Part 7 (1/2)

Rev F S Williams in an article upon ”Railway Revolutions,”

reined that they would be so far degraded as to carry coals; but George Stephenson and others soon sa great a service railwaysthe mineral wealth of the country Prejudice had, however, to be tiorously overcome When it was e Stephenson had spoken of sending coals by railway: 'Coals!' he exclai next' The ree,'

as not behind his critic in the energy of his expression 'You tell B-,' he said, 'that when he travels by railway, they carry dung now!'

The strength of the feeling against the traffic is sufficiently illustrated by the fact that, when the London and Birons that contained it were sheeted over that their contents ht not be seen; and when a coal wharf was first made at Crick station, a screen was built to hide the work froers on the line Even the possibility of carrying coal at a remunerative price was denied 'I a to this subject, 'to find the intelligent people of the north country gone mad on the subject of railways;' and another eminent authority declared: 'It is all very well to spend ood; but I will eat all the coals your railill carry'

”George Stephenson, however, and other friends of coal, held on their way; and he declared that the time would come when London would be supplied with coal by railway 'The strength of Britain,' he said, 'is in her coal beds; and the loco it forth The Lord Chancellor now sits upon a bag of wool; but wool has long ceased to be eht rather to sit upon a bag of coals, though it ht not prove quite so co addressed as the noble and learned lord on the coal-sack? I'm afraid it wouldn't answer, after all'”

AN EPITAPH ON THE VICTIM OF A RAILWAY ACCIDENT

A correspondent writes to the _Pall Mall Gazette_:-”Our poetic literature, so rich in other respects, is entirely wanting in epitaphs on the victims of railway accidents A specimen of what may be turned in this line is to be seen on a tombstone in the picturesque churchyard of Harrow-on-the-Hill It was, I observe, written as long ago as 1838, so that it can be reproduced without s of those who y

The name of the victim was Port, and the circuht was the morn, and happy rose poor Port; Gay on the train he used his wonted sport

Ere noon arrived his led forore

When evening came and closed the fatal day, A mutilated corpse the sufferer lay”

AN ENGINE-DRIVER'S EPITAPH

In the ce the following inscription:-

”My engine is now cold and still

No water does my boiler fill

My coke affords its flame no more, My days of usefulness are o'er; My wheels deny their noted speed, Nohand they heed; My whistle-it has lost its tone, Its shrill and thrilling sound is gone; My valves are now thrown open wide, My flanges all refuse to glide; My clacks-alas! though once so strong, Refuse their aid in the busy throng; Nobreath, My steam is now condensed in death; Life's railway o'er, each station past, In death I'm stopped, and rest at last”

This epitaph ritten by an engineer on the old Chicago and Mississippi Railroad, as fatally injured by an accident on the road; and while he lay awaiting the death which he knew to be inevitable, he wrote the lines which are engraved upon his tombstone

TRAFFIC-TAKING