How strange a train of this sort would look beside one of our
modern express-trains, with its huge engine, and its sleeping, dining, and
parlor cars!
You will be surprised that any objection was raised to the railroad. Its
earliest use had been in England, and when there was talk of introducing
it in this country some people said: "If those who now travel by stage
take the railroad coaches, then stage-drivers will be thrown out of work!"
Little could they foresee what a huge army of men would find work on the
modern railroad.
In spite of all obstacles and objections, the railroads, once begun, grew
rapidly in favor. In 1833 there were scarcely three hundred and eighty
miles of railroad in the United States; now there are more than two
hundred and forty thousand miles.
MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH
The next stride which Progress made seemed even more wonderful. Having
contrived an easier and a quicker way to move men and their belongings
from one place to another, what should she do but whisper in the ear of a
thinking man: "You can make thought travel many times faster." The man
whose inventive genius made it possible for men to flash their thoughts
thousands of miles in a few seconds of time was Samuel Finley Breese
Morse.
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