Jist so, this 'ere railroad will not, perhaps,
beget other railroads, but it will beget a spirit of enterprise, that
will beget other useful improvements. It will enlarge the sphere and
the means of trade, open new sources of traffic and supply--develop
resources--and what is of more value perhaps than all--beget motion.
It will stool out and bear abundantly; it will teach the folks that
go astarn or stand stock still, like the statehouse in Boston (though
they do say the foundation of that has moved a little this summer),
not only to 'go ahead,' but to nullify time and space."
Here his horse (who, feeling the animation of his master, had been
restive of late) set off at a most prodigious rate of trotting. It
was some time before he was reined up. When I overtook him, the
Clockmaker said, "this old Yankee horse, you see, understands our
word 'go ahead' better nor these Bluenoses."
"What is it," he continued, "what is it that 'fetters' the heels of a
young country, and hangs like 'a poke' around its neck? What retards
the cultivation of its soil, and the improvement of its fisheries?
The high price of labour, I guess. Well, what's a railroad? The
substitution of mechanical for human and animal labour, on a scale as
grand as our great country. Labour is dear in America, and cheap in
Europe. A railroad, therefore, is comparatively no manner of use
to them, to what it is to us; it does wonders there, but it works
miracles here.
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