explode. His only failing was that
he would leave the track; and to remedy this defect the early railroad
builders hit upon a happy device. Sometimes they would fix a treadmill
inside the car; two horses would patiently propel the caravan, the
seats for passengers being arranged on either side. So unformed was the
prevalent conception of the ultimate function of the railroad, and so
pronounced was the fear of monopoly that, on certain lines, the roadbed
was laid as a state enterprise and the users furnished their own
cars, just as the individual owners of towboats did on the canals.
The drivers, however, were an exceedingly rough lot; no schedules were
observed and as the first lines had only single tracks and infrequent
turnouts, when the opposing sides would meet each other coming and
going, precedence was usually awarded to the side which had the stronger
arm. The roadbed showed little improvement over the mine tramways of the
eighteenth century, and the rails were only long wooden stringers with
strap iron nailed on top. So undeveloped were the resources of the
country that the builders of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828
petitioned Congress to remit the duty on the iron which it was compelled
to import from England. The trains consisted of a string of little cars,
with the baggage piled on the roof, and when they reached a hill they
sometimes had to be pulled up the inclined plane by a rope. Yet the
traveling in these earliest days was probably more comfortable than in
those which immediately followed the general adoption of locomotives.
When, five or ten years later, the advantages of mechanical as opposed
to animal traction caused engines to be introduced extensively, the
passengers behind them rode through constant smoke and hot cinders that
made railway travel an incessant torture.

Yet the railroad speedily demonstrated its practical value; many of the
first lines were extremely profitable, and the hostility with which they
had been first received soon changed to an enthusiasm which was just
as unreasoning. The speculative craze which invariably follows a new
discovery swept over the country in the thirties and the forties and
manifested itself most unfortunately in the new Western States--Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Here bonfires and public meetings
whipped up the zeal; people believed that railroads would not only
immediately open the wilderness and pay the interest on the bonds issued
to c