The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

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HISTORY OF THE FIEST LOCOMOTIVES m AMERICA.
when the prairie stretches away ' like the round ocean,' girded
with the sky, with its wood-fringed streams, its flower-enamelled
turf, and its herds of startled buffaloes, shall sweep the long,
hissing train of cars, crowded with passengers for the Pacific sea-
hoard. The very realms of Chaos and old Night will be invaded
while in place of the roar of wild beasts, or howl of wild Indians,
will be heard the lowing of herds, the bleating of flocks ; the
plough will cleave the sods of many a rich valley and fruitful hill,
while from many a dark bosom shall go up the pure prayer to the
Great Spirit."
The foregoing passage was copied at tlie time of its
puMication into one or two metropolitan daily journals,
and, wliile its manner was courteously commended, it
was pronounced visionary and aTDSiu-d in its speculations
; and yet, ere a dozen years had passed, such were
the manifest improvements in railroads and locomotives,
that the very ablest and most influential of these jour-
nals expressed its convictions that the time was close at
hand when the nation would put forth its strength and
commence the greatest and most important work ever
devised or contemplated by man. A national railroad,
designed to connect the inhabitants on our Atlantic
border with our colonists lying on the coast of the Pacific
; a national railroad traversing a vast continent, and
passing over two thousand miles of wilderness still in
the undisputed possession of the red-man, the buffalo,
and the bear ;
a national railroad that shall become the
highway of nations for the commerce of the Eastern
world, and make ISTew York its great depot ; a national
railroad, the cost of which will not fall much short of
a hundred million dollars, and which will not really
cost the nation one dollar, but increase its natural reve-
nues more than five times its cost, by reason of the
value it will impart to our public domain—such an
enterprise is indeed a project worthy of the age in
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