g of
regret that we too, could not have been there to see that wonderful
pageant pass by. The Military with its pomp and music; the professors
and their students; the officials and the rank and file; the lawyers,
and the doctors and the ministers; the contractors and "Pioneers and
their implements of Labor"; the old, the young, the great, the
small--all banded together in one great masterly pull for Lexington!
What a picture! What a privilege! What an inspiration! What would we not
give to have seen it with our own eyes, to have applauded it with our
own hands.

And yet, perhaps that is what we are doing now, applauding and giving
praise and credit to those splendid citizens whose generosity,
foresight, energy and progressive public spirit made Lexington a leading
city of its day!

But to return to our subject, the newspapers kept the people advised as
to the progress of the work and the Observer of February 3rd, 1832,
says:

"Those who feel an interest in this great work will be pleased to learn
that the grading of the first six miles put under contract last fall is
already in a state of much forwardness. The stones for the Rail Sills
are excavated from a quarry a short distance below the city. The ease
with which they are split out and fashioned into sills is truly
surprising. They are about twelve inches wide and many of them are
twenty or twenty-five feet in length."

* * * * *

And again on May 24th, 1832--

"The grading of the first division of six miles is nearly completed.
Part of the Iron Rails for the first division have arrived at Louisville
from Liverpool by way of New Orleans, and the laying of the stone sills
will be forthwith commenced."

* * * * *

The work progressed steadily in spite of many obstacles--chief of which
seems to have been the indifference of Louisville and lack of ready
money, and so in the Observer for March 16th, 1832, there is an
interesting and eloquent appeal:

"To the Citizens of Lexington and Fayette County--

"Now is the time for every man, who is a man and will act like one, to
come forward and put his shoulder to the wheel. The Lexington and Ohio
Rail Road can be finished to Frankfort before the 1st of November, 1832,
if those who are able will do their duty and take stock, or increase
their present subscriptions. Not one should hang back and let his
neighbors do for him what he ought to do for himself.