presented a spike of silver; from Arizona came a spike of gold, silver, and iron; from California, a spike of gold. A silver sledge hammer had been prepared for the occasion.

Telegraphic wires were attached to the rails in such a way that the blows of the sledge hammer could be reported instantly from sea to sea. The enthusiastic cheers which arose from the little company in the desert as the gold spike was driven in by the silver hammer were echoed from coast to coast. Says one writer:

Chicago had a procession 7 miles long; New York hung out bunting, fired a hundred guns, and held thanksgiving services in Trinity; Philadelphia rang the old Liberty Bell; Buffalo sang the "Star Spangled Banner"; and many towns burnt powder in honor of the completion of a work which gives us a road to the Indies, a means of making the United States a halfway house between the East and West, and last, but not least, a new guaranty of the perpetuity of the Union as it is.

With the exception of the Panama Canal, the Pacific Railway is the greatest engineering feat ever undertaken in America, perhaps in the world. Eighteen hundred miles of track were laid through an unsettled wilderness, much of which was infested with dangerous Indians. Mountains had to be tunneled, rivers and canyons bridged, alkali deserts and arid plains crossed. In money and land the railway is estimated to have cost the Government $830,000,000.

In general, the railroad followed the old Oregon trail to the north branch of the Platte River, then went directly west to California. Originally a large part of this trail was marked out along waterways by buffalo and other wild animals. The Indian followed the buffalo; the trader followed the Indian; the settler and gold seeker followed the trader; and last of all came the railway- buffalo, Indian, trader, miner, surveyor, engineer, farmer. Such is the story of civilization in the far West.

Men seem to have thought that the value of the Pacific

Railway would consist merely in reaching the coast or opening up oriental trade. While the road accomplished both these purposes, its chief value lay in the fact that it opened up the interior of the continent to settlement.

So long as men have no road by which to market bulky commodities, such as the products of a farm, remote localities are closed to settlement. Only the attraction of gold, silver, or valuable diamond fields can overcome this obstacle. Of what use to raise quantities of crops or cattle or sheep if one can not sell the surplus? And how can one sell unless one can get to the market?

When a railway is built or a canal dug, the way to the market is open. After railroads have been built, wheat and wool can be sold in London or New York; harvesting machinery and pianos can be purchased in Chicago or Paris. Through the building of railroads land is occupied; ranches are established; farms are cultivated; cities come into existence. And so it was with the Pacific Railway. As the lines were built from the East and from the West, a wider and wider ribbon of settlement grew up along their borders. Near the two approaching ends there were always towns, which owed their existence to the presence of the railway employees. Like mushrooms, they grew up in a night; and for the most part they disappeared almost as soon, advancing into the interior with the gradual extension of the line. Wild, rough places they were, frequented by railway hands, gamblers, cowboys, Indians, and desperadoes. A few such towns became permanent cities and developed into prosperous, orderly communities.

When the railway was finished, branch lines were soon built to outlying points. Ranches and settlements multiplied. At connecting points the need of transshipment brought larger towns into existence. In such manner developed cities like Cheyenne.

With the disappearance of the buffalo, cattle ranches made their appearance, extending their operations farther and farther

as it became possible to ship cattle over the railway to eastern markets. Thus the far West was opened up.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Name five of the greatest difficulties of early railroad building in the order of their importance. Which company seemed to face the greater difficulties?

2. Trace the Union Pacific Railway on a map of the United States. Include State lines and large cities through which the road passed.

3. What chief advantages were urged for a transcontinental road? Name all the transcontinental roads at present in the United States. Name all in North America.

4. How large was the land bonus finally given to the Union Pacific? 5. Explain the advantages your city enjoys because of railway facilities.

6. How does the story "Turkey Red,” p. 16, show the importance of a railroad?

7. Class conversation: Each tell about one example of engineering skill in railroad building.

8. Volunteer projects:

a. Make a collection of pictures to show where and how railroads are built.

b. Report about some other enterprise of the federal government like the Roosevelt Dam, the Panama Canal, the Cumberland Road.

ADDITIONAL READINGS. 1. "Over the Rockies by Electricity," J. Anderson, in St. Nicholas, 45:654-656. 2. "What Every Boy Should Know About a Locomotive," F. B. Masters, in St. Nicholas, 42:531541. 3. "Road Building," A. C. Flagg, in Century Magazine, 57: 139149. 4. "A New Era in Transportation," S. W. Allender, in Scientific American, 127:94–95. 5. "007," R. Kipling, in The Day's Work. 6. "From London to Australia by Aeroplane," R. Smith, in National Geographic Magazine, 40: 229–239. 7. "America's Billion Dollar Industry," C. P. Burton, in Harper's Magazine, 145:24-34. 8. "Our Greatest Travelers," W. W. Cope, in National Geographic Magazine, 20:346-365. 9. "Good Roads and Civilization," Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 7: 3023-3026. 10. "Icarus and Dædalus," Josephine P. Peabody, in Children's Literature, 336-337. II. "Darius Green and His Flying Machine," J. T. Trobridge, ibid., 432-436. 12. "All in a Day's Run," W. H. Foster, in Scribner's Magazine, 47: 159-166.

4. THE HOME EXPRESS

JOHN GODFREY SAXE

Mr. Saxe describes a home-coming suburban train in Chicago, running out along the shore of Lake Michigan. What evidences can you find of the happiness of going home from work?

Bless me! this is pleasant,
Riding on a rail!

When the city's rush is over, and the monthly ticket shown, And the platform's crowd has scattered like the leaves in autumn blown,

Then the engine feels the throttle, as the racer feels the whip, And sends its drivers whirling for its little homeward trip.

Oh, the home train and its quiver, and its shoot along the lake,

And its gladness that the day is nearly done;

And the tumbling of the wave crests as they flash and swiftly break

In the last, low, level shining of the sun!

The clean-cut man of business eyes his fresh-bought paper close,

Culling out the world's wide doings from the padded news verbose;

And the bargain hunter, happy sits, ensconced amid her gains, Complacent o'er the patent fact of her superior brains.

The trainman punches tickets with his swift and easy air, Like the man that knows his business of getting every fare; And he calls the Hyde Park station in the strong familiar ring As he inward thrusts his body through the car door's sudden swing.

Meanwhile the conversation of the women from the clubs

Increases with the train speed and the whirling of the hubs;

And the latest sociology or Kipling's virile verse
Of city art and garbage their gossip intersperse.

And the judge of human nature, as he notes their faces fair, Knows these are they whose strenuous wills can strongly do and dare;

And his inner eye sees visions of immortal Art's wide sway And clear-eyed Science gazing on a fairer, sweeter day.

So the city's strong-faced thousands spin adown the steel-set bed,

With the two red signals rearward and the yellow on ahead; Till the engine feels the throttle 'neath the station's glittering

light,

And gladdens waiting home-hearts at the gathering of the night.

Oh, the home train and its quiver, and its shoot along the lake,

And its gladness that the day is fairly done;

And the tumbling of the wave crests as they flash and swiftly break

In the twilight and the moonlight just begun!

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. What home-goers are mentioned? What occupations do they represent?

2. What is the joke in the two short lines at the opening of the poem?

3. Read lines which bring out the joy of home-going.

4. Find new words for: ensconced, complacent, sociology, culling out, virile, intersperse, strenuous.

5. Volunteer work. If you live in a city that has suburban service, write a little poem about people you see on the trains or street

cars.