill," and so it still remains. Hargreaves' agents debited themselves with the totals of the way- bills in their cash books and credited themselves with the disbursements, as salaries, wages, &c., carrying on the balance from week to week ; cash on hand, and outstanding debts, if correct, formed the balance, a copy of which was sent to Hart Common along with the original way-bills. Mr. H. sent agents a list of errors every quarter, which they did not like to see, as the balance was often to their debit. MY FIRST RAILWAY. At Preston, Lancashire, as already stated, there was a railway of 5 miles, forming a link between the Lancaster and Preston and Manchester and Leeds canals, the latter being at a much higher elevation than the former. The line was called a "railway," not a "tram-way," as such roads were usually called. It was worked with horses, the rail was flanged on one side, and the wheel of the waggon was smooth like an ordinary cart or carriage wheel. At the sides of the waggon and in front of each wheel there was suspended a short chain and hook to act as a brake by catching a spoke of the wheel, and it required some careful manipulation on the part of the brakesman or he stood the chance of losing a finger or two ; one of our men, I remember, lost a thumb and forefinger. Each waggon took two or three tons of goods, and a team of horses could draw three waggons up the line and six down. The gauge of this railway was the same as those first built by Geo. Stephenson, viz., 4 feet 8^ inches, which gauge he introduced on the Liverpool and Manchester railway, and it in time became the established gauge of England as well as of this Continent. Early Days and the Early Carrying Trade. 27 A RAILWAY EPISODE. At this time (1830) drunkenness was almost universal, the world seemed to have adopted Byron's sarcastic maxim that, ' ' Man being reasonable must get drunk ; The best of life is but intoxication." The Temperance reformation (which has since made such a mighty change in the world) had not commenced. The move- ment was first fairly started in Preston in 1832, and the writer took an active part, with others, in the formation of Youths' Temperance Societies. One night in 1830, all the men (agents included), had got so drunk that not a man at Hargreaves' warehouse, Preston, was in a fit state to take a train of waggons (loaded with butter and produce for the Manchester market), to Summit, the point where the canal boat was waiting for them. Knowing its vast impor- tance, I harnessed up a team of horses and started on my night journey, and with the exception of a few mishaps, one of which was getting off the track and having to rouse up a neighboring farmer to help me on again, I reached Summit in safety and was received with three cheers by the boatmen. This then was my first railway experience, now more than 63 years ago, and I think this makes me the oldest railway man living still in active service (1894). CANAL BOAT ROBBERS. One great trouble in the canal carrying times was the fre- quent pilferage of goods in transit. The freight boats were covered with taurpaulins, cargo was consequently easily reached, and the lonely night journeys gave every facility to the boatmen to plunder it. Liquors, wines, fruits, etc., suffered most. On the Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds canal, it was diflScult to keep up an honest crew of men long; outside harpies were 28 Railways and Other Ways. always on the lookout to tempt them. In one case a shop was opened at Wigan for the sale of stolen goods. Still, with all this, there were some good men who ranHargreaves' fly-boats for ten, twenty and thirty j'ears, and who might have been trusted with untold gold. THE LOST FLY-BOAT. One morning the fly-boat had not arrived at its usual time at Lancaster, and my father thought he would take a walk on the canal bank to look for it. After walking three or four miles he saw the boat lying across the canal and the horses quietly grazing on the banks. On getting aboard the boat he found the three men lying at the bottom helplessly drunk, soaked with rum inside and out. They had bored a hole in a hogshead of rum and left the liquor running out, which had done great damage to other valu- able freight, a portion of the cargo. GAME POACHERS. Some of the boatmen were noted poachers. The canal passed through several fine game preserves, and as the boat quietly glided along, the men would slacken speed, and one of them, gun in hand,wouldjumpoffand run into the wood. "Crack! crack! "would be heard, and down would come a fine pheasant or brace of par- tridge, and before the gamekeeper could come up, the boatman would be on board, smoking his pipe, or whistling " Jim Crow," or some popular tune of the times, gun and game being carefully buried in the bowels of the boat. Complaints were often made to Mr. Hargreaves by the gentry on the line of the canal, but he was powerless to stop poaching, and the boatmen were rarely caught in the act. When a small boy, I was on the canal wharf at Lancaster when the fly-boat arrived. A man from the town came up and said to the captain, " En yo got out ? "— " I'hi " says the captain—" Ten Early Days and the Early Canning Trade. 29 pheasants." These birds at that time fetched five shillings each, which was a strong temptation to the men to tm-n poachers. BATES OF CJLRRIAGE. We did not use the term "freight, " ; that was only applied to sailing vessels' rates. Mr. Hargreaves never printed a list of rates, he gave his agents minimum figures, and left them to get the best rates they could. The sending station did not charge out the way-bills, that was done by the receiving station. When I went to Preston the agent gave me a way-bill from Manchester to "charge out." I said, "Where are the rates'?" He said, "Oh, call in Joe, he knows most about rates." I have to remark that Joe Hornby was the carter who collected and delivered goods in the town of Preston. I call in " Joe." He is a clean-shaved, rather pleasant looking fellow ; he comes into the office, strokes his hair in front and looks wondrous wise. The way-bill is from Manchester to Preston (30 miles) ; we charge by the 112 lbs., the ton is not used. We start with bales, boxes and trusses of cotton, cloths, linens, etc. (dry goods). I say, " Tommy Careful, one bale." Four- teen pence," saj's Joe. "Billy Sharp, one bale." "He'll only stand one shilling," says Joe. "Peter Careless, one truss." "He'll stand eighteen pence," says Joe. And thus he went on, parties paying different rates for the same description of goods from the same place. Eates were fixed at what a man uonld stand* This kind of charging was rather difficult to keep track of, and I made a private rate book, which I kept securely locked up in my drawer. Then again, rates of freight were based on caste. Esquires, reverends, military officers, the nobility, etc., had to pay for * It must be understood that Mr. Hargreaves did not intend his agentfl to make discriminating rates, giving one party a lower rate than the other. He in the first instance gave one rate for all, but in process of time, merchant A, by competition and strong pressure, would contrive to get a special rate ; in time merchant B would dis- cover this ; then, as a matter of course, his rate had to go down to A's figure, and so on ; hence Joe, the carter, spoke of what so and so " would stand." 30 Railways and Other Ways. their titles. Rates of freight generally were very high, say ten shillings per hundred weight from Edinbro' to Lancaster, 170 miles. The rate by "Pickford's van" from London to Manchester was 18/- or 20/- per 112 lbs., say about eighty-eight dollars per ton of two thousand pounds. When railways opened, the rate on dry goods to and from Manchester and London was reduced to two shillings per 112 lbs., or about ten dollars per ton ; while the time occupied in transit by rail was less, by more than one-half, than that of the time occupied by Pickford's van. THE DEEAD MON. Curious enquiries were sometimes made of the carriers. A man walked into my father's office one day, and said (in broad Lancashire dialect), " What'en yo charge a hundred weight to Preyston?" " What kind of goods," said my father. "It's for a mon," said the enquirer. " We don't carry passengers," said father, " Bot this is a deead mon," said the man. Father : " the Canal Co. will not allow us to take living passengers, and we will not take dead ones." WHISKEY AND WOOL. One season we had carried an unusual quantity of bags and packs of wool from Scotland, the canal boats for several months were half loaded with them, and on winding up the business at the close of the season, quite a number of bags remained over without marks, unclaimed. These were being placed in our store- room, when one of the porters laid himself down on his back on one of the bags, and feeling something hard, he cried out ** There's a dead man in that bag ! " It was quickly opened, and the men pulled out a new ten-gallon keg of Scotch whiskey, which was being smuggled into England. The porters did not inform the revenue department, but at once confiscated the liquor them- selves, and were not fairly sober for a month afterwards. Early Days and the Early Carrying Tirade. 31 CANAL PASSENGER PACKET BOATS. The Lancaster Canal Co. used to carry passengers in covered packet boats, something like those on the Erie Canal. Before railways, the speed was about four miles per hour for these boats, but later, narrow iron packets were put on, and the speed was increased to nine miles per hour, horses being changed every three orfourmiles. Thiswas a pleasant mode oftravel, as the canal passed through a rural country of wood and park and grassy dell, with here and there a farm or quaint old inn, or ivy-covered ruin, and may be an ancient old church or the mansion of some nobleman. One of the packets was called ** Swiftsure," and glided along so smoothly that any one might have written a letter on board with the greatest ease. Hargreaves' " fly-boats " were under a penalty of ten pounds per man if they carried passengers, but in spite of this the boatmen generally managed to stow two or three passengers on board, and every now and then Mr. Hargreaves was fined, and made the men pay as much of the fine as he could. One shilling per week was stopped from one captain for 20 years, towards his fine of fifty pounds. THE MYSTERIOUS TRUNK. One Sunday when all our family except my mother were at church, a man came up, wheeling a hand truck with a neatly covered trunk upon it, and said the package was for Edinbro' as addressed, and asked to be allowed to leave it in the goods ware- house. Mother complied, but forgot to name the matter to father. Next morning the yardmen were almost driven from the premises by a horrible stench, which they thought came from some raw hides close by. Shortly a man came into the office, and informed my father that on the previous day he stood near the Liverpool coach on its arrival at Lancaster, and he heard the passengers of CALlFOj 32 Railways and Other Ways. protesting that they would "not go one foot further" if that trunk (pointing it out) remained on board, and the coach office men bundled it off as above related. My father then sent the trunk down to the coach office, but the parties refused to receive it. It was then left in the street and soon created a sensation. Finally the police took possession of it, and on opening it, found the bodies of a woman and child doubled up and crammed into the trunk. It was afterwards ascertained that a man's wife and child had died or been murdered in Liverpool, and that the mis- creant husband and father had sold the poor bodies to an agent of a medical professor in Edinbro'. This was probably one of the earliest cases of what was afterwards called "burking," say in 1826 or 1827. HOW JOHNNY MORRISON BALANCED HIS CASH BOOK. Johnny, a Scotchman, was a wharfinger for John Hargreaves, the carrier, at Tewitfield, a point on the Lancaster and Kendal canal. On one occasion my father went to the place to examine Johnny's books, and I went with him. Johnny was a bachelor and lived in a little den above his office. Boy-like I peeped into his domicile. There was a small fire grate which, from appearance, had not been cleaned out for many days ; the ashes and cinders were about to enter the bed which stood close by. Johnny did his own cooking, but he did not do anything else towards house- keeping, and the place looked as if it would have been all the better if feminine hands had had a little to do with it. The office desk below had a layer of dust upon it, carefully preserved, the disturbance of which by a broom would have driven the auditor out of the office, but Johnny took a rag and shoved the dust on one side, forming a sort of square of earth-works for the cash book. Johnny had an original method of balancing his cash book. Early Days and the Early Carrying Trade. 33 He only added up the credit side, and made the debit side agree with it, regardless of all rules of arithmetic. When father tested the addition, he found it all wrong. " Why, how's this ? " said father, " the addition is incorrect. " Johnny ; " Its a' reet, mon, dinna yekenth'coont balances on baith sides." Father found a considerable shortage of cash, and Johnny's wharfage business had to come to a sudden close. HYLES beck's CASH BOOK. My namesake, "Myles," was agent for Hargreaves at Preston during a long life. He died two or three years before I removed to that toAvn. I am in possession of one of his old cash-books bearing dates 1811 to 1813. It is full bound in leather, made to last for ages. In my boyhood I made a part of it into a scrap book by cutting out alternate leaves, and since then it has been handled and tumbled about by all my children, and is still in a good state of preservation. These were the days of high postage, as will be seen from the following abstract : — Postage from Lancaster to Preston 8d. (16 cts.), Carlisle lOd. (20 cts.), Leeds same, London Is. 2d. (28 cts.). Now all are only one penny. Other items — Odd pence in' settling Humber's account 4d. Expenses with Trafford and wife, Is. (this was doubtless for wine all round). William Bates, wages, £1. 8s. Od. Billy Bates was a favorite stage waggon driver up to about 1832, and was well-known on the line of route between Kendal and Edinbro'. He only came on to Preston when the canal was closed with ice. Billy's four-inch-wheeled, high-loaded stage waggon, drawn by six powerful horses, was looked upon with as much admiration as were the first railway trains. The end of the waggon, which was covered over was usually reserved for 3 34 Railways and Other Ways. two or three passengers, and their fare was the driver's perquisite.* i'll learn thee to make m.b. Myles Beck was quite a character, and those who knew him told me some funny anecdotes about him. One, I recollect, was about one of his carters who delivered goods in the town, and col- lected the freight charges. This man had noticed that when he settled up with Mr. Beck, the latter made his initials, m.b., in the delivery book, in a column for the purpose, and when he saw them he passed the item as " paid." The carter thought he could make m.b., and tried it on, putting the money in his pocket for his own use. This went on for a time, and Myles was puzzled in balancing his cash book, and wondered what had become of his money. In tracing out the cause, he found that his carter had been committing a forgery and imitating his (Mr. Beck's) initials. It must be remembered that, at the time, forgery was a capital crime, and the guilty one stood a chance of being " hung by the neck until he was dead." But good old Myles Beck was not the man to hang another for robbing him of a few pounds. Like American lynchers, he, Myles, took the law into ♦ In 1848 I travelled by the last coach from Stafford to Stoke-on-Trent, part of the road for three miles went through charming Trentham park and by the mansion of the Duke of Sutherland. The coach in question was the Inst in a link of 40 coaches which used to run between London and Manchester. The North Stafiford- shire railway opened next morning, and poor Jarvey's occupation as coach driver was gone forever. When a small boy I used to go fishing with an old veteran coach driver of 70, and when our floats were motionless on the canal, and fish would not bite, coachee entertained me with wondrous "tales of flood and field, " of highway robberies, and of UickTurpins, and Jack Sheppards, and upsets of coaches, and gibbets at four lane ends, and how their bones rattled on winter nights and how ghosts and hobgoblins were often seen at such places; all such tales I swallowed with great gusto and always asked for more. The coach driver and the stage waggon driver were a distinct race who entirely vanished from the scene when the iron roads and " puffing billies " began to spread and travel over the length and breadth of the land, and now "We miss the cantering team, the winding way, The road-side halt, the post-horn's well-known air, The inns, the gaping town?, and all the landscape fair." Early Days and the Early Carrying Trade. 35 his own hands, called the carter into his ofl&ce, locked the door, got his rather formidable walking stick, and in a few words told the man he had "found him out," and at once set to and thrashed him round and round the office, and every whack he gave him, Myles said " I'll learn thee to make m.b." The man's yells could be heard half a mile off, and he was finally kicked off the premises. LIQUOR SAMPLING, AN OLD CUSTOM. In the canal carrying times it was the custom for a carrier's agent to take a sample from all casks of ardent spirits, and at the same time to register the gauge of the contents. This was done as a protection to the carrier in case the consignee should make a claim for deficiency in quantity or loss in quality ; more particularly in the latter, as boatmen had a knack of taking out a gallon of rum from a hogshead and replacing it with a gallon of water, and they were not over particular as to the kind of water they put in. The master carrier in some cases claimed these samples, but he rarely got any, the agent either sold the liquor or be and his friends drank it. In large carrying establishments, such as those of Liverpool, Manchester and London, an array of sample bottles might have been seen in an agent's office footing up to hundreds, each con- taining about half a pint. Occasionally some of the samples were given to hospitals. The custom of sampling was a very bad one, and helped to make many a drunkard. When railways commenced the carriage of merchandise the sampling system was abolished. A STAGE COACH JOURNEY — A RUNAWAY. How vivid are first impressions ! For months I had antici- pated a trip to Liverpool to see, for the first time, a train S6 Railways and Other Ways. of carriages rushing along without horses, or any visible power except that of a puffing, snorting machine called a " loco- motive" or engine. To see the marvel of the nineteenth century, one day in June, 1831, I and two friends embarked on a stage coach at Preston, bound for Liverpool, a distance of 30 miles. The driver of the coach, I remember, had a very red face and his nose was artistically decorated with "brandy blossoms," and as we rode along he stopped at every hotel to replenish his inner man with a stiffish tumbler of strong liquor. This after a time had the effect of making him talk very thick and brandish his whip in a most extraordinary manner, not at all liked by the horses, as they got mad and ran away, and the coach began to oscillate from one side to the other, threatening to turn over any moment. To make things worse, right before us we could see a horse and cart going slowly along in the middle of the road, and the driver asleep. We, the passengers, made the welkin ring with our yells and, luckily for us, the man in the cart woke up just in time to get out of the way and thus saved us from a terrible calamity. On went the horses full gallop until they came to a hill which put a stop to their mad career. Since then I have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles by railway and steamships, but I never got such a scare as I did by that stage coach ride of 30 miles. On reaching Liverpool, the first thing we did was to walk three or four miles into the country to see a locomotive and train of carriages pass a level crossing of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, at full speed, which was about 15 miles an hour. To us novices, at the time, it seemed terrific and almost took away our breath, filling us with wonder and astonishment. On the following day we made our first yailway ride on a second-class train bound for Manchester. The carriages were open at the sides, with solid wooden seats, and resembled nothing that can be Early Days and the Early Carrying Trade. 37 seen anywhere at the present day. They were swung very loosely on their axles, and the passengers were tossed from side to side, much like being rocked in a canoe by French habitants when crossing the St. Lawrence, when that river is obstructed by float- ing ice. We were three hours on the thirty mile journey, includ- ing stops. We made our return trip from Manchester in a first-class train, each compartment of the carriage had six seats fitted up much like the inside seats of a stage coach. The motion had a curious effect of sending one to sleep. In our compartment five out of the six passengers soon went into "the land of nod." This train went at 20 miles an hour, and was considered a " lightning express." It took us ninety minutes to run between the two cities. Twenty years afterwards I made the same jour- ney in thirty-five minutes, without once stopping on the road. THE LOCOMOTIVE-— THE CASTLE. At the commencement of English railways, they were thrown open to public carriers, and Hargreaves and his sons were early carriers upon them, and sometime afterwards I was transferred to the North Union goods department, Preston, the same station where Mr. Thos. Bell (formerly G. F. A. of the G. W. E., and General Supt. of the D. & M. R.,) had his first rail- way experience. Mr. Hargreaves had a locomotive which was the admiration of the whole country. It was resplendent in polished brass work, had high brass towers, and was called the " Castle." It was a very powerful engine, and could haul a very long train of loaded goods waggons. I remember on one occasion the " Castle " ran away without any one to guide it. On it went over the Kibble bridge, helter-skelter, — towards Wigan. Gate- men saw it coming, and thinking that it was some express with 38 Railways and Other Ways. important news, that a great man was dead or some such grave matter, were quick to open their gates, when it passed through with fire flying, like a flash of lightning — a regular ** John Gilpin" on wheels. Another engine was sent after the run-away, and found it quiet and cold, still on the track — 17 miles from Preston ; luckily it had met with no obstruction in its mad flight. The Railway and the Locomotive. 39 CHAPTEK II. THE RAILWAY AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. MY FIRST GOODS MANAGERSHIP. IN 1840, I was engaged as the first goods manager of the Preston and Wyre Railway, a line of 20 miles from Preston to Fleetwood. At the terminus there was the river Wyre and a fine deep harbor, at which point the spring tides rose thirty feet, and a vessel had only to sail two miles before she was in the Irish Channel. The land upon which the town was built had for ages been a rabbit warren, and a resort of seagulls, and other aquatic birds.* Fleetwood sprang up as rapidly as a Canadian town ; and steamships were put on to the Isle of Man, Belfast (Ireland), and to Ardrossan (Scotland). The railway was a single track, and it was the first line in England to make use of the electric telegraph. S. P. Bidder (first general manager of the Grand Trunk Railway) was the resident engineer of the P. & W. R. At the opening of the road, the station at Fleetwood was formed into a dining room, and many notabilities attended ; among the guests was the celebrated George Stephenson, who made a short speech in his quaint, characteristic style. In the evening, preparations had been made for a grand ball, which was just opening when a * My old friend Thos. Drewry, of Fleetwood, writes me (Sept. 1893), that the town of Fleetwood contains 10,000 inhabitants, a large shipping dock, a sea-shore asphalt promerade, one mile in length, new market buildings, and all the modern im- provements of a Well organized and thriving city; that it is a popular summer resort, as well as a shipping port of some consequence oa the Lancashire coast. The rabbits, which in the " forties " honey-combed the sand hills, have long since gone ' ' Where the woodbine twineth," ■or have vanished in the form of " jugged hare." 40 Railways and Other Ways. very tragic event occurred. An excursion train, crowded with passengers inside the carriages and on the top, started from Fleetwood, and had only gone a few hundred yards, when a man in a state of intoxication, fell off, and his head was instantly de- capitated by the wheel. Another man, also under the influence of liquor, picked up the gory head by the hair, and before any one could stop him, marched right into the ball-room among the ladies and gentlemen assembled, and exhibited the ghastly spec- tacle to them, which most effectually brought a sudden finish to that ball. MY FIRST MERCHANDISE CLASSIFICATION. The Preston & Wyre Eailway Co. put on a steam-packet to run from Fleetwood (across Morecambe Bay), to Bardsea, the port for Ulverstone, only a few miles from the famous ruins of Furness Abbey, in one direction, and the outlet of Lake Win- dermere, in the other. For the goods traffic by rail and boat I printed my first freight tariff, and made my first attempt at a classification. The latter was a very short one, and two items in it, I remember, caused a little merriment among the people. The items, were " bobbins and dead pigs." One gentleman said, " Wliat a conglomeration ! " At that time one was in the habit of calling things by their right names ; in these more polite times the articles in question would have been dignified by the more delicate terms of ** spools and dressed hogs," although the latter were in a decidedly undressed state. PRESTON AND WYEE RAILWAY SHARES, AND HOW WE SOLD THE LINE. During its early history it did not pay running expenses, and its stock went down to zero. At an auction sale which took place near Fleetwood, some P. & W. R. shares were put up, and instead of getting a single bidder, the matter was met by a laugh of derision, people were afraid of holding the stock as a gift. The directors asked superintendent Cooper and me to try and do some- thing to raise the receipts, giving us full power. We put our The Railway and the Locomotive. 41 heads together and hit upon the idea of trying cheap excursion trains to the sea side, which had hitherto been unknown in Lancashire. We first put the fare down one-half, viz., twoshillings from Preston to Fleetwood and back, which took a fair number of passengers, but it did not come up to our expectations. We had not reached a figure which the cotton spinners, weavers and mechanics of Lancashire could afibrd to pay for a day's excursion and a soak (bath), in what they termed sote (salt) wayt^r (water). We then put the fare down to one shilling and sixpence (36 cents), and I employed messengers to deluge the country round with handbills announcing the fact. Our experiment then was a complete success; we conveyed the people by the thousand, chiefly in stand up u-aggons, for we had not carriages enough to meet the enormous demand. The receipts of the road were soon doubled, and when the wild speculation of 1845 drew near, our line was leased, or sold, to two big railway companies who guaran- teed annual dividends of from 7^ to 10 per cent, and the hundred pounds stock, which had been quoted as low as two or three pounds per share, ran up to more than two hundred pounds, and still continues at from one hundred and fifty to tw^o hundred pounds up to the present time. A favorite trip for pleasure seekers visiting Fleetwood was that of sailing across Morecambe Bay to the ruins of Peel Castle about ten miles distant, or a little farther on the same coast to the famous ruins of Furness Abbey. A trip by a small steamer called " The Nile " is thus described : — What craft is that in Morecambe Bay, So faultless in her rig, Which onward speeds her placid way. As lively as a snig ? I ken her fairy fabric now — I mark her dashing style — .Behold ! with Nelson on her prow, — The gallant Uttle " Nile ! " 42 Railways and Other Ways. How fearlessly the tide she braves ; How well she does her work — She bounds above the swelling waves As buoyant as a cork ! Though four feet shallows hem her round, Her crew serenely smile, For she can float where others ground — The saucy little "Nile! " The smoky towns their crowds disgorge, ] hear the train's loud hum, From heated mill, and deaf 'ning forge — Their pallid thousands come ; And sickly frames with health are stored, And spleen forgets her bile, And joy embraces toil — on board The merry little " Nile ! " Here's three times three, and " one cheer more ! " And still may fair winds waft This water witch from shore to shore — Well crowded fore and aft. Long may her owner watch her skim The sea in dashing style, And feel that she has been to him— The GRATEFUL little " Nile ! " Fleetwood, Septembeb, 1844. THE POET. The writer of the above lines, Henry Anderton, was the station agent at Fleetwood. He had at one time taken an active part in the early teetotal movement (which, as already said, commenced at Preston), and was one of the most popular public speakers in England, quite equal to the late celebrated John B. Gough, when that orator was in his most palmy days. Anderton was termed the Preston temperance poet, and was accustomed to illustrate his speeches with vivid descriptive The Railway and the Locomotive. 43 sketches in verse. At his death in 1855, my friend, Edward Grubb, collected up Anderton's poetic pieces and published them in a small volume of 200 pages, from which I make another selection, on " Eailways (1845)." Some fifty years since, and a coach had no power To move faster forward than six miles an hour, Till Sawney Me A dam made highways as good As paving stones crushed into little bits, could. Then coachee, quite proud of his horse-flesh and trip ; Cried " Go it, ye cripples," and gave them the whip ; And ten miles an hour with the help of the thong — They put forth their metal and scampered along. The present has taken great strides of the past. For carriages run without horses at last ; And what is more strange — yet it's truth, I avow — flack-horses themselves are turned passengers now. These coaches alive go in sixes and twelves, And once set in motion, they travel themselves ; They'll run thirty miles while I'm cracking this joke, And need no provisions but " pump milk " and coke — With their long chimneys, they skim o'er the rails. With two thousand hundred weights tied to their tails ; While Jarvey, in stupid astonishment stands. Upturning both eyes, and uplifting both hands ; " My nags " he exclaims, between laughing and crying, " Are good 'uns to go, but you d — Is are flying." JOHN KING, THE FIRST TEETOTALER. I cannot close my reminiscences of the Fleetwood railway, without referring to another station-agent on that line, viz., John King, a name which will live in history, as the first man known to have signed a total abstinence pledge from all kinds of alcoholic liquors. This pledge was drawn up by Joseph Livesey, cheese factor, printer and publisher of Preston, on the 23rd 44 Railways and Other Ways. August, 1832, when the two men in question signed it. This then was the origin of what was afterwards termed, the ** teetotal movement," and which has since spread to every part of the civilized world, and has done, and is still doing, more than all other agencies (Christianity excepted), to reform the habits and customs of the people. John King was the recipient of numerous medals and badges of honor from different parts of Great Britain, which he wore on special occasions. Both he and Mr. Livesey only died a few years back, each having seen his ninetieth year ! CURIOUS IDEAS ABOUT RAILWAYS. In the early railway times country people had strange notions about railways, and passengers were often in the habit of asking for tickets, not to the station nearest where they lived, but to the name of the place or road itself where they happened to reside. One day a man put down his money and said, " A ticket to Bloody Looen (lane) Ends." I said, " I never heard of such a horrid place." He seemed to pity my ignorance, and said, ** Why Kaarkem (Kirkhara), to be sure." But the people were fairly bewildered with the electric telegraph. How articles and information could come over those wires, caused many a knit brow and deep meditation, and railway men would sometimes play jokes upon parties. One day an old lady had lost her umbrella, and thought she had lost it at the station from which she came. The clerk said he would tele- graph about it, in the meantime a porter had found the umbrella and hung it upon the telegraph wire. The old lady was then told that her umbrella had arrived, and when she saw it hanging on the wire, and on receiving it, she went away rejoicing, repeating the word '* wonderful ! wonderful ! " The Railway and the Locomotive. 45 A BIG ENQUIRY FOR A FREIGHT RATE. In some pao-ts of England, particularly in Lancashire, clogs, or shoes with wooden soles, were much worn by the working classes. The clog soles, roughly hewn in shape, frequently formed an article of freight for the carrier. On one occasion one of our station agents telegraphed me as follows : "A man here wants a rate for ten million clog soles to Manchester." The quantity was so enormous that we went into a calculation upon the matter and found that if all the alder and willow trees (of which clog soles are formed) in England were cut down and made into clog soles, they would not make the quantity named. The man in asking the question simply did it to get a low rate for two or three waggon loads. "kill it without prejudice." In settling claims for loss or damage to goods in transit we sometimes wrote the common law term, — " settled without prejudice." One day I got a telegram from one of our agents at a small station, as follows — " I have caught a calf trespassing on the line, for which no owner can be found. What must I do with it ?" I thought I would give him a poser, so I replied, " Kill it without prejudice." The next time I passed the station I said to the agent, " Did you understand my message about the calf?" "Oh yes," said he, " you had reference to the Jexcish Passover.'' THE SEA BOULDERS AND RAILWAY TRAFFIC. One summer's eve, in pensive thought, I wandered by the sea-beat shore. — Old Song. It was pleasant, when at Fleetwood, to have a ramble on the sea shore, and watch the tide coming in, and listen to the 46 Railways and Other Ways. rattle of the shells and pebbles as they were tossed about by the ever rushing and receding waves. Sometimes, perhaps, one would be looking for variegated colored stones, which when varnished formed a curious collection of natural ornaments for my office mantel-piece. On one occasion, when on such a ramble, accompanied by our poetic station agent Anderton, and while he was addressing the ocean in the well-known verse of Byron, my mind must have been among the more practical and prosaic things of this world, as I noticed that among the sand, pebbles and sea-weed were numerous " boulders," and a bright idea struck me that they were suitable for street paving. I at once opened up a correspondence with the goods manager of the then Manchester and Leeds railway, and the result was that he sent me an order for all the boulders that I could gather. After getting leave of the "lord of the mauor," I set men and teams to work collecting and hauling the pavers, which were duly shipped to Manchester, and sold there. After deducting expense from the proceeds, the balance passed to the credit of the two roads, and gave them a fair freight rate. This went on for some months, when I got a gentle hint from the " lord of the manor," that I had " better draw my paving-stone business to a close as I was carrying away the sea shore, and might, in time, endanger the very stability of the town of Fleetwood." The following account of a presentation, etc., is taken from the Fleetwood Chronicle, Sept. 10th, 1847 : PRESENTATION OF A TOKEN OF ESTEEM TO S. P. BIDDER. On Saturday evening last, a very handsome 18 days Time Piece, of Dresden China, encased in a glass shade, was presented to S. P. Bidder, Esq., by the workmen employed on the Preston & Wyre railway, on his retiring from the com- pany's employ. The presentation took place, after a most The Railway and the Locomotive, 47 sumptuous repast, in the large room of the Crown hotel, which was filled with subscribers to the testimonial, and a few friends. After supper Mr. Myles Pennington was unanimously called to the chair. The usual preliminary toasts having been gone through, the Chairman rose and said: — " I have been requested by the workmen in the employ of the Preston & Wyre Railway Company, to present you, on their behalf, the Time Piece which now stands upon the table, the inscription on which is as follows : — PRESENTED TO SAMUEL PARKER BIDDER, Esq., Engineer, On his retirement from the service of the Preston & Wyre Railway Company by 156 of the Workmen, as a mark of their gratitude and respect. Fleetwood, 4th September, 1847. " In presenting this, I may add that they do so both with feelings of pleasure and regret ; with pleasure as it is a memorial of the esteem in which you are held, with regret that it should be on the occasion of your retirement from a situation which you have filled with credit for so long a time ; and though you may consider that your conduct towards them has been nothing but what is strictly right and just, still having at all times exhibited a kindly feeling towards them, with a desire for their advance- ment, they think it nothing but their duty to acknowledge such kindness in some suitable manner. " The poet Burns has truly observed ' Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn.' "A man in a situation with a number of men under him, has it in his power to make them comparatively happy or miserable ; he may by harsh words, and a general unforgiving 48 Railways and Other Ways. disposition, keep his men in one constant state of anxiety and dissatisfaction, making them look upon their situations as not worth a week's purchase ; and can it be expected that men kept in this state of suspense will ever become men of character, and desirous of forwarding the interests of their employers ? If you would have men honest and faithful, give them an interest in the concern to which they belong, pay them well for their labour, cause them to look upon their situations with a degree of confidence and security, treat them in every respect as men, and you will have your work done well ; cheaper, better, and more efficiently than by any other kind of treatment. I am speaking the sentiments of the workmen, Mr. Bidder, when I say that you, sir, so far as you could, have acted upon these principles (loud cheers), and it is on that account that they present you with this testimonial, which, I may observe, has been subscribed for, voluntarily and spontaneously by them- selves. They desire me to express to you their regret that they are about to lose you, and at the same time, to wish you health and prosperity in your new and important office, as General Manager of the North Staffordshire railway." Mr. Bidder rose and was greeted with the heartiest accla- mations. When the cheering had subsided, he said : — My fellow- workmen, I return you my sincere thanks for this handsome testimonial ; I assure you that never in my life did I feel greater pleasure than I do now in receiving this mark of respect from you, the working men. I assure you that were it of the value of a thousand pounds, it would not be received with more pleasure, and for this reason, because it comes from the heart, and I look upon that which comes from the heart to be of far greater value than anything that can come from the pocket. I have been engaged now 15 years upon these and similar works, and I have always made it my study to promote, in every possible way, the comfort and happiness, and to protect the rights of the The Railway and the Locomotive. 49 working classes (cheers), for it is upon them, in a great measure, that the happiness and peace of this and other nations depend. The nobles of the land derive their comfort from the working man ; it is therefore our duty to do the utmost in our power to make him happy and contented. I shall not detain you with a long speech, but, I wish to tell you that I have a little boy at home, and, as soon as he can read, I shall make him commit that inscription to memory, and tell him that when he becomes a man, if he behaves well to the working men, he will be as much respected. (Loud cheers.) We are now about to be separated, but I shall be always delighted to hear of your welfare, and I hope you will all get good masters. I REMOVE TO THE STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES. In 1848, Mr. S. P. Bidder was appointed general manager of the North Stafifordshire Railway, and I went with him as goods manager. Our headquarters were at Stoke-upon-Trent. Mr. George Bidder, the celebrated calculator (brother to S. P. Bidder), was engineer-in-chief. The N.S.R. was one of many branches, much like a huge spider ; the ten towns of the Pot- teries, nine miles in length, forming its trunk. The line connected with the Midland and London and North-Western Railways at several different points. The N.S.E.'s. longest con- tinuous length was from Macclesfield to Derby, fifty-two miles. The N.S.R. Co., to distinguish their line from all others, adopted the old traditionary Stafi'ordshire knot, and this peculiar sign (the origin of ^'t'^ which is lost in obscurity), was put upon all their carriages, waggons, tarpaulins, way-bills and other documents, so that the road became known, among railway men, as the " Knotty Line." Its staple freight business was crockery, Burton ale, iron, ironstone, coal and salt. The N.S.R. passes 4 50 Railways and Other Ways. through a charming country full of historic interest, crossing and re-crossing several small rivers, as the Churnet, the Blythe, the Dove and the Dane, sometimes running along their banks or giving glimpses of those favorite streams, where, on many a summer day, long ago, the old angler Izaac Walton rambled, rod and line in hand, bent on exercising his well-known skill in hook- ing some wary speckled trout or keen-eyed pike. RUINS OF TUTBURY CASTLE. The North Staffordshire Eailway passed by, or through, several woody parks, as Sandon and Trentham, winding its way in the romantic Churnet Valley, part in the bed of an old canal, by the well-known charming Alton Towers, then on through the rich, green Dove valley, giving a passing glimpse of the quaint old leaning church of Scropton, with its roof of lead and ivy- covered towers, and on to Tutbury station, near which stands the far-famed ruins of Tutbury Castle. In 1569, this castle was the scene of the captivity of poor Mary Queen of Scots, who was subsequently removed to Sheffield, but brought hither again in 1584 and kept close prisoner till 1586, when she was removed to Chartley, and thence in 1587 to Fotheringay, where she was beheaded. During the civil wars the castle was garrisoned for Charles the First, who spent a fortnight there in 1643 ; but after a long siege it surrendered to the Parliamentarians under Colonel Brerton, and was afterwards dismantled, that it might no longer overawe the country and afford shelter to the partisans of the royal cause. TRENT AND MERSEY CANAL. To avoid competition the North Staffordshire Railway Co. purchased the Trent and Mersey canal. This great undertaking, 93 miles in length, with its 126 aqueducts and culverts, 91 locks, and six tunnels, two of which are each nearly two miles in length, was executed by the celebrated engineer, Brindley. The first sod The Railway and the Locomwtive. 51 of this canal was cut by Mr. Wedgwood on July 26, 1766, and the work was finished in May, 1777. I have by me a copy of the Act of Parliament for making this canal, which, at this day, reads somewhat quaint and curious. The following is the title- page :— ANNO REGNI GEORGII III. BEOI S Magna Britannia, Francia et Hiberni^e, SEXTO. "At the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster, the Nineteenth Day of May, Anno Dom. 1761, in the First Year of the Eeign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. An Act for making a Navigable Cut, or Canal, from the River Trent, at or near Wilden Ferry in the county of Derby, to the River Mersey, at or near Runcorn Gap." This great work was completed for the sum of £334,250 stg., and it was one of the best paying concerns in England. Its i6200 shares became worth about ,£2,000 before the rise of the railway interest. It was finally disposed of to the N. S. R. on terms equivalent to a payment of £1,170,000, being 3^ times more than the original cost. High as the amount seems, it was considered that the railway company made an advantageous purchase. THE THREE QUAKERS. " The workers pass, but still their work remains, And fuller lustre through the years attains ; The flame is fed with wishes like their own, And by its light its heavenly source is known. " The first was Edward Pease, of Darlington, who was the leading man, in connection with George Stephenson, in projecting 52 Railways and Other Ways. and building the Stockton and Darlington Eailway, in 1825, the first of the kind in the world. F. I. Williams, in his work, " Our Iron Roads," says. Pease found the railway and Stephenson the locomotive. Some of the main facts with regard to locomotives had already been determined. In certain districts were small engines, which with much clanging and rattling, puffing and smoking, with both a chimney and a steam vent, drew along at the sufficient pace of two or three miles an hour, a dozen or more small iron waggons loaded with coal. Edward Pease was a man of great energy and perseverance, and the whole world is indebted to him for the noble manner in which he brought Geo. Stephenson to the front. Dr. Samuel Smiles says, " When I last saw Mr. Pease in the autumn of 1854, he was in his eighty-eighth year, yet he still possessed the hopeful- ness and mental vigor of a man in his prime. Hale and hearty, full of interesting reminiscences of the past, he yet entered with interest into the life of the present, and displayed a warm sympathy for all current projects calculated to render the lives of men happier." Second was Thomas Edmondson, who in 1840 was a clerk on the Newcastle and Carlisle Eailway. The tickets used for passengers were cut out of a book and had to be filled in with pen and ink for the traveller on his journey. Mr. Edmondson had the sagacity to see that some uniform system of suitable ticket for railway passengers was wanted, and set his wits to work along with a Mr. Blaylock, a watchmaker, and the result was the invention of the ticket 'printing, consecutive numbering machine and dating press, which have since been in use on all railways on both continents. I remember Mr. Edmondson well, and was well acquainted with bis brother who was principal in an educational institution, viz., Tulketh Hall Academy, Preston* Lancashire. In a lecture " On Modern Inventions," delivered The Railway and the Locomotive. 53 by Principal Edmondson in Preston (about forty-five years ago, which I attended), he exhibited his brother's famous machine and told us of its history. The third and last of the three famous Quakers was George Bradshaw, the originator of the celebrated railway guide, known by all the travelled world as " Bradshaw's." I remember its first appearance, a small babe of a guide it was, which could be put in one's vest pocket.* But it soon grew bigger and bigger until it reached manhood, still expanding and increasing in its bulkiness as new railways opened and years rolled on, and now, as Mr. Williams says, "It is a volume that contains nearly half a million items, a volume of hundreds of pages, telling us of the movements of the thou- sands of passenger trains that daily run along our great thorough- fares, or wind their course along the innumerable by-ways that cross and re-cross the land." The guide for December, 1891, is \\ inches in thickness and contains upwards of 700 pages. t • Among my railway relics, I have just turned up a guide for 1844 ; its size is 3 by 4i inches, and contains 38 pages of time tables and 40 of maps and advertisements. + Mr. Thos. Drewry of Fleetwood writes me as follows : — "Thou mentions Geo. Bradshaw of 'Bradshaw's Railway Guide,' as one of the ' Three Celebrated Quakers.' Perhaps thou may not know that Geo. Bradshaw died of cholera, at Christiania, Norway, whilst engaged in compiling his Continental Railway Guide. I happened to be at one time in Christiania, and being informed that his grave was in a cemetery in one of the suburbs of that city, I went to visit his tomb and took a sketch of its surroundings. Geo. Bradshaw was invited and expected to be present at a supper (my informant being one of the party), and next morning he succumbed to that ter- rible disease." 64 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEK III. EARLY ENGLISH GOODS MANAGERS. PREVIOUS to the opening of railways, several of the first goods- managers had been connected with the canal carrying trade, as Braithwaite Poole, Samuel Salt and others ; hence they were already fairly conversant with the goods traffic of the country, and were able at once to propose and adopt suitable rates of freight for general merchandise to be conveyed on railways, and for still further developing, to a vast and almost unlimited extent, the trade of the country which existed, but up to that time was in a somewhat dormant state for want of better and quicker mean& of transporting it from place to place in the land. Some of the early railway directors made great and costly mistakes in appointing unsuitable men to high positions as managers of the lines ; but these directors soon found that they must depend upon the increase of the goods traffic for the payment of dividends, and to do this they must, for goods managers, have men with level heads, sound judgment and great experience, and that to find such men, they must look up the officials of the old carriers, as Pickford & Co., John Hargreaves, Chaplin & Home, and men from the Duke of Bridgewater, Leeds and Liverpool, Trent and Mersey, and other canals. The position of goods manager (or general freight agent, as called on this side the Atlantic) is one of the most important in connection with railways. He possesses a power over the merchan- dise traffic of the country, which if carelessly used may involve his company and the public in enormous losses, or, on the other Early English Goods Managers. 55 hand, he may, by his care, skill and judicious management, foster and encourage trade, and benefit his company and the public a thousand fold. BRAITHWAITE POOLE OF LIVERPOOL. For several years I saw much of Mr. Poole, meeting him monthly at the Goods Managers' Conference, over which body he then presided, and occasionally having to consult him on freight matters in connection with our two respective railways. On the 21st October, 1848, a testimonial was presented to Mr. Poole by the members of the Railway Goods Managers' Conference, as a token of the great esteem in which he was held by them, and as an acknowledgment of his valuable services as originator and, for some time, honorary secretary of those useful meetings. Mr. Poole was considered as the principal goods manager of the London and North Western Railway, and consulting manager of the Caledonian and some other railways. He was a man of pleasing address and happy turn of mind, and always infused into the goods managers' meetings a genial feeling, which was very necessary among many conflicting elements, arising from different representatives of competing lines. In 1852, Mr. Poole published a very useful and valuable work entitled, " Statis- tics of British Commerce, being a Compendium of the Produc- tions, Manufactures, Imports and Exports of the United Kingdom, in Agriculture, Minerals, Merchandise, Etc., Etc." Each article is fully described, its origin, growth, manufacture or use given, each being reduced in quantity to the number of tons moved. The book contains other interesting information, as the "Carriers Act of Parliament," the number, names and lengths of the canals in Great Britain and Ireland, which, in 1851, were 125 in number, and foot up to 3,115 miles in length, and cost £33,254,000, or about £11,000 per mile. I have a copy of Mr. Poole's work by me, which I always found very useful in framing railway classifi- 56 Railways and Other Ways. cations of merchandise. With a view of keeping freight for different localities from being mixed, Mr. Poole had the large railway goods warehouse in Liverpool divided into sections, and each section bore a distinct color — thus, east-boun,d freight section was blue, and west-bound red, and so on. When a teamster arrived at the warehouse with east or west-bound freight, he knew at once to what part of the warehouse he was to take it, and it prevented clashing with other teams, and getting in each other's way. In 1845, when so many railway bills came before the British Parliament, Mr. Poole's services were in much demand to give evidence before Parliamentary committees, and for many weeks he travelled from Liverpool to London and back daily, and transacted his own railway business, assisted by a clerk, on board the moving train. This, at the time, was considered a great achievement and was much commented on by the press. Such a thing in these days of rapid transit would hardly excite attention, when men think nothing much of taking a journey of 3,000 miles without stopping over by the way, and when young ladies run round the world in seventy or eighty days. In 1859 a number of the Liverpool shareholders of the Grand Trunk Eailway sent Mr. Poole to Canada to inspect and report on its management and future prospects. Mr. Poole made a close inspection of all parts of the line, its traffic, capabilities, etc., and collected an immense amount of statistics in reference to the Canadian and United States trade; and afterwards, for some weeks, ran through the United States at the rate of 500 miles a day, beating his London record by some thousands of miles. Mr. Poole made a long report to the Liverpool gentlemen, but I do not think it was ever published, as we never saw it at this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Poole dedicated his work, already spoken of, to the /-V of -f^^ ^93^^^ SIR JAMES ALLPORT. Early English Goods Managers. 57 goods managers, and in his introductory address to them he made the following very sensible remarks : — " We are engaged in a most honourable and even holy cause, in toiling for the mutual benefit of our fellow creatures, many of whose families are probably dependent to a great extent on our exertions ; and by a friendly alliance we can promote the welfare of all parties concerned. The interests of railway companies with the public in general are closely identified ; every induce- ment, therefore, to encourage reciprocal accommodation should be held out. The more cheaply and quickly goods are transmitted from one place to another, the more extensively will they be carried ; and the more goods the public send by railways, the less will be the rates charged." SIR JAMES ALLPORT. " When hearts whoso truth was proven. Like thine are laid in earth, There shouUl a wreath be woven, To tell the world their worth." The following letter, by the author, appeared in the Toronto Ghhe, August 13th, 1892 :— " One of England's greatest railway pioneers has recently passed away, and though many obituary notices of his death and brief sketches of his character have appeared in the papers, they have scarcely done him that justice which his long life of useful- ness deserves. From 1848 to 1853, during which time the writer attended monthly conferences of the English railway goods managers, he had frequent opportunities of meeting Mr. Allport, then in the prime of manhood, and a most energetic railway man, whose advice and counsel were always listened to with great respect by his brother railway colleagues. Mr. Allport was then manager of the goods and passenger traffic of the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway; and afterwards 58 Railways and Other Ways. general manager of the Sheffield line. In 1853 he was appointed to the same position on the Midland Kailway, which office he held for 27 years. The Midland road in its early history had been at a very low ebb, its ilOO shares sinking as low as £32, but under Mr. Allport's management a great change took place. Its capital went up to £80,000,000 stg., with a weekly revenue of £135,000 and a mileage of its own, apart from joint lines, through connec- tions, canals and other dependencies, of 1,300 miles. Midland Eailway shares went rapidly up, and in a few years hovered between £150 and £170. In January, 1892, they were quoted at £163 in the share circulars. THE OLD THIRD-CLASS TRAVEL* But Mr. Allport's managerial career was notable for some- thing perhaps more precious to the public than the extension of commercial undertaking, and he is fairly entitled to be classed as one of England's benefactors and philanthropists. Those accustomed to travel on English railways thirty years ago will remember the style of carriage in which third-class passengers had to travel. The prison-like vans were made as mean as possible, with hard seats and small windows, through which one or two passengers, if lucky enough to get in the right position, might get a glance at the beautiful rural scenery of old England, while the great bulk of the passengers had to sit in the close atmosphere and endure a slow, monotonous ride for hours, unrelieved by a peep at the country through which they were passing, and occupying twice the length of time on a journey as that of the more wealthy and well-to-do first-class train passen- gers. Some 50 years ago the writer was employed on an English Early English Goods Managers. 59 railway of twenty miles. The third-class conveyances on this road were square, open boxes, with sides four feet high and no seats. Passengers were exposed to rain, snow and sun. When a passenger wanted a ticket, he asked for A ** STAND-UP " to Fleetwood or other station. In time Parliament made laws that railway companies should r«n at least one third-class train over their lines daily, and that the charge to passengers should be one penny each per mile, the carriages to have seats and be covered in ; but ParHament made no provision for the speed of third-class trains or the style of the carriage to be used. In March, 1872, the railway world of the old country was startled by the announcement that the Midland Board, at the urgent request of Mr. Allport, its general manager, had decided to run third-class carriages by all trains, a decision which staggered the directors of other companies, but which was hailed with delight by the general public, particularly the industrial classes. In course of time other companies adopted the same regulation. An improvement in the style of third-class carriages rapidly took place. They were furnished with comfortable, cushioned seats, and large, pleasant looking windows, while the outward appearance of the third-class carriages on the Midland was upon a par with those of the first-class. The second-class carriages were finally given up. Mr. Allport visited the United States and Canada many years ago, at which time he made an arrangement with the celebrated Mr. Pullman to introduce his drawing room and sleeping cars upon the Midland Railway, and they have long been running between London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Mr. Allport retired from active service in 1880, 60 Railways and Other Ways. when the directors and shareholders of the Midland Eailway made him a present of £10,000 and appointed him a director of the company. In May, 1884, the Queen conferred upon Mr. Allport the honour of knighthood. Sir James died on the 26th of April, 1892, at the good old age of 81. He will long be remembered and his name revered for the valuable assistance rendered by him in connection with the Eailway Servants' Orphanage. The Derby and Chesterfield Reporter, in its obituary of Sir James Allport, says : — * Sir James, like a great many other magnates of the railway world, was the architect of his own fortune. As a railway manager, we assert, without fear of contra- diction, that he had no equal, whether judged by the benefit which his rule conferred on the public at large, or on the Midland shareholders in particular.' * If there is one part of my public life,' Sir James remarked to a friend, * on which I look back with more satisfaction than anything else, it is with reference to the boon we have conferred on third-class passengers. I have felt saddened to see third-class passengers shunted on a siding in cold and bitter weather, in a train containing amongst others many lightly-clad women and children, for the convenience of allowing the more comfortable and warmly-clad first-class train passengers to pass them. I have even known third-class trains to be shunted into a siding to allow express freight trains to pass. When the rich man travels or he lies in bed all day, his capital remains undiminished and perhaps his income flows on the same. But when a poor man travels he has not only to pay his fare but to sink his capital, for his time is his capital, and if he now consumes five hours instead of ten in making a journey, he has saved five hours of time for useful labour, useful to himself, his family and to society.' Early English Goods Managers. 61 In 1881 the passengers conveyed on ail the railways of the United Kingdom, exclusive of season and periodical tickets, were as under : — Number of Amount Passengers. Received. First and second class 102,467,761 £7,178,177 Third class 520,579,126 15,266,519 It will thus be seen that upwards of two-thirds of the revenue was derived from third-class passengers. HOW THE NEWS OF MR. HUDSON* 8 ELECTION WAS CONVEYED TO LONDON, HALF A CENTURY AGO. ' When the battle of railway gauges,' said Sir James All- port, ' was being vigorously carried on, I wished to show what the narrow gauge could do before the days of telegraph. The election of George Hudson, as member for Sunderland, had that day taken place ; and I availed myself of the event to see how quickly I could get the information up to London, have it printed in the Times newspaper, and brought back to Sunderland. The election was over at four o'clock in the afternoon, and by about five o'clock the returns of the voting for every half-hour during the poll were collected. After this I started for London with a state- ment of the poll, travelling by relay of trains. On arriving at Euston Station I drove to the Times office and handed the manuscript to Mr. Delane, who, according to arrangement previously made with him, had it immediately set up, a leader written, and a number of impressions taken. Two hours were thus spent in London, and then I set off on my return journey, and arrived in Sunderland the next morning at about ten o'clock, before the announcement of the poll. So that between five o'clock in the evening and ten o'clock in the morning I travelled 600 miles, besides spending two hours in London, a clear run of forty miles an hour.' " 62 Railways and Otfier Ways. SAMUEL EBORA.LL OF BIRMINGHAM. Mr. Eborall, or as he was often called Captain Eborall, having been at one time, as I understood, a captain of a sailing ship. He had every appearance of an " old tar," when sailing craft was ** sovereign of the seas," and ocean steamships had not shoved those grand old ** liners " from navigable waters. Mr. Eborall was goods manager over a division of the London and North -We stern Eailway, including Birmingham ; he was senior goods manager when I attended the conferences, say, from 1848 to 1853. He was a man of sound judgment, well con- versant with rates of freight, and with a knowledge of the traffic of the country. We often had discussions upon the best means of keeping a book of rates. I remember Mr. Eborall carried about with him a little fat book of rates, full of marginal notes, which was a curiosity in its way. I have a letter of his dated July 9, 1853, in which he wishes me every success in my under- taking in Canada. Mr. Colin Eborall, a son of Mr. S. Eborall, was goods manager of one of the English railways at the same time as that of the former. Mr. C. E. afterwards became a noted railway man, and a general manager of one of the south of England railways ; he visited Canada many years ago along with Sir M. Peto and two or three other English capitalists. WILLIAM CAWKWELL. My first recollection of Mr. Cawkwell is that of his being agent for the Manchester and Leeds railway at Brighouse in Yorkshire ; he next became goods manager of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and finally reached the highest railway position in England, viz., that of General Manager of the London and North-Western Railway, which he held for many years, only retiring when necessitated by age, and receiving a handsome Early English Goods Managers. 63 pension from the company for his long, faithful and valuable services. He was also appointed Vice-Chairman of the Company. SAMUEL SALT OF MANCHESTER. Mr. Salt in early life was connected with the canal carrying trade ; he afterwards commenced his railway career as goods manager of a district of the London and North-Western, including their important freight establishment at Manchester. He was an energetic and straight-forward man, considered somewhat eccentric by those who knew him well. During my conference days Mr. Salt did not often attend the G. M. meetings. He was a great statistical authority. In the title page of one of his works he quotes the following : — " Give me the facts, without the long and tedious details, which only tend to puzzle and perplex the mind." He wrote and published several useful books, as " Statistics and Calculations," " Facts and Figures," " Railway Commercial Information." The top pages of one of hie works was adorned with proverbs and wise sayings from the Bible, Dr. Franklin and himself. These were a source of some merriment among the office boys at Manchester. In Mr. Salt's absence, one of the clerks would call out, '* A place for everything, and everything in its place ; " a voice from another part of the warehouse would call out " Salt," and so on. Though this was done in joke, it, after all, must have done good, as it tended to rivet these proverbs in the memories of the boys. The books of Mr. Salt will always be useful as regards matters of reference in connection with the early railways of England and the United States. Mr. Salt wasa " Fellow of the Statistical Society of London " and ordinary and honorary member of other learned societies. THOMAS KAY. I have a pleasant recollection of Mr. Kay, assistant to Mr. Salt, and successor to that gentleman. Mr. Kay occasionally 64 Railways and Other Ways. visited Stoke-upon-Trent to see his friend and my colleague, S. B. Shaw, when I made Mr. K.'s acquaintance. He, like Mr. Cawkwell and some others, rose from the ranks, step by step, until he became chief goods manager of the London and North- western Eailway, which was then considered the highest position of the kind in England. FREDERICK BROUGHTON. Mr. Broughton was goods manager of the East Lancashire Eailway when I held the like position on the North Staffordshire Eailway, and I met him nearly every month, for a period of two or three years, at the meetings of the goods managers ; he after- wards held important positions on Irish and English railways, and was also, at one time, the general manager of a Welsh railway. Old Canadian Great Western officers will remember that Mr. Broughton first came to this country with the Hon, Mr. Childers, then president of the G. W. E., on a tour of inspection, and about six months afterwards he (Mr. B.) came out as General Manager of the Great Western Eailway, at a large salary. This office he held until that road merged into the Grand Trunk Eailway. Mr. Broughton was a man of great ability and extensive experience. He was of rather an excitable nature, and of strong will power. After leaving the Great Western Eailway Mr. Broughton was engaged on American railways, with head- quarters principally at Chicago. Mr. B. was well versed in Heraldry. I remember his giving a very interesting lecture upon the subject at Hamilton. Mr. Broughton' s death was a sad one. On June 8rd, 1889, he took a walk out on his farm at Eastwood, and, not returning, search was made for him, when he was found in an unconscious state in one of his fields, and never rallied but died next morning. Early English Goods Managers. 65 I recollect the names of several other of the early goods managers, brief sketches of whom I should like to have given, but I have not suJBBcient data. There was W. L. Newcombe of the York, Newcastle and Berwick, who had previously been a carrier by road and rail, and in 1868 became general goods and mineral manager of the Midland. Mr. Walklate of Birmingham, a man of sterling worth and great ability, who was goods and mineral manager of the Midland for upwards of twenty years. Another was Mr. Ormandy of Liverpool, cattle manager of the London and North-Westem, a very important position. 66 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH RAILWAY CLEARING HOUSE. CLEARING HOUSES for Banks had existed long before the Railway Clearing House was established. In 1841, says Mr. P. S. Williams in his work " Our Iron Roads," " Mr. Ken- neth Morrison, chief auditor of, what was then, the London and Birmingham Railway, made a proposal to its president, G. C. Glynn, Esq., that the Clearing House system used in banking and coaching should be extended to railways. In 1842 j&ve companies agreed to it, in 1846 there were forty- six such companies, and in 1850 the ' Railway Clearing Act ' was passed, ■which defined the powers of the new establishment." The number of persons employed at the Railway Clearing House in 1843 was six ; in 1861, when Mr. Dawson was appointed secretary, it rose to six hundred ; in 1883 the number of the staff of clerks and other employees of all kinds was 2,100. Kenneth Morrison, as his name would suggest, was a Scotch- man, whom I remember well, having met him frequently at the goods managers' conferences, and called upon him occasionally at the Clearing House in London. My recollections of him are all of a pleasing nature ; he was of a quiet, plodding, unobtrusive disposition ; he never dictated, but gave his opinions calmly and with sound judgment. His advice was always listened to with profound respect by the goods managers at their monthly meetings, which Mr. Morrison generally attended. Mr. Morrison was made for his position ; no one could have been better adapted for carrying out successfully his gigantic undertaking, the value of which to English railways cannot be The English Railway Clearing House. 67 told in pounds, shillings, and pence. But Mr. M. in his great work had to surmount and overcome whole legions of difficulties ; ' many were the false prophets who predicted his downfall. Others doubted the honesty of the undertaking, and some of the railway companies, who joined the Clearing House, had doubts of the correctness of the returns, simply because Mr. Morrison had originally belonged to a big London railway company ; but in a, few years all their doubt and want of faith in the Railway Clear- ing House vanished forever. Among the other valuable adjuncts which the Clearing House took note of was that of the running of waggons and coaches over foreign lines, and crediting the owners of the stock with proper mileage and demurrage, also keeping track of all tarpau- lins, ropes, &c. Another thing was that of introducing a sj-stem of station terminal expenses, a most important matter, especially for short lines. As I happened to have been connected with branch roads for thirteen years, this question of station terminal expenses was fully thought out. The North Staffordshire Rail- way collected freight at its five or six potteries station, and loaded it upon the waggons at great expense, then hauled them a distance of from fifteen to thirty miles, and handed them over to another company. Had the N. S. R. only been allowed a mere mileage division of the receipts, they would have been starved out of existence, but they were protected by fair and reasonable terminal expenses, which were deducted from the through rate before division was made. The early goods managers were of a somewhat rambling turn ; they wanted to see old England and Scotland at all the popular resorts, hence they found it necessary to hold their con- ferences at different towns and cities. When " The Duke's" funeral took place, and in the time of the Great Exhibition of *51, they went, of course, to London. When the Queen visited Perth, the G. M.'s followed suit and right loyally went to Perth, 68 Railways and Other Ways. but when they got there the Queen had fled, I think, to Sth-- ling, on account of a case of cholera having been reported at Perth. But the G. M.'s were not to be driven by any reports of cholera ; they held their conference at the hotel prepared for the Queen and enjoyed all the good things provided for Her Majesty and suite, and drank the Queen's health with three times three and one cheer more. Mr. Momson would occasionally put a curb upon this per- ambulating system of the G. M.'s, stating that the General Managers and Presidents were apt to make remarks about it. Then the G. M.'s would decide to confine their meetings to London only ; this would last for a few months, when another desire would spring up to run off to Hull, Bristol, Edinburgh or the Lakes. Once, I remember, it was decided to go to Windermere. But it would never have done to say so in the conference minutes ; so Kendal was fixed upon. But Braithwaite Poole (our chairman) said, as we were leaving, " Remember, gentlemen, that Kendal means Windermere." However, the author thinks that this changing of the place of meeting occasionally was attended with good results, as it enabled the goods managers to become conversant with each other, as well as with the lines of road which each represented. GEORGE DARTNELL. In concluding my observations on the Railway Clearing House, I have to refer to another old railway colleague, viz., George Dartnell, who commenced his railway career on one of the early English lines. In 1854 he came out to Canada under the auspices of Mr. C. J. Brydges, who gave him a position on the Great Western Railway. Sometime afterwards Mr. S. P. Bidder appointed him (Mr. Dartnell) as the first general ticket agent on the Grand Trunk Railway. During this time, Mr. Dartnell went to a great deal of trouble, in which I assisted him, in getting up a pamphlet on the desirability of establishing a Railway The English Railway Clearing House. 69 Clearing House in the United States and Canada. It was printed and published, and a copy of it was sent to every manager and railway superintendent in the U. S. The pamphlet contained much valuable information, but it did not result in anything being done towards establishing a Eailway Clearing House, although some of its suggestions and principles have since been carried out by special lines of different railway associations, but no general Railway Clearing House has yet been formed. I am of the opinion that railways of this continent have suffered from want of a well-organized Clearing House, particularly in that of a proper system of taking note of, and charging for, the mileage and demurrage of rolling stock. Only j-ecently I read an account of a railway company who sent out a detective to hunt up a missing freight car, for which purpose the detective travelled some thousands of miles, tracing the fugitive car from place to place, east, west, north and south, occupying many weeks of time on his journeys. He finally returned home and found that the car had just turned up. Years ago I heard of freight cars going out, but never coming back, having been smashed up in some wreck. A railway super- intendent once told me that a freight car arrived at a station on his line which, for some peculiarity about it, was recognized as belonging to his company; but the car was shining in a new dress, having been re-painted, re-numbered, and even re-initialed, and entirely losing its old identity. Mr. Dartnell after leaving the G. T. R. went into business, for a time, at Hamilton. When I last heard of him, he had gone to occupy some position on a railway in India. I VISIT THE METROPOLIS WITH A CUMBERLAND MAN AND AN IRISH CATTLE JOBBER. I once visited London to give evidence in an arbitration case between the North Staffordshire and the London and North- 70 Railways and Other Ways. "Western Eailway Companies, and took with me an Irish cattle jobber and a Cumberland railway man to assist in our ease, which was one as to cattle traffic beween the two Companies. The Cumberland man, a big, powerful fellow, had an itching desire to show his skill in the art of wrestling among the Cockneys, while the Irishman was very desirous of giving an exhibition with his shelalah, or dancing an Irish jig. I was told that the arbitration would not come on for three days. Now, how I was to keep the men in sight for so long a time was somewhat of a puzzle. However, in taking them round to seethe " lions" during the day and to Astley's or some other theatre at night, I managed to keep my " eye on them" until the third night, when they contrived to elude my vigilance and disappear. I concluded that I should not see the men again in London, but they turned up by day- light next morning with phizes much the worse for the night's adventures. The Cumberland man had had many a wrestle with professionals, while the Irishman had left many impressions upon the heads of those with whom he had done battle with his shelalah. Both seemed well satisfied with the skill they had been able to show the Cockneys in some of the fine arts of Cumberland and Kilkenny. How they escaped the gentlemen of *' Scotland Yard" is rather strange, considering the sensation they must have made. After the arbitration in one of the law offices, the Irishman danced an Irish jig among the lawyers, which much disturbed the gravity of those learned gentlemen. I never felt so much relief as I did when I got my two ■witnesses on board the railway train bound for the north. The Railtuay Mania, I84S. 71 CHAPTEK V. THE RAILWAY MANIA, 1845. " Old men and young, the famished and the full, The rich and poor, widow, and wife, and maid. Master and servant — all, with one intent, Rushed on the paper scrip ; their eager eyes Flashing a fierce unconquerable greed — Their hot palms itching — all their being filled With one desire. " FROM time to time during the last 150 years, different manias have sprung up, which have sent men wild to rush into them with a view of making money quick and without much trouble, but none was so extensive, so wide-spread, and disas- trous in its results as the great railway mania of 1845. As described in the above quotation, all classes went into it : the man who held the plough, and he who made the laws, the judge, the magistrate and the criminal, the teacher and his pupils, the preacher and his hearers — all alike were infected with the same greed for money getting. People's eyes had an uncanny look, as if they saw thousands of pounds within their ready grasp. No matter how absurd the scheme, the moment it came out, thousands applied for allotments of shares, and were ready to pay down the first deposit of from one pound to four pounds per share. During the mania an occasional burlesque scheme came out. The author remembers that be and two or three acquaintances, for the fun of the thing, issued a prospectus of a railway from some unknown seaport, to some out-of-the-way place over hill 72 Railways and Other Ways. and dale, regardless of all engmeering difficulties. The directors names were the most absurd that could be thought of — as X. Oficio, Esq., President ; T. Widegauge, Director ; Leatherhead Salthouse, Esq., Director; Professor Whale, Director. In the absence of the president, the Gret Yed (head) O'Preeea was to preside. This was a big wooden head which figured as a tavern sign, called " The Saracen's Head," atPresall. The prospectus said that the railway would run past Presall grave-yard, and that every provision had been made for the comfortable interment of any passengers who might be killed. Another paragraph said the road was " to take in the geese of Bleasdale Fell, and land the Irish pigs in the Trough of Bolland."* No secretary's name was given. Notwithstanding the absurdity of the scheme, a gentleman at Leeds applied for twenty shares in it ; and as, he said, no secretary's name was given, he sent his application to the secre- tary of the railway on which I was then employed, and I have that application somewhere among my railway records. From Frederick S. Williams' famous book, " Our Iron Roads," I select the following interesting details. First a parody on Byron's " Waterloo." " There was a sound that ceased not day or night Of speculation. London gathered then Unwonted crowds, and moved by promise bright ; To Capel Court rushed women, boys and men, All seeking railway shares and scrip ; and when The market rose, how many a lad could tell. With joyous glance, and eyes that spake again. It was e'en more lucrative than marrying well ; When, hark ! that warning voice strikes like a rising knell." ^ Localities in Lancashire or Yorkshire. The Railway Mania, 1845. 73 " Taking the list of the members forming the provisional directors of twenty-three companies, one man belonged to them all; two, each of whom figured on 19 companies ; three had given their names to 17 ; fourteen who belonged to 14 companies ; twenty-five to 10 ; twenty- three to 8 ; and twenty-nine to 7. These twenty-three provisional committees divided among them- selves 352,800 shares, at the rate of 2,800 a piece." The Manchester Guardian said, "that during one week eighty-nine new schemes had been announced in three news- papers, the capital required for which was estimated at more than £84,000,000 stg. ; while in the space of a month, 357 rail- way projects were advertised in the same journals, having an aggregate capital of £332,000,000 stg., or $1,623,110,816." " In the year 1844, the number of projects in respect of which plans were lodged with the English Board of Trade, had been 248 ; the number in 1845 was 815. In November, 1845, the enormous number of 1,428 lines were either made, or authorized to be made, or announced to the public, and registered. The estimated capital of these projected lines amounted to £701,243,- 208 stg., and upon which a deposit of £49,592,816 had been paid." It was the immense sum of deposit money that enabled the provisional directors to fairly revel in wealth, and to spend it without regard to economy, or the slightest regard for their gullible victims who had subscribed the money. HOW A RAILWAY PROSPECTUS WAS GOT UP A CLERGYMAN'S SCHEME. In the autumn of 1845, friend Charles Cooper and I were employed by a clergyman of the Church of England, a well- known speculator, residing at Manchester, to get up the statis- tics for the prospectus of a railway from Fleetwood to Lancaster. For this purpose I went over to Lancaster, and placed a party on the canal bridge there, with instructions 74 Railways and Other Ways. to count every man, woman and child which went over the bridge going south ; the number of course was put down as the probable passenger traffic over the projected line, while Cooper was counting all the people who crossed the ferry at Fleetwood, as well as those who left by steamers. Then the road was to pass by, or through. Pilling Moss, at which place peat (or turf, as called there) was cut for fuel ; the carrying of this was to be a source of much revenue. Then stone for building purposes was to be carried by tens of thousands of tons, and a large income was to be derived from excursion trains, which, in summer time, were to convey passengers by thousands to the salt water. Cooper and I then summed up our statistics, and made the railway pay 5 per cent, dividend the first year. We then handed our document to the parson, who scanned it over with a sharp eye, and said, " Ah ! very good ; but then you know there is the usual expected increase of traffic to be added after the line opens," and with one dash of his pen, made the line pay 7j per cent.* Now Cooper and I thought that in all conscience, we had done quite enough in making the scheme pay 5 per cent., and we stared at each other, our lips quivering for a laugh, and we retired as soon as possible to have it out. This was the only projected line in which I was allotted some shares, and by the time the scheme was fairly afloat the smash came, and the scrip was not worth the paper on which it was printed. The above may be taken as a fair example of the mode in which most of the thousand and one schemes were got up; imagination was the main ingredient in their construction. * Our Hcheme contemplated a direct line from Fleetwood to Lancaster, but I find that the same object has since been attained by a railway being built from Fleetwood to Garstang, there joining the London & North Western, and so on to Lancaster. The Railway Mania, 184S. 75 Dr. Samuel Smiles, in his " Life of George Stephenson," when speaking of the railway mania, says : — " The influence which landlords had formerly brought to bear upon Parliament in resisting railways when called for by the public necessities, was now employed to carry measures of a far different kind, originated by cupidity, knavery and folly. But these gentlemen had discovered by this time that railways were as a golden mine to them. They sat at railway boards, selling to themselves their own land at their own price, and paying themselves with the money of the unfortunate shareholders. Others used the railway mania as a convenient and, to themselves, comparatively inex- pensive mode of purchasing constituencies. It was strongly suspected that honorable members adopted what Yankee legisla- tors call 'log-rolling,* that is, * You help me to roll my log, and I help you to roll yours.' " AN INCIDENT OF THE RAILWAY MANIA HOW A SECRET WAS DISCOVERED. Strange things took place during the railway mania. Specu- lators tried to find out what King Hudson and his satellites were about to do next, and the man who could, by foul means or fair, worm out a secret, saw gold waiting to be drawn into his coffers. The following case was related to me, many years after the mania, by the actor himself, as follows : " One night in '45, there arrived at B station two railway presidents, and asked R-^ for the use of his oflfice for a time, which was granted. The gentlemen then locked themselves in the office for an hour or two. "When they came out, E went in and found the floor covered with bits of paper. These he carefully picked up ; then, with paste- brush and a large sheet of paper, set to work fitting each scrap of paper to its fellow scrap, and after a night's work had a read- able document before him, which proved to be an agreement which the two presidents had entered into in reference to some 76 Railways and Other Ways. scheme of speculation they were about to enter on. R and his friends took advantage of this secret, and entered into the speculation on their own account, and made money by it." SPECULATIONS FOB THE CHUBCH. To satisfy conscience, which was apt to bother professed religious men, they gave part of the proceeds of their specula- tions to the church. A Doctor W , in my hearing, said : I, have bought such and such railway scrip ; and whatever I make out of the operation I will give to my church." A VISIT TO THE METEOPOLIS IN 1845. During the height of the railway mania, I went up to London to give evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, on a projected railway. Our solicitor had chartered the Craven Hotel in the Strand for his large number of witnesses, and for whom it was fairly an open house, free of cost to them. Among the gentlemen were some old topers who had a great time of it ; they revelled in champagne, and never knew when they had had enough. We had to wait a fortnight before our bill came on. In the meantime the lions of the great city were seen to perfection. The committee rooms and lobby of the House of Commons pre- sented such a scene as had never been seen before, and may never be seen again. All the rooms were crowded, gigantic maps were nailed upon the walls ; the maps had fiery red lines upon them, crossing valleys, rivers and hills. The map for our line was thirty feet in length. Then there were long tables covered with documents of every possible description, with members of Parliament sitting in judgment upon the various plans, and listening to the long harangues for and against the different schemes. Engineers, land surveyors, lawyers, councillors, etc., were seen here, there and everywhere. In the rooms and lobbies The Railway Mania, 18Jij5. Tl many familiar and noted faces were observable, as Lord Brougham, Palmerston, Peel, Gladstone, Russell, Disraeli, Dan O'Connell, King Hudson, George Stephenson, etc. As an instance of the way in which money was spent, I cite the following. One day Mr. S. P. Bidder and I were walk- ing along the lobby of the House of Commons, when a lawyer rushed up to Mr. Bidder and said : " You are just the man I want to give evidence about some railway points and crossings in our committee room," and he almost carried Mr. Bidder into the room in question. I, in the meantime, sauntered about until that gentleman returned, say, in about fifteen minutes, when he showed me a cheque for twenty pounds, which he had received for his brief services. I conclude this account of my visit to London, by stating that we got our bill safe through the committee, and returned with flying colours, and the line was afterwards made, and now forms a portion of one of the great English railways. KINO HUDSON. Any account of the railway mania would be incomplete if it failed to give a sketch of the leading man, who figured so much in the great swindling speculations. About him, Mr. F. Williams says: "George Hudson was born in 1800, and served his apprenticeship in the ancient City of York, and subsequently carried on business there as a linen draper, and became a man of considerable property. ' The happiest part of my life,' Mr. Hudson said, * was when I stood behind the counter and used the yard measure in my own shop; my ruin was having a fortune left me. I had one of the snuggest businesses in York, and turned over my thirty thousand pounds a year, when a relation died and left me a goodish fortune. It was the very worst thing which 78 Railways and Other Ways. ever happened to me. It let me into railways and to all my misfortunes since.' Mr. Hudson's first railway scheme was a line between York, Leeds and London, and he was made the chairman of the board of directors, and he had the satisfaction of seeing it opened on May 29, 1839, and on the first of July, 1840, trains ran through from York to London. This made Mr. Hudson very popular, and the people called the railway 'Hudson's Line.' Other great undertakings followed. Ever active, vigorous and energetic, his capacity for business was singular ; and it may without dispute be asserted, that up to a particular period of his history, his efforts were highly advantageous to the railways with which he was connected." " Mr. Hudson's name became an authority on railway speculation, and the confidence reposed in him was unbounded. In two days he obtained approval of forty railway bills, involv- ing the expenditure of ^10,000,000 stg. He was looked upon with feelings of admiration and wonder, as one whose magic touch turned everything into gold. His achievement in the view of thousands was the fact that he had made £100,000 in one day, and he was deified because he enabled others to be successful too." * The truth is,' said a writer of that time, ' Mr. Hudson is neither better nor worse than the morality of 1845. He rose to wealth and importance at an immoral period ; he was the creature of an immoral system ; he was elevated into the dicta- torship of railway speculation in an unwholesome ferment of popular cupidity, pervading all ranks and conditions of men ; and whatever may be the hue of the error he committed, it is rather too much to expect of him that he should be purer than his time or his associates.* " During the height of the mania, the mere rumour that Mr. Hudson was going to take hold of a scheme, was quite sufficient The Railway Mania, 184S. 79 to send the shares up with a rush. I remember one line the scrip of which stood at £4 per share when Hudson joined the directorship, and in three or four days the stock went up to £40 per share. In October, 1845, the mania began to have a downward tendency. People began to shake their heads, and to say that the top of the speculation had been reached, and they had an inclina- tion rather to sell than to buy ; for two or three weeks attempts were made to bolster up the grand gambling swindle, and scrip rose and fell in price. I have an old share list of the time before me, from which I make a few extracts of the prices of shares of a few of the lines. Amount Selling Railway Paid Price. Bolton, Wigan k Liverpool, per share £4 ,£40 Trent Valley " " 2 17 Midland £40 shares " " 6 26 West Riding Union ** " 2 12 These and other figures show the enormous gains which came to the directors of the varied schemes and to those to whom allotments of scrip were made. Its demoralizing efifect upon all classes was terrible and made hosts of defaulters. Clerks who were receiving salaries of j£80 or £100 per annum would reason thus : "Here am I serving a whole year for the paltry salary of £100, while my near neighbour, by a lucky stroke of railway speculation, makes his 1,000 pounds in one day," When the great crash came, and scrip went down, down every minute of the day, men groaned, and went about with blanched cheeks ; thousands upon thousands were ruined, many committed suicide. Directors and speculators ran off to the 80 Raihvays and Other Ways. Continent. The scene was described by a noted writer, in imitation of the well-known words of the poet : "Oh ! many a stag late blithe and brave, Forlorn, ' mounts the ocean wave ' ; And many a ' letter ' has been torn, And countless scrip to trunks be borne ; And many an antler'd head lies low, Which whilome made a glorious show And many a fast coach now ' crawls slow ' ! GROUP OF i860. Henry Bailey. James Hardman. Walter Shanly. Myles Pennington. Reminiscences of Early Days of 0. T. R. 81 CHAPTER VI. KEMIXISCENCES OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY. A START FOR CANADA. IN July, 1853, I sailed from Liverpool with my wife and family by the auxiliary screw steamer and full-rigged sailing ship Sarah Sands for Quebec. James Hardman, John Roberts and I came out on a five years' engagement with Mr. S. P. Bidder, General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, and under the auspices of Peto, Brassey,* Betts and Jackson, the noted railway contractors and builders of the Victoria Bridge, and G.T.R. East of Toronto. Jas. Hardman was auditor of the North Staffordshire Railway for five years, during which time I was its goods manager. Mr. H. was afterwards auditor on the Grand Trunk Railway about nine years. JOHN ROBERTS. When I first knew Mr. Roberts he was goods manager, of the Chester & Birkenhead Railway ; during a period of five ♦ The name and fame of Thomas Brasset will endure as long as railways exiit. He was a man of invincible character ; no work was too great for him to grapple with. He went at it at once ; he was never discouraged, never lost heart— viaducts might crumble down— tunnels cave in and floods destroy the work of months, they did not disturb his temper ; he merely said "go at it again." His motto was "for- ward" — rocks vanished, forests were laid low, valleys crossed and mountains pene- trated at the approach of his grand army of English navvies. I well remember Thomas Brassey, seeing him at the opening of several of the «arly English railways, where he was wont to appear surrounded by his gallant army 82 Railways and Other Ways. years I met him monthly at the goods managers meetings^ We had also business arrangements together in the movement of flints to the Staffordshire Potteries. For two or more years Mr. Roberts had charge of the freight traffic on the Portland division of the Grand Trunk Railway. Mr. R. was a ruddy-faced Englishman of convivial dispo- sition — a good singer, especially some of the old Jacobite songs,, as "Wha'll be king but Charlie," "Come o'er the heather, come altogither," which made him a great favourite among Scotch- men, and led to his having many invitations to join a jovial company of them at Boston, where ** hot Scotch " and "barley bree" were always plentiful and freely indulged in, and of course with the usual results — my old friend did not improve by these kindly meant invitations. Mr. Roberts retired from the G. T. R. and returned to England in 1855 or 1856. The following six articles by the author, in this and the three succeeding chapters, appeared in the Toronto Glohe on the dates mentioned. With some slight verbal alterations and corrections they are reproduced here as they were originally printed. No. 1. — Some Interesting Reminiscences of Canada* s Great Road.. From the Globe, January 2l8t, 1888. A great mistake in the building of railways was that of making them of different gauges, such as the two that existed m England for many years and caused many a tug of war among engineers, the fight being known as " The battle of the gauges." of navvies, who loved him as a father. I last saw and had the pleasure of a shake of the hand of Mr. Brassey on his visit to Canada in 1854 or 1855. Lord Brassey, M.P. for many years, was his father's right hand man in the larfi^e railway contracts. He is noterl for his valuable writings on trade and commerce, and in particular one on " Works and Wages." The pleasant descriptive writings of the late lamented Lady Brassey will long be regarded with great interest by all readers. Her " Round the World in the Yacht Sunbeam" is a gem of the first quality and those who have not read it have a great literary feast in store. Reminiscences of Early Days of G. T. R. 83 It was therefore not strange that Canada should have fallen into a similar error in fixing upon a five feet six inch gauge, while four feet eight and a half inches had been adopted generally in the United States. Still the Canadian gauge was probably the best if our big neighbours had adopted the same. I know that early locomotive drivers used to like the 5 ft. 6 gauge, giving as one reason that there was more room about the machinery of the engine and it was easier to get at. The 4 ft. 8^ gauge was really that of the old coach, carriage and stage waggon of the olden time, and the same came to be adopted on the first tram or horse railways, such as that on which Geo. Stephenson ran his first locomotive. THE GAUGE. As respects the 5 ft. 6 gauge I am inclined to think that the idea of it originated in Portland, Me., at about the same time that the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railway was in progress from Montreal to Island Pond, Vt., and the Atlantic & St. Lawrence was in progress from Portland to Island Pond ; the first section of the latter, 11 miles, was opened on July 4, 1848, and the first of the former road from Longueuil to St. Hyacinthe, 30 miles, was opened on December 27, 1848. On visiting Portland in 1853 I was curious to inquire into the history of the 5 ft. 6 in. gauge, and was informed that it had beefi adopted in order to make Portland the terminus of the Canadian roads, and prevent the trade going past them to Boston. This only shows how short sighted even the most intelligent of men sometimes are. The vast cost of changing to an uniform gauge, the loss in rolling stock, the blockade and delays to freight, the expense of the transhipment, etc., must have been nearly enough to double the whole gauge of the country. 84» Railways and Other Ways. Luckily for the Canadian Pacific Eailway it was saved from this huge blunder. The Ohio gauge was formerly 4 ft. 10 in., but I suppose it has been altered since. A Cincinnati gentle- man once told me how it originated. Said he : — *' A number of gentlemen met to project the first Eailway in Ohio, when they found that some man had built a locomotive, the gauge of which, by accident, was made 4 ft. 10 in., and these gentlemen bought that locomotive, and it was the origin of the Ohio gauge." The gentleman learnedly observed that " an inch or two in a railway gauge made no difference." EARLY DIRECTORS. Of the first chief officers of the Grand Trunk, President the Hon. John Ross, Vice-President Benjamin Holmes, Secretary, General Manager and about ten of the first Canadian directors, three only are now living, viz.. Sir A. T. Gait,* Mr. James Beaty,f and the Hon. James Ferrier;! the latter respected veteran being still a member of the Board. (January, 1888.) SIR CUSACK RONEY. The first Secretary of the Grand Trunk was in early life con- nected with the press. Afterwards he was secretary of the Eastern Counties Railway, from which he retired in 1851, and, along with that prince of contractors, Mr. Dargan, took a very prominent part in organizing and carrying out the Dublin • Sir Alexander T. Gait died at Montreal on September 19th, 1893, being the last of the early directors of the Grand Trunk Railway. The life of Sir Alexander fills a large space in Canadian history for the paat half century. He was the first in Parliament to advocate a Confederation of the liritish North American Provinces, and stood prominently forward as one of its most zealous and active fathers. t Mr. James Beaty died early in 1892. He will long be remembered as the Editor and Proprietor of the Toronto Leader newspaper. t The Hon. Jas. Ferrier died on May 30th, 1888. (See further for a sketch of his life.) Reminiscences of Early Days oj G. T. R. 85 exhibition of 1853. In the first stages of this undertaking Mr. Eoney visited the Continent for the purpose of securing the co-operation of the principal manufacturing countries of Europe, on which occasion he had an interview with Napoleon, then the Prince-President of France. For these varied and valuable services the honour of knighthood was conferred upon Mr. Cusack Koney by the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Sir Cusack had much to do in consultation with members of Government in reference to the different Grand Trunk bills brought before Parliament, and during the session of 1853-54 might often have been seen seated near the Speaker of the House, Sir Cusack being allowed that special privilege. His round, smiling face was pleasant to look upon. He was at home among the reporters of the press, and he and Lady Eoney were general favourites among the citizens of Montreal, Quebec and Toronto. S. p. BIDDER, FIBST QENERAL MANAGER. The first General Manager of the G. T. E. was a brother of George Bidder, once known throughout Europe, the United States and Canada as The Wonderful Calculation Boy, but who afterwards became a railway engineer second only to Eobert Stephenson in celebrity. S. P. Bidder was brought up as an engineer under his brother and the Stephensons. One of his early works was the construction of the iron wharves at Blackwall, London. Afterwards he was engineer for eight years for the Preston & Wyre Eailway, Harbor and Dock Company ; and then General Manager of the North Staffordshire Eailway and Trent and Mersey Canal Navigation Co., from which he retired in 1853 to assume the management of the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada. 86 Railways and Other Ways. Mr. Bidder was a thorough railway man, and, from having had large bodies of men under him from time to time in the con- struction of public works, had acquired great power and con- trol over them. He worked hard to make the Grand Trunk a success, but he had great difficulties to contend with. An early mistake, which gave great trouble to the managers of the Grand Trunk, was the introduction of a number of the six-wheeled rigid English locomotives, with- out the American swivel ** Bogie." These engines, though well enough adapted for the smooth-finished, slightly- curved English roads, were unsuited to the Canadian railway, with its sharp curves and new, rough road-bed, 40 miles of which was run over the first winter without being ballasted, and had to be closed for some time when the spring thaw set in. Then the break at Montreal before the Victoria Bridge was built had to be overcome by barges, steamboats and sleighs, to take over freight and passengers ; and twice a year there was an entire stoppage of traffic from one to three weeks. On one occasion a number of passengers, along with cheery old Lecompte, the G. T. E. teamster (well known in Montreal at the time as bandmaster of his own band), with a number of sleighs, were crossing the ice bridge to Longueuil, when the whole field of ice, many square miles in extent, began to move, but it fortunately stopped again after going some distance, and all escaped in safety except one gentleman, a Mr. Sanderson, who died on the ice from excitement and exhaustion. Mr. Bidder was of a genial disposition and well liked. He came to Canada on a five years' engagement. When the time expired he returned to England. On leaving he was presented with a magnificent dinner service of plate, value $8,000, subscribed for by his friends, the directors, Reminiscencea of Early Days of G. T. R. 87 officers and 1,200 men from every department of the Grand Trunk Eailway. On the occasion of his farewell address he fiaid : — " There is nothing, gentlemen, in which perfect har- mony and good feeling between employees are so necessary as in the working of a railway. The safety of the passengers and the success of the road depend chiefly upon them, and the superintendents, I am sure, will give me credit for never having missed an opportunity of calling their attention to the import- ance of unity and harmony always existing between them and their subordinates. There is nothing more likely to create a bad feeling amongst those engaged on great undertakings than ■departmental recriminations. These should be avoided in every possible way. Managers, superintendents, locomotive foremen and ihe men under them should go hand in hand in everything, and feel that the success of the one is necessary to the advantage of the other. Every man should be taught to feel that he is cared for by his superior and that his good conduct will be noticed and rewarded. These are the principles, gentlemen, I have always endeavoured to inculcate, and I hope they will take deep root in the management of the Grand Trunk road, for where discord reigns no man can manage a railway with either satisfaction to the public, himself, or the company he serves. I know my worthy successor, Mr. Walter Shanly, fully concurs with me in this belief, and will do all in his power to secure that harmony of action so essential to produce the results which you are all striving to accomplish, viz., to make the Grand Trunk railway a dividend-paying concern." Mr. Bidder visited this country again two or three years tifterwards on business connected with the Welland Eailway, and he telegraphed to me to meet him at the Suspension Bridge and spend Sunday with him at the Falls. On my arrival at the Monteagle House on a Saturday evening, I 88 Railways and Other Ways. found Mr. Bidder and another middle-aged gentleman both smoking cigars and chatting very pleasantly together. Mr. Bidder introduced me to Mr. Brontere O'Brien, who I found had recently returned from exile and was on his way to see his old friend, Thos. D'Arcy McGee, at Montreal, where he (Mr. O'Brien) had a great reception. The meeting of Mr. Bidder and Mr. O'Brien at this quiet place, where the voice only of the great Falls was heard, struck me as a curious coincidence, for I remembered that after the O'Brien insurrection in Ireland the Government offered a reward of £500 sterling for his appre- hension, and that he was taken on an Irish railway by a guard (conductor), who was afterwards afraid of his life and came over to England, and Mr. Bidder (then the manager of the North Staffordshire Railway) gave him a job as guard on that line. But every one soon knew that he was the man that took Brontere O'Brien, and for a time the guard was lionized, but he seemed to have a constant fear that some day he would be assassinated, which had such an effect upon the poor fellow as to cause hi& death two or three years afterwards. Of course this incident in life's chapter was not alluded tO' by Mr. Bidder, and he and Mr. O'Brien had a long chat about Canada and its progress as a great country and with a great future before it. No. S. — Richard Trevithick, the Father of the Locomotive. From the Toronto Globe, Feb., 1888. Towards the end of the last century and the beginning of the present one, a steam engine to run over the common roads began to be written and talked about among scientific men. Samuel Smiles, in his life of George Stephenson, says that Richard Trevithick, a captain in a Cornish tin-mine, constructed the first steam carriage and exhibited it in London in 1804> Reminiscences of Early Days of G. T. R. 89 Sir Humphrey Davy took great interest in the invention and called it, " Trevithick's dragon." Coleridge relates that whilst the vehicle was proceeding along the road towards the port of Plymouth at the top of its speed, and had just carried away a portion of the rails of a gentleman's garden, Andrew Vivian (who was riding on the machine) descried ahead of him a closed toll-gate and called out to Trevithick to slacken speed. He immediately shut oflf steam,but the momentum was so great that the carriage proceeded some distance, coming dead up, however, just on the right side of the gate, which was opened like lightning by the toll-keeper. "What have us got to pay here ?" asked Vivian. The poor toll- man, trembling in every limb, his teeth chattering in his head, essayed to reply, '* Na-na-na-na" — . ** What have us got to pay, I say ?" " No-noth-nothing to pay, my de-dear Mr. D 1. Do drive on as fast as you can ! Nothing to pay !" Trevithick shortly afterwards made the first locomotive which was tried on Merthyr-Tydvil Railway in South Wales. A son of this inventor, F. H. Trevithick, was the first locomotive superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway. He was a gentleman of great practical experience as a mechanic and engineer, and had been connected with the building of locomotives and railways from their commencement. He was a man of method, and introduced some valuable rules and regulations into the com- pany's workshops. He retired early from the service. A BEAR STORY. One day Superintendent Martin was inspecting the Quebec and Richmond line when he received a telegram from the Vice- President which read as follows : — " Send me two black bears by first train." On getting this rather astonishing message Mr. Martin thus soliloquized : — " Strange order — well this is a pretty 90 Railways and Other Ways. wild country and there may be black bears about — still they are not as plentiful as black berries and cannot be seen at every nook and corner — I suppose the V. P. is going to give a feast and bear meat is to be the staple commodity. Still I should have thought that one bear would surely have been enough for that, but railway magnates are noted for roasting oxen whole and the V.P. wishes to change the roast this time." Mr. Martin, being a bit of a wag and fond of a joke, replied as under : — "No black bears in sight ; shall I get up a hunting expedition and send scouts out?" The reply came, "No; I want two black bass; you can get them in Quebec market." SUPERINTENDENT F WOULD MAKE HIS LINE PAY. An engineer and superintendent of the G. T. E. thought he had " struck oil" when he rented out all the stations on the Quebec and Kichmond district as drinking saloons. "When the facts came to the General Manager's ears he at once started for the whiskey dispensing line, and peremptorily ordered the keepers of the saloons to "shut up instanter." All except one did so, but Chaudiere stood out, put himself in a state of siege, gave battle and did not give in until the station doors and windows were taken out and the building partially unroofed. When Supt. F was remonstrated with he said (with a slightly nasal twang), "Well, he guessed he would make his line pay." A TERRIBLE CALAMITY. Railways and great public undertakings are rarely long without some terrible event. One of the first serious calamities in connection with the Grand Trunk was the bursting of the boiler of a new car ferry steamer just as she was leaving Longueuil one summer's day with a great number of passengers. The shock was terrific, and a large number of passengers — men, women and children — were killed or drowned. The captain was Reminiscences of Early Days of G. T. B. 91 on the hurricane deck when the explosion took place and was hurled amid thousands of splinters of wood and iron one hundred feet in the air and fell back into the river. He was picked out alive, but a mass of bruises and broken bones ; yet he recovered, to the astonishment of the medical faculty, and was walking about Longueuil three months afterwards. Mr. P. H. Carter (one of the oldest officers of the Grand Trunk and still in its employ in the freight department at Toronto) was on board the boat at the time and escaped without any serious injury, while a friend, who had come with Mr. Garten from the Maritime Provinces, was killed. I refer to this sad event more particularly to relate the graphic manner in which the explosion was described to the writer by a French Canadian cabman. I was about leaving the G.T.E. offices in Little St. James street, Montreal, on the day in question, when a cabman rushed up in great excitement and called out : — " Grond Tronc steam- boat blow up at Longueuil — was on Jacques Cartier wharf — (nearly three miles away) — heard great noise — felt shake — saw steam big as cathedral !" THE BURNING OF THE BOOTS. On one occasion the Grand Trunk officers had arranged to hold a conference at the Victoria hotel, Point Levis. Nearly all went down on the previous day, but I only got there on the morning of the day of meeting. On reaching the hotel I found the place in great confusion, guests were running about, some in slippers and some in stocking-feet, all calling in stentorian voices for their boots, but nobody could give any account of them until a servant went to replenish the large box stove in the hall, when she saw the fragments of a boot. On exhibiting it to the guests, one of them, using a rather strong expression, said : " That's a part of my ten dollar boots with cork soles." The boots had all been put in the stove during the night. 92 Railways and Other Ways. The whole party, shod with extemporary slippers, old brogans, then adjourned to Quebec, where there was a boom in boots, the like of which has not been seen in the ancient capital since. A drunken crank who had done the mischief was discovered some time afterwards. WALTER SHANLY, CHIEF ENGINEER AND GENERAL MANAGER. In looking round at this date one misses a great number of the early staff of the Grand Trunk. Among those still actively engaged in their various duties and professions are as under : — Mr. Walter Shanly, M.P., who is too well known and appreciated by the people of Canada to need any panegyric from me, except to say that he is one of " nature's noblemen" and that he was always honoured and respected by those who served under him, and one whose name and fame will ever be associated with most of the great public works of the Dominion. JAMES STEPHENSON. Some thirty years ago I remember a smooth-faced youth of pleasing address and of a cheerful disposition, who was, I think, lirst an operator on the Grand Trunk Co.'s telegraph. This was James Stephenson, who by steady habits, industry and persever- ance, step by step, through the various grades of office, has risen to his present proud position as the worthy and popular superintendent of Canada's great trunk road. J. B. JONES. The writer and Mr. J. B. Jones came out to Canada in the old historic ocean steamship Sarah Sands * one of the pioneers * I think it was during the Crimean war that the Sarah Sandt, with troops on board, took fire en route, and the soldiers for many hours fought the fire until Beminiscencea of Early Days of 0. T. R. 93 of the St Lawrence route. Mr. Jones was first my assistant in the freight management, and for the next twenty years filled the various agencies of the company with great credit at Toronto, London, Detroit and Montreal, when he retired to join the Dominion Line Steamship Company as its Western freight and passenger agent at Toronto, where he still remains. Mr. Jones commenced his railway career on the North Staffordshire Railway, England, in 1848, and was agent at Tutbury station, near which was the famous ruins of Tutbury Castle. CORNELIUS JUDGE. Mr. Judge succeeded Mr. Jones as my assistant in the general freight business, and retired from it in 1862, to accept that of manager for Allans, Rae & Co.'s steamship line at Quebec, which position he has faithfully filled for the past twenty-six years.* On Mr. Judge's retirement from the G.T.R., the ofl&cers and friends presented him with a handsome testimonial as a mark of their great esteem and respect. H. C. BOURLIER. H. C. Bourlier, who for the last sixteen years has so successfully represented the Allan Line at Toronto as its general western passenger agent, was one of the early officers of the Grand Trunk, first at Point Levis (Quebec), and for many years the station master at Toronto. When the line opened from Port Levis to St Thomas (now «, part of the Intercolonial), 48 miles, in 1855, Mr. Bourlier took nearly all the woodwork of the ship was destroyed, but they succeeded in reaching shore in safety without the loss of a single man, leaving the old ship a mere iron shell. * 1894. — Mr. Judge is still in his old position. 04- Railways and Other Ways. charge of it. He was manager, agent and conductor all in one, and he can tell some humorous anecdotes in reference to his little road. The first winter he was fairly frozen out and had to shut up for three or four months. Mr. B. dubbed his road " the Tommy Cod Line" from the large quantity of that little fat-bellied fish he used to carry. The fish are caught by the bushel below Quebec, and may be seen at this time of the year on every fish stand in the Province. Mr. Bourlier says they never refused traffic on his road, even when they had only one passenger car on. Butter, eggs, fish, vegetables, sheep, calves and passengers — all went into the car together, a perfectly happy family. No one ever grumbled or threatened to ** write to the Times.'" THE VICTORIA BRIDGE. MONTREAL. MEDAL I.N COMMEMORATIONl OF OPENING OF THE BRIDGE, i860. The Victoria Bridge and More Reminiscences. 95 CHAPTER TIL THE VICTORIA BRIDGE AND MORE REMINISCENCES. THE VICTORIA BRIDGE. rPHEEE perhaps never was an undertaking so beset with diffi- JL culties as that of the building of the Victoria Bridge at Montreal. The contractors had to contend with a roaring rapid, two miles wide, shoves of ice from three to seven feet in thickness and from fifteen to twenty square miles in extent, coming along slow but sure with a pressure of millions of tons, like the mighty glaciers of the Alps. I do not propose to attempt any description of this wonder- ful work, it having been so ably done by others, but merely relate one circumstance in its history. Before building a coffer-dam wherein to erect a stone pier it was necessary to put down above the site of the pier certain mooring cribs to hold barges and steamboats in position while the building of the coffer-dam was in progress. One winter a large staff of men and horses were employed on the ice cutting holes through it, and putting down wooden cribs which were weighted with heavy blocks of stone. This was done to save time in spring, but when the ice shove came it cleared away all the cribs as if they had been so much match wood, and carried the stone from the cribs into the very spot where the coffer-dam was to be erected. Thus the whole winter's work, instead of being of any advantage, was attended with a very heavy loss, both in time 96 Railways and Other Ways. and money, for in spring new cribs had to be put down, arid the stones strewn over the bottom of the river had to be fished up one by one before the building of the coffer-dam could be commenced. No. 3. — A. M. Ross, Engineer of the Victoria Bridge. From the Toronto Globe, Feb. 18, 1888. The engineer of the Victoria Bridge, A. M. Boss, had been connected with many railway and great public works in the Old Country before he visited this country. He came to Canada on behalf of English capitalists in 1852. On arrival at Quebec he met the late Hon. John Young, Chief Commissioner of Public Works. It was then that Mr. Young pointed out to Mr. Eoss the importance of bridging the St. Lawrence. The two gentle- men afterwards went to Montreal to inspect the locality for a bridge, and Mr. Eoss suggested an " iron tubular bridge," and returned to England in the fall of 1852 and carried with him soundings and plans of the bridge as designed and located by him. In August, 1853, a complimentary dinner was given to Kobert Stephenson at Montreal. On that occasion he said : — ** I cannot sit down without referring to the all important subject of a bridge over your magnificent river. Abundance of information was brought to me in England by my esteemed friend Eoss during the last visit he paid to that country, so that I was able to get a good notion of what the bridge was to be before I came out here. The first idea was certainly rather startling. I had been here 25 years before, and the St. Lawrence seemed to mo like the sea, and I certainly never thought of bridging it." On the same occasion he said : " I assure you I appreciate your kindness most amply, and one of the proudest days of my The Victoria Bridge and More Reminiscences. 97 life will be that when I was called on to confer with the engineers of the Grand Trunk Railway on bridging the St. Lawrence." It will be seen from this that while Robert Stephenson was the consulting engineer for the great work, to Alex. M. Ross must be given the credit of being the suggester, planner and designer of the Victoria Bridge. Mr. Ross was a man of genius and of great eminence in his profession. He was one of few words, of rather a sombre disposition, but when among friends could throw ofif this reserve and be as cheerful as anyone.* Mr. James Hodges, the bridge builder for the contractors, with his clever staff of engineers, pulled well together with Mr. Ross, and spent many hundreds of days and nights in discussing the "ways and means" of carrying out this gigantic under- taking.! Robert Stephenson died before the bridge was opened, and a relative of his, a George R. Stephenson, attempted to rob Mr. Ross of his well-earned fame as the projector and designer * To show that my remarks in reference to the late Mr. Ross were appreciated, I may state that I received letters of thanks from Mr. John Ross and Miss C. Rosa, son and daughter of A. M. Ross. The one from J. R. reads as follows : — Manchester, England, March 28, 1888. My Deab Sib,— I have just seen your article in the Toronto Olohe of Feb. 18, giving an account of the Victoria Bridge at Montreal, and I feel that I must at once write and thank you most cordialljr for the exceedingly kind way in which you speak of my father and his just claims. It is comforting that there are some who know and believe the truth. My mother wishes to join me in my thanks to you and believe me, Yoors very truly, John Ross. M. Pennington, Esq., Toronto. t The following particulars respecting the Victoria Bridge may be interesting and useful for referanca : Length, nearly 2 miles ; number of piers, 24 ; number of iron tubes, 25 ; width central span, 330 feet ; width side spans, 242 feet ; width piers, 18 feet ; material of piers, blue limestone ; quantity in each, 8,000 tons ; total weight of piers, 222,000 tons ; height of tubes, 22 feet ; width of tubes, 16 feet ; total weight of tubes, 10,400 tons ; height from water, 60 feet ; cost of bridge, $7,000,000. Engi neers : A. M. Ross, Robert Stephenson. Builders : Messrs. Peto, Brassey, Betts and Jackson, under the superintendence of Mr. James Hodges. 7 . 98 Railways and Other Ways. of the bridge. The late Hon. John Young came nobly to the front in defending A. M. Eoss from this unwarranted charge, but the mischief was done. The attack referred to had a painful effect upon the mind of Mr. Ross and was one main cause which led to his death shortly afterwards. Eobert Stephenson was too much of a gentleman to aggran- dise himself at the expense of his fellow engineers, but he had passed away, and the voice which would have saved poor Ross was hushed forever. The stone for the first pier of the Victoria Bridge was laid July 22, 1854, by Sir Cusack Roney, along with Vice-President Holmes, Mr. James Hodges, A. M. Ross, C.E., and other gentle- men, who were also joined by Lady Roney, Mrs. Hodges and Mrs. Maitland, each taking the trowel and assisting in preparing the mortar-bed for the first stone in the first pier of the great undertaking. FIRST CROSSING OF VICTORIA BRIDGE. On November 24, 1859, Vice-President Blackwell, Hon. G. E. Cartier, Attorney-General, James Hodges, A. M. Ross, Walter Shanly, Major Campbell, Messrs. Gzowski, Mac- pherson, Forsyth, Captain Rhodes and others, were the first to cross the Victoria Bridge. Mr. Blackwell was on his way to England to attend the Grand Trunk meeting when he was able to report himself as coming " via Victoria Bridge." On August 25, 1860, the last stone was laid and the last rivet driven by the young Prince of Wales, on which occasion a grand banquet was held near the Bridge, and addresses given by the Prince, the Duke of Newcastle, Mr. Blackwell, Mr. A. M. Ross, Mr. Hodges and others. To commemorate this event Mr. Blackwell had a medal prepared by J. S. Wyon, chief engraver of Her Majesty's seals, a The Victoria Bridge and More Beminiscences. 99 gold one of which was presented to the Prince of "Wales and a bronze one to each of the officers of the G.T.R. One of the latter is in my possession. It bears a fine impression in relief of the Prince as he then was, with the Prince's Feather on the reverse side, and the words, " Welcome, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales." " Visited Canada and Inaugurated the Victoria Bridge, 1860." A NOVEL THERMOMETER. The \^ctoria Bridge consists of 12 double iron tubes and one centre tube ; about 2 inches of space between each section is left for expansion and contraction, the tube being placed on rollers, for it must be observed that the great bridge never rests — it is constantly on the move. When the temperature sinks to 20 below zero, 24 to 30 inches of this massive structure actually disappear from view, to be restored again in full when the summer sun sends up the thermometer to 90 in the shade. The late Mr. T. D. King, of Montreal, one of the early officers of the G.T.E., a lover of art and science, took advantage of this contraction and expansion in the tubes, and made the big bridge register its own movements. He erected a frame- work with a scale of degrees upon it, which rested on the stone- work of the first pier of the Bridge, alongside a section of the iron tubes, and Mr. King was wont to tell his friends that the Victoria Bridge showed so many degrees above or below zero, as the case might be. THE BOULDER MONUMENT. The traveller on leaving the Montreal side of the Victoria Bridge going east may have observed, on his left, a huge boulder placed upon a cut-stone mason work surrounded with a picket fence. This massive stone and many like it, which may be 100 Railways and Other Ways. seen cropping out of the ground in Queen's Park, Toronto, and other parts of Ontario and Quebec, geologists say have been carried imbedded in thick ribbed ice from distant regions during the glacial period. The boulder in question was dug up in the vicinity of the Bridge and weighed about 30 tons. On the 2nd of December, 1859, the ceremony of lifting it to its place was done in the presence of the Anglican Bishop, the Rev. Canon Leach, LL.D., the Rev. Mr. Ellegood, B.A., and other clergymen, also James Hodges and all the workmen of the Victoria Bridge as well as the principal officers of the Grand Trunk Railway. The boulder bears this inscription : — " To preserve from desecration the remains of 6,000 immigrants who died from ship-fever in 1847 and '48. This monument is erected by workmen in the employment of Messrs. Peto, Brassey & Betts engaged in the construction of the Victoria Bridge, 1859." The Bishop made some remarks appropriate to the occasion. The Rev. Mr. Ellegood said prayer, and Rev. Dr. Leach gave some particulars of that great affliction. The stone is of intense hardness, and those who cut the facing for the inscriptions said it was the hardest they had ever chiseled. This monument, while it commemorates the poor victims from a distant land, tells of the goodness of heart of the bridge- builders, who, in their multitudinous duties, had respect to, and did not forget, the poor immigrants whose ashes rest below. It was a noble deed and will be as imperishable as the piers of the Victoria Bridge. THE MOOSE DEER. When the Grand Trunk opened to Portland, that part of the boundary line where the road enters Vermont was quite The Victoria Bridge and More Heminiscences. 101 unsettled and in its native wilderness. A large moose deer which inhabited that part of the country had evidently watched the invasion of " Puffing Billy " into his territory with some degree of vexation, and had come to a determination to put a stop to it. One morning as the driver of a locomotive approached the boundary line he descried an immense moose deer, with huge antlers down, coming at full tilt for the engine, but too late to prevent a collision with the animal. The loco- motive was thrown off the track without doing much damage, and moose was suddenly converted into venison.* The trainmen and others feasted on venison for many days. The writer tried hard to get the antlers as trophies, but a Vermont adventurer was " in at the death " and walked off with the prize, f FRAUDULENT FREIGHT CLAIMS. One of the most troublesome things in connection with the working of a railroad, particularly in the freight department, is that of claims for loss or damage. Public companies are not * It may be suggested that this subject would be a fine one for an historic painting illustrative of "The Early Days of the Grand Trunk Railway." It is questionable if such an event ever happened before. A word picture : Scene— A wilder- ness in all its natural grandeur — To the left a wild primeval forest of maple, spruce, pine and hemlock trees with a thick underground of bush and creeping plants — To the right a calm, still, small lake, its surface decorated here and there with water lilies, and a covey of wild ducks floating along in search of their prey. In the centre a single railway track, with a locomotive and cars rushing along, approaching up the track, in an opposite direction, is seen coming at full speed an enormous moose deer, its antlers lowered ready to meet, in deadly combat, its new enemy, the locomotive. + River du Loup Junction, Que., Jan. 15.— A wing-plough special on the Temis- couata Railway to-day sighted and ran down two beautiful moose half a mile north of Edmunaton, N.B, Engineer King, on engine 3, relates a most exciting hunt. The moose came on the track about 100 yards ahead of his engine. The track being old and fairly high banks of snow on either side, they took the track. He gave chase at full speed, and only after an exciting chase of half a mile did he overtake them. They ran beautifully. The first one he struck suffered a broken leg, and was thrown from the track, but escaped to the woods on three legs. The other was not so fortunate. It was badly injured, though it still had vitality enough to run, but was captxired by Roadmaster McEwan and brought to Edmunston ata.tion.— Empire, 16th January, 1894. 102 Railways and Other Ways. supposed to have any souls and are therefore fair game to be plucked without mercy. It is well known that when an accident happens, a lot of harpies generally rush to the spot to buy up the claims. As an illustration of a freight claim, I give THE detective's STORY. One day a man called at the freight office in Montreal and produced a shipping note of a sewing machine from the States. On referring to the books it was found that some one had called for the machine, paid the freight and receipted for it and taken it away. The man was supposed to be a carter, but he could not be found. The owner claimed $70 for the machine and demanded it or the money and came often about it, telling a pitiful tale, how he and his family were suffering for want of it. The company's detective, Smith, thought there was something wrong about the affair and started to trace the machine back from its point of shipment, which he found to be a small village in Massachusetts. There he ascertained that the claimant was well known, and that it was equally known that the man never had what we imderstood as a sewing machine, but that he had a stitching ma- chine, such as he used in his trade of boot and shoe maker. Armed with this information Detective Smith returned, went direct to the claimant's house and there, sure enough, he found the man working away with the identical machine before him. The man had stolen his own machine and then made a claim for it. Before steps could be taken to bring him to account he was off to the States. A DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT. During a severe snow blockade of three or four days the station and freight shed at Point Levis were destroyed by fire, The Victoria Bridge and More Reminiscences. 103 along with a lot of freight waiting to be shipped forward for which a number of claims were made. The company's solicitor resisted these claims on the ground that trains were prevented from running by stress of weather, over which they had no control. The judge asked: — "Did you run any trains during the alleged blockade ? " "Yes; we did get passenger trains through with great difficulty." Judge — " Oh, then it was only a questioD of putting on another horse." Solicitor — " We had not got another horse (locomotive) ; they were all engaged hauling the passenger trains." Judge — " That was your business," and gave judgment for the plaintiff. 104 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEK VIII. THE PICKFORDS OF CANADA. No. Jf. — Messrs. Hendrie and Shedden. From the Toronto Globe, March 24, 1888. FOE a century or more before the inauguration of railways, Pick- ford & Co. were the principal carriers in the Old Country, and their name is still " familiar as household words." They carried merchandise by canal-boats, stage-waggons, carts and vans between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and other places. The van was run on the turnpike roads at a quick speed, and took small parcels and the more valuable freights *' Pickford's van " was as well known and as popular as the old stage coaches. When railway trains began to run, the old carriers saw that their occupation, like Othello's, would soon be gone, and they put themselves in the way of doing the terminal, work for the railway companies, more particularly the collection and delivery of freight in London and other large cities, and this business in a short time became immense, requiring thousands of men and horses to do the service. Some thirty-two years ago, about the time that the Grand Trunk railroad was opened from Montreal to Toronto, two intelligent and enterprising young Scotchmen called at the office of the Grand Trunk Railway in Montreal to see Mr. S. P. Bidder, General Manager, and the author, when they stated that they had commenced a railway cartage agency in Hamilton and The Pickfords of Canada. 105 London ; that their object was to collect and deliver freight in the towns and cities for the railways in Canada, similar to what was done by Pickford & Co. in the Old Country ; that they in fact aimed to be "the Pickfords of Canada." These young men were Mr. Wm. Hendrie and Mr. John Shedden, who had the sagacity to see that an important adjunct of the great Canadian raUways would be an efficient and well-managed cartage system. Mr. Wm. Hendrie came to Canada in 1854, and was for a time in the general freight office of the Great Western Railway at Hamilton. Previous to that he had been employed on railways in Scotland. Mr. John Shedden, for some time before coming to Canada, was, although a very young man, a railway contractor in Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 1855, Messrs. Hendrie & Shedden commenced the cartage agency for the Great Western Railway, by arrangement with Mr. C. J. Brydges, its managing director. In 1856, when the Grand Trunk opened from Mont- real to Toronto, the cartage system was introduced upon that line. Hendrie & Shedden opened offices in the different cities, where orders could be left and inquiries made. A more suitable waggon, or lorry, for moving heavy merchandise was introduced, instead of the little, inconvenient, cramped-up carts of the past. Each waggon was provided with a good waterproof cover to keep goods dry. A uniform blank shipping note, with duplicate stubs in blank form, was given to the merchants.* This was a most * By favour of Mr. R. L. MeUea, G. T. R. freight agent at Toronto, I am able to show the vast importance of an uniform system shipping note, from the fact, that during the year 189.3, 363,400 shipping notes were issued at the Grand Trunk freight station, Toronto, alone. For future reference, the shipping notes, numbered consecu- T9QQ ' *"^® stitched and paper-bound. The number of volumes for the past year was 106 Railways and Other Ways. needful reform and an important thing for the railway com- panies, and came as a blessing to the shipping clerk, who had to decipher these mystic documents by gaslight or an oil lamp. Previous to this time, with a few exceptions by large merchants, shipping notes used to be made out on the first scrap of paper that presented itself, and of all colors and all shapes, viz., frag- ments of old songs, old envelopes, corners of newspapers, mostly written in pencil and often illegible. One of these ancient legends I have now before me. It is dated March 16, 1857, and reads as follows : — " Keceived from Thos. Clarkson, Toronto, 4 brls. flour, * Merchants' mills,' balance of lot, for Janes & Oliver, Montreal," written in pencil. On the back of it is printed a well-known and popular sacred hymn with many Scriptural references. It may be asked, was this done as an act of irrever- ence, or was it done for the benefit of the railway shipping clerk ? As I happened to know the consignor and consignees well, I can give them credit for the latter. Great changes from old habits or customs, which happen to clash with some existing interest, have generally to run the gaunt- let of opposition, and the cartage agency was no exception to this rule, and they (Hendrie & Shedden) came in for their full share of it. Public meetings were held to denounce the system, physical force was appealed to, a riot took place in Montreal, Mr. Shedden's stables were set on fire once or twice, and his life was threatened. Hendrie & Shedden from time to time jointly, and afterwards separately, imported a superior class of draught horses into the Province, and at this day their powerful and brightly harnessed teams with steady drivers are seen and admired in Montreal, Toronto and other cities of the Dominion, as well as in parts of Michigan and Illinois. They (Hendrie & Shedden) were together for several years, but finally dissolved partnership and arranged for a division of »^]^3a>^^V' OF THE of JOHN SHEDDEN. The Pickf(yrd8 of Canada. 107 territory, Mr. Shedden mainly acting for the Grand Trunk and Mr. Hendrie for the Great Western. Both became eminent contractors for the building of railways and other public works- JOHN SHEDDEN. Among those built by Mr. Shedden were the Union Station and Grand Trunk elevator, Toronto, the latter being erected twice, the first one having been burned down. He also built the Toronto, Grey & Bruce (narrow gauge), and the Toronto & Xipissing, of which he became president. On May 16, 1873, he, with a num- ber of citizens from Toronto, went up the T. & N. road to attend a land sale of Mr. Shedden's. On returning, he got out of the car at Cannington station, and on attempting to get in again, while the train was in motion, his foot slipped at an opening in the station platform, and he fell between the car and the plat- form and was crushed to death. He was 48 years of age, and — strange fatality — only two days previous to this Mr. Shedden's nephew, Wm. H. Paton, a promising young man of 25, was drowned in Stoney Lake. A monument in the form "of a massive granite obelisk to their memory may be seen in the Necropolis Cemetery, Toronto. Since this sad event the agency has been successfully con- tinued by the Shedden Co. (limited), under the management of Mr. Hugh Paton, of Montreal, and the superintendence of Mr. C. McKenzie, of Toronto. WM. HENDRIE. Mr. Wm. Hendrie, in addition to the cartage agency — as already named — became a large contractor. One of his early undertakings was the laying of the water pipes for the Hamilton water-works. At the recent 30th anniversary supper, given by Hendrie & Co. to their employees, to which Adam Brown, M. P., 108 Railways and Other Ways. was invited, he — in responding to the ** Parliament of the Do- minion" — made some interesting remarks in reference to Mr. Hendrie's early career. Speaking of the Hamilton water-works he (Mr. Brown) said that "there was not a leak in any of the pipes for seven years after they were put down." * Among the railways built by Messrs. Hendrie & Co. were the Wellington, Grey & Bruce, the Hamilton & Northwestern, and other lines in Canada and the State of Michigan. Mr. W. Hendrie is a director of several banks and other monetary institutions, and was recently elected vice-president of the Hamilton & Northwestern Railway. At the supper already referred to, Mr. Thos. McBride, super- intendent for Hendrie & Co. at Hamilton, in speaking of Mr. Wm. Hendrie, of Hamilton, and of his brother, Mr. Geo. Hendrie, of Detroit, said that some 2,500 to 3,000 men were in the employment of the firm. It will be remembered that when the Government were about closing with the syndicate for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Eailway, Mr. William Hendrie and other capitalists came forward and made a bold bid for the great undertaking on terms far below those offered by the other com- pany, and to show that they (Hendrie and party) meant what they said, deposited $200,000 as a guarantee of good faith. Perhaps no figures could be given which will be better understood as to the enormous increase of trade in the Province * Adam Brown, the present Post Master of Hamilton, Ontario, should not be forgotten in these records, as one of Canada's zealous and active railway pioneers. I remember his great exertions, along with other gentlemen of Hamilton, some 25 or 30 years ago, to provifle railway facilities for the counties of Wellington, Grey and Bruce. Many were the hard battles fought by Mr. Brown and his colleagues in favor of railways of the established gauge against the advocates of the narrow gauge, as well as to secure bonuses to assist in the construction of the former. The inhabit- ants of the counties referred to are under a debt of gratitude to Mr. Brown, who spent his time and means in their cause and did so much to open up their fine and fertile country, which had previously been retarded for lack of the means of transporting its products to the marts of commerce. The Pickfords of Canada. 109 than that of a comparison of the railway cartage agency in Toronto 30 years ago with that of the present day, the statistics of which have been kindly furnished me by Mr. W. Wilkie, manager for Hendrie & Co. ; Mr. C. Mackenzie, superintendent for the Shedden Company, and Mr. W. Walker, superintendent for the Dominion Transport Company, all of Toronto. Average number of horses kept constantly employed in collection and delivery of freight for all the railways in the City of Toronto : — 1857— Hendrie & Shedden 28 1888-Hendrie & Co 100 .... " — Shedden Company 138 .... '• —Dominion Transport Co. (C. P.R.) 74 312 28 This is, ot course, exclusive of horses employed by city expresses, of which the number is legion, and which had no existence at all 30 years ago. 110 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER IX. SKETCHES AND FURTHER REMINISCENCES. No. 5. — Benjamin Holmes, First Vice-President. From the Toronto Globe, April 7, 188S. ONE of the earliest men connected with the Grand Trunk Eail. way was Mr. Benjamin Holmes, who took an active part in its organization and became its first Vice-President. He was well known as an able financier and had previously been manager of the Bank of Montreal. He was a man of great determination of character, an energetic public speaker and often took a prominent part in Parliamentary elections. Mr, Holmes continued in office as Vice-President of the G.T.R. for four or five years. On retiring he was appointed Collector of Customs for the port of Montreal, which office he retained until his death. The writer well remembers that event, as lie was close by the Custom-house when it occurred, and on going into the collector's office saw Mr. Holmes sitting in his chair with pen in hand and unfinished manuscript before him, but the vital spark had fled — the collector had died at his post. Mr. Holmes was succeeded by Mr. T. E. Blackwell, a civil engineer of note, from the Old Country. He was one of the true English type, genial, a£fable and pleasant to all who came in contact with him. He was fond of scientific investigations, particularly of geology and meteorology. With a view of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the Canadian climate, he Sketches and Further Beminiscencea. Ill had daily weather reports sent him from all the stations on the G.T.E., and he is fairly entitled to be classed as one of the earliest of " weather probs." THE FLYING FERRY. Mr. Blackwell had noticed in his travels a mode of crossing some European rivers by means of a rope or chain secured to an anchor or post up and in the middle of the stream, the other end of the rope being attached to a boat two-thirds of the distance from its bow : the boat is then carried across by the force of the current and is brought back again by simply changing the position of the rope to two-thirds from the bow, the boat being made to sail either way. To carry out a similar plan for crossing the St. Clair River at Point Edward (Sarnia),Mr. Blackwell had a large barge built to take over a train of freight cars at one time ; to this barge was attached a strong chain cable about 1,000 feet in length, the other end of the cable being secured to an immense anchor (such as was in use on the Great Eastern steamship); this was sunk in the middle of the river at the outlet of Lake Huron, a slip or dock being made at each side the river for the barge to take and receive cars. The plan worked very well in ordinary weather, but if a strong wind set in up the river a tidal wave was formed up the lake and the current in the river, for the time, was reversed, while a strong wind from the north made the current so rapid that the barge fairly flew across, and it became a source of danger to passing vessels. This mode of crossing was finally abandoned, and steam-power used to take the barge between Point Edward and Port Huron. From the immense size of the craft it got the title of the " Great Eastern of the Lakes." 112 Railways and Other Ways. Mr. Blackwell retired from the company in 1861 or '62, on account of his health failing, and died shortly afterwards. The probable cause of his death was an injury to his spine from a railway accident in England before he came to Canada. LIEUT.-COL. BAILEY. Mr. Henry Bailey came to Canada with Mr. S. P. Bidder in 1853, as his secretary. The former wrote and spoke the French language fluently, which made him of great service to the General Manager. Shortly afterwards Mr. Bailey was appointed assistant manager of the G.T.E. Though Mr. Bailey was not originally a railway man, he, by his energy and perseverance, soon made himself thoroughly conversant with railway manage- ment ; and when he presided at the superintendents' conferences he always impressed upon them the importance of making good rules and seeing that they were carried out, and it is doubtless to this that may be ascribed the comparative freedom from serious accidents on the road during the early years of its existence. Mr. Bailey was in the employ of the Company for about twenty years, part of the time as superintendent of the Portland district.* At the time when it was considered advisable for every Canadian railway man to become a soldier, Mr. Bailey took an active part with Mr. Brydges and Mr. Hickson in the formation of the Grand Trunk Brigade, and Mr. Bailey was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment. When the Grand Trunk Railway opened, old travellers were wont to relate their experience of travel by " flood and field-' in the olden time ; how they were hauled up the St. Lawrence in batteaux or flat-bottomed boats ; or, if in winter, what journeys they had from Montreal to Toronto, over snow, corduroy or mud * Mr. Bailey died at Brighton, England, in June, 1892. Sketches and Further Reminiscences. 113 roads, a week or more in transit. Now we may compare early railway travel with the present ; in the former, there was no cosy Pullman or Wagner car, where a man could go to bed, dream away his time and wake up at daybreak to find himself at his journey's end. In going from Montreal to Toronto the travel- ler had to sit bolt upright for sixteen or eighteen hours, until every bone in his body ached and each particular bone seemed to have had a quarrel with its fellow-bone — all feeling as if they had been engaged in a pitched battle. Once on a night ride to Quebec, when the late Sir Allan McNab and several members of Parliament were on board the train, the thermometer was 40° below zero. The intense cold congealed the oil in the tail lamp, and it went out over and over again and had to be brought in'o the car to be thawed. The stove in the middle of the car was kept at red heat and all the passengers huddled round it, yet were almost perished with cold, and to finish up were landed in a snow bank at 4 o'clock in the morning two miles from Point Levis station. At that time the trains were run much slower, and railway men were only learning the art of fighting snow. During the Mason and Slidell trouble, when troops came out from England in midwinter, one of the regiments, in a train drawn by two or three locomotives, left Montreal on a Monday morning and did not reach Toronto until the Saturday following. The Grand Trunk people had to supply the soldiers with rations at nearly every station. THE SLEEPING-CAB. When sleeping-cars began to be talked about, the superin- tendents of the G. T. R. met in solemn conclave to consider the advisability of putting on sleeping-cars, and it seems strange at this time for me to report that there was a strong objection to 8 114 Railways and Other Ways. their introduction, mainly, as they said, on account of such cars having recently been put on some of the American roads, which had been infested by bad characters. Finally the matter was compromised by introducing benches or bunks the whole length of the car, without any curtains or divisions, and only one rug and small pillow for each passenger. When one entered one of these cars at midnight, one saw a medley of dark, grotesque-look- ing objects, with arms and legs sticking up in much "admired disorder," looking as if the passengers had been shovelled into the car. Improvements in the sleeping-car were made from time to time, until the Pullman car made its appearance in all its glory, and as each of the cars was in charge of a smart conductor, the bugbear as to the morality question was effectually quashed, and the traveller found himself as comfortable and as much protected as if he were in a first-class hotel. No. 6. — Dollars and Cents versus £ s. d. From the Toronto Globe, May 12, 1888. In 1853, when the Grand Trunk Eailway was opened from Montreal to Portland, Canada had decided to abandon what was termed Halifax currency, viz., pounds, shillings and pence, and to adopt the American system of dollars and cents. One of the first documents of any magnitude in which the new currency was introduced was the large freight tariff of the G. T. R., made out by the writer and circulated in the fall of 1853. He remem- bers that there was a good deal of objection to it, particularly among some of the French Canadians, who looked upon it as an innovation, preferring to talk and deal in pounds, shillings and pence, and it was many years before the latter method was quite abandoned. Sketches and Further Reminiscences. 115 That the Dominion should have been saved from adopting the Old Country system of pounds, shillings and pence sterling ■was a most fortunate thing for railway men and Canadian car- riers generally, and they, above all others, have good reason to be thankful for it ; for if ingenuity had done its best it could not have devised a scheme of currency more complicated than that of English sterling money, coupled with its ton weight of 2,240 lbs. To illustrate this from a railway shipping point of view, I would ask some of our school pupils to work out the fol- lowing little sum and see how many j&gures it takes to give the answer, viz. : — John Thomas is forwarding 4 tons 17 cwts. 8 qrs. 19 lbs. of fish from Toronto to Guelph, the rate of freight of which is to be 8s. 9d. per ton of 2,240 lbs., what amount in sterling money will he have to pay ? Then put the problem into decimals and for purposes of this calculation take the Eng- lish shilling as equal to 24 cents and the penny at 2 cents, and the question will read as follows : — What will 10,967 lbs. come to at 9 375-1,000 cents per 100 lbs.? Both calculations will give the same results in value. The simplicity of the latter system over the former, as respects the time taken and the figures used, will be seen at a glance. It will be found that it requires about 98 figures to show the amount in sterling and only 38 figures in decimal currency, and the latter would only require 11 figures if the fractions of 375-1,000 were dispensed with, which would be done in nearly all freight transactions. Such calculations as the first given were what the early Eng- lish shipping clerk had to make often after 7 p.m., perhaps 50 of them all different. There were experts who adopted methods of their own for making quick calculations, but the ordinary calcu- lator could not do them in any reasonable time, and in a year or two a clever fellow, after many months of hard work, made a ponderous ready reckoner to assist the clerks. The subject ot 116 Railways and Other Ways. introducing decimal currency into England has often been dis- cussed, but there have always arisen a thousand things to oppose it, among which are prejudice, the dislike of change and the imitation of anything American. Then there is the imaginary golden charm which seems to float round about the very words pounds sterling, that it is something more solid and real than any other currency, so that another century may pass before any change is made. Still, one would have thought that the Colonies, such as Australia, New Zealand, etc., would have adopted decimal currency, the same as the Dominion of Canada. EARLY ENGLISH RAILWAYS. In bringing these reminiscences of the early days of the Grand Trunk to a close, it may perhaps not be out of place, but may be of some interest, to make a few remarks in reference to the early management of some English railways, as compared with those of the Dominion of Canada. When some of the first English roads were opened, the most unfit and unlikely men were appointed as general managers. Directors then thought that any one could run a railway. A few incidents which occurred upon roads with which I was connected in those early times will give a faint idea of the style of some of the men who were put on to govern these important undertakings. No. 1 had been a sea captain, who had been wont to rule his crew with a rod of iron ; he swore like a trooper and tried this on the passengers who travelled by his railway, as much as to say : ** I am Sir Oracle ; when I speak, let no dog bark." On one occasion he insulted a well-known peer, and the directors had to call the manager to account and finally to pension him off. No. 2 had been a stock-jobber ; he was a nice, smooth-faced gentleman, a regular Cockney, with a lisp ; he was perfectly harmless as a man, good-natured and well liked. One day when Sketches and Further Reminiscences. 117 I went to consult him I found him experimenting with a rat-trap, and he explained to me how when the rat went into the trap " itth back wath broken." We had a porter named John Brown- He was rather a character in his way, fond of quoting from Byron, Shakespeare and the Bible, but John was fond of beer as well. One day the General Manager went into the porter's room and found John drunk and lying on the floor asleep. Manager gave John a kick, when he opened his eyes and said : " I do not feel in a fit position to speak to thee on the present occasion ; come at some more convenient season and I will talk to thee ;" then closed his eyes and went to sleep again. Manager thought for a moment, then said : " God bleth me. the manth mad." A shipping clerk had been neglecting his duties, and the manager went to the office to reprimand him and said : " I tell you wath it ith, Wilthon, you are a careleth, good-for-nothing boy, and I will — (Wilson's little dog just then ran in) — poor little fellow ; good dog," patting it with his hand, and manager quietly marched out of the office, being perfectly vanquished by the little cur, who thus saved its master from punishment at that time. No. 3 was a Polish refugee, 6 feet 3 or 4 inches in height ; had been a military man ; he was sent by the London directors to cut down the salaries of a general manager and a marine sur- veyor, and after making the places too hot to hold them, to take the management of both himself. This he soon did. It may be mentioned that the marine surveyor had a great number of men under him engaged in improving the harbor, and he was in the habit of inspecting them through a telescope at a distance of two miles; this was much pleasanter than being amongst the men, wading about in mud boots. One day the Polish manager had a bright idea, and he said to Superintendent Cooper : " I will make this road pay " (so far it had barely paid expenses). " What will you do ? " said Cooper. 118 Railways and Other Ways. Manager : " The receipts are now about £700 per week. I will at once make them £1,400 by doubling the fares ; " and he tried it for one week, when the receipts went down to £300. No. 4 manager was a little dandy sort of a man, who had been a share broker. He was a model man for order, so far as appearances went, but if a document got into his ofl&ce it was- lost forever. For fun, the clerks used to ask him for papers,, and he would tell them he could jfind them in a minute, but always told them to " look in again." He was not like the captain already mentioned. On the contrary, he had great reverence for lords and the nobility. The clerks knowing this failing, would run and tell him when a lord was in the train, and the little manager would rush out of his office into the station and begin to bow and scrape before his lordship, but he was greatly taken down one day when a certain lord asked the manager if he belonged to the hotel. Of course his lordship took the manager for a waiter. No. 5 had been a decent clerk in an accountant's office, but to be launched from that to the position of general manager of a railway was too much for him. He soon got into drinking habits. One morning he came to me in a half-inebriated state and said : ** Mr. Pennington, I find the men are not sufficiently respectful to their superior officers. Come with me and we'll give them a lesson." The first man we met was my foreman, Bob Snape* The manager said : " Look here, Bob, whenever you see me, Mr. Pennington, or any superior officer of the company, acknowledge the same by touching your hat — thus," taking off his own hat and making a bow to Bob. This farce was played for a couple of hours on a public wharf, in full view of a number of the towns- people, who went off in a roar of laughter. The poor fellow's term of office soon expired. In time, directors found that it was necessary to have men Sketches and Furthei" Jierniniscences. 119 of ability and general experience to manage their railways ; that they were as important as generals in an army or Ministers of State ; that they (the general managers) had the power to make or mar the trade of a country ; and that the blunder of a manager, through his self-will, ignorance or folly, might result in the loss of tens of thousands to the company he served. The directors then began to select for general managers men from the ranks, particularly from among the freightmen — those who had to build up dividends and engage in the battle of hard work, such as the Eboralls, the Cawkwells, the Allports, and others of the same class. CANADIAN GENERAL MANAGERS. As Canadian railways commenced at a much later period, directors had the experience of time to guide them, and thus escaped the infliction of inefficient managers. I think all who have watched the progress of the railways in the Dominion will agree with me in this. Canada has been well served by its rail- way men. I need only refer to a few of the names to insure a general assent to this assertion. In preceding chapters I have spoken of General Managers Bidder and Shanly, the early men of the Grand Trunk, but I must go back nearly 40 years to refer to one who, I think, I am right in saying was the first general manager of a railway in Canada, and that was a gentleman still amongst us, an honored and respected citizen of Toronto, viz., the veteran Col. Gzowski,* who when a young man had the management of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Eailway some years before that road became a portion of the Grand Trunk. Col. Gzowski's name must always be associated with the building of a large portion of the western sections of that line as well as other important public works in the Dominion. * Now Sir Casimir Gxowski. 120 Railways and Other Ways. Mr. C. J. Brydges, whose name among railway men is "as familiar as household words," had his first experience on English railways. He came to Canada in 1853 as Managing Director of the Great Western Railway, which post he held for ten years, and then became Managing Director of the Grand Trunk for about the same period. He was afterwards appointed as Commissioner of the Intercolonial and other roads by Government. For some years he represented the Hudson Bay Company as Land Commissioner. Mr. Brydges has been well characterized as the " Napoleon of Railways." Mr. James Tillinghast was one of the early managers of the Northern Railway, since which he has occupied different positions of trust under the Vanderbilts on the New York Central & Hud- son River Railway, and for some years he has been the active vice-president of that wealthy road. The late lamented Col. F. Cumberland will long be remem- bered as one of the early railway pioneers of Canada, and the able manager of the Northern Railway for a quarter of a century. Mr. A. Fell, who as a boy rose from the ranks in the freight department of the London & Northwestern Railway at Liverpool, was one of the early men on the Buffalo & Lake Huron road, first as general freight agent, then as manager, and for some years he has held a high position on one of the railroads running from Buffalo. THOMAS SWINYARD. Mr. Thomas Swinyard was connected with the London & North-Western Railway, the largest concern in England, from early youth, and became secretary to the General Manager of that line. On Mr. Brydges' retirement from the Great Western Railway in 1862, Mr. Swinyard succeeded him as General Manager which position he successfully held for many years. He was also for the same period the active president of the Detroit ^f^^^^ THE of ^ . (Tcicr^^^yo^^a^ J Sketches and' Further Reminiscences. 121 & Milwaukee Eailway. Some time after his retirement he was appointed General Manager of the Dominion Telegraph Company, then Vice-President and finally President, which office he still holds. He was also employed by the Dominion Government as Special Commissioner to take over the Prince Edward Island Eailway from the Local Government and reorganize the road. Recently he has been connected with the management of an American railway. He now resides in New York. JOSEPH HICKSON. Mr. Joseph Hickson, the present General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway, has probably had more varied experience than any other railway man, having passed through and been an active worker in almost every department on railways in England as well as in Canada. It is twenty-six years since his arrival at Montreal, during which time he has been successively auditor, accountant and treasurer, secretary, and finally Gen- eral Manager. Mr. Hickson has seen the old gauge changed from end to end, a mighty undertaking of itself. The mileage has risen from 1,200 to 4,000 or 5,000 miles, and the very statistics of cars, stations, locomotives, agencies, employees, etc., etc., read like a chapter of some work of fiction. Mr. Hickson has had the good sense, when he drew other rail- ways into the arms of the Grand Trunk, to stick to the old staff if they were good men, thus surrounding himself with willing, able and experienced officers, by which he has been able to ex- ercise his " one-man power " with skill and judgment, and also to keep pace with his younger big brother, the C. P. R., alongside of him.* * Tn 1890 Mr. Hickaon received the honor of knighthood from the Queen. On January let, 1891, Sir Joseph retired from the management of the G. T, R., after twenty-nine years of active service, and was succeeded by Mr. L. J. Seargeant, wlio, for so many years, had occupied the important post of traffic manager for the Company, 122 Railways and Othei' Ways. CHAPTEE X. TESTIMONIAIiS AND PRESENTATIONS. THE several matters in this chapter might perhaps have been placed more fitly elsewhere ; but for certain reasons I wished to reproduce my letters to the Glohe substantially as they were first printed, and I was unwilling to disarrange their order by the introduction of new material, although aptly pertaining to the subjects treated of. I quote Mr. Bidder's letter, not because it is addressed to myself, but to show the fine spirit and high sense of duty which always animated the man. s. p. bidder's farewell letter. G. T. E. Offices, Montreal, 18th December, 1857. My Dear Sir : — I have to inform you that after the first of January all letters, hitherto sent to me, must be addressed to Mr. Walter Shanly, who takes upon himself the duties of general manager, and also those of chief engineer. In thus announcing my official separation, I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without assuring you that I shall ever revert, with pleasure, to our past connection in the development of one of the grandest schemes ever devised for the improve- ment of a country ; and in thus leaving, I feel it a duty I owe to you to express my thanks for the valuable assistance I have at all times received at your hands. Testimonials and Presentations. 123 It will be gratifying for you to know that in my successor you will have a gentleman from whom you will receive every kindness and consideration compatible with his duties to the Company, in the future working of this important railway. Heartily wishing you every prosperity, Believe me, dear sir. Yours faithfully, M. Pennington, S. P. Bidder. Freight Manager, Grank Trunk Eailway, Montreal. PRESENTATION TO WALTER SHANLY. On the retirement of Mr. Walter Shanly from the position of General Traffic Manager of the G. T. E., a number of the chief officers of the Company entertained him at dinner at the St. Lawrence Hall, Montreal, and, on proposing his health, the fol- lowing address was presented to him : — To Walter Shanly, Esq., late General Traffic Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada : — We, the undersigned officers and men in the service of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, deeply regret that you have thought fit to retire from the high and important office of General Traffic Manager ; and it is only in deference to your ex- press desire, that we adopt this simple and unostentatious method of recording the sentiments of affection and esteem with which we regard you. We feel that the character of the man we address demands that we abstain from a single expression which could be con-^ sidered either adulatory or exaggerated. 124 Railways and Other Ways. It is most gratifying to us to know that, although no longer connected with the Company, your interest in the welfare and success in this great Province line will remain unabated. We beg to express our grateful sense of the kindness and con- sideration which you have invariably shown to all who have been employed under you ; and with mingled feelings of admiration and regret we tender you this very inadequate offering, in testi- mony of our sincere respect and regard. Mr. Shanly replied as follows : — Mr. Elliott and my other kind friends, — I have difficulty in finding words wherein to thank you for this very complimentary address, or to express how highly I value this written evidence of your esteem ; and when I remember that it does not emanate from yourselves alone, but that you are assembled here this evening as the representatives of many of your associates, whom circumstances have prevented from attending, as also of nearly 3,000 warm-hearted workingmen, I feel, as I have a right to feel, very proud indeed ; I shall ever treasure this handsome document as a precious record of the good-will of my fellow- labourers in an arduous undertaking, and as evidence of the existence, between all classes of the Company's servants, of that spirit of unanimity and cordiality which is so indispensable to success in railway working. My gratification at receiving so numerously signed and so handsomely decorated an address, too, is not a little increased when I call to mind that the signatures it bears are not those only of persons from every parish and township on the line of the Grand Trunk from Riviere du Loup to Sarnia and London, but that the United States also are rep- resented in it, for I trust to be able to recognize in its ample pages many familiar names from Maine, Vermont and New Jlanopshire in the East, and Michigan in the West. My appre- ciation of the value I place upon this handsome testimonial V ' OF THE UNIVERSITY of ILIFO RHi> Testimonials and Presentations. 125 cannot be better expressed than in the words you, Mr. Elliott, have just used in presenting it to me, when speaking of the price to be put on the esteem of one's fellowmen. It will ever be more highly prized by me than " gold and precious stones." The address is handsomely bound in morocco silver mounted and is inscribed : PRESENTED TO WALTER SHANLY, BY Three Thousand Men of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada. June, 1862. IN MEMORIAM OF THE LATE W. K. MUIR OF DETROIT. Mr. Muir's name has been frequently mentioned in these pages, and always in terms of appreciation and esteem. When his death was announced I sent the following letter — dated June 24th, 1892 — to the Toronto Globe, and reproduce it here as a sincere, if inadequate, tribute to his memory': As an old officer who served under Mr. Muir when that gentleman was general manager of the Great Western Eailway of Canada, I cannot allow the sad event of his death to pass without offering a humble but sincere tribute to his memory. Mr. Muir was one of nature's noblemen, one who had the interests of his employees at heart, and was always willing to lend a helping hand. Like most eminent railway men of the past half century, Mr. Muir rose from the ranks, and by zeal for the company he served and sheer ability he gained the top of railway position. Mr. Muir commenced his railway career as a boy on Scottish railways some fifty years ago, and after passing through the various grades of office there he came out to Canada and entered the service of the Great Western Railway under the late Mr. C. J. Brydges as superintendent of the road. 126 Railways and Other Ways. An incident in Mr. Muir's life will be long remembered, forming as it does a sad chapter in the annals of the old Great Western. On the evening of March 12th, 1857, Mr. Muir started from Toronto, by train, for Hamilton, taking his place in the last car and the last seat with his back to the engine. On nearing the Desjardins bridge he heard a crash and without looking back made a rush for the door of the car, jumped out and landed safely on the track just as the whole train tumbled into the abyss and frozen river below, killing and wounding the great bulk of the passengers and men in charge of the train.* For many years Mr. Muir was the general superintendent of the Detroit & Milwaukee Eailroad. Also for a time he held the same position on the Michigan Central. When Mr. Swin- yard retired from the services of the G. W. E., Mr. Muir once more returned to that road and became its General Manager. In 1873 he retired from the service and became General Manager of the Canada Southern. In a few years he gave up railway life with all its hard work and became President of the Eureka Iron Company, Detroit, where he was able to get some rest to the end of his days. Mr. Muir, though not an engineer, was as much at home amongst the locomotives or the laying and grading of the tracks * A memento of this sad event may be seen in the Burlington Cemetery, Hamil- ton, Ontario, in the form of a marble column upon the top of which stands a very pretty model of a locomotive. One aide of the monument bears the following inscription : IN MEMORY OF Alexander Bumfield and also of George Knight, who lost their lives by the acci- dent on Desjardins bridge, Great Western Railway, on the 12th March, 1857, while acting in their respective capacities as engineer and fireman. Life's Railway o'er, each station past. In death we're stop'd and cease at last ; Farewell, dear friends, and cease to weep. In Christ we're safe, in him we sleep. This monument was erected as a token of respect by their fellow workmen. An historic interest attaches to Burlington Cemetery. During the war of 1812, Burlington Heights were held by the British and Canadian troops, and the earth woricB thrown up on that ocoaaion may still be seen in the cemetery. Y^-^^*^^^^ Testimonials and Presentations. 127 as any one of the profession, and always ranked Al amongst the railroad men of this continent. He was a good man — a good Christian. Peace to his ashes. JOSEPH PRICE, NOW OF LONDON, ENGLAND. Mr. Price, in early life, commenced his railway career on the Sheffield line, England. In 1859 he came out to Chicago as treasurer of the Chicago & Alton Railway, and in 1864 assumed a similar position on the Great Western Railway, at Hamilton, Ontario. When W. K. Muir resigned the general managership of that line, Mr. Price succeeded him. In 1875 he retired from the service and returned to England, since which time he has repre- sented the interests of many English gentlemen who were bond- holders of American railways, and also acted as president of one U.S. road. Mr. Price will long be remembered as a genial, pleasant, affable Englishman. He was a general favourite in Western Canada, and his smiling face has been much missed by his many friends at Hamilton, as well as by officers and other employees of the old Great Western. On Mr. Price's retirement from the company, the officers, employees and his friends presented him with a gold watch and chain and a set of diamond ear-rings for Mrs. Price, along with an address signed by 450 employees and a large album contain- ing their photographs. Mr. Price has an office at No. 5 Winchester street, London, E.G., and represents the English Association of American Bond and Share Holders (Limited). My old friend, Thos. Bell, of Leamington, England, writing me in October, '93, says : " Mr. Price had, for years, a serious ailment, but is now quite well. He has become quite an authority on American railways." 128 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XI. THREE NIGHTS IN THE CARS-DIFFICULTIES OF WINTER TRAVEL. Thick clouds ascend, in whose capacious womb A vapoury deluge lies, to snow congealed ; Heavy they roll their fleecy world along, And the sky saddens with the gathering storm. — Thomson. THE following description, by the author, of a trip from Montreal to Toronto, is taken from the Toronto Globe and is now given to illustrate the trouble which the G.T.R. sometimes had in the early days of its existence. The article was after- wards copied into several English papers. A BAD START. {From my Diary.) Montreal, March 9, 1869. The night is fine and mild, as I arrive at Bonaventure street station, and there seems every prospect of slipping through to Toronto between the snow-storms ; but a friend, by way of consolation, slightly whispers to me that the barometer is falling. This is ominous, and I am afraid tells of ills to come. I notice that the train is not " made up " as is usual at 8.15 p.m. On enquiring the cause, I am informed that about 4 miles west the axle of a car of a passenger train is broken, and that a " truck " has just been sent out to replace the damaged one, and that the only available sleeping-car is with that train. So after Three Nights in the Cars. 129 some time, we all went into an ordinary first-class car, and at 10 p.m. make a start ; but only run out to the Tanneries Junction, where we have to wait the arrival of the disabled train. The time is spent as pleasantly as possible, mainly by the amusing talk of a funny Englishman, of the kind that is " Wont to set the table in a roar ; " and, like Mark Tapley, is jolly under all circumstances ; for, as he says, " what's the use of complaining when you can't help it," and recommends all to make themselves as happy as possible ; and thus the time whiles away until 2 a.m., when we get the sleeping cars and make a fresh start. " THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW." As we pass along, I notice that the train runs between two walls of snow, varying from four to twelve feet in height, and that the country presents one plain of pure white, with no fences visible, broken only by trees which look all branches, their trunks being buried in the deep snow, with here and there a cottage emerging from the surface, having the appearance of being stunted in its growth, giving a strange aspect to the winter landscape. The thought of a sudden thaw, with heavy rain, cannot be contemplated without a shudder, as the rapid melting of this bed of solid snow, compressed from ten or twelve feet to about five or six feet, over hundreds of miles of country would produce floods of a terrible magnitude. THE SLEEPING-CAR. There is the usual making up of beds and fixing upon berths, and one by one creep under nice clean sheets, and are soon playing all kinds of tunes upon the nasal organ, and dream not of the morrow. 9 130 Railways and Other Ways. March 10. — At dawn of day we are at Prescott, and a soft snow is falling, which gradually increases to a storm by the time we reach Brockville. This continues until we arrive at a point three miles east of Gananoque, where we come suddenly to a stand. STUCK IN THE SNOW. Now the storm rages with terrific fury ; the snow comes sweeping over the plain, gritty and blinding as the sands of the desert ; it flies in eddies and whirlpools ; it rushes round stumps of trees, pelting the cars, penetrating every corner and crevice of the intricate parts of the locomotive ; it chokes up axle-boxes, throws up embankments, creates all kinds of architectural forms, and buries the railway track out of sight. ANOTHER IRON HORSE. A freight train from the East arrives, and the engine, being detached, comes to our help ; and now commences a hard struggle of pushing behind and hauling in front ; and for two hours this is kept up, with men all the time plying the shovel to keep the wheels clear, but it is labour in vain ; for as fast as the snow is thrown out it comes back again, and the two locomotives puflf and scream, and their driving wheels fly round, but no progress is made ; and the work is at last abandoned as utterly hopeless. Our engine, along with the conductor, then start for Gananoque for relief, and the freight engine struggles for some time to get back, but is fairly beaten, and dies in harness. STOCK OF PROVISIONS IS TAKEN. The train containing upwards of 150 passengers is now left alone. It is noon and we are yet without breakfast, having calculated upon getting that meal at Kingston, distant 20 miles. Each passenger begins to look into his or her larder, and many Three Nights in the Gars. 131 were the long faces that were made on finding such scanty supplies ; one musters a few sandwiches, another a few apples or an orange, or a few crackers. Two gentlemen with two little boys, think they have enough for three days' siege, as they have a good-sized basket and two parcels, the whole having been made up by kind friends ; the contents were unknown to the gentlemen. The result of the inspection exhibits two bottles of milk and half- a-dozen small sandwiches in the basket. Parcel No. 1, some ginger cakes and candies. No. 2 is a paper box, and must contain something substantial. It is opened — on the top there is a thin layer of sweet cakes ; then a stratum of paper. Now expectation is on the tiptoe (solids are always found at the bottom) ; the paper is removed, and in a moment eight rosy apples, all in a row, come to full view, to the utter consternation of the two gentlemen and the great glee of the two little boys, who believe in apples as the staff of life. Deep in the dark recesses of his carpet-bag one gentleman finds an ancient meat pie (the relics of a lunch provided for a former railway expedition) ; and though it looks hard and dry, and rather like one of those pies dug up in Pompeii, still it is cut up, divided and pronounced an excel- lent morsel. One gentleman has transformed a glass bottle into a teakettle ; with this he manufactures curious mixtures for the children. FORAGING PARTIES. Observations of the surrounding country are taken through the thick snow. One gentleman thinks he descries the outlines of a house. He puts himself in the best condition for travel and boldly leaves the cars, sinks up to his middle in snow, and, after plunging on a few yards, vanishes like the ghost in Hamlet. Anxious eyes are kept on the lookout for his return, and in about an hour a spectral object comes out of the snow-cloud, which 132 Railways and Other Ways, turns out to be the gentleman in question. He carries a large bundle and a jug of hot tea. How he has kept the tea hot is a puzzle to all on board. This is encouraging. Other expe- ditions are formed and leave the cars in the course of the day and make new discoveries of farm houses, whose inmates willingly throw open their larders and set to cooking in good earnest to supply the wants of the belated travellers, so that by night all on board the train are pretty well satisfied. One gentleman returns with his ear frozen and swollen. Some jokes were passed upon him, as he would not cover himself with a rug when he went forth, but said he could stand a storm like this and did not care for it. An elderly Scotchman said the young man had got an " elongated lug." STOCK OF LITERATURE, DISCUSSIONS, ETC. Our stock of reading matter is rather scanty and there is no news-boy on board the train. We have a Toronto Globe of the previous Saturday, Montreal papers of Tuesday, a Dominion Monthly, two or three novels and three or four magazines. Political discussions take place on Confederation, Annexation, Reciprocity, the Nine Martyrs, etc., and night draws on. The storm continues with unabated fury, the car being kept rocking to and fro by the high wind. By nine o'clock all in our car are in bed. I am in an upper berth, and the windows and doors of the car being closely shut, it is very uncomfortable for want of ventilation ; but I dose a little and am wakened at two a. m. by the distant whistle of a locomotive ; but after waiting for the sound to be repeated, I find it is the stentorian snore of my next neighbour. TWO A.M. — A LOOK OUT. It is now calm, but the snow is still falling, and what a scene of desolation presents itself without — a wide plain of Three lights in the Gars. 133 snow with the dark stumps of trees standing forth clear and distinct, requiring no great stretch of imagination to endow them with motion and being, engaged in some wild fantastic dance, the whole encircled by the dark outline of the forest, and in the midst the train with its Hving freight, from the infant in arms to the old man of seventy. Some were sleeping, others in moody speculation ; and what hopes and fears are here congregated together. In our car one gentleman mourns the loss of his young wife who died a week ago ; a second, the sad loss of a little sister accidentally poisoned ; a third, the sudden death of a young friend by inflammation of the lungs ; and a fourth is journeying to a distant city in fear that his father will be dead before he arrives. In the other cars the passengers lie in every possible position and are constantly changing to ease the weary body. Here the air is close and sickly, and the lamps cast a yellow light upon the upturned faces seen below. A DEAD ENGINE. Distant twenty yards is the dark figure of the dead locomo- tive ; the snow has held high revel under it, on it and around it, adding many a piece of ornamental frost-work to its iron sides. It makes one melancholy to look at it — a mechanical Samson shorn of its might — the genius of steam prostrated — its breath- ing gone — its power annihilated — unwieldy as a ship on shore — there it stands looking like some monument of past greatness. DUG OUT. March 11th, 7 a.m. — The snow on both ends of the train stands level with the platforms of the cars. Section men arrive and set to work with willing hands to dig us out ; they cut the snow in blocks, and as they throw it out it looks like the purest marble. 1S4 Railways and Other Ways. SUPPLIES ARRIVE. 9 a.m. — Sleigh bells are heard, and up comes the conductor ■with cargoes of provisions. Soon we have steaming hot coffee, which, with sandwiches of gigantic proportions, are handed round. Now there is a general rejoicing in the cars — a huge picnic takes place ; knives and forks we have none, but pen- knives and jacknives are brought into play, and where these are lacking, fingers and teeth are plentiful enough, and each person does not hesitate to use them regardless of all rules of etiquette and the customs of civilized society. A loud report is heard near the stove — it is the gentleman's, teakettle bottle, which has burst after two days' active service. THE conductor's ADVENTURES. The conductor relates his adventures — how, when he left us,. the engine only got a mile from us and then stuck fast in a snow-bank — how he then battled his way to Gananoque and telegraphed to Kingston for food and assistance, and how a train started from Kingston on the previous night, but stuck in the snow three or four miles west of Gananoque, and that sleighs were sent out to bring in the supplies and convey them to us ; and he further gladdened us by the news that three locomotives and a snow-plough were then on their way from Kingston to* haul us out of this place. THE SNOW-PLOUGH. Soon a series of whistles are heard and three engines and a snow-plough arrive ; and after many hard pulls we are on the move again, and go on with slight interruptions to Kingston, arriving there at 6 p.m. Here the Grand Trunk Company, with great liberality, has provided a free dinner for all the passengers^ and full justice is done to it. Three Nights in the Gars. 135 Kingston is left at 9 p.m., and having settled down in a clean, fresh, comfortable sleeping car, we think our troubles are over and so go to sleep. " CHANGE CABS ! " March 12, 2 a.m.— These were the words that disturbed us in our pleasant dreams of home, and they were found to pro- ceed from the strong lungs of the sleeping-car conductor. We pop out our heads and enquire the " reason why," and are told that about three miles ahead, near Grafton, there are two engines oflf the track. There is now a general muffling-up — rolling children in rugs, and other preparations for a night march through the snow. We reach the point of obstruction and there leave the cars, form a long procession in Indian file, and thus hobble through the snow, meeting as we go another similar procession on march to take possession of the cars just vacated by us. We pass the two engines ; they are abreast of each other, blocking up the whole track most effectually. By 4 a. m. we once more make a start and go on without any further trouble, arriv- ing at Toronto at 11 a. m. — sixty-two hours after we left Montreal. Here we require some washing, polishing and brush- ing up to make us presentable to the denizens of the fair city of Toronto. 136 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XII. EA.RLY RAILWAY AND STEAMBOAT OFFICERS. THROUGH BILL OF LADING SYSTEM PORTLAND STEAMBOATS. ON the opeDing of the G-. T. R. to Portland, a through line from thence to Boston was formed with the Portland & Boston* Steam Packet Company. I have a pleasant recollection of its managers : Mr. Kimbals, Secretary ; Capt. Coyle, Commodore of the fleet; L. Billings, agent at Portland, and Mr. Joseph Brooks, agent at Boston. I was wont to call them " The Cheeryble Brothers," they were such a comfortable, quaint and genial sort of men ; and they did much to clear away any cobwebs of English prejudice which we, as new comers, might have had against " down easters." The managers used to dine together daily on board the steamer promptly at noon ; and when down at Portland I occasionally joined them, one item in the bill of fare being ** clam chowder " cooked to perfection, *' a dainty dish to set before a king." The company was its own insurer, and its boats had run, nightly, for, I think, about twenty years without an accident of any moment ; but one night, when I. S. Millar, our Portland agent, and I were on board, going to B(^ton, the pilot of one of the steamers somehow lost his hea^ and caused a collision between our boat and the sister boat, on its way from Boston to Portland. It took place on the Atlantic Ocean some ten or fifteen miles from land, all the timbers of our boat were cut through near the paddle-wheel, except a very thin plank, which saved us from going to the bottom of the sea ; the l)ow of the other boat was smashed to atoms, but the bulkhead, Early Railway and Steamboat Oficers. 137 a watertight compartment, saved her from sinking. Many jokes were passed upon me afterwards as being "the Jonah of the ship." There was no " shoddy " in the construction of this line of steamers — they were made to battle with the wildest Atlantic waves. The company's managers were, doubtless, the first to make use of the electric telegraph as a guide in conveying intelligence of the movements of storms, and they regulated the sailing of their boats accordingly, and are fairly entitled to be classed among the earliest of " old probs." Mr. Brooks acted as G. T. E. agent at Boston for many years. I was much indebted to him for assisting me in bringing about bonding regulations with the United States customs, a matter of great importance, which was sometimes beset with many difficulties, but the princi- pal arrangements, then made, are still in force. S. T. C0R8ER. Mr. Corser was superintendent of the Portland district from the opening of the line, and held the office for about 12 years. White haired and clean shaved he always looked fresh and rosy. He was, though well advanced in years, ever at his post in summer's heat and winter's cold ; pushing his way in winter with snow-plough, through the snow drifts, among the White Mountains. He had his own way of working the road, and none knew better how to do it. Mr. Corser was a regular attender at the G. T. R. Officers' Conference, and fraternized famously with the English and Canadian management. He was a great believer in the " Maine Liquor Law," and his example had a marked effect upon the employees, by whom he was much respected and beloved. I never saw a drunken man in his district. On Mr. Corser's retirement from the services of the Grand Trunk, he was appointed to a position in the United States customs depart- ment at Portland. 138 Railways and Other Ways. I. S. MILLAR. Mr. Millar, now residing at Montreal, is a son of the *' Em- erald Isle." When I came to Canada in 1853, he was a clerk on the G. T. R. at Longueuil ; shortly afterwards he went to Port- land as freight agent, and when Mr. Roberts left the company, Mr. Millar was appointed to succeed him, as goods manager of the Portland District. He was a man of push, energy and first- class ability. He organized the working of the freight traffic between railways and ocean steamships, and did much towards making the through bonding freight system a successful under- taking. There is not room for every man to reach the top of the tree, but no one was better adapted than Mr. Millar to have taken •a high position on Canadian railways. C. R. CHRISTIE. Mr. Christie, a native of Scotland, was one of the earliest officers on a Canadian railway, viz. : the St. Lawrence & Atlan- tic, before that road formed a portion of the Grand Trunk. He filled the dijBferent offices of freight agent and superintendent of the Island Pond District. On the opening of the road from Toronto to Guelph, Mr. Christie was appointed superintendent of the Western Division, which office he retained for 9 or 10 years. No one worked harder or could have done more to develop the traffic of the country. Mr. C. S. (now Sir Casimir) Gzowski had the highest opinion of his worth, and it was that gentleman who gave Mr. Christie the appointment on the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railway, when he (Sir Casimir) was the Chief Engineer and General Superintendent of that road. In the Annual Report of the Toronto Board of Trade for 1860, its editor, Erastus Wiman, then commercial reporter of the Globe, said : '* We hear of but one opinion as to the efficiency Early Railway and Steamboat O^ers. 139 of Mr. Christie, superintendent of the Western Section, who has done the best that could be done with the resources at his com- mand." In 1864, Mr. Christie went to Montreal to take charge of the freight department there, but immediately after he was taken suddenly sick of heart disease, which caused his death in a few days, much regretted by all the officers and employees of the G. T. K. A tablet to his memory may be seen in Mount Koyal Cemetery at Montreal. J. S. MARTIN. Grand Trunk veterans, now linng, will remember stout, cosy, genial Superintendent Martin. He could not have been taken as belonging to any nationality but that of Old England. He was good looking and, like the far-famed John Gilpin, " carried weight." Mr. Martin was a good tenor singer and a famous mimic, and these advantages, which would have made his fortune on the stage, and his gentlemanly manner, made him a great favourite at social parties, to which he had many invita- tions from the gentry of the cities and towns where he chanced to reside. At one time, I remember, Mr. Martin lived in a nice little cottage near the Don at Toronto, when that sluggish river was a little purer than it is to-day, and when the locality was a rural one, with a few cottages with gardens and flowers in sum- mer time. Sometimes during the midnight hour a locomotive might have been seen quietly making its way from Toronto station towards the Don with a large cloaked figure on board. The newspaper of the day said it was " Superintendent Martin's Don Express," but others said it was no such thing; that it was a spectral locomotive; that they had seen but not heard it; that, like all phantoms, it glided along and made no noise. Mr. Martin married a very estimable lady of Brockville, Ontario. 140 Railways and Other Ways. On his retirement from the G. T. E., after about ten years' service, he returned to England, and his friend. Sir Samuel Morton Peto, got him the appointment of superintendent of the London, Chatham & Dover Eailway,* which he held until his death. DAVID STARK, C. E. General Manager Bidder had the idea that a resident engineer of a railway should at the same time act as superin- tendent, and he appointed Mr. Stark to take charge of both positions on the Montreal & Island Pond Division. Mr. Stark, a careful, shrewd business man, carried on the two departments very successfully for many years. WILLIAM KINGSFORD, C. E. For a short time Mr. Kingsford was Kesident Engineer and Superintendent of the Western Division of the G. T. R., but early retired from it to assume a contract for " Maintenance-of-Way." In 1865 he published a work on " The Canadian Canals : their History and Cost," which contains a large store of valuable information about those great undertakings, the grand pioneers in opening up the country and bringing the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada together. But Mr. Kingsford will be best known and his name handed down to future generations by his great work, " The History of Canada," a work upon which he has been engaged for many years, and six large volumes of which have already been published. In recognition of the liter- ary merits of this work Mr. Kingsford was, a few years ago, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the Uni- ♦ When the Emperor Maximilian was leaving England on his ill-fated journey to Mexico, Mr. Martin conducted him over the London, Chatham & Dover Rail- way. On embarking at Dover, Maximilian presented Mr. Martin with a souvenir of nis respect, which will no doubt be handed down as an heirloom to his descendants. Early Railway and Steamboat Officers. 141 versity of Queen's College, Kingston, conferred on him the hon. degree of LL.D. S. T. WEBSTER. Mr. Webster was station agent at Coaticook, Eastern Town- ships, when the railway opened. He was afterwards appointed as Superintendent of the Montreal & Kingston Division. He was an industrious and hard-working officer ; he almost lived on the cars. There were no sleeping cars in those days, but anyone making a night journey to Toronto at that time and happening to look into the baggage ear would most likely have seen little Webster curled up on an improvised bunk, ready to be called up on any emergency. On leaving the G- T. R., after ten or eleven years' service, Mr. Webster removed to Chicago, and for some years conducted a through booking agency for freight to Europe. THE ALLAN LINE AND GRAND TRUNK THE PIONEERS OF THE NORTH-WEST CARRYING TRADE. The Hudson Bay Company formerly got their supplies of clothing, boots and shoes, teas, gunpowder and other goods, not only for their own officers and men but for their vast trade with the Indians, from London, England, by sailing ship to York Factory on Hudson Bay. One or more vessels arrived there every year, and the coming of the ship was always looked for with great interest and no little anxiety, for its non -arrival was a serious calamity to the inhabitants of the far North land, as it brought not only needed supplies but the news from the old world and letters from dear friends at home. About thirty-four years ago the Allan line and G. T. E. made a contract with the Hudson Bay Company to carry its supplies by steamship from Liverpool to Quebec or Portland, thence by railway to St. Paul, from which point Messrs. Burbank of that city undertook the freighting of the goods by ox-teams and otherwise to Fort Garry, 142 Railways and Other Ways, now Winnipeg. When the merchandise came via York Factory, it came in packages of about one hundred pounds each. This was done as a matter of convenience, the packages having to be car- ried on men's backs over many portages before reaching their final destination at Fort Garry and the other forts and stations of the Hudson Bay Company. The same weight of package was con- tinued when the route was changed, and these pecuHar looking packages were usually regarded with some degree of curiosity as . they were conveyed on the railways. THBOUGH BILLS OF LADING BETWEEN WESTERN STATES AND EUROPE. On my trip with Mr. Eeith hereafter referred to, I suggested to him, as something new to talk about on our visit to western merchants, that we should ventilate the idea of introducing a system of giving through freight bills of lading between western cities and England in connection with the Grand Trunk Railway and the Allan Line of Steamships. This idea we carried out on our visits to merchants at St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, etc., and they were delighted with our proposal ; par- ticularly so were the pork and box meat shippers, for, said some of them : It is just what we have been wanting for years. At present we send our provisions to New York, where they have to remain until shipped by steamer before we can obtain bills of lading, often taking up several weeks. Now by your plan we could get bills of lading here immediately on delivering our freight at the railway depot, and at once make use of them with the bank. Commence your through plan and we will give you our encouragement and support. Mr. Reith left the company on his return from his western trip. I, therefore, explained the matter to Mr. Shanly and he highly approved of the plan, and jointly with the late Sir Hugh .Ulan, a suitable form of through bill of lading for rail and steam- Early Railway and Steamboat Oncers. 143 ship was drawn out, and our western agents instructed to start the system. The first contract was one of " Box Meats " from Cincin- nati to Liverpool, for which a through bill of lading was given by the G. T. E. agents at Cincinnati ; Messrs. Taylor & Brother, Chicago & Milwaukee agents, were the next to give through bills of lading. The first outward through booking was one of crockery for Huntington & Brooks of Cincinnati. For three or four years, the Grand Trunk and Allan line had a monopoly of the through business, and it was the best paying one they ever had. Through billing agencies gradually sprang up as that of J. D. Hayes, who afterwards became secretary of the " Blue Line," and S. T. Webster, who was formerly one of the early superin- tendents of the Grand Trunk Railway. This then is the origin of the through bill of lading system, which has grown to be by far the largest business between the United States, the Dominion of Canada and Great Britain. Every steamship now leaving the Atlantic and St. Lawrence ports is to a great extent loaded with cargo which comes under the through booking system. Shipments of two items during the season of 1891 will give some idea of the immense extent of the through trade, as taken from the Toronto Globe of December, 1891 : TONS. Cheese from the Port of Montreal 40,580 Cheese from Utica and Little Falls, U.S 17,486 BABKELS. Apples from New York, Boston, and Montreal for Liverpool 352,264 GODFREY MACDONALD, OF CHICAGO, East-bound and export-freight agent for the " Nickel Plate Line " at Chicago, who represented the Great Western and other 14 4 Railways and Other Ways. railways at Chicago for many years as European agent, has had more general experience in the shipments of freight on through rail and ocean bills of lading than any other agent in the United States. Mr. Macdonald has, through my old friend, Mr. G. B. Spriggs, kindly furnished me with elaborate statements of freight on through bills of lading, which passed through his agency from the years 1871 to 1879 inclusive. These show the large growth of the through system up to that time, and it has continued to increase yearly ever since. I have only room for the grand totals of tons shipped during the periods named — Chicago to Europe from 1871 to 1875 (five years) : To seaports, in tons. Boston 160, 702 New York 187,794 M„';;L"alf '^'^^^ Baltimore 14,432 Philadelphia 153,891 586,112 Shipment of freight through Michigan Central and Great Western Railways to Europe from April Ist, 1876, March Slst, 1879 ; from Chicago and Milwaukee, 358,562 tons. THE ORIGINATOR OF THROUGH BILLS OF LADING. The following article appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, November 14th, 1859 : " We have already stated the formal opening of the Detroit and Sarnia branch of the Grand Trunk Railway will take place on Monday next, when through trains will leave Detroit direct for Portland, the running time being thirty-six hours. In view of this, and the importance of the direct connection between this city and Detroit, and thence to Portland, Mr, J. Hardman, Early Railtuay and Steamboat Officers. 145 General Ticket Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway, and Mr. M. Pennington, General Freight Manager, arrived in the city yesterday morning for the purpose of making the acquaintance of our business men, and posting them in regard to the advan- tages of the new route in connection with the Montreal and Portland line of steamships. The agents will remain in town imtil Monday. "The great advantfige of this route, to importers, is the facilities which it offers in bringing goods direct from Liverpool to Cincinnati, in bond, with only two transhipments between these two extreme points, or between Liverpool and Chicago and St. Louis. In order that our merchants may know what the cost of direct shipments will be, we give below the rates for three classes of importations from Liverpool to the points named, including wharfage, customs, bonding and all charges except Marine Insurance ; RATES OF FREIGHT VIA PORTLAND. Crockery, Dry Goods, Hardware, Iron in Bars, etc., Per 40 Cubic feet. Per 2,000 lbs. Per 2,000 lbs. From Liverpool to Detroit $21 90 $26 76 916 82 Chicago 24 33 29 20 19 47 Quincy 27 98 34 07 23 12 Galena 2920 3529 25 55 Milwaukee . . 25 55 30 42 25 69 Burlington ... 27 98 34 07 23 12 Dubuque 29 20 35 29 25 55 Cincinnati . . 24 33 29 23 19 47 St. Louis 2r> 76 32 85 21 90 " The agents of the line in Liverpool are authorized to make through contracts direct from Liverpool to Cincinnati, or any of the points named above. When our merchants understand the advantages of the new route, they will, doubtless, avail them- 10 146 Railways and Other Ways. selves of it, in making their importations direct, and with less delay." In concluding these notes on the through bill of lading system, between railways and ocean steamships, first introduced by the author in 1859, he has to remark that, from time to time, more than one individual has sprung up claiming to be father of this very important measure, but the extract from the Cincinnati Enquirer sets aside any such claim ; but, if neces- sary, tariffs in the author's possession, as well as documents in the archives of the Grand Trunk Eailway and the Allan line of steamships, could be produced in verification of his statements. It is only fair that " honour should be given to whom honour is due." ROBERT BELL. Among Canada's early railway pioneers, I must not forget genial, pleasant, humoroas Kobert Bell, manager of the Prescott & Bytown (Ottawa) Eailway, who must have passed through such an ordeal in building a railway as no man in all railway history ever passed through. It would require many chapters to tell the story, but I can only refer to two or three incidents connected with it, as told me by Mr. Bell himself. After getting his track laid within three or four miles of Bytown, he found himself stuck for want of rails ; the P. & B. Company's coffers had long been empty and there was no chance of raising any more funds. Then some of the people of Bytown jeered at Mr. Bell and pointed the finger of scorn at him ; said he had got to ** the end of his tether," and was stuck in the backwoods with his railway without a terminus. This raised the ire of the manager, and, like the emigrant crossing the plains to California in the early days, who, when his waggon broke down, chalked upon it this inscription, " I'll get through or bust," Mr. Bell, inspired by some such feeling, said: '* I'll get through to Bytown yet in Early Railway and Steamboat O^Hcers. 147 spite of 'em." He set to work, secured a lot of timber, and laid a wooden railway for the remainder of the distance, merely putting a strip of hoop-iron on the top of the wooden rails ; and in d short time he entered Bytown on his locomotive in triumph, much to the astonishment of the inhabitants. For a long time Mr. Bell had to labour under a legion of difficulties : he had no funds to draw upon ; the traffic, too, was poor ; the income necessarily very small ; so he had no alternative but that of giving promissary notes in great numbers for sums of five dollars and upwards. These notes became a sort of paper currencj in the district, and were bought and sold at various shades of discount. Then when Mr. Bell moved about he was liable to be met at every street corner by some one holding these " promises to pay," which were often shaken in his face, accompanied by some such words as " pay me what thou owest." In time the traffic on the P. & B. line improved and all the notes were redeemed at par. One winter's day, Mr. Bell ran me up from Prescott to Bytown on a locomotive at 50 miles an hour, and over that wooden track ; and I freely confess that I was mighty glad when we got through in safety without paying a sudden visit into the backwoods. For some years Mr. Bell was a member of Parliament — I think before Confederation — and he was a very useful member, particularly in all matters connected with railway bills and developing the means of transportation throughout the country. The late Robert Bell was a brother of Mr. John Bell, of Belleville, who for more than the third of a century has held the high position of Chief Solicitor for the Grand Trunk Railway Company. 148 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XIII. DIRECTORS AND MANAGERS OF G. T. R. HON. JOHN ROSS, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY. THE name of the Hon. John Ross must always be associated with the organization of the Grand Trunk Railway and the building of the Victoria Bridge. Mr. Ross, the then Governor- General, Lord Elgin, Sir Francis Hincks, Sir Casimir Gzowski, Sir A. T. Gait, Sir Geo. Cartier, Hon. John Young, Hon. James Ferrier, Engineers T. C. Keefer and Walter Shanly, and some others, were the moving spirits in pushing these grand enter- prises, which have done more to advance the interests of Canada, and created more wealth for its people, than all other enterprises combined. The following brief sketch of Mr. Ross' life is, in part, con- densed from Morgan's Celebrated Canadians (1862) ; Mr. Ross was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland, on the 10th March, 1818, and at the tender age of three months embarked at Belfast with his parents for Quebec. Young Ross remained under the care of his uncle, at Brockville, until he was three years of age. His education was derived chiefly from the district school. As a juvenile, young Ross was chiefly remarkable for the ease and expedition with which he dispatched his lessons. At the age of sixteen he became a student-at-law. Upon attaining his majority, in 1839, Mr. Ross was called to the bar, and entered at once upon the business of life. In a short time he became noted as a practitioner in the courts. His Directm^s and Managers of 0. T. B. 149 political career, extending over many years, forms a large chapter in the History of Canada. In 1852 Mr. Ross was sent to England to superintend the completion of the contracts for the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, afterwards holding the office of the first president of the company. With the aid of Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. T. Gait, who was one of the early directors, and others, who were earnest in their desire to promote to the utmost the interests of the country, so far as those were capable of expansion by the comparatively new science of com- prehensive and rapid inter-communication, Mr. Ross took a prominent part in securing the construction of the Victoria Bridge, one of the wonders of the engineering art, and, to the honour of Canada, without a rival in the world. Returning to Canada in 1853, Mr. Ross received the appointment of Attorney- General and, in the following year, he was elected Speaker of the Legislative Council. In 1858 he was appointed Receiver-Gen- eral and, on his resignation of that office, he became, a few days later, in August of the same year. President of the Execu- tive Council, a position which he retained until his retirement from official public life. He continued to be a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada until Confederation, when he was made one of the first Senators of the Dominion. He died January 31st, 1871, in the 53rd year of his age. His life was a comparatively short one, but it was full of enterprise, endeavour and good work. A monument to his memory may be seen in St. James' Cemetery, Toronto ; but his most enduring monument will be found in the great public undertakings with which his name is so intimately associated. THE HON. JAMES FERMER Was born at Fifeshire, in Scotland, in 1800. He came to Montreal in 1821. For a short time he was a clerk in a store, 150 Railways and Other Ways. then entered into business on his own account, and in thirteen years amassed enough of money to retire. A full memoir of the Hon. Jas. Ferrier would be the history of Montreal for a period of sixty years. He was prominent in all works of general public utility, as well as in those of education, charity and religion. He took an active part in the promotion of the pioneer railways in Canada, and was an early President of the Montreal & Cham- plain road, until that line was leased by the Grand Trunk Eailway ; after which he was a director of the latter Company, and held the Chairmanship of the Canadian board until his death, which occurred on May 20th, 1888, when he was close upon eighty-eight years of age. The Hon. James Ferrier was one of the grand men of the age in which he lived, who " Departing leave behind them Footprints on the sands of time." W. A. MERRY. Here it may be well to name another railway pioneer, viz., Mr. Merry, secretary and superintendent of the Montreal & Champlain line, who successfully managed that undertaking for many years. It must be remembered that the Montreal & Champlain and the Lachine Eailways were built on the 4 feet 8^ inch gauge. The writer remembers having many a discussion with Mr. Merry, upon the question of the 4 feet 81 and the 5 feet 6 inch gauges, each defending his own gauge, but after years proved that, in defending his own gauge, Mr. Merry was right, as the 4 feet 8^ inch is now the uniform gauge in the Dominion and the United States. GEORGE REITH. Mr. Reith had had much experience on railways in Scotland as goods and general manager. He came to Canada in 1859, Directors and Managers of G. T. R. 151 mainly through the influence of the Liverpool shareholders of the Grand Trunk Railway. Mr. Reith told the writer that his appointment was that of traffic manager. On his arrival Mr. Walter Shanly resigned his position as General Manager of the G. T. R., and Mr. Reith succeeded him and assumed that title. Mr. Reith was a man of undoubted ability and well conversant with the details of railroad management ; but he came out at a most gloomy period, business of all kinds was dull, the traffic receipts of the G. T. R. were poor, there was a want of rolling stock, and to him, as he said, there seemed no prospect of improvement. In June, 1859, I accompanied Mr. Reith on a tour through the Western States. On reaching Detroit he saw Mr. W. K. Muir, General Superintendent of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway and had some conversation with him about rates of wages, and found that Michigan rates at that time were somewhat lower than those paid in Canada. Mr. Reith then sent a telegram to Assistant General Manager Bailey at Montreal as follows : " Re- duce wages and salaries of all employees ten percent.," and con tinned his trip to the West. I had not the slightest idea of this bombshell message having been sent, although he and I travelled together for a month afterwards and talked about everything that we could think of in connection with the G. T. R., its past history and its future prospects, but he never gave me a hint of that momentous telegram. On our return om- agent at Detroit told me all about the *'ten per cent." telegram, said that the whole staff of the road had been in a high state of fever on account of it, but the Presi- dent, the Hon. John Ross, and the directors had told Mr. Bailey not to carry out Mr. Reith's order. This, of course, ended Mr. Reith's services on the Grand Trunk, and his engagement was compromised by the Company paying him £4,000 sterling. 152 Bailways and Other Ways. I heard that on Mr. Eeith's return home he was appointed to a good position in Glasgow, in connection with the Clyde Trust. On Mr. Keith's retirement from the service of the G. T. E., Mr. Walter Shanly, at the urgent request of the directors and chief officers of the Company, once more assumed the position of General Manager. A TESTIMONIAL. One day Mr. Cheney, of the Express Company, called at the G. T. E. office, Montreal, and informed Assistant General Mana- ger Bailey that a large, strange-looking packing-case had arrived from the United States, addressed to Mr. George Eeith, and would he, Mr. B., come and take a look at it. Mr. B. went and had the case opened, when it was found to contain a monster tin tray with tin goblets to match, in size as large as I have some- times seen used in the play when the King drinks to Hamlet. These were being sent to Mr. Eeith as a testimonial from some of his ironical American friends. Mr. Bailey stopped the delivery of the things to Mr. Eeith, and that gentleman was never informed of the arrival of the Yankee testimonial. The large tin tray might have been seen figuring as a floor protector for a box stove in the Audit Office of the Grand Trunk Kailway for many a day afterwards, while Mr. Bailey stored away the goblets in his museum of relics, to be shown in distant ages as curious souvenirs of the early Grand Trunk. SIR JOSEPH HICKSON. To the few remarks already made in this work in reference to Sir Joseph Hickson, ex-General Manager of the Grand Trunk Eailway, I now add some further details relating to that gentle- man's remarkable and even phenomenal career. Mr. Hickson commenced railway work when a boy in one of the offices of the York, Newcastle & Berwick Eailway, at Directors and Managers of G. T. R. 153 Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1847. He had before this been, for a short time, employed with the great carrying firm of Chaplin, Home & Carver, and, before his engagement with them, with a relative who was doing a large business in transporting traffic along the old "Chevy Chase" road, between England and Scotland. Subsequent to 1847 he went to the Maryport & Car- lisle Eailway as agent at Carlisle. In 1851 he joined the Man- chester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway at Manchester, where he became assistant to the General Manager. While thus en- gaged, Mr. Hickson attracted the notice of Mr. (now Sir) Edward Watkin, then Commissioner, and afterwards President of the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada; a gentleman who has dis- tinguished himself in connection with so many important rail- way and public enterprises, and, as a member of the British Parliament. Mr. Hickson was appointed by him to the position of Chief Accountant of the Grand Trunk in December, 1861, and afterwards became Secretary and Treasurer of the Company. These varied, responsible and important positions Mr. Hickson held, with very satisfactory results, until the resignation of Mr. C. J. Brydges as Managing Director of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1874, when he was appointed to succeed him as General Manager of the system, which position he only resigned in 1890. A history of the Grand Trunk Railway in the interval between these dates would show marvellous extension and improvements. A great part of the line was then of the old gauge, 5 feet 6 inches ; it was all changed in a year or two. The mileage of the road was 1,389 miles ; it ended at Portland on the Atlantic, and at Detroit in the West. Railway after railway was added to the system, which was extended to Chicago in the West, to the great lakes in the North, and through the Central Vermont Rail- road, practically to Boston, in the East The mileage had in- creased to about 4,300 miles, with a controlUng interest in another 154! Railways and Other Ways. 1,000 miles. The revenue had risen from $10,300,000 in 1874 to nearly $25,000,000 in 1890. A large portion of the distance between Hamilton and Montreal, nearly 400 miles, had been laid with a second line of rails, and the groat tunnel under the St. Clair River had, practically, been completed. It is not easy to realize the labour and anxiety which any man charged with the chief responsibility of controlling, operating and conducting the negotiations necessarily carried on, during these sixteen years, in connection with such a vast and constantly expanding system must have undergone. When Sir Joseph Hickson visited England in 1881, under the instructions of the Grand Trunk directors, so highly appre- ciated was his constant and untiring devotion to the interests of the proprietors, that they presented him with gold and silver plate to the value of £2,500 sterling. Sir Joseph was married in 1869 to Catherine, daughter of the late Andrew Dow of Montreal, and they have three sons and three daughters living. Sir Joseph Hickson, notwithstanding his arduous duties for upwards of forty years, was not allowed to altogether rest upon his oars, for in 1892 he was appointed chairman of a royal com- mission on the liquor traffic, which is still pursuing its investi- gations (December, 1893). LEWIS JAMES SEARGEANT. The following extract is taken from the Port Huron Daily Times, Tunnel Opening Edition, September 19th, 1891 : " Mr. L J. Seargeant, who succeeded Sir Joseph Hickson as General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway, was born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, and from an early age has been connected with railways. His English career was associated with the largest of British railway systems, the Great Western, of CALlFOj Directors and Managera of G. T. R. 155 his earliest experience of railway construction and management having been in connection with the South Wales Railway, a Great Western affiliated line, which promoted the development of Milford Haven as an international port, more particularly in connection with American commerce. On the amalgamation of the South Wales with the Great Western Railway Company, Mr. Seargeant was the recipient of a substantial douceur from the proprietors in recognition of his services, and the Great Western Board appointed him Superintendent of the South Wales division. Early, further promotions followed. Mr. Seargeant was appointed chief officer of the South Devon, and subsequently of the Cornwall & West Cornwall Railways, which together constituted a compact system between Exeter and Penzance. Upon Mr. Seargeant devolved the duties of General Manager, Secretary, and Secretary of the Joint Committees of the Great Western, Bristol & Exeter, South Devon & Cornwall Com- panies. He was also official representative of those interests before parliamentary committees. The success of Mr. Sear- geant's management of these properties was evidenced by largely increased dividends. Upon the resignation of his several offices in 1874 to come to Canada, Mr. Seargeant received evidence of the highest consideration and friendship, chief among which was an intrinsically valuable presentation from a large number of directors and officers of the companies with which he was con- nected, and of men serving under him. Mr. Seargeant arrived in Montreal in 1874 to join the staff of the Grand Trunk Company, of which he to-day has the general management, and was appointed to the office of Vice-President of the Executive Council, Sir Joseph (then Mr.) Hickson, being the President. He also became Vice-President of the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway Company and other affiliated lines, while his position on the parent road was that of Traffic Manager, he being the first gen- 156 Railways and Other Ways. tleman to hold such an office on this continent. Mr. Seargeant's services to the Grand Trunk have been many and important. He conducted with marked ability the various arbitrations which secured to that railway a fair share of the through American traffic, and which forms no inconsiderable part of its total business. He was instrumental in forming the ' Central Traffic Association ' of the Western American lines, and has represented the Grand Trunk at meetings of the Board of Presidents in New York in the absence of the late General Manager, Sir Joseph Hickson. Mr. Seargeant, it may be added, is a member of the Vice-Presidents' Committee of the same organization. In his official intercourse with representatives of other trunk lines he has strongly advocated the division of traffic between the rail- ways interested, instead of an insane competition, which can only be hurtful to all concerned, including the public." I may add by way of further testimony to Mr. Seargeant's worth and ability, the following extract from Director Hubbard's address at the annual Grand Trunk meeting, 1892 : " I must say I have not found a director here who is not as anxious as you are to keep expenditure down to the last farthing. We are all of the same mind, yet instead of working together as we ought to do, and instead of creating good feeling amongst ourselves, unpleasant observations are continually made at these meetings. These reports go out verbatim, and they are read by the officials, and discouragement exists because there is no con- fidence placed in those who work for us. Then, with regard to our General Manager, I am told that if you go to Exeter and South Devon they will tell you what they think of Mr. Seargeant. Well, I can tell you what the opinion is. I was chairman of the South Devon Railway — Mr. Seargeant was General Manager when I was there — and the opinion everyone has is, that we have at the head of our road a man thoroughly devoted to its interests v)SW of CAL> fO^ W. WAINWRIGHT. Directors and Managers of G. T. R. 157 and capable of establishing it on a better basis than ever before." WILLIAM WAINWRIGHT. " Mr. Wainwright, a native of England, was born on April 80th, 1840. At eighteen years of age he entered the services of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway as a junior clerk in the chief accountant's office. He was afterwards secre- tary to the general manager of the same line. In 1862 Mr. Wainwright came to Montreal and for a year served as senior clerk in the accountant's office of the Grand Trunk Railway ; then he was appointed secretary to the Managing Director, and in that capacity continued for three years. We next find him filling the office of senior clerk in the managing director's department, and taking charge of the car mileage. Thus passed six years more, and then Mr. Wainwright became General Passenger Agent of the Grand Trunk system. As such he was widely known and gave great satisfaction, as well to his colleagues and superiors as to the public that had dealings with him. He remained in that position for upwards of eight years, until in May, 1881, he received the appointment of Assistant General Manager, the duties of which he still ably discharges. Mr. W. was also General Manager of the North Shore Railway from April, 1883, until the transfer to the Canadian Pacific Railway." I am indebted for the above particulars to Rose's "Canadian Biography." It will thus be seen that Mr. Wainwright has had more than thirty years of steady, uninterrupted service in the Grand Trunk, and has passed with credit through nearly every department of official work, in which he must have acquired a knowledge of railway management equal to that of the most noted men of the kind in any country. 158 Railways and Other Ways. EDMUND WRAGGE. Biographies of Canadian railway managers, particularly those of the G. T. E., since its opening, now forty years ago, would form many interesting volumes, not only of railway history, but of characteristic scenes and sketches of notable events in many lands, and of men who have made their mark in the world during the last half century, a period which will be commemo- rated throughout all time, as one big with great inventions and remarkable discoveries. In illustration of the above observations a brief account of the railway Hfe of Mr. Edmund Wragge, Local Manager of the Grand Trunk Eailway at Toronto, may be given, from which it will be seen that his career has been a very eventful one, full of interest as showing the different positions he has held and the important engineering and other works he has been engaged in for about thirty-eight years in England, the Cape of Good Hope, Costa Kica, and the Dominion of Canada. Mr. Wragge was born in Worcestershire, England, in 1837. He was educated at Kossall. In 1854 he became a pupil of Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co., at their works, Smethwick, near Birmingham. In 1859 he was appointed District Engineer on the Cape Town & Wellington Eailway, Cape of Good Hope, and remained in that position until 1862, when he returned to England. In 1863 he was employed as an Assistant Engi- neer on the London, Chatham & Dover Eailway. In 1864 he was appointed Eesident Engineer in charge of the Victoria and Battersea Improvements, which works were carried out for the London, Chatham & Dover, London, Brighton & South Coast, and London & South Western Eailways by Mr. Wragge, under the late Sir Charles Fox, who was Chief Engineer. These works included the widening of the existing Victoria Directors and Managers of G. T. R. 159 Bridge over the Thames, which was widened from 30 feet to 132 feet 6 inches, being now wide enough for 10 lines of rails, and is, probably, still, the widest bridge in the world for its length, nearly 1,000 feet. In 1867-8 and part of '69 Mr. Wragge was in practice in London as a Civil Engineer, during which time, among other employments, he was Engineer of the Waterloo & "Whitehall Railway, and went to Costa Eica to make a survey of a line of railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific for the Govern- ment of that country. In September, 1869, he arrived in Canada as Chief Engineer of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce and Toronto k Nipissing Railways (his friend Sir Charles Fox, together with his son, now Sir Douglas Fox, being the Consulting Engineer), and in such capacity constructed the line of the former railway from Toronto to Owen Sound, and from Orangeville to Teeswater, a total mile- age of 191 miles, and of the Toronto & Nipissing Railway, 80 miles. After these lines were completed Mr. Wragge was (in 1875) appointed General Manager, as well as Chief Engineer, of the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway. It will be remembered that both of these railways were oi'iginally constructed on the narrow gauge system of 3 ft. 6 in. In 1880-'81 Mr. Wragge changed them to 4 ft. ^ in., to which gauge the Grand Trunk and Great Western had shortly before been changed from their original gauge of 5 ft. 6 in. In 1883 the Toronto, Grey k Bruce was leased to the Ontario & Quebec Railway Company and became a part of the Canadian Pacific system, after which Mr. Wragge was offered and accepted the position of Local Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway Company at Toronto, an office which he has so long and so satisfactorily filled and which he still retains (1894). Mr. Wragge was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of England (M. Inst. C. E.) in January, 1870, 160 Railways and Other Ways. and a member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (M. Can. Soc. C. E.) at its inception in 1887. MAJOR JaMES STEPHENSON. Mr. Stephenson was born in June, 1837, at Lancaster, Eng- land; the following particulars of his eminently successful career I take from Eose's "Canadian Biography" (Ed., 1888), to which very useful work I have already had occasion to acknowledge my indebtedness : " Early in life he came to Canada, and in 1855 he obtained a situation in the British American Telegraph Company, and in the following year, on the amalgamation of that company with the Montreal Telegraph Company, he was offered a position on the Grand Trunk Railway and severed his connection with his former employers. It was at the Don Station, Toronto, that, in 1856, he made his debut in the new calling which was henceforth to be the business of his life. Two months later the G. T. E. was opened between Montreal and Toronto. To have been a railway man at that date makes good his title to the rank of veteran The first duties that were intrusted to Mr. Stephenson were those of Ticket Clerk and Operator, but in 1858 he succeeded to the agency of the station. In 1860 he was appointed Train Despatcher ; in 1862, Divisional Telegraph Superintendent and Agent at Belleville; in 1864, Assistant Superintendent, and in June, 1881, General Passenger Agent. But the promotion of Mr. Stephenson did not stop here, for in July, 1884, the Company recognizing his great ability, he was promoted, to the satisfaction of his colleagues and the public, to the responsible position of General Superintendent which (1888) he still holds. Mr. Stephenson is a true Briton, and was not the man to look on inactive, when in 1866 Canada was the victim of unprovoked attack from the Fenian element of the United States. X^ALlFOJilii^ y^ y:^ ^ ^ /^ ^><^A*> Directors and Managers of G. T. R. 161 He buckled on his armour with thousands of other brave men to meet and repel the invaders. He "was quickly raised to the rank of Captain, and in March, 1867, had earned his majority. In 1871 he retired, retaining his rank. His certificates of qualifi- cation are dated, second class, March, 1867 ; first class, May, 1867. He married on Sep., 1866, Agnes Frances, eldest daughter of the late Captain Richard Arnold of Toronto. In private life Mr. Stephenson is much respected and has many friends." Since the above was written Mr. Stephenson has been still further promoted ; in April, 1892, he was appointed General Superintendent of the whole of the Grand Trunk system of rail- ways in Canada and that portion in the United States nor^h of the St. Clair and Niagara rivers, the length of territory under his supervision being 3,350 miles. It is a question whether any one railway superintendent in the world has such an extended length of road under his command as Major Stephenson. Director Hubbard in his speech at the Annual Meeting of the Grand Trunk Railway, 1892, from which I have already quoted, made the following well-deserved references to Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Wallis, another efficient officer of the Company : " I am sorry to hear such remarks as have been made at this meeting in relation to our officers that we have met in Canada, and who deserve your confidence. One gentleman says our affairs have been grossly mismanaged. Now, I am sure of this, that I knew none of the officers, except the General Manager, until I went out there, but I can speak of all the offi- cers you have in Canada in the highest terms. We have Mr. Stephenson, Superintendent of the line, who has undertaken additional duties, a gentleman occupying a position of great responsibility, who discharges his work well and in the interest of the Company. Then there is Mr. Wallis, Mechanical Super- intendent, who has our interest at heart, and when we met and 11 162 Railways and Other Ways. considered how could we reduce the expenditure, he frankly met us and suggested everything in his power." Mr. Stephenson, like myself, is a native of the quaint old historic town of Lancaster,* with its massive and time-honoured castle. Nothing can be more imposing than the aspect which the fine old memorial of feudal power and baronial magnificence presents to the stranger as he ascends the slope which leads from the principal thoroughfare of the town direct to the frown- ing gateway of the hoary castle, over which stands the statue of "Old John o'Gaunt — Time-honoured Lancaster." Charles Dickens, in his story of " The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices," imagines a bridal chamber in the King's Arms Hotel, Lancaster, and says: " 'I have heard there is a good old inn at Lancaster, established in a good old house : an inn where they give you bride-cake every day after dinner,' said Thomas Idle. 'Let us eat bride-cake without the trouble of being married, or of knowing anybody in that ridiculous dilemma.' Mr, Good- child, with a lover's sigh, assented. Mr. Goodchild concedes Lancaster to be a pleasant place — a place dropped in the midst of a charming landscape — a place with a fine ancient fragment of a castle — a place of lovely walks — a place possessing staid old houses richly fitted with old Honduras mahogany." Here then, at this old town, Mr. Stephenson and I, though at long periods apart, passed our boyhood days and had many a pleasant ramble on the banks of the bonny river Lune, catch- ing sea crabs on its shores, or having a duck in its briny flood when the tide came in. * Sir Richard Owen, the greatest living authority on Comparative Anatomy, was a native of Lancaster. I remember attending a lecture of Sir Richard's, when from a single fossil bone dug up in some country^ he chalked upon a blackboard the gigantic bird, the " Dinornis," fifteen feet in height, which once stalked the earth. Directors and Managers of 0. T. R. 168 It would be hard to find any country in the world where the hardy sons and daughters of Lancashire have not their repre- sentatives. A VICE-ROYAL LANCASHIRE RECEPTION. Shortly after the late Governor-General of this Dominion, Lord Stanley of Preston,* came to Canada, he and Lady Stanley, by request, gave a reception at Alderman Hallam's-f* residence, Toronto, to the " Lads and Lasses of Lacashire," and many were the greetings and in various dialects spoken, for in Lanca- shire the dialects dififer considerably at points twenty to thirty miles apart. Selections from Tim Bobbin, Edward Waugh and other writers were freely quoted. The reception was strictly a temperance one, but a jollier set of Lancashire " folk " never met together. * Now the Earl of Derby. t Alderman Hallam was bom at Chorley, near Preston, Lancashire, England, in 1833. He passed much of his early youthful days in Preston. It may fairly be said of him that he was his own educator. He came to Canada in I806, and after some years of hard work he entered into business on his own account, and by pluck, steadiness and perseverance was eminently successful, and to-day the Alderman controls the largest trade in hides and wool in Toronto. The citizens must ever be under a debt of gratitude to Alderman Hallam for his philanthropic work as the founder of Toronto's Free Library, to which he has been a Urge contributor of books. 164 Raihvays and Other Ways. CHAPTER XIV. AUDIT OFFICE— THOS. BELL, W. J. SPICER, E. P. HANNAFORD. AUDIT OFFICE. ONE unfamiliar with the routine of railway work can have but a faint idea of the magnitude of the audit business con- nected with the Grand Trunk Railway. The kind of work is very similar to that of the English Railway Clearing House already referred to in this book. The vast number of documents in connection with the freight and passenger departments com- ing in daily would be enough to bewilder the most ingenious as to the ways and means of distributing them among the officers and clerks, so as to bring the greatest order out of an apparent disorder. The G. T. R. Audit Department does not admit of passing over errors however trifling — the accounts must be absolutely correct. Once deviate from this principle and there would be an end to all discipline and to correctness in book- keeping. A travelling auditor once told me that on examining the books at a small country station, he found a shortage of five cents in balancing up. The agen t, a new man, said : " Oh, that is easily made right," put his hand into his pocket and hauled out five cents, which he handed to the auditor, saying: " There, that squares us up." But the auditor explained that that was not the way the Audit Department conducted its business. When it is considered that the Audit Department has to keep separate accounts for each leased line — audit, scrutinize and reduce to a focus the returns from upwards of five hundred Audit O^Hce. * 165 local stations ; check and keep track of the business of freight and passengers between the Grand Trunk and foreign roads, as well as ocean steamships, with a thousand other things, it will be seen that the work assumes tremendous proportions, such, one would think, as to deter an accountant, however skilled, from attempting to grapple with so formidable a task. J. FRED. WALKER, TRAFFIC AUDITOR, and his industrious stsiff, consisting of one hundred and fifty officers and clerks, including many ladies, by division of labour and reducing the complicated work to a complete system, matured only through long years of experience, are able to bring order out of chaos, and to present to the management, directors and shareholders every half year, a concise statement in dollars and cents of the traffic over the great Canadian iron road, which the most unprofessional can easily understand and appreciate ( Oct- 1892 ). OBITUARY. It is with much pain and sorrow that I have to chronicle the death of Mr. J. F. Walker, on the 'ilst May, 1893, after a very short illness, much regretted by his numerous friends and railway associates throughout the Dominion, as well as by the whole body of Canadian Masons, of whom five hundred accom- panied his remains to their last resting place in Mount Royal Cemetery. A brother Mason, speaking of Mr. Walker, says : '* He was prominent in Masonic circles, occupying high positions in the various bodies, in every case, I believe, by the unanimous vote of his brethren." Mr. Walker was born in Brantford, Ont., in 1842. He joined the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway Stores Department 166 Railways and Other Ways. under Mr. James McMillan (now Senator of Michigan), in 1858, went to the Grand Trunk Eailway Stores in May, 1862, and took the position of Assistant Auditor in Montreal in 1874, and that of Traffic Auditor of the G. T. R. in 1887. It will thus be seen that Mr. Walker entered the railway service when a boy of sixteen, and continued in it until his death, a period of thirty- five years. CURIOUS BLUNDERS IN THE ACCOUNTS OF EARLY RAILWAYS. Before the existence of the English Railway Clearing House, the system of keeping accounts between one company and another was in a somewhat crude state ; railway book-keeping was new ; accountants and auditors were not always up to the mark, and some curious and rather serious blunders took place. I may mention one which came under my notice : Railway A and Railway B sent goods over each other's line and settled up their accounts monthly. B, in due course, sent an account to A; the lat- ter on examining it found that certain "back charges," or "paid outs," which should be debited to A were so charged in the first instance, but by some curious process, the details of which I cannot now remember, the accountant of B again deducted the amounts from A's account, thus cancelling the transaction. This was pointed out to the secretary of A line, who chuckled, and said: "Let B find it out; in the meantime, as our road is poor, we williiold on to the money and keep a credit account open of the moneys in favour of B in our books." The morality of this transaction needs no comment. The blunder went on for two or three years, by which time the total amount had reached a very large sum, when B line leased A line, and the accountant of the former came down to overhaul the latter's books. On com- ing to the credit account in favour of B, he exclaimed: " What's Audit Oj(fice. 167 this ? " The cat, so to speak, was then let out of the bag. B's accountant quietly passed the amount over to his company and said never a word. THOMAS BELL, OF LEAMINGTON, ENGLAND. Mr. Bell commenced his railway career as audit clerk on the North Union Railway (now the London & North -Western) at Preston, Lancashire. I was a clerk in the goods office at the same station from 1838 to 1840. Mr. Bell was born at Dumfries, in the south of Scotland. In a letter to me, dated November, 1892, he says : " When a youth of nineteen years of age, I came to Preston and entered the service of the N. U. R. Part of my duties as audit clerk was to check over passengers' soft paper tickets. At that time (1844) Edmondson's card system of tickets had not come into general use, and passengers had to give their names, which were written on the paper tickets. The names of most of the gentlemen travellers were either ' Smith ' or ' Snooks.' These I had to enter in elaborate books at a great expense of stationery." Mr. Bell came to Canada in 1854, and for a time was a clerk in the Grand Trunk Railway Audit Office at Montreal. He had not been there long before he was attacked by that terrible disease, the cholera ; and he has always had a grateful word for those " Angels of Mercy," the Nuns of Montreal, who attended him faithfully and pulled him through during his terrible sick- ness. Mr. Bell next removed to Hamilton and passed through various grades of office in the Great Western Railway there, until Mr. C. J. Brydges gave him the important post of General Freight Agent, Mr. Bell being the first who bore that title on the Great Western Railway. This office he held for many years. Sometime after Mr. Swinyard became General Manager of that line he made Mr. Bell Treasurer for the Company, and finally 168 Railway 8 and Other Ways. he was appointed General Superintendent of the Detroit & Mil- waukee Railway, which position he retained until the year 1872, when he resigned and returned to England. He and Mrs. Bell spent the next four years in wandering at their leisure through Europe, visiting all points of interest there. In 1876 Mr. Bell settled down amid the charming rural scenery of Lillington, then a suburb of Leamington, in a country brimful of historic interest, and not far from the great poet's birthplace, Stratford- on-Avon. Mr. Bell has made himself useful in the local govern- ment of Lillington, and taken a praiseworthy part in the advancement of its educational institutions. Mr. and Mrs. Bell are fond of horticulture and bees, in which they have found a pleasing occupation, and here eighteen years of their lives have glided serenely by. In a letter, dated February 18th, 1890, Mr. Bell says : "We live in a delightful part of the country ; it is not hilly, but undu- lating, with splendid roads, and I can assure you I make good use of them, being fond of both riding and driving." Further he says : " Recalling old times, I sometimes wonder what changes have taken place in the Canadian freight classification wrought by yourself, A. Fell, of the Bufifalo & Lake Huron, and myself. There has recently been a great stir and fuss in this country (England) about the classification, rates, terminal charges, etc., and the board of trade authorities have their hands full. But I am happy to think I am out of it all ; and instead of tariffs and special rates, I have my plants and bees and happy home to absorb my thoughts and time." Referring to the deaths of old G. T. R. and G. W. R. officers, such as Chas. Crookall, F. Broughton, C. J. Brydges and P. S. Stevenson, Mr. Bell says : " You say truly enough we are often reminded by the sudden death of friends that we too have to follow them and should try to be ready. There is not a day that passes without some circumstance happening that reminds me Avdit OjUce. 169 of my age and liability to be called hence. None of as know how soon the dread summons may come, and your quotation, ' Be ye also ready,' is appropriate to all of us, young and old." W. J. 8PICER, GENERAL MANAGER. The record of many Grand Trunk and old Great Western Railway officers is so good, and so many of them have risen from office boys up to the highest position of railway rank that, in speaking of their gradual rise, one can hardly avoid the repetition of terms, owing to the similarity of their careers. In describing the career of any one individual, the same remarks are almost equally applicable to the rest. In introducing another railway manager, to whom the above observations will in particular apply, Mr. W. J. Spicer, I do so with very great pleasure, having watched his upward progress for very many years. His life is an example of what steady conduct and perseverance will do for a man, and one which any young man would do well to imitate. Mr. Spicer, on leaving school, commenced as a junior clerk with Chaplin & Home, the old and noted English carriers, in London. Afterwards he joined the Goods Department of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. In 1854 he left to join the Great Western Railway in Canada, his connection with that company dating from November of the same year, first serving as agent at Suspension Bridge, then at Hamilton, and still later at Detroit, where he held the position of joint agent of the Great Western and Detroit & Milwaukee Railways until 1860, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Great Western by Managing Director Brydges. In 1862 he went to Montreal with Mr. Brydges as Super- intendent of the Grand Trunk, and afterwards had charge as 170 Railways and Other Ways. General Superintendent of the entire line until 1884, when he was appointed General Manager of the Chicago & Grand Trunk, the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Eailways, and of the entire system of the Grand Trunk Eailway Company's affiliated lines west of the St. Clair Eiver, which position he still occupies. It will thus be seen that Mr. Spicer's railway advancement has been unique, and that it embraces a period of forty years. When Mr. Spicer was on the Canadian Grand Trunk he took a prominent part, by precept and example, in inculcating habits of strict temperance among the employees, a valuable factor in the safe working of a railway; and no doubt Mr. Spicer's exertions were amply rewarded in the improved steadi- ness and good conduct of those under his charge. E. p. HANNAFORD, C. E. Of the early staff of Grand Trunk officers, I notice with pleasure the name of E. P. Hannaford, now Engineer in Chief. My memory turns back to 1857, when I first saw Mr. Hannaford, who had then just arrived from England. Thirty-five years, of course, has made a difference, but he is still comparatively a young man and full of vigour, and the work he has done for the Company speaks of his ability. In 1872, '73 and '74 he narrowed the gauge of the road from 5 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 8^ inches, without detaining any train more than a few hours. This great work was accomplished by personal supervision and a system so thorough that no other instance has been recorded of a distance of four hundred and twenty miles of main line having been changed in its gauge within eight hours, as was done between Montreal and Stratford ; and in the district east of Montreal the work was as quickly and successfully performed. V^ Of THE of RtiJ E. P. HANNAFORD. AvAiit 0^. 171 Mr. Hannaford was also the Chief Engineer of the Interna- tional Bridge across the Niagara Eiver, between Buffalo in the State of New York, and Fort Erie in the Dominion of Canada. This is the only bridge that has ever been constructed with piers founded in that river, and its success financially and as an engineering achievement has been a matter of general congra - tulation. Mr. Hannaford entered the service of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1857, being employed for a short time by the con- tractors in the work of construction. In 1858 he joined the permanent staff of the Company and worked his way, without influence, to the head of the Engineering Department. His early associations are connected with such men as the ate Mr. William Froude, and he had many years of field-work and engineering construction before he came to this country. 172 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTER XV. THE ST. CLAIR TUNNEL. The St. Clair, at Sarnia, is the most fickle of all rivers, the strength and action of its current always varying, being entirely dependent upon which way the w^ind blows. Sometimes its waters rush with great fury towards Lake Erie — anon it stands still, losing all its characteristics of a river and becoming appar- ently an inlet of Lake Huron ; then, when a strong wind blows from the south, its waters turn back and make for the great lake as if loth to leave the place whence they had come. As far back as 1859 the author, then at Montreal, remembers receiving some such telegram as the following from George Holmes, agent at Point Edward, Sarnia: "A great blow from the north — an ice jam — river impassable." This kind of trouble in winter has continued more or less ever since, causing much obstruction to the traffic of the Grand Trunk Railway at that point. I have already alluded to the late Vice-President Blackwell's experiments with the " Flying Ferry " at Point Edward. Little did that gentleman dream that in the year '91, flying ferries, steam tugs and car barges would no longer be required ; that a gigantic and marvellous piece of engineering work would be accomplished in tunnelling under the great St. Clair River, and thus uniting the Dominion of Canada, at Sarnia, by a real " underground road," with the United States, at Fort Huron in the State of Michigan, and enabling the Grand Trunk Railway to run its cars on dry ground tlirough to Chicago without any break or interruption. ST. CLAIK TUNNEL. CROSS SECTION VIEW SHOWING STRATA AND CONSTRUCTION. The St. Clair Tunnel. 173 When it is considered that the river St. Clair in its deepest spot is forty feet, and its width about half a mile, and that it forms the channel through which the great lakes, Hui'on, Michigan and Superior, empty their sur- plus waters into Lake Erie, it will be seen that the undertak- ing of boring and constructing a tunnel under this mighty river was one of immense magnitude, and that its successful com- pletion confers on Mr. Joseph Hobson, its chief engineer, a well- earned and permanent niche in the temple of fame ; while it will at the same time be a lasting monument to President Sir Henry W. Tyler, ex-General Manager Sir Joseph Hickson and others, who inaugurated and provided the means for carrying out a work of such incalculable value to both countries. The tunnel proper is 6,026 feet in length, and, including the approaches, 11,553 feet. The time of construction was a little over two yeai'S, and it cost in the neighbourhood of $2,700,000. The following item, culled from a local paper, will throw some light on how the financing for the work was accomplished : " One of the largest mortgages ever placed on record in Michigan was recorded in Port Huron on August 26th, 1890. It amounted to $2,500,000, and was given by the St. Clair Tunnel Company to E. W. Meddaugh and Lewis James Seargeant, as trustees, to secure bonds, running fifty years and bearing five per cent, annual interest, to build yards, engine-houses, etc. This mort- gage covers all the property of the Company on both sides of the St. Clair River, and contains a provision that rents and tolls may be collected by the Grand Trunk from other railways using the tunnel." The tunnel was open for freight traffic on October 27th, and for passenger traffic, December 7th, 1891, 174 Railways and Other Ways. JOSEPH HOBSON, C. E. During my long connection with the Great Western Rail- way I had the pleasure of seeing much of Mr. Hobson, and al- ways found him an obliging and unassuming gentleman, ever ready to listen to the wants of the freight management, which were no doubt very numerous, but he always met one's wishes to the best of his ability. Mr. Hobson is a Canadian by birth, having been born near Guelph, Ont. He was Resident Engineer for the International Bridge across the Niagara River at Black Rock, Buffalo. His railway experience runs over a period of about thirty years, say from 1862, mainly in connection with the old G. W. R. and G. T. R., and for many years as Chief Engineer on the Western Division, in which he still continues. The Grand Trunk Railway Company may fairly claim that its connections, between the east and west sides of the St. Clair, Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers, are made by four construc- tions of engineering skill vaster and grander than those of any other railway company in the world, viz.: The Victoria Tubular Bridge, the Niagara Cable Suspension Bridge, the International Bridge and the St. Clair Tunnel. SIR HENRY TYLER. The following particulars are taken from the Port Huron Daily Times tunnel opening edition, Sept. 19, 1891 : " Sir Henry Tyler, as President of the Grand Trunk, was the chief promoter of the great St. Clair River Tunnel. In Merrie England, Sir Henry's home and native land, he has been closely connected with great railway and engineering undertakings, and has been employed to report on various continental and colonial systems of railway. He was specially employed to inspect the railway ports of Italy, and to report on the best means of eastern ^' OF THE 'IVER-SITV OF The St. Clair Tunnel. 175 communication, and on his report the Brindisi route to India was adopted. As Chairman of the English Channel Tunnel Commission, he signed with his colleagues a formal convention in 1874, between the English and French governments, for build- ing a tunnel under the Straits of Dover, connecting France with England. Sir Henry was a Captain of the Royal Engi- neers, and was for years a government inspector of railways in England. He was knighted for his distinguished services, and is altogether a remarkable man and a worthy successor in the long line of great English inventors, discoverers and engineers that have done so much for England's greatness. " Sir Henry Whatley Tyler, eldest son of the late John Chat- field Tyler, Esq., born, 18*27 ; married, 1852, Margaret, daughter of General Sir Charles Pasley, K.CB.,R.E.; was educated at the Military Academy, Woolwich ; entered the Eoyal Engineers as Lieutenant, December, 1844 ; became Captain, 1853 ; retired, 1867 ; appointed Inspector of Railways (Board of Trade), 1853 : Chief Inspector, 1870 ; retired, 1877 ; was M. P. for Harwich, April, 1880, to November, 1885, since when he has represented Great Yarmouth ; is President Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Residence, Pymmes Pai-k, Edmonton." The following account of the banquet at Sarnia to celebrate the formal opening of the tunnel is condensed from the special cor- respondence of the Montreal Witness, September 23rd, 1891 : " On Saturday the guests were assembled at Sarnia to celebrate the completion and opening of a work that has cost the Company only a little less anxiety than did the great tubular Victoria Bridge which now turns its frowning piers and abutments stern- ly and triumphantly against the sweeping waters of the St.- Lawrence. The railway's condition is more hopeful financially to-day than it was then. Its earning power is greater, and its prospects are more hopeful. 176 Railways and Other Ways. "As each train passed through Sarnia, there were dropped one or two invited personages, and the guests swelled up to 270 when the festivity was at its height, that number having sat down to the banquet. It was a gathering of gentlemen expected to represent the commerce of Canada and of the United States. Hon. Mr. Eoss, for Ontario, and Hon. Frank Smith and Hon. Mr. Vidal, representing the Parliament of Canada, were present. Mr. Seargeant, General Manager, Mr. James Stephenson, Mr. Hannaford, Mr. Herbert Wallis, Mr. Edgar, Mr. Spicer, and others of the G.T.E. staff ably assisted Sir Henry Tyler in the recep- tion of the guests, while Mr. J. J. Lanning, Mr. Seargeant's private secretary, was the presiding genius of the banquetting arrangements. "It was inspiring to meet men from all sections of the northern and central parts of North America, to reflect upon the smiling farms and orchards through which the fast train of the Grand Trunk Railway had been running, and which in the memory of many present had been changed by the Grand Trunk Railway and other commercial aids from the trackless forest to the track- covered checkerboard of farms and gardens, with some tall chimneys of manufactories between. " It was inspiring, too, to reflect that a Canadian engineer, Mr. Joseph Hobson, had completed this tunnel. Mr. Hobson, by the way, is one who, to quote Sir Henry Tyler, had ' never been outside of Canada to profit by the advantages and educa- tion ' which Sir Henry appeared to think could not be had in Canada, a Dominion, however, from which the Shanlys went forth to complete the great Hoosac tunnel for the people of Massachusetts, and among whose sons are engineers who have proved themselves to possess the very first merit. Standing on the Canadian side the British guests mingled with the Americans, and both parties looked across the water to the United States V^ OF THE OF . The St. Clair Tunnel. 177 side. It is a surging, rushing stream ; but there was no difference in the appearance of the waters — practically no difference, either in the appearance of the men of both nations, either in dress, manners, or language, except that there was here and there a German or a French accent, a deep nasal, a touch of Doric, or a bit of Tipperary brogue to mark the origin. Mr. W. Kennedy, Harbour Engineer, and Mr. F. B. McNamee of Montreal were added to the guests, and Mr. Reeves, the Grand Trunk's Chicago champion, was there in the first person singular, and received very hearty welcome from his Montreal friends, as did also Mr. ForteouS of the Central Vermont, whose greetings were numerous and hearty. Sir Henry Tyler proposed ' The Gover- nor of the State of Michigan,' a toast heartily honoured. He said that the Grand Trunk Railway ran through seven States of the Union, and while they entertained the most friendly feel- ings for all, still the State of Michigan owned one-half of the tunnel and he trusted that their relations would be entirely harmonious. He thanked them for their courteous treatment of the Grand Trunk and the friendly manner in which they had feted him on the previous "fevenings. "Governor Winans responded and gave a brief resume of the State of Michigan, which, he said, he had watched for the past fifty years. From a wild territory it had advanced to the proud position of the ninth in the forty-four States in point of wealth and population, and was undoubtedly destined to take a yet higher rank ere long. He hoped the tunnel now opened between Canada and his own State would be an harbinger of peace which would for ever continue. He hoped the only weapon used between the two would be ' the steel of the railway road.' He concluded by proposing the toast, ' Success to the Grand Trunk Railway and St. Clair Tunnel Companies and Sir Henry Tyler," to which Sir Henry replied. 12 178 Railways and Other Ways. " Sir Henry Tyler, in his response, said that the St. Clair Tunnel Kailway, hardly three miles long, and costing about $2,500,000, was no very gigantic operation, but looked very small as one means of communication between the 14,000 miles of railway in Canada, costing $800,000,000, and the 165,000 miles of railway in the United States, costing $9,000,000,000. But it was the first example of a tunnel 20 feet in diameter, so constructed to carry a railway under a river on this continent or elsewhere, and as such, it was likely to be followed in other localities. Sir Henry proceeded: 'While I was considering these questions from time to time. Sir Joseph Hickson forwarded to us in London a survey of the river by Mr. Walter Shanly, and on seeing it I at once realized that the position of the present tunnel was one that could best be utilized. Firstly, there was clay at the bottom, and on both sides of the river. Secondly, the width and depth of the river were moderate. Third- ly, it was the point where the Sarnia branch of the Grand Trunk Eailway and the Chicago & Grand Trunk come to opposite sides of the river. I remembered Mr. Peter Barlow's smaller tunnel under the Thames, constructed for ^620,000 — through clay — 84 years ago, and the same principle of the shield had been employed in America, and was again being applied under the Thames, for a tunnel ten feet in diameter. The Grand Trunk board approved of the construction of a tunnel in this locality, and I suggested to Sir Joseph Hickson the employment of Mr. Hobson as the engineer.' "Sir Henry then went into a history of the tunnel difficulties, and told how hard the work had been, ending by proposing the health of Mr. Hobson. The applause with which this toast was received made the rafters ring. " Mr. Hobson modestly responded, and called upon Mr. Murphy, his assistant, who also said a few words." ^' Of THE Of ^^ i2I^L^ ROCK SECTIONAL VIEW FULL LENGTH OF TUNNEL. TUNNEL ENGINE EMERGING FROM PORTAL. The St. Clair Tunnel. 179 The following interesting sketches of the varied railway careers of Messrs. Wright, Percy and Lanning are mainly taken from the Toronto Mail, of March 20, 1894, and I have great pleasure in giving them a place in these records of Grand Trunk Eailway prominent officials. ROBEBT WRIGHT. " Mr. Robert Wright, the Treasurer of the Grand Trunk Rail- way, has placed his resignation in the hands of the General Mana- ger of the Company. Mr. Wright's health, under pressure of his arduous duties, broke down at the end of last summer, and he was forced for some months to seek a rest on the other side of the Atlantic. Not finding that speedy relief and improvement that he expected, he has returned to Canada with the object of set- tling his personal affairs and closing up his official duties. Mr. Wright was born at Darlington, England, on November 5th, 1843. He entered the railway service in 1858 as a junior clerk in the accountant's office of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. In 1860 he received an appointment in the office of the assistant general manager of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Eailway. In January, 18G2, he entered the service of the Grand Trunk Company in the London office, and in a short time after his appointment was sent to the office of the Secretary and Treasurer of the Company in Canada. On the 1st of January,. 1878, he was appointed Treasurer of the Grand Trunk Railway. In addition to this office, he held that of Secretary and Treasm-er of the Chicago, Detroit, and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railway, International Bridge, Montreal and Cham- plain Junction, Michigan Air Line, and Jacques Carter Union Railway Company. Mr. Wright gained for himself the reputa- tion of being a hard-working and painstaking officer, thoroughly honourable and straightforward in all matters. It is the wish 180 Railways and Other Ways. of bis many friends that he may in a very short time be restored to his usual good health." Of Mr. Wright, it may be said, he was born in a railway atmosphere and made his first start on the old historic road of George Stephenson, the Stockton & Darlington — the first railway in the world. CHAELES PERCY. Mr. Chas. Percy, assistant to the General Manager, has been appointed to the position of Treasurer. He was born at Greenwich, in the County of Kent, England, in the year 1845. The first fifteen years of his business life were spent at the railway clearing house, London. The latter four, in the office of the secretary to an association for the regulation of traffic between England and Scotland, led to his selection in 1875 as Treasurer of the Great Western Eailway of Canada, whence the bondholders of the Midland Eailway of Canada, whose afifairs were very much involved, secured his services. He was thereafter charged with the management of that pro- perty, but owing to its weak financial position it then escaped the control of the interests he represented. At that period, 1878, the Grand Trunk Company was acquiring its route to Chicago, and Mr. Percy was nominated as Secretary and Treasurer of the five railway companies soon after consoli- dated, and now known as the Chicago & Grand Trunk Eailway. Consequent upon the fusion of the Great Western with the Grand Trunk Eailway, Mr. Percy was transferred in 1885 to Montreal, continuing the Secretaryship, to which office soon after was added the more arduous one he has up to this date filled. Mr. Percy continues in office for the Chicago & Grand Trunk and other western lines, and as a Director or as the Secretary and Treasurer attends to Grand Trunk interests in the International Bridge, the St. Clair Tunnel andother affiliations. The St. Clair Tunnel. 181 Like other Englishmen he further identified himself with his adopted country by marriage, and his alliance with Miss Meredith, daughter of the late Henry Howard Meredith, of Port Hope, connected him with one of the best known families in Canada. Mr. Percy is a very popular official, courteous and affable, and no better choice for Treasurer could have been made. JOSEPH JOHN LANNING. " Mr. Joseph John Lanning succeeds Mr. Percy as assistant to the General Manager of the Grand Trunk Eailway. Mr. Lanning was born in Templemore, Ireland, on the 3rd June, 1852. He was educated at Great Yarmouth and Carlisle, England, and at Dundalk, Ireland. On his amval in Montreal in June, 1868, he obtained employment with the firm of Wm. Hiam & Bros., in Lemoine street. In the October following he entered the service of the Grand Trunk Eailway Company, as junior clerk in the store department. Having rapidly acquired a knowledge of shorthand, and his service being considered more valuable, he was transferred in November, 1870, to the office of the late C. J. Brydges, then Managing Director ; so he has been over 23 years in the executive office of the Company, in this country, thus gain- ing an experience which thoroughly qualifies him for the position to which he has just been appointed. He is an expert shorthand writer, and has — as may readily be supposed — a thorough know- ledge of railway operations. Mr. Lanning, as private secretary, has for the last 17 years invariably accompanied the President and General Manager in their many trips over the line, and is well known to all the employees of the system between Portland, Quebec and Chicago. It is no exaggeration to say that next to the General Manager and Traffic Manager, no officer of the Com- pany has during that period had a more intimate knowledge of 182 Raihvays and Other Ways. the policy of the Board of Management than Mr. Lanning. His promotion will be a source of satisfaction to his numerous friends in the Grand Trunk and out of it. Mr. Lanning is a Justice of the Peace for the city and district of Montreal." SAMUEL R. CALLAWAY. It must strike the most casual reader who peruses this work, that nearly every individual sketched in its pages has risen to his present high position from the ranks, and has, so to speak, been the builder of his own fortune. The creation of railways in all countries has given fine oppor- tunity for bringing out and fully developing the latent energies, and mental qualities of young men, each in his own particular profession. In illustration of the above remarks, I give a brief memoir of the railway life of Mr. S. K. Callaway, who was born December 24th, 1850. In 1863 he entered the office of Mr. (now Sir Joseph) Hickson, then Chief Accountant of the Grand Trunk Railway at Montreal, as office-boy at a salary of $100 per annum. In 1865 he went as Secretary and stenographer to Mr. Gilman Cheney, Manager of the Canadian Express Company, and left there in 1865) to enter the service of the Great Western Railway of Canada under Mr. W. Wallace, Superintendent at London, and was sub- sequently Private Secretary to W. K. Muir, at Hamilton. Mr. Callaway retired to enter the service of the Detroit & Mil- waukee, of which railroad he was Superintendent from 1875 to 1878. Upon the absorption of the D. & M. R. by the Great Western, Mr. Callaway was appointed General Super- intendent of the Detroit & Bay City Railway, and in 1880 General Manager of the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway and President of the Western Indiana Railways. Still higher honours waited him, for we find that in the spring of 1884 Mr. Callaway was offered and accepted the ^ OF THE UNIVERSITY J The St. Clair Tunnel. 183 Vice-Presidency and General Management of the Union Pacific Eailway and allied lines of nearly 6,000 miles. In 1887 he was elected President of the Toledo, St. Louis <fe Kansas City Eailway, which position he now holds. Mr. Callaway thoughtfully and very kindly says : " One of the most interesting features in my career has been the friendship and confidence of Sir Joseph Hickson. In 1863 I was office boy at $100 a year. Mr. Hickson predicted a suc- cessful career for the boy and promised to keep an eye on him. This promise was more than fulfilled seventeen years later, when Sir Joseph offered me, then a young man of but 27 years of age, the General Management of the Chicago «i- Grand Trunk Railway, of which he (Sir Joseph Hickson) was President." 184 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEE XVI. GENERAL FREIGHT AGENTS (GOODS MANAGERS). " No castle is theirs, no palace great, No princely pillared hall ; • But thjy well can laugh at the roofs of State, 'Neath the heaven which is over all. Each bares the arm for the ringing strife, That marshals the sons of soil. And the sweat drops in the battle of life Are gems to the crown of toil." WHEN the late Mr. C. J. Brydges left the services of the Great Western Eailway, in 1862, to accept the position of Managing Director of the Grand Trunk Eailway, he appoint- ed several of the old G. W. E. officers to places of importance on the G. T. E., and this necessitated the retirement of many the old G. T. E. staff, who had served the Company for nine or ten years. The author left the G. T. E. in 1863, and was succeed- ed by Mr. F. Stratton, who had previously held positions of trust on the G. W. E. for many years. Mr. S., as the second general freight agent, did not remain long, but went west to hold a similar office on a Western Eoad. After leaving the Grand Trunk, Mr. Swinyard appointed the author as agent for the Great Western at Montreal, and subsequently Assistant General Freight Agent for that line, with headquarters at Hamilton. This post the author held for about fifteen years. General Freight Agents. 185 p. 8. STEVENSON. Mr. Stevenson commenced his railway career as agent on the Great Western Eaihvay at Hamilton wharf, about 34 years ago. When Mr. Brydges became Managing Director of the Grand Trunk, he appointed Mr. Stevenson to the freight agency at Mont- real, and shortly afterwards he succeeded Mr. Stratton as General Freight Agent, which office he held for many years, until con- tinued sickness caused him to resign. Mr. Stevenson's life was one of many vicissitudes. In early life a vicious horse bit off his left arm. I have often heard an old friend of mine speak of this terrible event, which, I think, occurred at Ottawa. On March 12th, 1857, Mr. S. lost his first wife in the fated Desjardins Bridge accident, near Hamilton. In after years Mr. S. was afHicted with spinal complaint, which for many months confined him to a reclining position on a sofa. During this trouble I called upon him several times, and there I found him dashing away at his work with his immense rate-book before him and his shorthand clerk beside him. He rapidly dictated his letters with as much apparent ease as if no pains of the spine existed. He had an ingenious arrangement by which he could screw himself up on his sofa. This appliance, again, was the occasion of many kindly jokes. To see a man so cheerful, while afflicted with so many ills, was amoral tonic, and one always felt the better from a visit to the invalid. When Mr. Stevenson retired from the services of the Grand Trunk, the Company made him a very handsome cash present. Afterwards he was restored to fair health and entered into the brokerage business. He died three or four years ago. JOHN PORTEOUS, OF BOSTON. From the sketches of the careers of railway officers por- trayed in this work, it will be observed that nearly all of them, 186 Railways and Other Ways. as a rule, and in one respect, are somewhat like the ministers of the Methodist body, being movers. The writer, in his railway career, has changed from place to place in the Old Country and in Canada about a dozen times. But I now give the career of Mr. John Porteous, of Boston, a gentleman who beats the record in this respect ; at the same time it must be noticed that Mr. Porteous in all his movements had one object in view, and that was to make a step higher ! In October, 1854, he joined the Great Western Eailway at Hamilton, Ont., as billing and cor- responding clerk in the freight department ; six months after- wards he was doing the same kind of duty at Suspension Bridge. In 1855 he was corresponding clerk at Windsor, then promoted to the position of freight cashier and accountant at the same station. In November, 1857, his health giving way, he resigned and left for Scotland, but returned to Canada in July, the follow- ing year, when Mr. Brydges appointed him cashier and account- ant of the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railroad at Mil- waukee, Wis. In 1863 he was removed to Portland, Me., to hold a similar office on the Grand Trunk Eailway there. On the death of Mr. Graham, the Portland agent, in November of that year, Mr. Porteous succeeded him as freight agent at that im- portant depot. In this position he remained until April, 1876, when Mr. (now Sir Joseph) Hickson sent him to England to establish the Grand Trunk agency at Liverpool. On Mr. Por- teous' return to Montreal he was appointed assistant general freight agent of the G. T. R. on January 1st, 1877, and when the late Mr. P. S. Stevenson resigned the general freight agency, on account of sickness, Mr. Porteous succeeded him on July Ist, 1878, being the fourth G. F. A. since the opening of the line. This position he held until December, 1886, when he resigned to accept that of general manager of the through freight depart- ment of the Central Vermont Railroad, with headquarters at Boston. General Freight Agents. 187 On this occasion, the merchants of Montreal entertained Mr. Porteous at a public dinner, when he was much complimented on the manner he had conducted the Company's freight business for the past eight years, and the satisfaction he had given to the mercantile community, with many feelings of regret at his de- parture from amongst them, and best wishes for his future prosperity. On the first of February, 1892, Mr. Porteous was again fm-ther promoted to the general managership of the National Despatch Freight Line, with office at Boston, which position he still retains. He has very recently opened an agency of the N. D. F.L. at Toronto (March, 1893). THE LATE THOMAS TANDY. I remember Mr. Tandy from about the year 1868. He was then a young man in the office of the mechanical department of the Great Western Railway at Hamilton. When Mr. Broughton became general manager of the G. W. R. he took Mr. Tandy into his office to act as corresponding clerk. On the retirement of Mr. Arthur White, as assistant G.F.A. of the G. W. R., Mr. Tandy succeeded him, and when Mr. G. B. Spriggs resigned the general freight agency of the G. W. R., Mr. Tandy was appointed to that office and retained it until the G. W. R. merged into the Grand Trunk, after which time he acted as general freight agent of through traffic for the Grand Trunk, with headquarters at Detroit. On the retirement of General Freight Agent Porteous from the company, Mr. Tandy was appointed to that office as the fifth G. F. A., which he held until his death, which took place very suddenly on the 4th October, 1889, at the early age of 42 years, much regretted by his many friends. MR. Tandy's memorial. The following tribute to the memory of Mr. Tandy is taken from the Cleveland Leckfer of Nov. 15th, 1889 : 188 Railvjays and Other Ways. ■"At the meeting of the Central Trafl&c Association at Chicago last week, the following memorial to the late General Freight Agent Tandy, of the Grand Trunk, was presented by Mr. G. B. Spriggs, chairman of the committee, and adopted by the Association : " Inasmuch as on the evening of Friday, October 4th, 1889, Thomas Tandy, then general freight agent of the Grank Trunk Railway of Canada, was surprised by swift death as he was steadily ascending the ladder of life and of fame, in the flush of health and successful achievement, his right hand grasping the rung two-thirds from the ladder's base, his face uplifted towards the zenith in earnest hope and fair expectancy of arriv- ing at the exalted and coveted goal which the masterful endeavour of this man, strong in the strength and pride of a full manhood, with efforts intelligently and skilfully directed into the channel of a laudable ambition, seemed to place within his deserving reach ; and " Inasmuch as the passing from earth of this strong soul to where 'time is not, nor days, nor months, nor years — an everlast- ing now — ' has left a gap in the ranks of the great army of his co-workers and friends, by whom will be heard no more his burst of humour and quaint conceit, his ready and abundant wit, which scintilated from his quick brain like sun-flashes from polished brass, his sometimes wholesale sarcasm, neither sparing in modest criticism his friends, nor rending the cloak of their self-respect; and " Inasmuch as no longer will be heard the melody of song which found expression in his rich voice, tunefully sympathetic with and ever dear to his always eager listeners, nor longer will be felt the magnetism of his manly nature attracting to itself the quick response which mind gives to mind when inspiriting in- vitation indicates the pathway to fields of mutual enjoyment : and " Inasmuch as his native modesty bespoke a well-balanced JOHN I5UKTUN. General Freight Agents. 189 mind, making his life like to a pendulum vibrating between the steps of high ambition on the one hand and lowly self-apprecia- tion on the other, and as his daily bearing, in his home regard- fully affectionate; among his friends, acceptably equipoised; and in his business pursuits, broadly liberal and confident ; chal- lenged the admiration and esteem of all with whom he came in contact ; and as his pursuit of and familiarity with classic and current literature had for him its delights and allurements, rounding his life and stimulating his brain so that while piu-suing his business with the unflinching exactitude of arduous require- ment a charm was imparted to his intercourse with his fellows and a permeating grace to his epistolary coiTespondence seldom attained under the carking cares of business life ; therefore "Eesolved, That in his sudden and untimely death this asso- ciation loses one of its most brilliant members, many of us a warm personal friend, and all an associate endeared by the exhibit of native humours and passions found only in a thorough man, and we hereby extend to his wife and children our heartfelt sympathy at their great and overwhelming loss. ' Yon rising moon that looks for as again — How oft hereafter will she wax and wane ; How oft hereafter rising look for us Through this same garden— and for one in vnin." " JOHN BURTON, GENERAL FREIGHT AGENT. Mr. Burton entered the service of the Great Western Railway when quite a young man, about thirty years ago. For a short time he was in the office of Mr. A. Irving, then the Company's Solicitor, and was afterwards a shorthand writer for General Manager Swinyard, at Hamilton. Subsequently he acted as Correspondent and Secretary to the several managers, Muir, Price and Commissioner Brydges. He was afterwards, for some years, engaged on railways in New York State, and this gave him a good opportunity for making him 190 Railways and Other Ways. self acquainted with the through traffic between the Eastern and Western States. We next find him back in Canada, occupy- ing important positions on the Grand Trunk Railway. On the death of Mr. Thos. Tandy, in October, 1889, Mr. JBurton was appointed to succeed him as (sixth) General Freight Agent of the Grand Trunk Railway, which office he still holds, and may he long continue in it. JOHN CRAMPTON, GENERAL FREIGHT AGENT. Among other old members of the staff of the G. W. R. may be mentioned Mr. John Crampton, who held different offices on that line, including the Detroit Agency, the Gen- eral Freight Agency of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad and a like position on the Great Western, the whole covering a period of about thirty years. For some time he has held an important post on one of the American roads with head- quarters at Buffalo. Mr. Crampton is a gentleman of great ability and considered a high authority among railway mana- gers. Very few men have had such varied experience in freight matters, local and foreign, in both Canada and the United States. The author having been a brother officer with Mr. Cramp- ton, on the old Great Western Railway, for some years, has many pleasant memories of that gentleman's universal kind- ness and genuine good feeling, on all occasions of their meet- ing together. JOHN EARLS, WESTERN DISTRICT FREIGHT AGENT. The long length of time which most of the principal officers of the Grand Trunk have spent on that railway speaks well in favour of its General Managers, who knew when they had got a trustworthy and reliable man and took good care JOHN EARLS. General Freight Agents. 191 to keep him in their employ. As a further illustration of this I need only refer to another gentleman well known to the business community of Canada, viz., Mr. John Earls. He first entered the service of the G. T. R. in 1862 as clerk in the office of the Western General Freight Agent, Toronto. From '63 to '66 he was freight clerk at Point Edward (Sarnia). In '66 he was corresponding freight clerk at Port- land, Me. In '68 he was promoted to be cashier and steam- ship accountant at the same station. In '71 we again find Mr. Earls at Toronto, as chief clerk to General Freight Agent Stevenson, and when that gentleman removed his head- quarters to Montreal, Mr. Earls accompanied him and re- mained in the same position up to 1875. From '75 to '77 he was assistant general freight agent of the Eastern Division with office at Montreal. From '77 to '84 he was Assistant General Freight Agent of the Western Division, with office at Toronto. In '84 was made District G. F. A., said District comprising the late Great Western Railway and the Grand Trunk section west of Toronto, and has held a position simi- lar to that until the present time, his headquarters now be- ing at Hamilton, Ont., with branch office at Toronto. In addition to the above duties, Mr. Earls was one, with a number of others, who originated the General Freight Agents Association of Canada, and was instrumental in having a joint classification of merchandise compiled, which had the effect of making a uniform one for all the railways in Canada. This was found of great advantage as compared with the various conflicting classifications of roads which had previously been in use. Mr. Earls is at present (Feb., 1893), President of the General Freight Agents Association of Canada, and Chairman of the Canadian Joint Freight Classification Com- mittee. 192 Railways and Other Ways. ARTHUR WHITE, CENTRAL DISTRICT FREIGHT AGENT. It is always interesting as well as instructive to follow a man's career from his first venture in life and to see him gradu- ally advance, " up the Hill Difficulty," step by step to higher positions, until he has reached the goal of his ambition. In this work I have endeavoured to sketch the career of many such men, among whom I name, with great pleasure, Mr. Arthur White, whose example any young man might follow with great advantage to himself. He was born November, 1840, at Hadleigh, Suffolk, England. He entered railway service in 1859. From 1859 to 1866 he was in the service of the Great Eastern Railway, England, successively office-boy and clerk. He entered the ser- vice of the Grand Trunk Eailway as freight checker at Toronto in 1866, and was successively clerk, agent, and assistant general freight agent on the Great Western and Midland Divisions of the Grand Trunk Railway. The title of all Grand Trunk Railway assistant general freight agents was changed in April, 1892, to that of district freight agent, which position he now holds, with office in the Board of Trade Rooms, Toronto. From the above it will be seen that Mr. White's railway experience in both countries extends over thirty-three years. Having known him for about twenty years, I can speak of him as a man of push and great energy in all business connected with the working of the freight traffic on both the Grand Trunk and old Great Western Railways. W. R. TIFFIN, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, G.T.R. Owing to the numerous changes made in the staff of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1892, Mr. W. R. Tiffin, assistant super- intendent, Stratford, was transferred to London, and relinquished control of the Wellington, Grey & Bruce and Georgian Bay & Lake Erie sections of his old district. The employees of these ^* OF THf OF IFOSJi- ARTHUR WHITE. General Freight Agents. 193 two branches met in the offices at Palmerston, Saturday evening, November 19th, and presented Mr. Tiffin with a very handsome illuminated address and a silver tea service for his wife. The address, which was signed by Messrs. K. 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 reply, 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 period he was gratified to know they entertained such kindly sentiments toward himself and family. A number of other speeches closed a very enjoyable hour. THE OLD GBEAT 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 & 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 arid Other Ways. and gaining the rudiments of railway office freight work, he was promoted to the Great Western Kailway 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 Eailway, which office he has held with high honour for many years, and long may he continue in it. M. C. DICKSON, DISTRICT PASSENGER AGENT. I have much pleasure in referring to another old officer of the Great Western, viz., Mr. M. C. Dickson, whom I rememher 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 Eailway, and when that road merged into the Grand Trunk, Mr. Dickson was appointed district passenger agent for the G.T.E., with office at the Union Station, which position he still retains. L0>^^V GEORGE BURDETT SPRIGGS. Other Officers, Incidents 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 known in railway circles and one who has a national reputation, Mr. G. B. Spriggs, general freight agent of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Eaih'oad (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 Eockiugham. 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 Rail- way of Canada. From 1862 until 1870 his career was a series 196 Raihvays and Other Ways. of steadily 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 system, 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, Gnt. 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 necessary 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 Railway. In September, 1866, Mr. Spriggs felt himself compelled to resign his position ofG.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 Oncers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 197 the gentleman about to sever his connection with the Compan}'. 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 years 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 Company, 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 Railways and Other Ways. regret that so excellent an officer, in a department of so very much concern to the public, should be compelled to leave from such a cause. "Mr.Crampton 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. E. 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 the 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 B&ya : "They were written by Mr. George B. Spriggs, of this city, General Freight Agent of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Road. As the eulo- gist of his Canadian friend, Mr. Spriggs has achieved special distinction by being the author of resolutions which leave tho beaten path of commonplace and give exjires- sion in choicest diction to the feelings of the heart at the loss which the associates and friends of Mr. Tandy sustained by his death. The tender of respectful 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 forms used on such occasions, and has caused the resolutions to b« extensively copied in the press. Mr. Spriggf is not onl^ one of the most thoroughly informed men in the country on railway matters, but is also possessed of literary ability of a high order." OS o a; H 3 < M a H iz; o « 2 O CO CO W < ^ £ o H O < z W z P^ z O Oh Q <i O :^* W >« E CQ H W K O 0. < o « o HH O Z X w a. > O o OS c/) b u < Oi < !A ^ m > u X H Other Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 199 JOSEPH TAYLOR — AUTHOR OF "FAST LIFE." In another part of this volume I have spoken of railway men who have dibbed into the mines of literature, as Poole, Salt and Anderten, and which show that men, however multitudinous their duties, many 3-et 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 Railway ; subsequently he was chief clerk to the late W. K. Muir, when that gentleman was General Manager of the G. W. E. Mr. Taj'lor 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 Sc 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 position 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 FOR A SITUATION. " The following is from a fond, gushing parent, seeking em- ployment for his innocent lad, only thirty-two years of age : 200 Rcdhvays and Other Ways. " * Respected and Dear Sir, — " 'Happy is the man that hath his kwiwer 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 oifer on that date. ' " JAMES CHARLTON, 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 ^^^^^^^^^^S- 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 workers, 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. C. 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 official Railroad 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 he 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 Railroad, 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, he 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 h^ held with great credit until his untimely decease on the 13th April, 1892. Though only fifty years of age when he passed away, he had been engaged on Canadian railways for thirty-four years, during which time he rose, step by step, from the lowest to the highest rank in his profession. 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 Railway in Montreal, who has been appointed to the position rendered vacant by the death of Mr. William Edgar, was, like his predecessor, one of the employees of the Great Uther Officers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 203 "Western Eailway, 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, whence he was transferred to the audit depart- ment, where he rose gradually until appointed General Book- keeper in 1868- 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 removed to Montreal to take a position as Assistant Accountant, which position he held until his well-deserYed pro- 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 Eailway at Hamilton. Here Mr. Champ remained nine years under, at different times, W. C. Stephens and W. K. Hen- derson, Secretaries ; Thos. Reynold, Financial Director ; Thos. Bell and Joseph Price, Treasurers. In 1863 Mr. Champ was appointed Paymaster of the G. W. E. ; this position he held, uninterruptedly, for fifteen yeai'S. 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 * Old 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 days. He was afterwards Secretary for theG.W.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. R. pay- car (with Mr. Champ only partially 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 Ross, 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 <jattle. 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 11th, 1894. The sudden death took his friends by surjDrise, as he Tvas in charge of his pay-car the previous day although not feeling well, and was assisted by Paymaster Fraser of the Northern Division. Mr. Champ was well known throughout railway circles, he having gone into the G. W. R. 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. E. and G, T. R. 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. FUETHER EARLY 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 forty 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 Ritchie has had charge of the stationery business almost from the commencement of the Grand Trunk Rail- 206 Railways 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. Eitchie's office is no sinecure. I have often wondered how many billions of documents Mr. Eitchie has sent out. To make a rough guess, I should think the quantity would 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. Eraser. 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. E. 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. Eraser 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 Oficers, 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) Hickson, appointed Mr. Fraser as Travelling Auditor for the G. T. E., in which he continued up to 1891, when 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 Grand 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. MAJOR WALTER WILY. 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 Railway there. This was 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 3-ears, has had the superintendence of the large freight depart- ment of the G.T.E. 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 Kegiment, then stationed at Halifax. He moved to Montreal with his parents when quite a lad, and was one of the boys at Caj^tain Button's Academy. Major Wily was one of the first members of the old Montreal Eifle Eangers. He afterwards was Major in the Grand Trunk EifleSjWas 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. Wily, his bereaved wife. MAJOR ROBT. 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, Iiiddents 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 Thorburn. daughter of the late James Thorburn. In the same year he en- tered the service of the Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway Co., (now part of the Grand Trunk Eail way) 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 37th 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.R. The G.T.R. 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.E. 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.R. 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.R. 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 Kailway, and for some years has held the high position of general superinten- dent of the Western Division of the O.P.R. at Winnipeg. other Officers Incidents and Anecdotes. 211 while now 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 1853 embarked for Canada, amving 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 London 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 charge 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 bag 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. FORCE 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 O^ers, Incidents and Anecdotes. 213 running of night and day trains, so far as the company's mles 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 day duty, and when the noan train passed he reported the conductor as having passed his station without showing a light. JOHN SMITH, EX-DOMINION EMIGRATION 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 Railways were in their infancy. He left Manchester for Liverpool to take charge of the shipping depai'tment at the Duke's Dock, and afterwards conducted the joint agency of the Duke's and the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Eailway Lines. From Liverpool he was removed to Birmingham on the opening of the Great Western Railway from Oxford to Bu-miQgham, whence he emigrated to Canada in 1854, joining the Great Western Eailway under Mr. Brydges as agent for the Lake and Rail 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 Other 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. ORR, 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 1868, and had charge of a section of the freight department of the Great Western Eailway ; 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 Eailway, and, in 1887, he was appointed General Freight Agent for the Duluth, South Shore k Atlantic Eailway, 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. Dominion Government Raihvays. 215 CHAPTEK XYIII. DOMINION GOVERNMENT RAILWAYS. THE Canadian Government Eailways are made up of two divi- sions, the Intercolonial Division having a length of 1,14-1 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 Railways 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 Railways. My reason for introducing the Government Railways in my book is that the Intercolonial was constructed under the com- missioner ship of Mr. C. J. Brydges, then General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway, 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 Riviere du Loup, and its business, therefore, closely identified with the latter road. The Intercolonial Railway 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 Riviere 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 Riviere du Loup to the Government of Canada. 216 Railways and Other Ways. The Intercolonial therefore now commences at the eastern terminus of the Grand Trunk, at Levis, opposite Quebec, both roads arrivmg 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 Eimouski, the point at which Her Majes- ty's mails and passengers are landed during the summer season irom 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 Bale des Chaleurs, upon the shores of which, in close proximity to the Railway, 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 Railways. To the tourist and pleasure- seeker the Intercolonial Railway 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 tiny snielt to the white whale, including herring in shoals, the jolly fat tommy-cod, ^^^^^'> '.^ Donfiinion Government Railways. 217 bass, speckled trout, halibut, salmon, tuladi, big sturgeon and fat porpoise, so that the fisherman can have his choice ; and if twentj-pouuders 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 dragon'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 Railways, 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 HaHfax, 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 Eailway with the Intercolonial Eailway. 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 Eailway, in which position he con- tinued until February, 1879, when he was appointed Chief Superintendent. He occupied this position until December 1st, 1892, when he was appointed General Manager of Government Eailways, which position he still occupies. THE FOREST 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 Eailway 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 Eeynolds, 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 Eiver, 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. WEATHERSTOX. 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 Railway Go., 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 1861. 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 unprecedented, 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 Eailway (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 Eailways, 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 profession, are liable to be called upon at any moment, night or day, 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 full 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. E., 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 natm-e 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 Other Ways. 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 office work 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 Russell'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 traflBc 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 Railways and Other Ways. THE SWELL STATION MASTER. Mr. Mosely, once well known in England as manager for Pickford & Co., the celebrated carriers, became General Manager of the Eastern Counties Eailway. 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 he will generall}^ 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 beauty, and are noted for their knowledge of horticultm-e, and in the exhibits of rare plants and flowers 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 Staffordshire 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 Railways 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 employee on the N.S.R 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 Conductor. 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 Railways 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 Eailway 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, S370 ; 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 be seen, has disbursed nearl}" one million and a-quarter dollars among the families of its members. How many hearts must have been soothed and cheered in then- hours of deep aflfliction, 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 Dundas 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 back. "Are these children yours ?" 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 money 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 GondtLctor. 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 say, * 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 fi'iend 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 stady," 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 heat and win- ter cold of Quebec to the smoky atmosphere of old London. When going over the Quebec & Kichmond Railway 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 Railway, 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. •^m ,^iib U H|^iw#«| W^m P^ ^^^^« 1 ^ mmim.M J ■\ i '■ \ ^ ^J ^ ■\v^"^ ^ai 1 ^a * ^^^M ! ll^lli^x^^^^ ~ '" -> '^^tpHSHIIH ir-*^ JOHN WEATHERSTON. Diligent Lives. 233 CHAPTER XX. DILIGENT LIVES. JOHN WEATHEKSTON. 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 Railway 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. R. : but the greatest achievement by far was changing the whole gauge 234 ' Railways and Other Ways. of the G. W. E. 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 1877, and for some years was engaged on the Michigan Central Eailway. After leaving that company he, on his own account, built eighty miles of railway for Mr. William Hendrie, from Gay- lord to Mackinac in Michigan. When this was completed he went to Montreal and entered the service of the Dominion Government as Eoad Superintendent of the North Shore Eailway ; 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.E. 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 Eailway, 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 21st, 1890, and to which I 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 untilother 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 bom 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 Koxburghe. 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.tofoUowuphis 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 many an admiring glance to the charming spot, particularly when the roses were in 236 Railways and Other Ways. full 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 Eeid, 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. Weatherston 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 Roney, 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 famil3^ Many years ago his friends in Eichmond and Melbourne were so pleased with his management and attention that as a mark of their esteem the}' presented him with a gold watch and chain valued at three hun- dred dollars. JOHN MILIiER 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 protege (James Murphy) the Irish Boy, of forty years ago. Very few of the G.T.E. early staff of officers now remain, 238 Railways and Other Ways. but among the few, I may mention Mr. Henshaw, one of the Grand Trunk Pay-masters, who is a brother-in-law of Mr. Grant. Mr. H. informs me that that gentleman is still living in London, England. When Sir Cusack 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 Railway Company, on the occasion of his leaving the Province, by his brother ofl&cers 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 Company 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. CHAPTEE XXI. 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 Eailway, 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 i'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 Other 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 duty of conveying troops 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 Taurist Agent 243 to be classed as a public benefactor, he will long be remembered in the Midland Counties 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 Jaflfa & Jerusalem Eailroad 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 per cent., 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 86|^ 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 Ihe 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." Tom 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 Jafli, 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.— iSannwter'* " Holy Land." Thomas Cook, the famous Tourist Agent 245 Never such vociferations Entered your imaginations As the ensuing : " Ease her, stop her I " *' Ajiy gentleman for Joppa ? " " Mascus, Mascus ? " Ticket, please, sir ! " " Tyre or Sidon ? " " Stop her, ease her ! " '• Jerusalem, 'lem, *lem " — " Shur ! Shrir ! " "Do you go on to Egypt, sir ? " " Captain, is this the land of Pharaoh ? " " Now look alive there I 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. CHAPTEE XXII. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. IN another part of this work I have referred to some of the earliest railway managers in the Old Country who, as a rule, 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. Eailway 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 e-peak feelingly, having had some half a cen- tury's experience 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 wi-ath ; 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 company. " 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 om* management. One writer criticising our merchandise class- ification, said, " to think that the Grand Trunk Goods Manager should have left out ' Divi-Divi ' in his classification ! " Poole 248 Railways 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 present 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-rata" 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 both. 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 Raihuay 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 twenty-eight years is made plain in the following figm-es 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 ISS'Z 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 1889 1.059 1875 2.10 1890 995 1876 2.04 1891 1892 1.003 1877 2.08 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 Keceivers. 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 Eailway 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 RaiLivay Management. 251 considering the question of expenses, as locomotive -power, wear and tear of cars, maintenance of way, agencies, return of empty ears and other minor charges, it was not deemed desirable to go below one cent per 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 aftected 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 60 cents per bushel, say f 300 00 Less freight at 15 cents per bushel 75 00 1225 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 i 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 we 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. SIR 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 Deeds. 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 my 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 Eailway), and having discharged its train at the warehouse, a spare driver was put on it to prepare it for a trip down to the Kibble 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 ivasfast! 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 MeHt 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 down 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 ine\-itable, for at the foot of the grade was a sharp curve and a row of cottages, and the waggons running at fifty or sixty miles an horn*, must have crushed into these cottages with the force of cannon balls from a heavy battery. A BRA^'E 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 o£f to a man, crying out as they ran, *' there's pooder in / there* s pooder in f' 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 to 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 caine 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^ ALDERMAN HALLAM. I An Order of Merit for Heroic Deeds. 259 from which there arose a column of froth, castmg 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. CHAPTEE XXIV. RAILWAY CELEBRATIONS. THE BOSTON RAILROAD 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 Eailway Jubilee, September 17th, 18th, and 19th, 1851. This Jubilee was to commemorate the union of Boston and Montreal in bands 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. Daniel Webster, 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- mond, 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 S^ miles in length. The mottoes, generally ran 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 Railways 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, representing Massachusetts, was escorted to the 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 Cdd/raMona. 263 espousals of Venice with the waters of the Adriatic ; for this Tmion 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.' "VMiatever 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, Mayor Bigelow, Hon. Daniel Webster, Governor Boutwell, Hon. Francis Hincks, Hon. Charles M. Conrad, Hod. 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 san^e 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, lobbyings 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, that 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 all they possessed, 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 ■ Railways and Other Ways. ceded and accompanied you, our children and grandchildren, as long as this great Anglo-Saxon race shall occupy the continent, may reap 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 waters 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 Railway Celeh^ations. 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 ; om- 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." 268 Railways and Other Ways. RAILROADS 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 processions, 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 Tribune, 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 your 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 Eoyal. " 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 Railway Celeh'atioois. 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 Reciprocity 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 benefits 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 offer 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 Eailway Station, and proceeded amidst the cheers of thousands, toWylan, George Stephenson's birthplace, 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 Kail way. A special train followed, carrying the Mayors of Newcastle and other towns, with many persons 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 Raihuay 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. HoUaston Blake, Esq.; Kirkman D. Hodgson, Esq. Canadian Directors. — James Beaty, 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. "SVhittemore, Esq.; John Eose, Esq., Q.C. Directors in Portland, as stipulated in the Lease of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Eoad. — 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 ; Eufus E. Wood ; Solomon H. Chandler. contractors' departjient. Contractors for the Eoad from Trois Pistoles to Toronto, in- cluding the Victoria Bridge : Messrs. Peto, Brassey, Betts and Jackson. Agents : — At Montreal, James Hodges ; Point Levi, James Eeekie ; Brockville, W. Ellis ; Gananoque, E. Crawford ; Kingston, F. J. Eowan ; 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 ; R. Wingate, Resident Engineer, Point Levi ; S. S. Bennett^ Resident Engineer, Portland; D. Stark, Resident 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. Roney, 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 Railway. James went to Detroit and was appointed as purchasing agent for the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, 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 Foundry 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 §900. Now 1,000,000 can be bought for S550 each. The total number of freight cars in the United States is p.ut 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. CHAPTEE XXV. RAILWAYS- THEIR HISTORY. FOR an account of the first railways we must go back more than 200 years. 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!'" OEOBOE STEPHENSON AND THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY. 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. RaUivays — Their Histoid. 277 His first gi-eat success was the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 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 Roads," in describing the opening of the Stockton and Darlington line 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 with 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 j£500. THE LIVERPOOL AKD MANCHESTEB RAILWAY. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was undoubtedly the pioneer of these great undertakings, but it was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway 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 loth 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 "Wellington, then Prime Minister, Sir Robert 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. 6. The " Dart," by Thomas L. Gooch. 6. The "Comet," by William AUoard. 7. The " Arrow, " by Frederick Swanwick. 8. The " Meteor," by Anthony Harding. (S. Smiles' Life of George Stephenson.) Railways — Their History. 279 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. LORD 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 sm-veyed 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 saw 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 praise man's great success ; not in admiration of the genius and perseverance he had displayed, or even of the corn-age he had shown in setting himself against the obstacles that matter oflered 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 Eailway 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 <yne hundred tons. Railways — 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,"* ONTAKIO'S FIRST RAILWAY, 1853. " Forty years ago to-day," says the Toronto Empire, of May 3, 1803, " 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 Xo. 5 Express, timed to leave Montreal at 10.15 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 unasoal, so smoothly did the train skim along." 282 Railways 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 LOTTERY 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, with 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. Eichard 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 Railway in New Brunswick. Railways — 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 KaUway. It spanned the Humber Eiver. 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 Rivers Branch. Rouse's Point Branch. Hemmingford Branch. Montreal & Champlain Junction Ry. Beauharnois Junction Ry. Jacques Cartier Union Ry. Kingston Branch. Gait Branch. Waterloo Branch. London & St. Mary's Branch. Midland Railway. Northern Railway. Northern & Pacific Junction Ry. Hamilton & Northwestern Ry. Great Western Railway. Wellington, Grey & Bruce Ry. London, Huron & Bruce Ry. Brantford, Norfolk, & Port Burwell Ry. ^^iLA-R THE Of . ^ CO h-1 < < < O o Q I— I P:i O I— I CO W CO CO G. T. K and C. P. R. Systems. 285 Welland Eailway. 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 Eiver, near Buffalo, and are lessees of the Suspension Bridge crossing the same river below the Falls. By arrangements with the Central Vermont Eailroad 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 & Rome ; 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 TRUNK 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-thu'd in the way and works department — that is to say, 6,000 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. AV. R. Callaway, its popular District Passenger Agent ; G. T. R. and C. P. R Systems. 287 " The Canadian Pacific Eailvray 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 Railway 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. " W^ith 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 Eocky 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 Eockies 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 Eailway." CANADIAN PACIFIC EAILWAY, 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 13,330,540 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 f21,409,35l 77 $20,962,317 44 Expenses 12,989,004 21 13,220,901 39 Net earnings ^,420,347 66 ^,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 beard 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 wise 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. E. special. His train maxie remarkably good time for this season of the year, having covered the distance from Winnipeg to Montreal, 1425 miles, in 45^ hours, an average of 31^ miles an horn-. Between Winnipeg and Fort William the average time made was 35 miles an hour." THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA. A correspondent of the Toronto Globe, 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-rollipg 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 Red Eiver 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 Eed 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 experiment was a failure, and that the steamer was finally taken to pieces, carried across to the Red River and then put together again ; and that, I believe, was the first steam-boat that navigated the Eed River 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 august 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. SoTne Railway Statistics. 293 CHAPTER XXVII. SOilE RAILWAY STATISTICS. RAILWAYS OF THE DOMINION. SO much has akeady 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 $872,156,000 Working expenses 836,616,000 Net earnings $15,426,000 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 £864,695,963 sterling, or §4,208,225,861. 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 7,664 yards — say nearly 4J 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 Railways 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. E. 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 ^6970,000,000, 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 Sortie RaUivay Statistics. 295 system, however perfect, could ensure safety unless carried out by trained, intelligent, and sober men, and he was very happy 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 575,436 Vans 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.f The London & North-Western Eailway, the leading one in Great Britain, is a wonderful organization, and is the richest transportation company in the world. It has a capitalization of 3523,430,000, or more than four times as much as the greatest American railroad ; yet it has but 1,890 miles in operation. The Midland comes next with $470,000,000, and the Great Western is third with S38 1,430,000. The five next roads in order of resources are the North-E astern, Lancashire & Yorkshire, North British, Great Eastern, and Great Northern. Their aggre- gate capital is 81,207,655,000. • • The English " Railway World," September, 1893. tUtica, N.Y., "Globe," Sep. 30, 1893. 29G 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 " " 1860 30,626 " " 1870 62 922 " " 1880 93,296 " To June 30, 1890 163,597 " Between 1880 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 was 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 4,330 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 80, 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 year, $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, 1890> 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 MulgTOTe, Nova Scotia, to Levis (South Quebec) — Intercolonial 734 Levis to Toronto, G. T. R 505 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. Van cebero to Bangor, Maine 114 Bangor to Portland 44 Portland to Boston 108 Baston to Chicago, via Albany and Buffalo 1,047 Chicago to San Francisco 2,357 3,670 In the above calculations 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 Htm- 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 vntkout 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 Railway 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 * Rocket ' was an engine of much greater historical interest. And what became of the * Rocket ? ' The directors of the Liverpool & Manchester RaUway Company sold it in 1837 ! Heavier engines were brought upon the road, and the old * Rocket ' 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 Railway 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 * Rocket ' 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 stUl 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 'Rocket ' 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 Railways 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 Railway Co., which was on exhibition at the World's Fair, in an experimental 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. I— < o w w ;z; H o H Q W cc; Q iz; D 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 powers are normall}' 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 & North- Western Railway, although not able to work main line express trains of the present day." 302 Railways and Other Ways. ACCIDENTS STAGE COACHES VS. EAILWAYS. When an accident happens upon a railway it is sometimes terrible in its results and people are apt to run oS. 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 tveek, 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. Buckiand 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 Buckiand,' 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. Some Baihuay 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 Eailway. '• Is there no nook of English ground secure From rash assault ? Schemes of retirement sown In youth, and mid the busy worW 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 hou^e may take the place of the Druidical silence of some shady dell ; but, Gracious Heavens ! Sir, how many of those verdant arches, entwisted 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 !" BIBEN FBOM THE BANKS. In perusing the many sketches of railway men in this work, it will be noticed that nearly all of them have risen from the V^ »F -THE of SIR W. C. VAN HOKNE. Soriie Railway 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 etninence in railway positions. " The best engineman has been a fireman ; the best con- ductors are mad6 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 Lake 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 * SiK William Van Hokne.— The high honour of Knighthood was conferred upon Mr. Van Home 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 bom 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 Home 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 Home 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. c}»eck 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." EAILWAY 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 iJeen 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 diflferent schemes for preventing competition may be •enumerated as under : 1. "WTien there are two or 'more roads running between competing points, they shall be operated by one management. 2. An agreement between competing 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 «ach 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 Railways and Other Ways. freight it can, and this can only be 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. Railway companies would do well to hoist the caution signal ; there is danger ahead ! ! ! Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing Craft. 309 CHAPTEK XXYIII. 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 River 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 Bufifalo 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 Height Breadth. above the Sea. 160 miles. 600 feet. 190 " 578 " 25 " 570 " 80 " 665 " 65 " 232 " 80 " 578 " 310 Railways avd 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. Length. Superior 355 miles. Huron, with Georgian Bay 280 " Saint Clair 26 " Erie 240 " Ontario 180 " Michigan 320 " THE FIRST CANADIAN CANAL. *' The Chambly, the first Canadian Canal, ll^ miles in length, was constructed to overcome the Chambly Eapids, 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 Kichelieu 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 River, 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 CANAIiS. 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 8i 2. The Beauhamois Canal, 9 locks, mean rise ;'. 82* " Ill 3. The Cornwall " 6 " " " 48" " lli . / Farren's Pt. " 1 " " " 4 " | S ti 1 Rapide Plat " 2 " " " Uh " 3| 4. ;§ § < Iroquois ) g-^ i Junction'- " 3 " " " 15| " 7^ ^ V Gallops ) 43f Including for comparison the Welland canal, 27 locks*330 " 28 Fall on portions of the St. Lawrence, not requiring locks 15| Height of Lake Erie above Montreal harbour 55 1| — (Kingsford's "Canadian Canals," 1865.) i THE FIEST STEAMBOAT. Attempts to sail boats by steam power were made soon after James Watt'si* 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 'Another canal between Lakes Erie and Ontario has since been bnilt deeper and with larger locks, admitting vessels of 1,500 tons. t James Watt was bom at Greenock, in Scotland, June 19tb, 1736, and died on the 25th of August, 1819. 312 Railways 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 by Mr. Fulton in conjunction with Mr. Livingston. She was 130 feet long with a breadth of 16^ 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 betweeix 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." FIEST 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 only 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'8 "Railways of Canada." Canal, River, 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." EARLY 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 Eogers was her captain, and Stevens Kogers, 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 " Eoyal William," which made a complete passage from that port to London, ivholly 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 Royal 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- runner 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 "Eoj^al 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 yom* Excellency will be pleased to place the commemoration plate in its permanent position. If it be agreeable to your 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 Railways and Other Ways. saw the * Eoyal William ' launched 63 years ago and took passage 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, " Your Excellency's most faithful servant, " (Signed) J. G. Boueinot." The Conference then rose, after which the Governor-General unveiled the brass tablet in commemoration of the departure of the * Eoyal William,' the j&rst 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 *City 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 Canal, River, Lake and Oc^an 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 Palis ' 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 470 460 478 Second day 501 496 501 Third day 4^7 505 519 Fourth day 501 510 504 Fifth day 491 517 520 Sixth day 317 290 263 2,777 2,778 2,785 "The following table, except the 'City of Paris,' last trip, we printed last August from the New York Sun. It gives the highest records as they were made from year to year : Year. Ship Days. Hrs. Min. 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 EngineeVy August, 1892. 320 Railways and Other Ways. QuEEN8T0WN,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., 17tjti 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.* Length 620 527 555 692 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 9,686 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 yards 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.11.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. Tontia^e. 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 type 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. Siriua 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, bat 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 m 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 : Lengthy 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, vv. 23, 24. A ship's bill of lading, one hundbed 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. g o ^g .t; fed: • _p r=} ^ «w o <i> c ops ^\ o p c -^ V . c .-a u. .- *- o. Canal, River, Lake and Ocean Sailing. 323 I TISSUE COPYING OF WAY BILLS. In the freight (goods) offices of the early English Railways, 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. A sandwich of cloth, tissue paper and way-bill is then formed, and placed pile upon pile 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 inkj'. The author has copied scores of sheets of manuscript in this way without 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. CHAPTER 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 Eailway 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 Red Eiver 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 two 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 days 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 sjnnpathy. " ' 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 tel^r^aph 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 dam 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." 328 Railways and Other Ways. CHAPTEE XXX. STORY OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE. " I'll put a girdle round about the Earth in forty minutes. " — Pock, 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 0£&ce. On approaching 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 GazeUe, 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. BEPLY. 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 .aessage, 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 xinglo- 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 aid 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 mUes, 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, which 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 be 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 Story of the Atlantic Gable. 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 returned 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 labom-, 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 Royal 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 Gable, 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 127,632 miles of conductors. The French companies, only two in number, the Compagnie Francaise du Telegraphe de Paris k 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 Compan}', which operates 75 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. CHAPTER 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." A TRAVELLER passing over the Grand Trunk Railway 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 employees 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 were 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 cf 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 SiMary'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 hi& 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. McClure, 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- Btance of the affair, and he related the facts with as clear a Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park. 341 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 come 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.* " Yes," said Edison, in reply to further queries, " that story you read about the paper I used to get out on the trains is tme 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 Newfonndland, 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 phonograph, 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 CHAPTER 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 birds 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. Rumour said that 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 Whebe 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, 3l8t, $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. The Chicago General Manager for 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. The World's Golwnibian Exposition. 345 pated a great rush were more than realized. 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 York Mechanical News 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 §300,000 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 Baihvays 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 World's 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. Ruddock. 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 little 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 Iwier- 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 GomTnerce. 349 CHAPTEK XXXIII. FORT GARRY -ONTARIO— BIG NUGGET- TRADE AND COMMERCE. HON. DB. 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 Kiver 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, Kiel, 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 . . 15,000 Tons of shipping employed 43,802,384 Value exports Canadian cattle. $7,748,949 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 appleii, 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 exports of manufactured wood $19,802,166 Value exports 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 total value of the fisheries of the 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 Kiver, 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 River. 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 BOLTiDER 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, while the islands, continents and mountains stood out in relief according to then- 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 jL'10,000 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 asain 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 marched 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. NIAGARA FALLS, CANADLVN SIDE. STEAMER MAID OF THE MIST. 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 Bed 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. 3658 3885 3924 3693 3307 3588 3564 3567 Tto Detroit, Michigan Chicago, Illinois Milwaokee, 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 1st, 1869. "Agent G.W.R. " Sm, — 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. Sufl&ce 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 Western 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 have to wait." " These Yankees fire a thieving set, By them we have been fooled — What ansvFer 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. t Sam Patch leaped down Genesee Falls and lost his life. Fa/its, 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 place in the sentiments towards Mr. Bidder, and the denuncia- tion now falls upon Mr. Eeith, owing to his proposed reduction in the wages of the Grand Trunk employees : — THE SONG OF THE GRAND TBUNK RAILWAY LABORER. BY PHILIP DOBMKB, FIBKMAN. 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 bluotness is our theme, To Bidder we recur ; For manliness, the very luime Of Shanley we revere ; But when we think of every ill That pirates can bequeath, Each object serves our minds to fill With reverie.s of Reith. May he who dares, etc. ENGLISH AND AMEEICAN 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 ;in 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.R., 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.R. 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 productive 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 Go. 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 with the train's motion, and the tendency 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 FATHERS 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. + 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 S^ 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, bom 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 Eome ; 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 and Other Ways. CHAPTEE 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 ATiecdotes — 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 STURGEON AND THE FRENCHMAN. 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 traffic receipts. Shortly afterwards this was explained by a big burly native of France, walking into the G.T.R. 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 Kailway 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 be 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 Stories. 367 he 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 stuff was housed ; the whole went up 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 FABGO. 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 worked 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 ic ell-seasoned corn. When he went down stairs the landlord asked him if he had slept well. " Fairly-fairly," 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 MAQUIEE, 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 forjpassengers and workmen ; the beds generally con- tained three individuals, but Roberts and I, as a great privilege, w^re allowed one bed between us. Roberts 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 Anecdotes — Fish arid Other Stories. 369 Cox ' 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 Fond, 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 your 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 Avomen crowded in. How we all sat I cannot now call to mind, 24 IVERSITV. OF 370 Railways 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 fower (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 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 tords (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 q bloody noses bod non ot folks wur much hort, 'cept a big lad et bed his leg put aut a joint, and he somehaw gete into anuder waggin and goedto 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 breath wur drove haut o ma stummick (body). Et last He 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 Rail- 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 promptly 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 Railways 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 Roscoe 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. 878 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 CHANGED 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 ofl&cials, 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. 874 Railways and Other Ways. I felt sure that he would be forwarded by the 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 go to 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 ahorse." 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 paid 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 very 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 Railways and Other Ways. It was of them that the shareholders complained most. John Lewis Eicardo, 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 be 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 vias 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 RAILWAY IN THE EARLY 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 rojaX 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 Other 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 eifects 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-(hic)-mish-(hic)-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 wor 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 Railway, 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. Lawrence route. On the festive board, round which the celebrationists and a small company 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 was 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 Ilsley 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-Uke. August 3rd. — I make the acquaintance of a priest onboard, 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 18th, 1893.) A VISIT TO THE MAMMOTH CAVE, KENTUCKY, JUNE, 1861. Railway 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 Railroad 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 4.05 p.m., deducting 45 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 VaXedictcry. 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 Lafaj-ette, 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. I never heard that he recovered anything (1894). 384 Railways 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 established, 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- Tation 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 Anniversary. 385- York Cathedral and Westminster Abbey 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 Relief, 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 distg^nce 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 without 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 feetin 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 888 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 oven. 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 PKESS. 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. — Ebenezer 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 bXI 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, while 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 Railways 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 present 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.R, and Eegistrar 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, 1892: 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 Kechabites, of which Mr. Pennington was a member, and the latter by the officers and workmen in the employ of the Preston & Wyre Railway. 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 Authoi-'s Valedictory at Eighty Years of Age. 393 CHAPTER XXXYII. 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 "As 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 important, 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 improvement 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 Eailway 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 an hour earlier than any other men. Every navvy in this powerful 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 holy 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. HENKY 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. ^96 Railways and Other Ways. 1808 at Walton-le-Dale, Preston, England, and died at Bury, June 21st, 1855 :— NATURE. " 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 riseth 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 ! reverently, 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. Addenda. 397 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 Railway, 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,. 398 Railways 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. La'wrence. 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 xipril 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 employ 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 style, 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 Eavenscraig. 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 front 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. AUport, Sir James, 57, 61, 217. Allan Line, 141. Allan, H. SL, 289. Allan, Sir Hugh, 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, Bicbard, 161. Arkwright, Sir R., 23. Ashdown's, 349. 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, Robert, 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, 356 Bidder, Geo., 85. Bigelow, Hon. Jno. P., 261, 267. Billings, L., 136. Bills of Lading, 142, 144, 322. Black well, 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., 64, 168, 187. Brassey, Thos., 81. Brassey, Lord, 81, 392. Brassey, Lady, 81. Brown, Adam, 107, 108. Brydges, C. J., 112, 120, 153, 167, 169, 181, 184, 186, 189, 213, 216. 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, Geo. 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, 31K. 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, 137. Coyle, Capt., 136. Corser, S. T., 137. Coleridge, Poet, 89. Conductor, 227, 232. Cook, Thomas, 240, 243. Cook, John M., 241. Cook, C. J, Bowman, 300. Conscience Money, 355. Confederation, 362. Cotton, V. Snow, 358. Coal, Bowmanville, 376. Commerce, Dominion, 350. Conrad, Hon. C. M., 263. Collector (Customs), 375. Crystal Palace, 343. Crookall, Chas. 168. Crampton, John, 190, 198. Crewe Station, 378. Crampton, Hon. Jno. F.,260. Cumberland, Col. F., 120. Cunard Line, 315, 381. Dartnell, George, 69. Dawson, Mr., 66. Davidson, C, 269,272. Dargen, Contractor, 84. Davies, W. H. A., 360. Dawson, S. E., 312. Davis, A. G., 325. Decimal Currency, 114. " Deead Mon., 32. Derby, Earl of, 23, 163. Desjardins Bridge, 126, 185. Detective's Story, 102. Dickens, Chas., 162. Dickey, Hon. R. B., 362. Dickson, M. C, 194. "Divi-Divi,"247. Distance Limit, 251. Dow, Thomas, 211. Dow, Andrew, 154. Dominion Government Railways, 21 Dominion Railways, 293. Don Carlos, 315. Dominion Steamer Line, 383. Drummer's Story, 327. Drewry, Thomas, 39, 53. Dundas Railway, 234. Duke of Wellington, 277. Dunkin, Hon. C, 360. Dwight, H. P., 325. Earls, John, 190. Eborall, Sam., 62. Eborall, Colin, 62. Edmondson, George, 52, 167. Edgar, William, 176, 202. Edison, T. A., 338-342. Elliott, Mr , 124. Electric Telegraph, 324-327. Electric Railway, 308. Elliott & Son, 350. Elgin, Lord, 148, 260, 265. Index. 403 Engine (Dead), 123. Engine Drivers, The Eight, 27& English Railways, Early, 190. Episode, 27. Everett, Hon. E., 261, 263,304. Eyre, Gen. Sir W., 269. "Fast Life," 199. Faraday, Prof., 342. Fargo's Queer Bed, 367. Fell, A., 120, 168. Ferrier, Hon. James, 84, 148, 150. Fenian Invasion, 169, 208. Feat, Engine Driver's, 361. Ferris, G. W., 345. Ferris Wheel, 345. Fillmore, President, 260, 263. Field, Cyrus W., 330-336. Field, Eev. H. M., 332. Fish Stories, 304-366. Fisheries, Dominion, 351. Fisher, Mr., .350. Fleetwood, 39-41. "Fly Boat," 28. " Flying Ferry," 111, 172. Fleming, Dr. S., 312-315. Fox, Sir Charles. 158, 159. Forbes, John, 193. Forgery (M. B. case), 34. Frenclunan (Fish and Grapes), 365, 366. Froude, William, 171. Eraser, Alex., 203, 206. Friendships, quickly made, 377. " Frontenac," Steamer, 312. Freight Agents, General, 54, 247. Freight Rates, 249. Freight Car's Life, 275. Fulton's First Steamer, 311. Gait, Sir A. T., 84, 148, 362. Gaunt, John O., 162. General Managers, 246. Gisborne, F. N., 334. Giant Fishing, 217. Glynn, C. C, 66. Globe Letters, 82. Goods Managers, 54. Goudie, James, 314. Gordon, General, 242. Governor General, 317. Gold, Big Nugget, 352. Green, W. P., 352. Grape Culture, 367. Graham, Mr., 186. Grant, John Miller, 237, 238. " Great Western" Steamship, 316. " Grand Trunk Herald," 3;^. Grand Trunk System. 284, 286. Grand Trunk Pay Roll, 286. "Great Eastern," Steamer, 320, 330. Graham, Sir James, 299. Gnage, Railway, 83. Gzowski, Sir C, 119, 138, 143. Hargreaves, John. 21, 23, 25, 29. Harrison, Bob., 313. Harper, Bros. 199. Hardman, James, 91, 144. Hallam, Alderman, 163, 225. Hannaford, E. P., 170, 176. Harconrt, Hon. R., 208. Habit, Force of, 212. Haggart, Hon. John, 215. Haines, Capt., 320. Haviland, Hon. T. H., 363. Haywood, Mr., 376. Henderson, W. K., 203. Hendrie, William, 105, 109, 234. Hendrie, George, 108. Henshaw, Mr., 238. Hecker, F. J., 273. Hill, W.R., 228. Hickson, Sir Joseph, 112, 121, 152, 154, 156, 173, 178, 182, 186, 207, 253. Hincks, Sir Francis, 148, 260, 263. Home, Sir W. Van, 305. Hodges, James, 97, 98. Howe, Hon. Jos., 260, 263, 266, 335. Holmes, Ben., 84, 110, 261. Holmes, Geo., 172. Hobson, Jcs., 173-178. Holden, Moses, 23. Hornby, Joe., 29. Hood, Tom., 244. House of Commons, 248. Howland, Sir W. P., 362. Hughitt, Marvin, 305. Hudson, Geo., " King," 77, 79. Hudson Bay Co., 141. Hubbard, Director, 156, 161. Hunt, Thomas, 255, 256. Huskisson, Mr., M.P.,277, 278. Huntington & Brooks, 143. Humane Society, 253. Hyndman, H., 193. Ilsley, Capt., 380. " Indurated Bitumen," 376. Intercolonial Railway, 215, 220. "John O'Gaunt," Steamer, 313. Irving, JE., 189. Island Pond, 368. 40 i Index. JafiEa, Sea Port, 243. JackBon Park, 343. Jerusalem Railway, 243-245. Jenkins, Rev. J., 261. Jeffrey, President, 305. Jones, J. B., 92, 209, 367, 379. Johnson, George, 350. Judge, C, 93. Judge, E., 208. Jubilee, Boston, 262. Kay, Thomas, 63. Kennedy, W., 177. Keefer, T. C, 148. King, John, 43. King, T. D., 99. "Kitten," Engine. 281, Kingsford, Dr. W., 140, 310- Kimballs, Sec, 136. Killaly, Hon. H. H., 261. "Knotty Line," 49. Knight, H. C, 278. Lanning, J. J., 176, 181. Lancaster, Town of, 21. Lawson, E. 206. Ladies', Agents, 226. Lakes, Great, 310. Lake Traffic, 309. Langevin, Sir H., 363. Lecompt, T,, 86. Leamington, Town, 168. Livesey, Joseph, 23, 43. Liverpool and Manchester R. , 277. Locomotive, 37, 278, 280, 295, 298, 300. Locomotive, Long Life of one, 301. Locomotive, Speed, 300. London, Visits, 69, 76. Longest Railway, 297. Loud, John W., 209. London and North Western R., 295. Logan, Sir W., 360, 376. Lottery, v. Railway, 282. Maine, Law, 137. Mackay, Dr. Chas., 21. Mary Queen of Scots, 50. Mania, Railway, 71-73. Managers, Railway, 116-121. Manvill. Allen, 305. Martin, J. S., 89, 189, 237. Maximilian, 140. Macdonald, G., 143, 144. Mackay, Alex., 193. Mackenzie, J. A., 339. Mackenzie, C, 109. Madman's Telegram 369. Manitoba, 289, 290. Maguire, Jack, 368. Manning, Alex., 267. Mammoth Cheese, 346. Mammoth Cave, 382. Mackenzie, Hon. Alex., 213. Macdonald, Hon. J. S., 261. Magill, Alderman, 261. Medal. Prince of Wales, 98, 99. Meddaugh, E. W., 173. Meredith, H. H., 181. Merry, W. A., 150. Merit, Order of, 253. Memorial, 187, 189. Merrill, Selah, 243. Merritt, W. H., 261. Millar, J. S., 138, 207, 328. Midnight Meeting, 369, Miramichi Fire, 218. Mitchell, Hon. Peter, 363. Morrison, Kenneth, 64. Morrison, Johnny, 32. Moose Deer, 100-101. Monument, 99, 126, 160. Monkey Passenger, 374. Mortgage— Big One, 173. Mottos, 261. Mose, Conductor, 231. Mowat, Sir Oliver, 368. Molson, Hon. Jno., 261, 312. Mosely, General Manager, 224. Morris, Hon. W., 261. Moving Bodies, 362. Muir, W. K., 125, 151, 182, 199, 219. Murphy, James, 236. Murphy, Engineer, 178. McNab, Sir Allan, 113, 260. McNamee, 177. McGee, D'Arcy, 88. McMillan, James, 166, 199, 274. McDougall, Hon. W.,363. McDonald, Hon. A. A,, 363. Napoleon, 85, Narrow Escape, 204. Nature— A Poem, 393. Newcombe, W. L, 65. Nelles, R. L., 105, 208, 210. Newcastle, Duke of, 98. New England Railways, 268. Newell, President, 30.5. New York vs. Quebec, 355. Nights (Three in Cars), 128. " Nile," Steamer, 41. Index. 405 ^'Nickel Plate" RaUway, 143. North Staffordshire Railway, 85, 225, 256. Nugget, Gold, 351. Ocean Steamships, 313 to 320. Officers, G. T. R., 1856, 273. "OldProbs," 111,137. "On the Line," 293. Ontario's First Railway, 281. Ontario's Big Map, 350. Operators' Duties, 327. Ormandv, F.,65. O'Brien,' Brontere, 88. Orr, WiUiam, 214. Owen, Sir Richard, 162. "Outram Roads," 275. Paton, Hugh, 107. Packet Boat, 31. Painting, Historic, 101. Paving Stones, 45. Parliament — Old Act, 51. Pants and Mail Bag, 211. Payette, Louis, 238. Pasley, Sir Charles, 17.5. Pay Roll, G. T. R., 280. Paxton, Miss, 262. Percy, Charles, 180. Peto, Sir M., 81, 140. Pease Edward, 51-52. Petroleum, 391. Perkins, Fred, 267. Peel, Sir Robert. 277. Phonograph and Baby, 342. Pickford & Co., 23, 104. Pig— A Tale, 378. "Plain Dealer," 198. Poachers, Game, 28. Potteries, 49. Pool, Braithwaite, 55, 199, 377. Porteous, John, 177, 185. Port Hiuron, " Daily Times," 19, 152. Pocket-A Big One, 360. Power, N., 202. Portland, Me., 83, 328. Pottinger, David, 215, 217. " Pooder In," 258. Preston, Town of, 23. Preston & Wyre Railway, 40. Prince of Wales, 98-99, 242. Printing Press, 388. Price, Jos., 127, 189, 203. Pro. Rata, 248. Price, Hon. J, H., 26L Pullman, G., 113-114. Pup— A Lady's Muff, 374. Purkis, G. W., 325. Quakers. The Three, 51, 54. Quincy, Hon. J., 261, 263. Queen Victoria, 328, 330, 353. Queen Mary, 50. Quirk, John, 193. Quebec's First Railway, 280. Quebec vs. New York, 355. Railways, 26, 36, 39, 44, 293, .304. Railway Management, 116, 121. Railways of the World, 297. Railways, U. S. and Canada, 280. Railways, Early English, 116, 118. Rates of Freight, 29. 145. Reith, George, 142, 150, 152, 291. Reeves, Mr., 177. Reynold, Thos., 203. Red River— Incident, 29L Reid, Geo. Lowe, 236. Relative Size of Steamships, 320. Ritchie, H. K., 205. Risen from the Ranks, 304. Riel, Louis, 349. Ross, Hon. John, 84, 148, 161. Ross, A.M., 96, 98. Ross, Hon. A. M., 176. Ross, John, 97. Ross, Colin, 204. Rose, Sir John, 273. Roberts, John, 31-32. Roney, Sir Cusack, 84, 98, 237. Robertson, Professor, 347. "Rocket" Engine, 278, 298. "Royal WiUiam," Steamer, 314, 317. Robbers, Canal, 27. Rogers, M. & S., 313. Runaway Engines, 35. Ruddack, J. A., 347. Ryerson, Pvev. E.,261. Sampling Liquor, 35. Salt, Sam, 63, 199. "Sarah Sands," Steamer, 81, 380. "Savannah'' Steamer, 313. Sailing Craft, Dominion, 321. Sanderson, Mr., 86. School Days, 22. Schultz, Hon. Dr., 349. Schreiber, C, 215. Secret — How Discovered, 75. Seargeant, L. J., 154, 156, 173, 176. Shanly, Walter, 87, 92, 119, 122, 142 148, 151, 178. 406 Index. Shedden, John, 105, 108. Shares, Railway, 79. Shipping Notes, 105. *' Shunted and Stuck," 378. Shea, Sir Ambrose, 362. Shea, R, A., 193. "Sirius," Steamer, 316. Sleeping Car, 113, 129. Sleeper, Mr., 360. Smiles, Dr. S., 75. Smith, President, 305. Smith, Sir Frank, 176. Smith, Jno., " Barley King," 213. Smith, Rev. Sydney, 336. Snider, Conductor, 232. Snow vs. Cotton, 858. Song — Agents, '223. Song— G. T. R. Labourer, 357. Spicer, W. J., 169, 176, 339, 341. Spriggs, G. B., 187, 195, 198, 211. Spence, G. S., 209. Sportsman's Paradise, 216. Staffordshire Knott, 49. Stanley, Lord, 163. " Stand Ups," 59. Stephenson, Geo., 39, 180, 233, 235, 272, 276, 278, 299, 302. Stephenson, Robt., 85, 96, 98. Stephenson, Jas., 92, 160, 176. Stephenson, G. R., 97. Stevenson, P. S., 168, 185. Stephens, W. C, 203. Stark, David, 140. Stratton, F., 184. Stockton & Darlington Railway, 277. Steamships, 92, 311, 321, 400. Station Agents, 222, 224, 227. Storey, Mr., 341. Sturgeon, Tales of, 364. Submarine Cables, 336. Sun vs. Locomotive, 302. Swinyard, Thos., 120, 167, 184, 189, 196, 198 199. Swords, Patrick, 291. Tablet Unveiled, 317. Taylor & Bro., 143. Tandy, Thos., 187, 190. Taylor, Jos., 199, 275. Table Cloth— A Big One, 269. Tache. Hon. E. P.,260. Teetotaler, 43, 392. Temperance, 42, 170, 393. .Telegraph, 324, 327, 337. ' Teutonic," Steamship, 318. Testimonials, 47, 86, 92, 122, 127, 152, 193,. 220, 235, 236, 392. Telegram, A Madman's, 369. Thermometer, Victoria Bridge, 99. Thames Tunnel, 178. Tillinghast, Jas., 120. Tiffin, W. R., 192. Tibbits, Cap., 207. Tilley, Sir S. L., 362. Toronto G. & B. R., 209. Toronto's Address, 267. "Tossicated" (tossed about) Passenger^ 369. Todd, J. H., 351. Tollgate Man, 25. Towej, Jno. M., 305. Town, Vice. P., 305. Tram Roads, 26. Trunk, Mysterious, 31. Trent & Mersey Canal, 51. 85. Trevithick, Richard, 88-89. Trevithick, F. H., 89, 301. Train- No Driver, 254. Tutbury Castle, 50. Tunnel, St. Clair, 172, 178, 300. Tupper, Sir Chas., 362. Tyler, Sir Henry, 173, 178, 286. United States Railways, 296. United Kingdom Railways, 293, 295. Victoria Bridge, 86, 95, 98. Vivian, Andrew, 89. Vidal, Hon. Mr., 176. Vocabulary, U. S., 357. Valedictory, 393. Way Bills, 25, 323. Watkin, Sir E., 153. Walklate, Goods Manager, 65. Wainwright, W., 157. Walker, W., 109. Walker, J. Fred, 165. Wallace, W., 182. Walsh, James, 327. Wallingford, A., 194. Wagner Cars, 113. Wallis, Herbert, 161, 176. Watt, James, 311. Webster, Hon. Dan., 260, 263. Webster, S. T., 101, 143. Welland Railway, 87. Weatherston, Jno., 233, 236. , Weatherston, N., 219, 355. Wellington, Duke, 277. Webster, A. F.,320. Index. 407 Whiskey vs. Wool, 30. Whiskey Line, 89. Whiskey and Maine Law, 359. White, Arthur, 187, 192. Whyte, William, 210. Wheat Rates, 251. Wiman. Erastus. 138, 326. Witnesses in London, 69. WiUiams, F. S., 66. Wilkie, W., 109. Wilson, Hon. Chas., 261. Wily, Walter, 207. Wily, Arthur, 208. Witton, Mr., 201, Winnipeg Special, 289. Winans, Governor, 177. Winthrop, Hon. C. W.. 261. Wicksteed, G. &. H., 317. Wordsworth's Sonnet, 303. Wood, O. S., 326. World's Bailways, 297. Wragge, Edmund, 158-159. Wright, Robert, 179. Wylds Great Globe, 351. Wyre Rjulway, 39, 41, 48, 85. Young, Hon. Jno., 96, 98, 148. APPENDIX TO Railways and Other Ways BY MYLES PENNINGTON. WITH PORTRAITS AND SKETCHES OF The Pi-esident, Vice-President, General Manager, and Other Officers of the Ke^v G. T. R. System; also Some looted American Railway Pioneers, incliiding Com- modore Vanderbilt and Others "lamneitker a prophet mar the mm of a prophet, yet J will rentvre to prtdiet that man]) in thit room wttl lire to hear the tcAictle ef the loeowtotire i<t the paesea of the Roetn Mountain*, and make the joHmey from Haltfax to the Pacific in five or *ix dayi.'—From a speech by thp Hon. Joseph Howe, in Halifax, N.S., in 1851. TORONTO : WILLIAMSON & COMPANY. 1896. APPENDIX TO RAILWAYS AND OTHER WAYS. CONTENTS : PAOB3. Sir Charles Rivers- Wilson, G.C.M.G., C.B., President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada— Sketch and Portrait 5 Mr. Joseph Price, Vice-President G.T.R.— Sketch and Portrait 8 Speeches of the President and Vice-President in London 8-11 Banquet to General Manager L. J. Seargeant on his Retirement from that Position 11 The Governor-General's Telegram 13 Chief Justice Sir Alexandre Lacoste's (Chairman) Speech 13 Mr. L. J. Seargeant's Reply 14-16 Sir Mackenzie BoweU — The Premier's Address 17 Sir Adolphe Caron's Speech 18 Hon. J. A. Ouimet's Speech 19 Mr. Charles M. Hays, General Manager of the G.T.R. System— Sketch and Portrait 20 Wabash Officials' Testimonial to their Ex-G«neral Manager, Mr. Charles M. Havs - 22 Mr. W. J. Spicer's Retirement from the Chicago and Grand Trunk Managership 24 Mr. Geo. Bell Reeve, General Traffic Manager of the G.T.R. System- Sketch and Portrait 24 Mr. James Stephenson's Retirement as Superintendent of the G.T.R 26 Testimonial to Mr. Jas . Stephenson 27 Mr. F. H. McGuigan, General Superintendent of the G.T.R. System- Sketch 27 Mr. Jno. W. Loud, General Freight Agent of the G.T.R. System— Sketch . . 29 Mr. W. E. Davis, Greneral Passenger and Ticket Agent of the G.T.R. System -Sketch 30 Mr. G. H. Bell, Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent of the G.T.R. System— Sketch 30 Mr. John Earls Retires from District Freight Agency — Another Position. . . 31 Mr. Robert Quinn, Division Freight Agent of the G.T.R. — Sketch 31 Mr. H. W. Walker, (ieneral Auditor of the G.T.R.— Sketch and Portrait. . . 32 The Old G.W.R. and G.T.R. Good Railway Schools 32 Mr. E. P. Hannaford, C.E., Engineer of the G.T.R., Retires from the Service 32 Mr. Joseph Hobson, C.E,, Appointed Engineer of the Whole of the Grand TrunkSystem 32 ii. Contents. Mr. Herbert Wallis, Ex-Mechanical Superintendent of the G.T.R.— Sketch and Portrait 33 Magnitude of the Grand Trunk Rolling Stock 34 A Train 172 Miles in Length 34 The " Circular System " West of Toronto 34 New Departments — Mr. F. W. Morse, Supt. of Motive Power— Mr, W. McWood, Supt. of Car Department— Other Old G.T.R. Officers 35 Early Directors of the G.T.R 36 Present Directors of the G.T.R 36 Photographic Group of 1860 —An Explanation 37 Mr. W. L. Malcolm, of New York— Sketch and Portrait 38 Mr. A. D. Penfold, General Auditor of the Merchants Despatch, New York — His Essay on Noted Railway Men of the Past — C. J. Brydges— Commodore Vanderbilt, etc.— Sketch and Portrait 39-41 The Great Snow Blockade of March, 1896 — Worst Storm for Years— " Shunted and Stuck "—The Superintendent's Story— The "Globe's" Staff Among the Drifts— The Sierras Beaten— 500 Excavators— A Snow- Shovel Army— The Lost Freight Train— Union Station (Toronto) Goes to Sleep for a Season — Battle with the Elements— All Previous Records Beaten 42-47 The Electric Railway Craze — Another Railway Mania Brewing — A Road on " Stilts " Projected -A Prediction— A Warning from 1845 47-48 RAILWAYS AND OTHER WAYS. PREFACE TO THE APPENDIX. IT is deemed necessary to offer some explanation as a reason for the addition of this appendix. Since the publishing of this work important changes have taken place in the directorate and management of the Grand Trunk Eailway, and it was thought advisable, with a view to the completeness of the work, to give a short account of these changes up to date, with por- traits and sketches of the gentlemen now having charge of the great pioneer Canadian railway. Some remarks have been made of the want of system or continuity in arrangement of the subjects treated of in the book. To this the Author would state that much of the earlier part of the work was actually in print before the latter part of it was written or even thought of. The book being one mainly of reminiscences of events and circumstances occurring during a long life, these were apt to crop up in the Author's mind at different times and without any order in their coming ; but it may be observed that each subject is independent of the one which follows, and to facilitate the finding of any particular article, sketch, or incident, without iv. Railways and Other Ways. much loss of time, a very copious index, in alphabetical order, will be found at the end of the book. The title of the work may, to some extent, have been looked upon as one on Railways only, but a glance at the list of contents will show that this is not the case. The indefinite term " Other Ways " left a wide opening to treat almost upon any subject under the sun, and the words were introduced for that purpose, and matters other than that of Railways have been given. It is to be hoped that the work may be found useful as one of reference on the commencement and progress of some of the great public undertakings which, during the near closing century, have made such remarkable revolutions in the movement of people and merchandise, by land and water, to and from all parts of the world ; also, that it may correct some errors which have crept in as to early railway, river, and ocean steam navigation, the electric telegraph, etc. It may also be of interest as a reference to the names of those who have figured in the construction, supervision, and management of the means of transit which have sprung up in little more than the last half century. In addition to his own reminiscences, the Author has gath- ered other information from all available sources, more particu- larly from the newspaper, which may be classed as the real his- torian of every day in the year. THE AUTHOR. Toronto, 1896. SIR CHARLES RIVERS-WILSON. APPENDIX. SIR CHARLES RIVERS-WILSON, Q.C.n.Q., C.B. PRESIDENT OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY OF CANADA. SIR CHARLES RIVERS-WILSON was born in London, England, February 19, 1831, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1853 ; passed a competitive examination, and was ap- pointed a Clerk in the Treasury February, 1856 ; was Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary from 1856 till 1858 ; to the Permanent Secretary from 1858 till Decem- ber, 1868, and Acting Private Secretary to Mr. Disraeli (late Earl of Beaconsfield) from August, 1867, till February, 1868. Was appointed (conjointly with the late Professor Graham) Brit- ish Representative at the International Coinage Commission in Paris in 1867, and Secretary to the Royal Commission on Inter- national Coinage in 1868 ; was Private Secretary to the Right Hon. R Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer from December, 1868, till April 1873, when he was appointed Comptroller- General of the National Debt Office. Was recommended by Her Majesty's Government, at the request of the Khedive, for a financial post under the Egyptian Government, and proceeded to Egypt in March, 1876, but returned to England in the following June, and resumed his duties at the National Debt Office. Was ap- pointed one of the Representatives of Great Britain on the Coun- cil of the Suez Canal Company, July 29, 1876. Was appointed 6 Railways and Other Ways. a Koyal Commissioner for the Paris Exhibition of 1878, January 22, 1877. Returned to Egypt in 1878, and was, successively, Vice-President of the Commission of Inquiry, Minister of Fi- nance, and President of the International Commission of Liqui- dation for the settlement of the Egyptian finances. Returned to his duties at the National Debt Office in 1880. Was one of the British Representatives at the International Monetary Congress at Brussels in 1892. Retired from the Comptroller Generalship of the National Debt in 1894. Elected President of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada in 1895. Was made C.C.B. 1876. K.C.M.G. 1880. ^^ G.C.M.G. 1895. Has received Her Majesty's permission to wear the Turkish Order of the Ist class of the Medjidieh, granted to him for ser- vices in Egypt. MR. JOSEPH PRICE, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE G. T. R. At page 127 of this work will be found a portrait of Mr. Price of twenty-one years ago, with a few remarks of my own recollections of him when he was Treasurer of the old Great Western Railway of Canada. I now give a more complete bio- graphy of Mr. Price's career, more particularly as a railway financier, as well as an authority on railway questions on both sides of the Atlantic ; also a portrait of Mr. Price at the pre- sent time, 1896. Mr. Price first entered railway service in July, 1855, in the audit office of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway Appendix. 7 at Manchester. Subsequently he was appointed to the Chief Accountant's office as Chief-Bookkeeper of the general accounts of the Company, While in that position he prepared a compre- hensive comparative statement of the Capital and Revenue accounts of the principal English and Scotch Railways. This statement attracted the attention of some Capitalists who had large holdings in American Railway Bonds, and by them Mr. Price was sent to the United States to prepare for them similar statements of American Railways ; and he left England for the United States on the Ist October, 1859. Soon after his arrival there, he was offered the position of Treasurer with charge of the accounts of the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railway (now the Chicago & Alton, but then in the hands of a Receiver). He remained at Chicago through the Receivership, and afterwards with the reorganized Company, until December 1st, 1864, when he accepted a similar position on the Great Western Railway of Canada (now amalgamated with the Grand Trunk Company), and remained there eleven years, the last year of which he occupied the position of General Manager. His health had broken down in the meanwhile ; and, on his return to England in 1875, he underwent a serious operation, from the effects of which he was an invalid for several years. On his recovery he established in London the well-known institution called the EngUsh Association of American Bond and Shareholders, of which he became the Managing Director, and has remained in the same position since its establishment in 1884. During that period he has been con- nected with nearly every reorganization of American Railways. In October, 1894, he was requested by some of the large holders of the securities of the Grand Trunk Railway Company 8 Railways and Other Ways. to join an independent Committee of Shareholders then forming, and which led to a reorganization of the Board of the Grand Trunk Company, of which he was appointed Vice-President, with Sir C. Eivers-Wilson, G.C.M.G., C.B., as President. THE O. T. R. HALF-YEARLY MEETING OF 8HAEEH0LDERS IN THE COM- PANY, HELD AT LONDON, ENGLAND, OCT. 30, 1895. {Extracts from the Speeches of the President and Vice-President, taken from the ^'Railway News.") Sir Charles Rivers-Wilson said : "I must now mention a matter of peculiar interest and extreme importance to the shareholders. Mr. Seargeant will, on January 1st next, conclude his long and honourable career in your service, and will be succeeded in his post as General Manager by Mr. Charles M. Hays, at present the Vice-President and General Manager of the Wabash Railway Company. Nothing has caused the Board greater anxiety than the selection of the officer who is to fill this high, responsible, and most arduous position. The qualifications for the post of General Manager of these great trans-Atlantic railroads are extremely varied, and are most difficult to find united in the same person. We believe that in Mr. Hays we have secured a man of exceptional ability, of thorough integrity and of complete knowledge, as well as of what I may call rail- way politics as of the technical handling of a railroad in all its details. We shall ask you to elect Mr. Seargeant, who is return- ing to England, to fill the existing vacancy on the Board, and in doing so we feel that we are proposing a measure which will be extremely useful to the Company, and will lend strength to the Board to whom Mr. Seargeant's intimate acquaintance with JOSEPH PRICE. Appendix. 9 every portion of the system and every detail of the administra- tion will be of signal advantage. (Applause.) In Canada and America it is probable that a reorganization of certain portions of the staff may be effected, which, as pointed out in the report, would be attended with economy and increased efl&ciency : but we have thought it best to defer taking any conclusive steps with this object until after the new Manager has taken office, and is able to confer with the Board as to the measures to be adopted. Before leaving this subject I desire to place on record our appre- ciation of the zeal and intelligence of the officers with whom my colleagues of the deputation and I came into contact while in Canada. We were also excessively struck with the excellence and the high character of the large body of workmen in the shops which we visited. "We were happy to find that they appeared well satisfied with the conditions of their employment, were interested in their work, and proud of their connection with the Grand Trunk Company. I must add, on behalf of the entire Board, that they desire to bring to the notice of the shareholders the able and loyal services of the London staff, and to express their particular obligation to Mr. Walter Lindley, their Secretary, for the ready and able assistance he renders to them at all times." Mr. Joseph Price, Vice-President, said : " Referring to the statement in the Report showing the increase of the mileage of the Railway and in the fixed charges, I do not want to go into full details and show where the mistakes have been made. I will only take one instance ; that is the case of the Great Western, which I was connected with for fifteen years, long before the fusion. The Grand Trunk Railway at the time of the 10 Railways and Other Ways. fusion had 1,480 miles of railway, and its fixed charges came to ^6425,000. They took in the Great Western Kailway, 808 miles, and added, virtually, to the charges in front of the Grand Trunk first preference stock as much as the entire fixed charges of the Grand Trunk Kailway— that is to say, they valued the Great Western at the same price as they valued the Grand Trunk- That was where the mistake was made. There was too much paid for it, and too much paid for the other lines. One of the effects of the fusion of the Great Western with the Grand Trunk was that, whereas the former, when worked as an independent line, did a very large business from Chicago via Detroit to the East- ern States ; that business was, shortly after the union, almost entirely lost. The Michigan Central was controlled by the New York Central, and the whole of our business is now done by means of the Sarnia Tunnel and the Suspension Bridge of the Grand Trunk Railway. There is no use crying over spilt milk unless you can get some of it back again, and I think we can get a great deal of this lost traffic back again ; and in appointing Mr. Hays as the General Manager of the Grand Trunk, we have the very man to do it. He is the General Manager of the Wabash Eailway, which has not only a connection with the Grand Trunk, but he has also a connection with our great competitor, the Can- adian Pacific. The Canadian Pacific can only reach Chicago over the Wabash Railway, and, therefore, Mr. Hays comes to us with full knowledge of all the circumstances in connection with this business. He is quite a young man, only forty years of age, and a man full of energy, a strict disciplinarian, and very much liked by his people. I feel sure in appointing Mr. Hays we have done right." Appendix. 11 Mr. Price further said : "I am one of the four Directors who proceeded to Canada and returned about three weeks ago. It is not altogether a very pleasant duty that of the inspection of a very large system of railway like the Grand Trunk. We travelled over 4,000 miles of railway, and during the whole of that time I do not think that on more than one day was the thermometer below 90 degrees. Now, travelling over a very dusty country through clouds of sand and dust, as we did through Michigan, was not a very pleasant occupation, but it was one which we had to do. We had not to travel as ordinary pas- sengers, but in the rear of the train, in the observation car, with eyes strained on the track from morning till night for three weeks, and that is very hard work. With regard to the condi- tion of the roadway, I would say that, although of course there have been forced economies on the Grand Trunk, the line has not been starved, and is in good order. Some financial periodicals published a statement six months ago from a writer in Canada, who said that as he travelled over the line he saw the rear end of the rails going up as the cars struck the first part. How that could be possible it would be difficult to tell, inasmuch as the Grand Trunk is fish-jointed from one rail to another, just like our English railways, as you will understand if you travel as I did from Quebec to Chicago, at fifty miles an hour, with perfect comfort and safety." BANQUET TO MR. L. J. SEARGEANT On his Retirement from the Position of General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway. The above famous banquet was held at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, on the 17th December, 1895. It was attended by 12 Railways and Other Ways. about 300 gentlemen. " It was," says the Montreal Gazette, " not merely the largeness of the assembly, it was its represen- tative character that was impressive. Several members of the Government were present and every phase of life in the Domin- ion had its representatives — the Bench, the Bar, the Army, Art, Science, Letters, and Commerce in all its departments. There were enough eminent American railway magnates to make the gathering remarkable. All that is most powerful in Montreal was largely represented, and from all the other great centres of the Dominion gentlemen had come on purpose to be present." Chief Justice Sir Alexandre Lacoste occupied the chair, and on his right sat the guest of the evening, Mr. L. J. Seargeant. On the left of the chair was the Premier, Sir Mackenzie Bowell. On the Premier's left were Sir Joseph Hickson and Sir William Whiteway, Premier of Newfoundland. On Mr. Seargeant's right were Sir Adolphe Caron and Mr. J. P. Green, second Vice-Presi- dent Pennsylvania Railway, of Philadelphia. Among the other gentlemen present were : Sir William Van Home, T. G. Shaugh- nessy and C. Drinkwater, of the C.P.R ; Mr. H. Montagu Allan and A. A. Allan, of the Allan Steamship Line; Messrs. E. Wragge, W. J. Spicer, William Wainwright, James Stephenson, E. P. Hannaford, Jos. Hobson, John Burton, J. W. Loud, Arthur White, John Earls, G. B. Eeeve, Charles Percy, N. J. Powers, Walter Herbert Wallis, J. J. Lanning, C. K. Domville, of the G.T.R ; Mr. John Torrance and John Torrance, jr., of the Dominion Steamship Line ; Mr. John Bell, Q.C. ; His Worship Mayor Villeneuve, etc., etc. During the banquet the following telegram was received by Mr. Seargeant from the Governor- General at Ottawa : — Appendix. 13 " At to-night's banquet I am sure there will be a cordial and appropriate demonstration of widespread esteem and of heai'ty good wishes on the occasion of your departure for England. Permit me to offer assm-ance of thorough participation in those sentiments. " (Signed) Aberdeen." The Chairman, Chief Justice Sir Alexandre Lacoste, spoke in eulogistic terms of Mr. Seargeant, but want of space will only admit of a few extracts from the address being given. Sir Alexandre said : *' One thing, however, speaks more eloquently than my words, and that is this demonstration itself. This gathering of prominent citizens bears most striking testimony to the esteem and respect we all entertain for our honored friend. " Indeed, I do believe that our guest, with his characteristic modesty, hardly realized before this eveuing how much confidence his fellow-citizens placed in him, how they admired his talents and appreciated his personal and social qualities. " The Grand Trunk has been so closely connected with the progress of om* country for the last forty or fifty years, and especially with the prosperity of Montreal, that we must neces- sarily consider as our benefactors those who built and worked that great enterprize. " The Presidents and General Managers of the Railways of the Trunk Line and Central Traffic Association, a powerful organization representing $1,500,000,000, at their meeting in November last, adopted a resolution expressing their profound regret that Mr. Seargeant had to sever his connection with the Association, acknowledging his great usefulness and ability, and on that occasion Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, the distinguished President of the New York Central Railroad, paid him the com- 14 Railways and Other Ways. pliment that never before his time had the harraony between the Canadian and American railways been so great and sincere." The toast of " Our Guest " was honored with three times three, a tiger, one for Mrs. Seargeant, and musical honors, amid a scene of extraordinary enthusiasm. Mr. Seargeant made a lengthy and very interesting reply, which was fully reported in the Montreal Gazette, covering many columns of that paper, from which a few extracts only can be given. Speaking of the guests from all parts of the Dominion, and especially from Montreal, Mr. Seargeant said : " It is a special matter of congratulation to have enlisted the sympathy of representatives of the greatest interest ever presented in one country in the history of the world, the great railway system of the United States, consisting, as it does, of 180,000 miles and $12,000,000,000 of railway capital. " The present generation can scarcely appreciate the condi- tions attendant on locomotion during the pre-railway period of Canada, and there must have been present to travellers, at that era, the truth of Macaulay's statement, that 'of all inventions, the alphabet and printing press alone excepted, those inven- tions which abridge distance, have done most for civilization.' " A personal friend told me yesterday that it took him, on one occasion, six days to reach Toronto from Montreal. " Let me endeavor to show you how the progress of the railway system has been coincident with the prosperity of this country. Speaking in round figures, the Grand Trunk in 1860 consisted of 1,000 miles ; in 1895, with its affiliations, of 4,200 miles. The Company paid out in wages, last year, upon its main A ppendix. 15 line, §8,000,000. It employs upon that part of the system 16,000 men, upon the whole system 20,000 men. " We expended in Canada during the last twelve months, in purchase of stores and materials, nearly $2,000,000. The capi- tal accounts of the companies comprised in the Grand Trunk system are equivalent in round figures to £75,000,000. In 1874 two million passengers were carried ; in 1894, nearly six mil- lions, or more than the entire population of Canada. In 1874, 2,000,000 tons, and in 1894 8,000,000 tons of freight were carried. The gioss receipts of the lines comprised in the Grand Trunk system for the year 1894 were $21,500,000. " The earnings of all railways in 1842 were 854,000 ; in 1894 nearly §50,000,000. The population in 1851 was about 1,800,000; in 1891 nearly 5,000,000, and now is presumably between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000, which was the population of England in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and a population that constitutes a nation. The population of Montreal in 1851 was 60,000, and at present probably 250,000 ; of Toronto at the same dates, 30,000 and probably 185,000. The foreign trade of Can- ada's exports and imports together, in 1850, were about 830,000- 000 ; in 1894, 8241,000,000. " I beheve in the future of Canada, in the development of its industries, of its shipping, and of its commercial interests. Canada is a young country ; its progress during the past half century has been phenomenal ; its coal and mineral resources are inexhaustible ; its forests, in large districts still virgin, con- tain untold wealth ; its manufactures are constantly increasing in importance ; it has an admirable railway system in the Can- adian Pacific, which must, in the ordinary course, people and 16 Mailways and Other Ways. develop the Northwest, and that fertile and, until the last few years, almost unknown part of Canada, will become the granary of the world. " You are aware that my President and three of his col- leagues visited Canada in the autumn (1895) and made an ex- haustive examination of the Grand Trunk system. These gentle- men came perfectly unbiased to judge for themselves of the property, its condition and its management, and the result was entirely satisfactory to the Executive. The Board have earnestly in view the expediency, in the common interest, of placing them- selves in touch with the wants and commercial interests of the Dominion, and they thought that after twenty-two years of such close intimacy as has existed between us, that my future services might be of some value to you and to themselves were my assist- ance transferred from Montreal to London. The Directors have paid me the compliment of ojBficially designating my career among you as laborious and honorable, and the proprietors have endorsed that verdict by electing me a member of the Board of Directors on and after January 1st. My successor, Mr. Hays, will then come into office as General Manager, and I beg of my friends to extend their confidence to him as they have to me. He will, I feel assured, be in every way worthy of it. I leave you, gentlemen, with the knowledge that to your care and loyalty and courage and patriotism is committed, in area, more than one- third of the British Empire. "I ask our distinguished Chairman's permission to borrow two words of his beautiful language, and wish you all a cheery * au revoir ' rather than a mournful * good-bye.' " Interesting speeches were made by Mr. Macmaster, Q.C., Appendix. 17 the Premier, Sir A. Caron, Sir Wm. Hingston, M.D., Mr. J. D. La3'ng, General Manager of the West Shore Eail\<'ay ; Hon. J. A. Ouimet, Minister of Public Works ; Mr. Lucius Tuttle, Presi- dent of the Boston and Maine Railway ; Sir W. Van Home, President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and several others. Want of space will only admit of a few extracts being given. Sir Mackenzie Bowell, the Premier, said: "He had seen the sixteen miles to which Mr. Seargeant had alluded, which were commenced in 1832 and were ready for operation in 1836, increased to 15,767 miles in 1894. This mileage, in actual oper- ation, represented a capital of $887,975,020, to which the Parlia- ment of Canada had contributed the handsome sum of S149,- 192,089, and had given pledges of assistance to other lines under way. This, however, was not all, for the Provinces had given aid to the extent of 829,368,698 ; and as an evidence of the fact that the people approved of this policy, he might point out that the municipalities had also rendered assistance to the ex- tent of 814,178,611. These facts he regarded as satisfactory evidence of the disposition of the Canadian people to keep pace with their neighbors to the south in railway enterprise and in the general development of the country. " He remembered that when his father and family came to Canada in 1833, it took them eight weeks and two days to cross the ocean, and two or three weeks longer to make the journey from Quebec to Belleville (400 miles). " He remembered also that Archbishop Tach^ once told him that when he first went to the Northwest Territories it took him six months to reach Edmonton from St. Paul, Min. — a journey which could now be accomplished in as many days." 2 18 Railways and Other Ways. Sir Mackenzie heartily wished Mr. Seargeant " God-speed " on his return to his native land. Sir Adolphe Caron said : " I had the pleasure of knowing the lamented Mr. Brydges. Since then I had the pleasure of being intimate with Sir Joseph Hickson, who preceded Mr. Seargeant, and in Mr. Seargeant I found a friend. I am glad to see that the line of distinguished managers is not going to be interrupted by the appointment of Mr. Hays. A gentleman appointed by such men as Sir Charles Eivers-Wilson, Mr. Price, and the Directors of the Grand Trunk Eailway Company in England, must be eminently fitted for the position which he is going to occupy. They had, no doubt, selected him after having studied his record as Manager of the great Wabash system, and con- sidered that such would insure success in his new charge ; and we hope he will get on as well in Canada as his predecessors have done. " In 1851, our population was a little over two millions ; it is now over five millions. Our exports were then about 21 millions ; they are now over 117 millions. Our imports have increased from 33 to 123 millions, nearly 400 per cent. We had then only 159 miles of railway ; we have now 16,091. Our banks have tripled in number, have gone from 13 to 38, exclusive of branches. Their capital stock has increased from 16 to 62 millions. Our deposits have increased from about 9 to over 174 millions. Our bank assets have increased from 35 to 307 million dollars. The tonnage entered and cleared by our ship- ping has increased from 2 to 20 million tons. Our railway earnings have jumped from $100,000 to $35,000,000. We have 1,562 post offices to 601 in that year. Our lighthouses have Appendix. 19 gone from 89 to 1,440, Our mails now travel 30 millions of miles per year as compared with two millions but 44 years ago." Hon. J. A. Ouimet, Minister of Public Works, said : '* Two roads that preceded the Grand Trunk, namely, the Montreal and Champlain connecting your city with the American fron- tiers from Eouse's Point and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic going towards Portland, would, in time, have been undertaken by local capital. It is in this way that some of my friends would have believed it to be their duty to yield to the patriotic movement at the time by investing considerable sums in these undertakings. When the Grand Trunk Company was organized, it was found to absorb these incipient roads by indemnifying the original investors by means of its own debentures. It is thus that I shall have to transmit to my children the twelve or fifteen thousand dollars which are now under my control, and which many people would have been inclined to treat as waste paper. I do not so consider them. I have, on the contrary, the firm conviction that in these debentures I shall leave to my heirs a fortune worth having. I have faith in the future of my country. Every day I see its riches increasing and its population covering more and more of our vast domains. The cities are growing larger, and the farms are extending their fertile boundaries. " One of these days the immense accumulation of Grand Trunk capital will bring a return. The property will double in value, and the holders of Grand Trunk shares or debentures will be numbered among the fortunate of the earth. I am ready to wait, and I wait with confidence." In closing his very interesting address, the Hon. J. A. 20 Railways and Other Ways. Ouimet said : " I cannot help thinking that there is something of egotism on our part in the demonstration of this evening. We not only honor a great railroad manager this evening, but we congratulate ourselves on possessing such a representative and on seeing so sure a protector depart to defend us in London, the soul of the commercial world, the hub of all the continents. And so we wish Mr. Seargeant and his family happiness. We shall be ever watching him, and his days of joy and success shall be ours as well." Sir William Van Home, in a few well chosen words, spoke of the pleasure it gave him to be able to help in the honor being done Mr. Seargeant. MR. CHARLES M. HAYS, GENERAL MANAGER OF THE G. T. R. By referring to the extracts from the addresses of Sir Charles Rivers-Wilson and Mr. Joseph Price, at the half-yearly meeting held in London in October last, the reader will find the particu- lars of Mr. Seargeant' s retirement from the General Manager- ship of the Grand Trunk Railway, and the appointment of Mr. C. M. Hays to succeed him in that position. I now add a sketch of his very unique railway career, from that of a clerk on the Atlantic & Pacific Railway in '73, to the top of railway position twenty-three years afterwards. Mr. Charles M. Hays was born at Rock Island, 111., May 16th, 1856. He entered the railway service November 10th, 1873, as a clerk in the office of the Passenger Department of the Atlan- tic & Pacific Railway at St. Louis. From January to March of the next year he held a more lucrative position, in charge of freight accounts in the Auditor's office, and from then until Jan- CHARLES M. HAYS. / AppeTidix. 21 uary 1st, 1877, he was a clerk in the office of the General Super- intendent of the same Company. He then entered the service of the Missouri Pacific, and was Secretary and Assistant to the General Manager until April 1st, 1884, during which period that system grew from a mileage of but little over five hundred miles to ten thousand miles, the largest system in the country at that time. While acting in this capacity, Mr. Hays also filled the various positions of Vice-President, or Secretary and Treasurer, of many of the subsidiary or branch lines of the Company. He then accepted the position of Secretary to the Vice- President and General Manager of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Eailway. On October Ist, 1886, he was promoted to Assistant General Manager of the same road, and on July 1st, 1887, was made General Manager of the Wabash Western Rail- way, which position he held until July Ist, 1889, when he was appointed to the position of General Manager of the reorganized Wabash Railroad System. On February 1st, 1894, he was also elected to the office of Vice-President, filling the dual position of Vice-President and General Manager. As the active executive officer of this Company in the West, Mr. Hays represented the Wabash Railroad as Director in the large terminal companies at Chicago, Detroit, Hannibal, Des Moines, Kansas City, and St. Louis. At the latter place he was Chairman of the Executive Committee in charge of the erection of the great Union Station. Mr. Hays entered on his duties, as General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, on January 1st, 1896. He has always taken a prominent part in the controlling Traffic Associations in the East and West, and was one of the Committee of Five who drafted the Agreement for the latest- 22 Railways and Other Ways. formed Association, called the Joint Traffic Association, and which embraces in its membership some thirty-three of the lead- ing railroads of the United States and Canada. A TESTIMONIAL : Wdbdsh Officials Take Leave of their Ex-General Manager, Mr. Charles M. Hays. In a quiet and unostentatious manner the officials of the Wabash Kailway Company gave warm and sincere expression yesterday afternoon at the Mercantile Club to their esteem and regard for the ex-General Manager, Mr. Charles M. Hays, who, on the first of the coming year, becomes General Manager of the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada. It was exclusively a Wabash family gathering, including the heads of all departments in the service, 150 fine looking men, of brains, vigor and energy, in the 30s and 40s of life's journey, while not a few have grown gray in the service, and gone beyond the half-century mark. A hearty round of applause greeted the ex-General Manager as he entered the reception room with President Ashley, Director Lawrence and General Manager Ramsey, and escorted by the committee for the occasion, composed of the following gentlemen: Henry A. Lloyd, Chairman ; Wells H. Blodgett, Henry L. Magee, Henry H. Wellman, Milton Knight, Charles S. Crane, Edward B. Pryor, Secretary. Mr. Lloyd, in a few well-chosen remarks addressed to Mr. Hays, stated the object of the gathering, to wish him Godspeed, and called upon Col. Blodgett to voice the senti- ments of the officials. It is scarcely necessary to add that it was admirably done. Col. Blodgett said in the course of his remarks : — Appmid'Wi. 23 " I see here those with whom I have been associated on the road for more than twenty-three years. In that time we have seen many Managers come and go, but none ever came to us as did Mr. Hays, and none have ever left us amid such universal expressions of regret. Of all our Managers, he is the only one who grew up, as it were, among us. The Wabash, as a property, has experienced many vicissitudes of fortune. If it has not always made money, it has always been making men. To-day the traffic on more than 38,000 miles of railroad— which is more than 20 per cent, of all the railroad mileage of the United States — is controlled by men who have grown up and largely learned their business on the Wabash." Col. Blodgett then enumerated the names of those who had thus risen to high railroad positions, among whom was Sir William Van Home, President of the Canadian Pacific. Continuing his remarks the Colonel said : — " Looking back over this list of names, it can be said with truth that not one of them, either in his relations to the company or the public, has ever betrayed his trust ; and in my opinion, there is not one among them with a clearer head or kindlier heart than Charles M. Hays " (Applause). In behalf of the assembled officials, Col. Blodgett presented Mr. Hays with a handsome Jergensen gold watch and chain. The ex-Manager, who is only just recovering from an attack of "the grip," responded with some emotion, and, reviewing the Wabash history, gracefully acknowledged the loyalty and ability of all the officials during his eight years of administration. He was followed by President Ashley, who said many kind words for the retiring Manager, with whom in his official relations he had never had a single point of difference. — Abridged from the St. Louis Daily Glohe-Democrat, December 22nd, 1895. 24 Railways and Other Ways. O.T.R. LINES WEST OF ST. CLAIR RIVER. Mr. W. J. Spicer, General Manager of the Chicago & Grand Trunk, retired from that service in March, 1896. His connec- tion with the old Great Western and Grand Trunk Railways, in different positions, extended over forty-two years. (See page 169.) The General Managership of the C. and G.T.R. was assumed by its President, Mr. Charles M. Hays, now General Manager of the whole of the Grand Trunk system. MR. GEORGE BELL REEVE. Mr. Reeve was appointed General Traffic Manager of the Grand Trunk Railway system on the Ist February, 1896. He was born October 23, 1840, in the county of Surrey, England. Like most of the railway officers, whose short memoirs are given in this work, Mr. Reeve has risen to his present high posi- tion by tact, steadiness and perseverance, always keeping in the advance guard, and ever bearing the banner "Excelsior," as the following characteristic sketches of the rise and progress of his career will show. In May, 1860, he entered the service of the Grand Trunk Railway as a Freight Clerk ; 1862 to '63, Telegraph Operator ; 1863 to '65, Train Despatcher ; 1865 to '66 Relieving Agent ; 1866 to '73, Agent ; and 1873 to '81, Assistant General Agent of the same road. In 1881, he received the appointment of Traffic Manager of the Chicago and Grand Trunk, also Traffic Manager of the GEORGE B. REEVE. AppeTidix. 25 Cincinnati, Saginaw and Mackinaw Eailway; these positions he held up to February 1st, 1896, when he was fui'ther pro- moted as named above. The following extracts taken from the Railway Review, the Railway Age, and the Biographical Directory, published in the U.S., speak for themselves : — " Mr. George B. Reeve, traffic manager of the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway, with headquarters at Chicago, since 1881, has left that position to become general traffic manager of the entire Grand Trunk system, with headquarters at Montreal. Mr. Reeve was bom in England in 1840, but first entered railway work in this country and with the same road he now serves. Although a man of strong convictions and indomitable will, he is also fair minded and willing to concede much for the sake of harmony, qualities which have contributed much to the strong position achieved and maintained by the Grand Trunk. His fight against the so-called uniform bill of lading was a good illustration of the readiness to protect the rights of shippers and won from them high regard. Mr. Reeve will carry to his new position the good wishes of his friends and associates alike." " Mr. George B. Reeve, for fifteen years past traffic manager of the Chicago and Grand Trunk, has been appointed general traffic manager of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, with headquarters at J^fontreal, Que. The traffic affairs of the Chicago and Grand Trunk will be conducted by Mr. David Brown, general freight agent, and Mr. W. E. Davis, general passenger agent. Mr. Reeve has been in the service of the Grand Trunk since May 1, 1860." 26 Railways and Other Ways. " In the selection of Mr, George B. Reeve to j&ll the new and highly important office of general traffic manager of the Grand Trunk Railway system with its 4 or 5,000 miles of line in Canada and the United States, General Manager Hays has made no mis- take. Mr. Reeve has been in the service of the Company thirty- six years, and for the last fifteen years has been traffic manager for the Chicago Grand Trunk. He is well known from Maine to Illinois and his official ability as a railway traffic officer with his intimate knowledge of traffic requirements in the United States and Canada and of the sources from which business can be ob- tained made him the natural occupant of this important position. Mr. Reeve has remained faithful to the service in which he started life, refusing tempting offers from other roads, and after serving the Grand Trunk under five successive managements he has the reward of being selected to fill the position upon the wise conduct of which the earnings of the road largely depend. His intimate acquaintance with trunk line and traffic associations and with the handling of through business, will be specially valuable to the Grand Trunk in the very trying position of com- petition in which it is placed." MR. JAMES STEPHENSON. Mr. Stephenson, Superintendent of the G.T.R., who, in different positions, was with the Company forty years, sent in his resignation in January last, on account of failing health. His retirement from the service is much regretted by the vast number of employees who were under him, whose love and esteem he had won by his uniform kind attention to their interests and welfare. Appendix. 27 Forty years of service with one company or one interest is rarely met with. (See page 160.) Mr. Stephenson retires, followed by the good wishes and respect of his brother officers and the community in general. It is to be hoped that by a rest from his long period of arduous and continuous labors, he may once more regain perfect health. MB. Stephenson's testimonial. From the Employees. Montreal, Que., April 16th, 1896. — Mr. James Stephenson, ex- Superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway, was last evening presented with a small carved cabinet, containing cheque for $2,000, representing the proceeds of subscriptions by Grand Trunk employees of all grades to a testimonial of esteem. An illuminated address accompanied the gift. — Toronto Telegram. MR. F. H. M GUIGAN. Mr. McGuigan succeeded Mr. Stephenson as General Super- intendent of the G.T.E. It will be seen from the interesting sketch of Mr. McG.'s railway career, taken from the Montreal Star of February last, that he, like nearly all the railway officers recorded in my book, has also risen from the ranks, and has reached his present high position on much the same lines as those of his predecessors, Sir Joseph Hickson, Mr. S. R Callo- way, Sir "William Van Home, and many others. " Mr. F. H. McGuigan, the new General Superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway system, is of Scotch-Irish parents, and was born at Cleveland, Ohio, forty-six years ago, while his father was engaged in building the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railway. He 28 Railways and Other Ways. commenced his railway career, at the age of thirteen, as a water boy on the Erie and Pittsburg division of the Pennsylvania Eail- way, gradually working his way up until, in 1874, he had reached the position of roadmaster. After seventeen years' service with the Pennsylvania Eailway he left that Company, becoming, on April 19th, 1880, conductor of a construction train on the St. Louis and Omaha division of the Wabash Railway. He only re- mained in this position for a little more than two months, being appointed roadmaster on July Ist of the same year. His juris- diction was extended from time to time until, on January 1st, 1885, he was made General Roadmaster of all the lines west of the Mississippi river. Three years later he was appointed Super- intendent of the same division, remaining in charge until Dec. Slst, 1895, when he resigned to accept his present position on the Grand Trunk Railway. " I represent the third generation of railway men," he said, laughingly, " both my grandfather and father having assisted in building railways in Scotland. I should also feel some interest in the Grand Trunk, for my father had the contract for building a piece of the road between Toronto and Hamilton. I was not very old at that time, and I had forgotten the name of the place where we lived until passing over the road between the points which I have mentioned, when it all came back to me." " Can you say anything concerning your plans for the future, Mr. McGuigan ? " " Well, I should like to say that we do not intend to import a whole lot of people to help us run the road ; we intend to get along 80 far as possible with the very efficient and able Canadian employees the road already has. In this connection I may say Appendix. 29 that in making my tour of inspection over the lines of the Grand Trunk system, I have been most agreeably surprised — I say sur- prised, because you know as well as I do the unkind things which have been said of the old Grand Trank and its employees. I had heard all sorts of stories about it, but I tell you they are not true. The Grand Trunk has a most excellent force of men, and I have been highly pleased with what I have seen on all sides. Some of the employees are getting grey, I admit, but that is no reason why they should be referred to as * fossils ; ' many of these men were working for the Grand Trunk, perhaps, at the time I started in to learn railroading. It is said that corporations have no souls ; that is untrue, and so long as these old hands can do the work assigned to them, we cannot turn them out just because they may not be so lively as younger men." MR. JOHN W. LOUD, GENERAL FREIGHT AGENT OF THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY. Mr. John Burton, General Freight Agent of the G. T. R., re- tired from that service in February, 1896, to accept an impor- tant railway position in the City of New York. He was succeeded by Mr. John W. Loud, who was appointed General Freight Agent of the whole of the Grand Trunk system, embracing about 4,500 miles, in Canada and the United States. Mr. Loud's long connection with the Grand Trunk Railway at different points and in various positions has given him rare opportunity for learning the " ins and outs " of the freight traffic on both sides of the line. Going back about twenty-five years, Mr. Loud, then a young man, is found at Montreal in the office of P. S. Stevenson, the 30 Railways and Other Ways. General Freight Agent of the Grand Trunk Railway at that time. Subsequently he was with Mr. John Porteous, who succeeded Mr. Stevenson, in 1882, and after that he was appointed freight agent at the large and fast-increasing Grand Trunk Railway freight depot of Toronto. During Mr. Loud's agency here, the amalgama- tion of the Great Western and Midland Railways with the Grand Trunk Railway took place, and he had the entire re-organization of the working of the freight department at Toronto. This, though one of no little magnitude, was successfully carried out. In 1886 Mr. Loud was promoted to the position of Commer- cial Agent of the Grand Trunk Railway, with charge of the through traffic at Detroit, Mich., representing the Company at that large and thriving city, which has long been a great centre of United States and Dominion railways. Mr. Loud here remained until the further promotion named above. It will thus be seen ^hat he has returned to the scene of his former labours, 25 years ago, then an assistant, now a principal. MR. W. E. DAVIS, GENERAL PASSENGER AND TICKET AGENT, G.T.R. Mr. N. J. Power, to whom reference is made at page 202, retired from the position of General Passenger Agent in March last, to take a position in a new department of the G.T.R., viz., that of Auditor of Disbursments. Mr. Power was succeeded by Mr. W. E. Davis who, for some years, has been the popular and efficient General Passenger and Ticket Agent of the Chicago and Grand Trunk, and in that capacity he has now charge of the whole of the Grand Trunk system. Mr. G. H. Bell, an old experienced officer, is Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent, with headquarters at Montreal. Appendix. 31 MR. JOHN EARLS. Mr. Earls severed his connection with the Grand Trunk in March, 1896, after a steady and faithful service of thirty-four years. For the last twelve years he has been Western District Freight Agent. (See page 191.) Mr. Earls was mainly instrumental in forming The Freight Agents' Association of Canada, and as a fitting award and compliment to him, its members, at their meeting in April last, appointed him Secretary-Treasurer to the Association, and permanent Chairman of the different committees, at a salary, it is said, of $1,700 a year. Mr. Earls receives an income from the G.T.R. Superannua- tion Fund. MR. ROBERT QUINN. Mr. Quinn's railway career is quite as remarkable as many others described in this work. He first started on the Northern Railway (now a part of the Grand Trunk), some twenty-five or thirty years ago, as a clerk, but rose steadily to higher positions, as agent, and Local Freight Agent in 1876, and, finally, General Freight Agent of that line. On the fusion of the Northern with the Grand Trunk in 1888, Mr. Quinn was transferred to Hamilton as Western Freight Agent, and some time afterwards he was appointed European Agent for the G.T.R., with headquarters at the great shipping port of Liverpool, England. In March, 1896, Mr. Quinn returned to Canada, once more to accept his old position as Division Freight Agent of the G.T.R., with office at Hamilton, Ontario. MB. H. W. WALKER, GENERAL AUDITOR OF G.T.R. The old Great Western Railway of Canada, as well as the G.T.R. (as remarked in another part of this work), were 32 Railways and Other Ways. famous initiatory railway schools, and in past times supplied United States and Canadian railways with many noted officers, as S. E. Calloway, James Charlton, G. B. Spriggs, John Porteous, W. L. Malcolm, John Burton, A. Mackay, Abraham Fell, the late Thos. Tandy and Jno. Crampton, and many others, not for- getting William Whyte, E. Tiffin, and J. N. Sutherland, of the C.P.R., also N. Weatherston, of the Intercolonial, and I have pleasure in adding another to the list, viz., Mr. H. W. Walker, whose record of advancement is as follows : Mr. Walker was born in Brantford, Ontario, on February 12th, 1839. He entered the service of the Great Western Eail- way, as a boy clerk, in audit offices at Hamilton, Ont., in May, 1854. From 1858 to 1862, was in the general office of the Detroit and Milwaukee Eailway at Detroit. From February, 1862, to 1878, was Chief Bookkeeper in the general offices of the Grand Trunk Eailway at Montreal. Accountant and Chief Accountant, in succession to Mr. (now Sir Joseph) Hickson, from 1878 to 1896. Was appointed General Auditor of the Grand Trunk Eailway, April Ist, 1896. MR. JOSEPH HOBSON, C.E. Mr. E. P. Hannaford, C.E., Engineer of the Grand Trunk lines east of Toronto, retired from that service in January, '96. His connection with the Company dates as far back as 1857. (See page 176.) Mr. Joseph Hobson was appointed, at the same time ('96), to the position of Chief Engineer of the whole of the Grand Trunk system, which includes all the G.T.E. lines in the United States as well as those in Canada. (See page 177.) H. W. WALKER. Appendix. 3^ MK. HERBERT WALLIS. Herbert Wallis, Mechanical Superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, was born at Derby, England, on March 10th, 1844, and comes of a family long resident in Derby, whose head was for several generations engaged in the business of stage-coaching. His father, Wm. Wallace Wallis, abandoned the business on the advent of railways and became one of the carriers or cartage agents of the Midland Railway, from which he retired in favour of one of his sons some years prior to his death. Her- bert Wallis was educated at the Commercial College, near Hali- fax, England, and here he was specially trained in that branch of the engineering profession which he now follows. On the com- pletion of his education, he entered the service of the Midland Railway Company as a pupil of Matthew Kirtley, then locomo- tive superintendent, and was engaged in the drawing office and workshops of that railway at Derby till August, 1866, at which date he was appointed foreman of the locomotive and carriage departments at Bradford, Yorkshire. In March, 1871, he accepted a position offered to him by Mr. Richard Potter (then President of the G.T.R.), of assistant mechanical superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, and sailed for Montreal, May 4th of that year ; and in January, 1873, he was appointed chief mechanical superintendent. Mr. Wallis is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institution of Mech- anical Engineers of England, of several engineering associations of the United States, and President (1896) of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. — From Rose's Aational Biographical Series II., 1888, corrected up to date. Mr. Wallis married a daughter of the late Thomas Walklate 3 34 Railways and Other Ways. a prominent goods manager of the Midland Eailway of England for twenty-five or thirty years. The author was well acquainted with Mr. Walklate in the early railway days. The following shows the increase in the Grand Trunk rolling stock, and what has been done at the workshops of the Mechan- ical Department. During Mr. Wallis's connection with the Company, the rolling stock has increased in number, upon the lines under his jurisdiction, east of the St. Clair Kiver, as follows : from 353 locomotives to 808 ; 352 passenger cars to 916 ; 6,078 freight cars to 22,383. (The present rolling stock, named above, if placed in one con- tinuous line, would form a train reaching from Montreal to Kingston, 172 miles.) During the same period the Company has built no less than 250 locomotives and some thousands of cars at the ^Mont- real works. The Company also manufacture, at its Montreal works, large quantities of bar-iron and castings, effecting large savings. The gross miles run for locomotives have increased, in the past quarter of a century, from about 9,250,000 to 21,500,000, and the car mileage from 87,500,000 to 254,000,000, exclusive of that run on the Chicago and Grand Trunk and lines west of the St. Clair River. It was due to the suggestion of Mr. Wallis that the present arrangement of working the freight trains west of Toronto under what is known as the " circular system " was inaugurated upon the amalgamation of the Grand Trunk and Great Western Rail- ways. All east-bound through freight trains from the Chicago and HERBERT WALLIS. Appendix. 35 Grand Trunk Railway reach Toronto and the Niagara frontier by way of the Great Western lines, which have the easier grades, and the empty cars and west-bound freight are returned over the Grand Trunk main line and the old Buflfalo and Lake Huron Eailway. By this means, what is almost equal to a doiLble track is secured at a minimum cost of working. The process of working the " circular system " will at once be seen by a glance at a G.T.E. map. NEW DEPARTMENTS. Mr. Wallis resigned his position of Mechanical Superin- tendent of the G.T.E. in March last, after which the office was abolished and two new departments created. MR. F. W. MORSE, formerly of Fort Wayne, Ohio, where, for a number of years, he was Superintendent of Motive Power on the Wabash Eail- road, was appointed Superintendent of Motive Power on the whole of the Grand Trunk system, and MB. WM. m'wOOD, of Montreal, now appointed Superintendent of the Car Depart- ment. " Mr. McWood has been associated for a number of years past with Mr. Wallis in the capacity of Assistant Mechanical Superintendent, and his promotion, therefore, to the higher position of Superintendent of the Gar Department, is a tribute to his ability and business tact on the part of the General Manager, Mr. Hays." OTHER OLD G. T. R. OFFICERS. There are several other old and worthy officers of the G. T. E., whom I should like to have included in these sketches, but 36 Railways and Other Ways. the work has so far outgrown my original intention that I am obliged to bring it to a close. However, 1 have pleasure in naming Mr. A. H. Harris, Division Freight Agent, office at Montreal; Mr. Wm. Clark, Auditor of Freight Accounts, and Mr. John Payne, Auditor of Passenger Accounts, who have been recently ap- pointed to these responsible positions. EARLY DIRECTORS OF THE G. T. R. The Act to Incorporate the Grand Trunk Eailway of Canada was passed in 1852. The first Directorate was formed mainly from Directors of different projected lines, among whom were the late Sir Francis Hincks and the late Sir A. T. Gait. On page 273 will be found a list of Grand Trunk Directors forty years ago. At that time there were four English and ten Canadian Directors. BELOW IS A LIST OF G. T. R. DIRECTORS AT THE PRESENT TIME (1896). Sir Charles Eivers-Wilson, G.C.M.G., C.B., 16 Wilton Street, S.W., President. Joseph Price, Esq., Hamilton House, Upper Tooting, Vice- President. George Allen, Esq., 17 Carlisle Street, Soho Square, W. George Von Chauvin, Esq., 24 Old Broad Street, E. C. John Alan Clutton-Brock, Esq., Bickley, Kent. Colonel Frederick Firebrace, R.E., 28 Old Queen Street^ Westminster, S.W. Alexander Hubbard, Esq., Derwentwater House, Acton, W. Sir Henry M. Mather-Jackson, Bart., 12 Burwood Place, W. Appendix. 37 Lewis J. Seargeant, Esq., Dashwood House, 9 New Broad Street, London, E.G. A-lfred W. Smitbers, Esq., Homefield Knockholt, Sevenoaks. Eight Honourable Lord Welby of Allington, G.C.B., 95 Jermyn Street, S.W. Sir William L. Young, Bart, 16 South Eaton Place, S.W. Walter Lindley, Secretary. Auditors. G. Bolland Newton, Esq., 27 Porchester Terrace, W. Frederick Whinney, Esq., 8 Old Jewry, E.G. William M. Ramsay, Esq., Montreal. Thomas Davidson, Esq., Montreal. THE PHOTO OF 1860. Along with the old photographic group of 1860, a reminis- cence of its origin should have been given, as follows : — Mr. T. E. Blackwell, who at the time was Vice-President of the Grand Tnmk Railway, wished to give the Directors in Eng- land an idea of the personal appearance of the staff of officers in Canada, and, as they could not appear at " Home " in proper person, he adopted the next best thing, in sending their photo- graphs. These were taken in groups by Notman. I remember there was one of the managing officers, another of the engineering staff, one of the superintendents, the mechanical department, etc. The ancient group, at page 81, contains the managing G. T. R. officers at that time (1860), viz.:— 38 Railways and Other Ways. Walter Shanly, General Manager. Henry Bailey, Assistant General Manager. James Hardman, Auditor and Passenger Agent. Myles Pennington (the author), Goods Manager. (G. T. R.) MR. W. L. MALCOLM. I well remember Mr. Malcolm, who was for many years an active and efficient officer of the Great Western Railway of Can- ada. The following brief sketch of his very interesting railway career was not received in time to appear in the first edition of this work. Mr. M., it will be seen, has had a very successful railway career, and has for some time retired from active railway service to that of a more restful occupation. " Mr. W. L. Malcolm was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland ; entered railway service 1857 as clerk in charge of parcels de- partment Great Western Railway of Canada, May, 1858, to Aug., 1864 ] clerk to superintendent Western Division Great Western Railway, London, and afterward in charge of London district ; August, 1864, transferred to Buffalo as agent Great Western and Detroit and Milwaukee Railways, and subsequently of the Blue Line to May, 1870, when appointed general passenger agent Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway; 1874 to 1877, general passenger and ticket agent same road; August, 1878, appointed general eastern agent of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F^ system. " Mr. Malcolm remained as the New York representative of the Atchison system for ten years, when he resigned to take a long contemplated and well-earned vacation. His resignation, however, not being accepted, President Strong granted him W. L. MALCOLM. A pfendix. 39 instead an extended leave of absence, and the next few years were spent abroad in European travel. Eeturning to this country he resumed his residence in New York, where he now has his office with the well-known banking-house of E. J. Kim- ball & Co., 16 and 18 Broad Street.' — From the Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America. MR. A. D. PENTOLD, GENERAL AUDITOR OF THE MERCHANTS DESPATCH, NEW YORK. I have pleasant recollections of Mr. Penfold when I repre- sented the Merchants Despatch in Canada, many years ago. Mr. Penfold may fairly be claimed as a Grand Trunk man, having started railway life on the Buffalo & Lake Huron line (now a part of the G. T. R.). In a letter from Mr. Malcolm, recently, he wrote : " Mr. Penfold is an old Grand Trunk, or rather Buffalo & Lake Huron, official. He is still in active life, and high in the confidence of the Vanderbilts ; and, although his connection with the B. & L. H. road dates back to General Manager Carter's time (about thirty years), he still looks like a young man." Mr. Penfold is of a literary turn of mind. Some time ago he gave, in the " New York Eailroad Men's " magazine, under the title of " Flash Lights and Shadows," some very interesting reminiscences of noted railway men of the past, as Dean Eich- mond, Erastus Corning, Commodore Vanderbilt, Benjamin W. Blanchard, Addison Hills, including the late Charles J. Brydges, the Canadian General Manager. An extract or two from the account of the latter will doubtless be read with interest as another addition to Grand Trunk history. " Mr. Brydges," says Mr. Penfold, "would plan and exe- 40 Railways and Other Ways. cute undertakings in connection with the needs of the road which few men could conceive, and fewer had the courage to practically carry out. After Mr. Brydges had added a few more years to his age, his face is said to have strikingly resembled that of Napoleon the First. Certainly, Napoleon could not observe the same number of things more thoroughly in the same space of time than could this man, whom he was said so closely to resemble. " As a despatcher of correspondence, Mr. Brydges probably had few equals in this or any other country. His capacity for work was marvellous ; his memory was another remarkable gift. He would meet and talk with hundreds of people daily ; yet, if a stranger who had casually met him, and exchanged a few words only, called upon him a year subsequently, he would address him by name, and if necessary repeat word for word what was said at the previous interview. The imprint of Mr. Brydges master hand is still visible, not only upon the old Great Western Rail- way, but also upon that of the main line of the Grand Trunk, the management of which he afterwards assumed." (See Por- trait at page 119.) Writing of Commodore Vanderbilt, Mr. Penfold says : " He and his far-seeing and untiring son and grandsons conceived, and have practically executed, the gigantic scheme of owning, controlling, and managing an unbroken system of rails from New York to San Francisco, thus coupling with the iron-ribbon the far-off Golden Gate and our own Manhattan Island in one interest. That the vast plans of Commodore Vanderbilt were father to the child of nearly all subsequent railroad combinations in the country, there cannot exist much doubt ; but it must be A. D. PENFOLD. AppeTidix. 41 admitted that had his immediate family descendants not inher- ited from him his advanced conceptions and hopes could never have been realized. The impetus which this great man gave to railroad interests throughout the country is felt to-day even more perceptibly than when he was living, as the benefits which he conferred on the people were more national than local. Yet stupendous as his work in the business world was, his name is fast fading from the memory of the city in which he lived so long, and for which he accomplished so much, although the mausoleum at New Dorp has held his remains less than twenty years. He left behind him, however, a legacy which few really great men ever bequeath — a lineage that promises to add to, rather than detract /ra7?i, either the business qualities of the man or the honor and lustre of the family name." A gentleman of New York, who in the early days was well acquainted with Commodore Vanderbilt, told the Author that he had, on one or more occasions, seen the Commodore at Albany as early as six o'clock in the morning, with satchel in hand, bound for east or west, and that he would take the first vacant seat in an ordinary car, among the other passengers. There were no grand Pulman drawing-room cars in those days. Mr. Penfold, speaking of "men of rare genius and power, who wrote their names upon the quicksands of business life," says : " To-day their force of character and superior wisdom is everywhere recognized and referred to ; to-morrow their hand is taken from the lever of the world's work, and they are forgotten. In no sphere of life is this more noticeable than in that of the railroad man ; and the object of this paper is to cite a few dis- tinguished examples." 42 Railways and Other Ways. RAILWAY SNOW BLOCKADES OF MARCH, 1896. When I recorded and described, under the head of " Three Nights in the Cars," the snow blockade of March, '69 (see page 128), I thought that that storm, considering the lateness of the season, was about as bad a one as had ever occurred in Ontario since railways were introduced into the country. But all records were beaten by the great snow storm which set in on March 19th, 1896, and which extended over a great portion of Ontario, as well as into the State of New York, and was also 10 days later in the season than the storm of '69. The hundreds of passengers stuck at different points on the Grand Trunk Eailway and Canadian Pacific Eailway for three or four days will long be remembered by the unfortunate parties, but who spoke in glowing terms of the good treatment they met with from the conductors and other officers of the two big railway companies. The Toronto newspapers, at the time, gave lengthy and interesting accounts of the storm, with its incidents. The Globe told the story in eight or ten columns, a few extracts from which I give below : " THE WORST STORM FOR YEARS. " ' The most complete snow blockade ever experienced.' These were the universal terms heard among the officials of the two great railway companies yesterday in speaking of their diffi- cult problem of renewing communication with the outside world, which with one exception had been completely stopped owing to the mountains of snow piled on the tracks by the hurricane which had raged in all parts of the Province during the previous 24 hours. The only line on which a train could be run to its des- Appendix. 43 tination was a single track between here and Hamilton. This track, for some reason or other, escaped the heavy drifts, and the trains made something like schedule time. On every other line running into the city the traffic was completely paralyzed. On the Grand Trunk system thirteen trains were caught in the storm between here and Belleville, but fortunately nearly every train was able to get to a railway station, which secured a greater degree of comfort to the passengers." " SHUNTED AND STUCK " PASSENGERS. " Somewhere in Durham, Sunday (Special). — There are in the string of ten cars that lie here between two walls of snow three classes of passengers — the * Thursday comes,' the ' Friday comes,' and the Saturday comes.' All were started out from Ot- tawa by the courteous, if not too accurate gentlemen of the Canadian Pacific Railway, with the assurance that the line would soon be cleared. There was little block so far as Peterboro', and as * Friday comes,' when we reached that town on Saturday morning, and were there informed that the line was not yet quite clear and we had better go up town and take breakfast at the company's expense, the situation seemed extremely simple. On a little yellow slip of paper were the words, ' Good for passenger's meals while in Peterboro.' " RAILWAY DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT'S STORY. " Mr. Morrice, District Superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway, was interviewed this morning by a Globe reporter. He stated that they had miles and miles of track where the snow is ten feet deep and that every foot of this will have to be shovelled 44 Railways and Other Ways, out before the trains will be able to run ; but, with the hun- dreds of hands employed, he expects the task will soon be com- pleted. The Canadian roads he said, were not alone in their trouble, for in New York State a terrible storm had been experi- enced, and the railways there are just about in the same condi- tion as in Ontario. He was able to state, however, that he had just received word from Weston to the effect that the passengers on the train which is stalled at Highfield had been supplied with food, and that the men engaged shovelling the snow off the tracks were making good progress. About fifteen passengers for North Bay, who had been waiting in the station nearly the whole of yesterday for the train to start, spent last night in the cars^ which had been placed on a side track at the western entrance to the station. Others were making themselves as comfortable as possible in the waiting-rooms, but all were ardently wishing for a speedy release from the situation." THE "globe's" staff BIG DRIFTS. *' All through the country the merchants have been severe sufferers. As an illustration of what must have happened in numerous instances, the case of the Ohhe may be cited. Five of the regular writing staff of the paper were out of the city at the time the storm broke over the Province. Two were in at- tendance on the Young Liberal Convention at Ottawa, one was at Wingham investigating the mob outrage to J. G. Fields, one at Lindsay in connection with the murder of Mr. James Agnew, and one at Whitby reporting the Alger case, heard at the As- sizes there. The Glohe man at Whitby succeeded in reaching the city at 4 o'clock yesterday morning on a forty-four-hour- AppeTidix. 45 delayed train ; the Ottawa deputation turned up at a quarter after 1 this morning, after a three days' blockade ; the others are yet to hear from." SNOW DRIFTS OF THE SIERRAS BEATEN. " Leaving Pontypool, we were soon upon the scene of action, Empty Armour's beef cans were strewed along the line, showing where the shovel brigade had stopped for a meal. An engine looked out at us at another point from under a huge drift. Here and there, chiefly on the west front of rising ground, we ran through enormous cuttings in the snow, such as put Julian Ealph's stories of snow in the Sierras to shame. In one place,, by actual measurement, the snow bank was 21 feet deep, and completely shut out the sky. The cars brushed against its face in passing, with a sharp ' swish.' " 500 SNOW EXCAVATORS AT WORK. " All available employees, even to freight conductors and brakemen, were called out, and these, supplemented by able- bodied recruits, were pressed into service wherever obtainable. Not only had the snow drifted into every cutting and there packed at all depths from a few inches to fifteen and even twenty feet> but the weather moderated somewhat at sunrise, allowing the snow to settle and cake hard, then freeze again, until a plough would make as little impression upon it as it would against a solid bank of earth or even rock. These untoward conditions made the work of excavating the track one of almost unparal- leled difficulty, and necessitated the employment of the pick and shovel gangs. Fully 500 men were started out and distributed as rapidly as possible at points along the line." 46 Railways and Other Ways. FIRST TRAIN SINCE THURSDAY. *' The first train from Montreal since Thursday arrived yes- terday (Sunday) morning. It was the regular train on the Grand Trunk, which should have reached Toronto on Friday morning. Its progress was blocked at Cobourg, and there it remained until early yesterday (Sunday) morning, when it again started for this city. The corresponding Canadian Pacific Eailway express from Montreal reached Toronto on Sunday night about midnight. It was storm-stayed at Peterboro' and had to await there the clearance of the road. The lines on both systems east of the points at which the trains were stopped were kept clear, and the regular trains run from Montreal west that far, and then back, after having delivered their passengers at Cobourg or Peterboro', as the case might be." peterboro' — THE LOST FREIGHT TRAIN. ** There we found the advance guard of the Young Liberals, who had left Ottawa for the west on Thursday night, and the members of the Toronto Aldermanic deputation, a big crowd of drummers and miscellaneous passengers. When the * Friday comes ' said that they were just going to breakfast, and that the line would be clear by 9 o'clock, the old hands winked at each other and looked pityingly at us. " ' I'll tell you,' said one more magnanimous than the rest, * don't you take that yarn around town. There are eight miles of cuttiag between us and Toronto filled with snow, there is a freight train lost in it somewhere, the big rotary plough in which the company trusted is gone lame, and there are a thousand men out with shovels trying to dig out the drifts. The train that left Toronto on Thursday is gone back there, and we are shut in Appendix. 47 as tight as the biggest snow blockade in the history of the road can shut us.' " FOUND THE FREIGHT TRAIN. " The news from the front early on Sunday morning was cheering. They had found the freight train. After that it was only a question of time. The west-bound train, with its comple- ment of passengers assembled on the instalment plan, pulled out of Peterboro' shortly after 9 o'clock." UNION STATION, TORONTO. Upwards of 80 passenger trains arrive at and depart from the Union Station, Toronto, on each working day, but on Satur- day, March 21 st, 1896, with the exception of three or four Ham- ilton trains, no train came in or went out. It is safe to say that such a circumstance never happened before. THE BATTLE WITH THE ELEMENTS. The great storm called forth the energies, skill and judg- ment of the officers and men of the railway companies, and it may be added that the new staff of the Grand Trunk have had their first reception of a real Canadian snow storm, the like of which, considering the time of the year, beats all previous records since railways were inaugurated in the Province of Ontario. ANOTHER RAILWAY MANIA. At page 71 I gave some reminiscences of the railway mania of '45, and at page 308 I drew attention to the threatened inva- sion of the Electric Railway into the territories of the locomo- tive. At that time (1894) the " Trolley " system was mainly confining itself to cities and their suburbs, where it was wel- comed by the citizens. * 48 Railways and Other Ways. The Electric Eailway movement is now going far beyond its original starting point, proj cts being on foot in all countries to grid-iron the lands with Electric Railways, mainly side by side with existing steam railways, and this without ever considering the question how such roads are fto pay. One gigantic scheme is to' build an electric railway on " stilts " (elevated) from New York to Chicago, and the trains upon this serial structure are to Jly at a speed of one hundred miles an hour. Another big one is to make an electric road through the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, although there are already two well-equipped ^team railways with hundreds of miles of branch lines, as well as one of the finest inland water navigations in the world, all capable of conveying an almost unlimited amount of freight and passengers to and from all parts of the two Provinces. It will be seen that there is every appearance of a grand battle in prospect between the " Trolley" and the locomotive. Having watched the railway mania of '45 from its begin- ning to its final crash, I can speak with some degree of certainty as to the utter ruin of many which is likely to follow in all countries as the result of this wild electric craze ; and, without pretending to be a prophet, I would venture to predict another railway mania akin to its fellow of 1845, or that of the South Sea Bubble. There is every reason to believe that the Electric Power will, in time, supersede that of steam, for even heavy freight trains. When that time comes, the railways now in existence are fully prepared for it without the necessity of building other competing roads. ^\. \ ux-^i^.^ ^HIS BOOK IS PtTE ON THB LAST PATE STAMPED BELOW ^N INITIAL iy'^lOTJ\C^^J^l W.Ul. INCREASE TO 50 CENT ^^^^^^ ^^^ DAY AND TO $t.OO ON LD21-100m-7.'33 / t 89767 s / rs ^ ^^ ^ U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CDSiiieib / iJLrvvvvAnrv^fc^r'.