pe ever to own one; it was thus a kind of
monster which, if encouraged, would override all popular rights. From
this economic criticism the enemies of the railroad passed to details
of construction: the rails would be washed out by rains; they could
be destroyed by mischievous people; they would snap under the cold
of winter or be buried under the snow for a considerable period, thus
stopping all communication. The champions of artificial waterways would
point in contrast to the beautiful packet boats on the Erie Canal, with
their fine sleeping rooms, their restaurants, their spacious decks on
which the fine ladies and gentlemen congregated every warm summer day,
and would insist that such kind of travel was far more comfortable than
it could ever be on railroads. To all these pleas the advocates of the
railroad had one unassailable argument--its infinitely greater speed.
After all, it took a towboat three or four days to go from Albany to
Buffalo, and the time was not far distant, they argued, when a railroad
would make the same trip in less than a day. Indeed, our forefathers
made one curious mistake: they predicted a speed for the railroad a
hundred miles an hour--which it has never attained consistently with
safety.

If the American of today could transport himself to one of the first
railroad lines built in the United States it is not unlikely that he
would side with the canal enthusiast in his argument. The rough pictures
which accompany most accounts of early railroad days, showing a train
of omnibus-like carriages pulled by a locomotive with upright boiler,
really represent a somewhat advanced stage of development. Though
Stephenson had demonstrated the practicability of the locomotive in 1814
and although the American, John Stevens, had constructed one in 1826
which had demonstrated its ability to take a curve, local prejudice
against this innovation continued strong. The farmers asserted that
the sparks set fire to their hayricks and barns and that the noise
frightened their hens so that they would not lay and their cows so that
they could not give milk. On the earliest railroads, therefore, almost
any other method of propulsion was preferred. Horses and dogs were used,
winches turned by men were occasionally installed, and in some cases
cars were even fitted with sails. Of all these methods, the horse was
the most popular: he sent out no sparks, he carried his own fuel, he
made little noise, and he would not