managers formed an alliance with those | what akin to it. Their precise objects were

of the St. Louis and San Francisco, who still held the Atlantic and Pacific charter and land grant, for the purpose of at once constructing that part of its route which lay west of Albuquerque-a station on their main line in New Mexico-and thus gain a route to California, which, if not actually owned by them, would at all events be independent of Central Pacific influences. An agreement to this effect was entered into, whereby an equal interest in the resuscitated Atlantic and Pacific was secured to each company, and special care was taken to secure its independence by placing a controlling interest in its stock in the hands of trustees selected by each company. The Santa Fe is a distinctively Boston road, and to secure Boston the supremacy in the Atlantic and Pacific it was stipulated that two of the three trustees and seven of the thirteen directors should be Boston men, that the company should have its office in and be a Boston company, and that if the St. Louis men could not raise their share of the required funds, the Santa Fe men should have the right to do so, and complete the road.

not at first apparent, but they soon let it be known that while they raised no objections to the building of the Atlantic and Pacific through New Mexico and Arizona, they insisted that it must terminate at the Colorado River, and its California connection be made by extending an already authorized branch of the Southern Pacific through California to meet it at the eastern boundary of the State.

Baffled and indignant, the Santa Fe directors now resolved that if they could not have a transcontinental line by California, they would at least have one by another route, even if not altogether within the United States. Accordingly, in March, 1882, they purchased the Sonora Railway, which now extends from Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, through the State of Sonora into Arizona. When this is connected with their eastern system they will own a line from Kansas City to the Pacific; but however profitable it may be for the company, its western terminus will be on Mexican soil, and the Californian monopoly remain unbroken. It has been said that the Santa Fe managers still hold the balance of power in the Atlantic and Pacific, and will insist on pushing the road beyond the Colorado into California as an independent line. However this may be, Southern Pacific

them reduce their called-for subscriptions from $16,500,000 to $6,000,000 for the proposed extension, and concessions on both sides resulting in some compromise unfavorable to the interests of California and the public are far more likely to ensue than any competition such as Congress sought to provide for when it granted charters for several Pacific railroads, and lands to aid their construction.

Construction from Albuquerque westward through New Mexico and Arizona was soon in progress at a rapid rate. Late in 1881 the Atlantic and Pacific directors resolved to proceed at once with the construction of that part of their railroad sit-influences were strong enough to make uated in California, and also to resume construction on that portion situated between Vinita and Albuquerque. Large expenditures for these purposes were authorized, amounting in the aggregate to $16,500,000. It now looked as if the Atlantic and Pacific was in a fair way toward completion, and Boston was especially jubilant. But in January, 1882, the astounding fact came to light that Jay Gould, and Huntington of the Southern Pacific, had acquired control of the St. Louis and San Francisco road. Gould sought to control the traffic of the Southwest, and the extensions of the Santa Fe and some new branches of the St. Louis road interfered with his plans. Huntington of course had no intention of allowing any poaching on his Californian preserves, and, joining hands, the two had quietly obtained by their new purchase not only a controlling interest in the St. Louis, but a half interest in the Atlantic and Pacific, which, while it did not give them actual control, allowed the exercise of a veto power some

VOL. LXVII.-No. 402.-59

THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

This is sometimes called the thirty-second parallel route, and has been completed by the union of several different lines, now welded into two gigantic corporations, whose railroads connect at the Rio Grande. The history of its eastern half is that of a series of battles between rival routes for aid from the national government or the State of Texas. One of the earliest charters was obtained from the State for the Memphis, El Paso, and Pacific Railroad by a few needy Texans, who got with it a valuable land grant. Too

tic combination of over five thousand miles known as the Missouri Pacific, whose lines extend from Omaha, Kansas City, and St. Louis, to New Orleans, Galveston, and the Rio Grande.

poor themselves to build a mile of it, they | other Southwestern lines into that gigansent Fremont, the Path-finder, to New York to raise funds for its construction. There he fell into the hands of Marshall O. Roberts, who, for the trifling consideration of 11,000 out of 20,000 shares of stock, agreed to float the enterprise. Having thus secured control, he now proceeded to freeze out the Texans by levying a five per cent. assessment on the stock. Friends of Fremont, however, interfered to thwart this device; but though the Texans kept their charter, nothing was done under it till 1871, when the Texas Pacific was chartered by Congress, being formed by the union of the El Paso and two other railroads. Its charter was subsequently amended, and the title changed to the Texas and Pacific, and the company, which already had a grant of 10,240 acres per mile from the State of Texas, was given government lands at the rate of 12,800 acres per mile in California, and 25,600 acres per mile in the Territories, with permission to extend its line to San Diego, and purchase or consolidate with the Southern Pacific of California, whose charter authorized the building of a railroad from San Francisco to Fort Yuma, with a branch to connect with the Atlantic and Pacific at the Colorado.

Thus we see the intentions of Congress to provide competing lines to the Pacific coast defeated by these vast combinations. Any one who had suggested them as possible at the time those charters were granted would have been laughed at as a lunatic. It is true, the Northern Pacific is yet an independent route, and the Santa Fe extensions may be pushed beyond the Colorado. But any one who reviews the progress of consolidation and the fusion of competing interests which we have seen during the past fifteen years will surely admit that union under some form or other for the protection of the interests of those two great companies, the Union - Central-Southern (for it is virtually one) and the Northern Pacific, is far more probable than any conflict or competition between them.

Still, these combinations and consolidations, though tending to form monopolies, are not unmixed evils. Uncertain and ever fluctuating freight rates are a curse to business, as every manufacturer and every shipper will testify. They would prefer low rates all the time, of course, but if they can not have those, they would rather pay a little more and be sure of steady rates. Competition involves vary

the changing relations between the railroads, while a consolidation or pool of any kind usually results in somewhat higher but steadier rates.

That veteran railroad financier and manager, Thomas A. Scott, had already turned his attention to the Southwest, and for years devoted his best energies not only toward the construction of this railroad, but also to induce Congress to guar-ing rates which jump up and down with antee its bonds. But the Southern Pacific (alias the Central Pacific) managers, who were already actively at work, and who did not propose to allow a rival road to enter California, were not idle meantime, and not only opposed him, but sought to get away his land grant, offering to construct the road for that alone, while Scott asked an indorsement of the bonds. The lobbies reaped golden harvests, but Scott obtained no aid, and the Southern Pacific people were building on while the others were talking.

At last, in 1878, the rival roads came to an agreement, whereby the Texas and Pacific agreed not to build beyond the Rio Grande, and virtually left the Southern Pacific in possession of the field it fought for. In 1881, Scott, whose days were drawing to a close, sold his interest in the Texas and Pacific to Jay Gould, who has since consolidated it with several

The projectors of these routes believed that the largest portion of their business would be derived from the through traffican idea which prevailed even with practical railroad men till the completion of the Union-Central route began to dispel that dream. In fact, it is a popular idea today that the vast business of the Union Pacific consists of long trains of freight cars laden with tea, silk, or other valuable merchandise, rolling ceaselessly and in quick succession over its entire length. But the annual reports do not confirm this idea. In 1879, ten years after its completion, the Union Pacific carried over its whole line as through freight, both East and West, but 180,214 tons-just enough to make one daily freight train of average

size each way-while one express and one | tioned. Northwestern Nebraska consists emigrant train daily amply accommodated the through passenger travel.

largely of what is called "The Sand-hills"
-a barren and apparently utterly worthless
country of shifting sand-hills. Outlying
groups of these hills may be seen near
Columbus, in the Platte Valley, where a
thin growth of wiry grass has already be-
gun to clothe them.
A few years ago

To-day its stockholders pocket comfortable dividends of seven per cent. on stock which was originally a gift, but of these profits less than ten per cent. is derived from the through business, while the local business keeps on increasing at a surpris- they were utterly bare. Now, each seaing rate. Nor has its completion given son, the grass thickens a little and the that "boost" to California that the "Pa-sand becomes less shifting. A few years cific coasters" so fondly dreamed of. It has helped the progress of California, of course, in spite of the heavy tariffs of the Central Pacific, which, however, do not bear so heavily on the through traffic, but the settlement of that State has not advanced with the expected rapidity.

Not long since, when in Nebraska, I met a well-known Bostonian, formerly chief engineer of the great railroad that now gridirons the southern part of that State, and who had then just returned from a trip over the eastern part of the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Like a Western man, my first question was, "What do you think of the country it traverses ?"

"Well," said he, "I am not sure that I want to answer that question. Ten years ago, when we were building this road, we all felt rather doubtful of the future of Nebraska. Most of us thought it would never amount to much except as a grazing and cattle country. You see what it is to-day, with its fine farms and pleasant homesteads. Much of the country I have just been through looks rather unpromis ing, but after the change I have seen here I am quite ready to believe it may prove an excellent farming country.”

more and there will be pasturage on them. Then will come cattle and sheep to thicken the grass by cropping it and fertilizing it with their droppings.

These changes are slow, but they come as surely as the tall jointed grasses replace the short crisp buffalo-grass with the coming of the homesteader. This again influences the climate, and the taller grasses and cultivation of the soil produce an increase of moisture in the air, and statistics show a well-ascertained increase of moisture in the trans - Missouri country. To read the "land agents' literature" of the railroads which have lands to sell in it, one would think it a veritable land of Goshen. Some sections of Eastern Kansas and Nebraska are hard to surpass for fertility or natural beauty of rolling, undulating country, possessing a perfect natural drainage, and pleasant groves begin to dot the face of the once treeless country; but throughout this entire region the climate becomes drier and the soil apparently less fertile as you go west, though in time it changes, as we have seen above.

The Rocky Mountains and the arid region which stretches thence to California and Oregon must ever deprive this country of the genial influences of the moist winds from the Pacific Ocean, yet it seems not merely possible, but even highly probable, that a few generations will see this trans-Missouri country transformed from its present condition to a farming country with ample rain-fall for ordinary agriculture. So, too, with the arid regions west of the Rocky Mountains. In their primitive state, what can look more utterly barren than the valleys of Utah and Nevada? Yet even here, wherever water can be found and used, the apparently sterile soil yields a rich return of grain, fruit, and vegetables. Californian or Oregonian flour, which makes Those familiar with our newer Western such delicious, snowy bread, can hardly States will recall many such instances, surpass that of Utah, as those who have but a most remarkable one must be men- I visited Salt Lake City will be ready to

A little later I was travelling through Jewell County, Kansas, and got into conversation with two farmers, who told me that they had camped near where we stood, many years ago, on their way to California. They said the country then looked like a desert, and had any one told them that within twenty years that country would be settled by thrifty farmers, and that they themselves would select the spot for a home, they would have laughed him to scorn. To-day Jewell County is one of the best in Northern Kansas, where neat villages and snug homesteads dot the face of a rich farming country.

bear witness. Not much of this part of our country, however, can be made available for agriculture, but its valleys and bottom-lands will yet furnish ground for many a productive farm in regions now scarcely known.

A few years ago a statement went the round of the newspapers showing how nearly all the really valuable public land of our continent had been taken up, and that soon the American pioneer or foreign immigrant would find that Uncle Sam had no longer a farm left to give away. Such statements are apt to be received and accepted as fact without question, yet the short period that has elapsed since it was made shows that to-day we know of more good farming land yet unoccupied and open for settlement between the Missouri River and the Pacific than was supposed to be in that entire region at the time that statement was made.

Some will tell you that all the really valuable Western lands have long since been taken up, and that only rocks and arid deserts remain; others, that after the

completion of the Pacific railroads there will be only a few branch lines left to be built in the far West; others, that the mines of the Rocky Mountains will soon be exhausted, and that when they fail we shall see that region deserted. Such is the language of the croaker, of the disappointed man who failed in the West, as he would have done anywhere, of the Eastern man who thinks civilization is bounded by the Mississippi. But if you have lived in these regions, or have visited them, you will believe, with me, that never at any time in the history of our country have her prospects for rapid growth and continued prosperity been any better than at the present time. Each year sees new regions not only opened up, but others discovered to be valuable for some purpose, while the ever-growing net-work of iron bands binds the whole country in a closer union. Monopolists may seek to control the traffic of a continent, but the power of a free and intelligent people is still, and must ever remain, supreme in our land.

A HASHISH-HOUSE IN NEW YORK,

THE CURIOUS ADVENTURES OF AN INDIVIDUAL WHO INDULGED IN A FEW PIPEFULS OF THE NARCOTIC HEMP.

"AND so am of think I shall be able to convincely, and

ND so you think that opium-smok- to-morrow night at ten o'clock, and I

Mott Street and elsewhere is the only form of narcotic indulgence of any consequence in this city, and that hashish, if used at all, is only smoked occasionally and experimentally by a few scattered individuals?"

"That certainly is my opinion, and I consider myself fairly well informed."

The above is the substance of a conversation that took place in the lobby of a down-town hotel between the writer of these lines and a young man about thirtyeight years of age, known to me for some years past as an opium-smoker. It was through his kindness that I had first gained access to and had been able to study up the subject of opium-smoking. Hence I really anticipated seeing some interesting phases of hemp indulgence, and was not disappointed.

"Well, you are far from right, as I can prove to you if you care to inform yourself more fully on the subject. There is a large community of hashish smokers in this city, who are daily forced to indulge their morbid appetites, and I can take you to a house up-town where hemp is used in every conceivable form, and where the lights, sounds, odors, and surroundings are all arranged so as to intensify and enhance the effects of this wonderful nar- "You will probably be greatly surprised cotic." at many things you will see to-night," he "I must confess that I am still incred- said, “just as I was when I was first introulous."

"Well, if it is agreeable to you, meet me at the Hoffman House reading-room

The following evening at precisely ten o'clock I met the young man at the Hoffman House, and together we took a Broadway car up-town, left it at Forty-second Street, and walked rapidly toward the North River, talking as we went.

duced into the place by a friend. I have travelled over most of Europe, and have smoked opium in every joint in America,

but never saw anything so curious as this, | to flow into little phosphorescent pools nor experienced any intoxication so fascinating yet so terrible as that of hashish."