us
($32,000 to the mile) left a good margin to the builders in the valley,
so, instead of joining the rails, the pathfinders only said "Howdy do!"
and then "Good-bye!" and kept going. The graders followed close upon the
heels of the engineers, so that by the time the track-layers met the two
grades paralleled each other for a distance of two hundred miles. When
the rails actually met, the Government compelled the two roads to couple
up. It had been a friendly contest that left no bad blood. Indeed they
were all willing to stop, for the iron trail was open from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.

V

The tenth day of May, 1869, was the date fixed for the driving of the
last spike and the official opening of the line. Special trains,
carrying prominent railway and Government officials, were hurrying out
from the East, while up from the Golden Gate came another train
bringing the flower of 'Frisco to witness, and some of them to take an
active part in, the celebration. The day was like twenty-nine other May
days that month in the Salt Lake Valley, fair and warm, but with a cool
breeze blowing over the sagebrush. The dusty army of trail-makers had
been resting for two days, waiting for the people to come in clean store
clothes, to make speeches, to eat and drink, and drive the golden spike.
Some Chinese laborers had opened a temporary laundry near the camp, and
were coining money washing faded blue overalls for their white comrades.
Many of the engineers and foremen had dressed up that morning, and a few
had fished out a white shirt. Judah and Strawbridge, of the Central, had
little chips of straw hats that had been harvested in the summer of '65.
Here and there you saw a sombrero, the wide hat of the cowboy, and the
big, soft, shapeless head cover of the Mormon, with a little bunch of
whiskers on his chin. General Dodge came from his arsenal car, that
stood on an improvised spur, in a bright, new uniform. Of the special
trains, that of Governor Stanford was first to arrive, with its
straight-stacked locomotive and Celestial servants. Then the U.P. engine
panted up, with its burnished bands and balloon stack, that reminded you
of the skirts the women wore, save that it funnelled down. When the
ladies began to jump down, the cayuses of the cowboys began to snort and
side-step, for they had seen nothing like these tents the women stood up
in.

Elaborate arrangements had been made for transmitting the news of the
celebration to