Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1913 — TIME’S CHANGES SHOW [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TIME’S CHANGES SHOW

OLD RAdLROAD POSTER APPEARS HUMOROUS TODAY. i . ... What Was Considered Fast Traveling in 1859 Would Hardly Suit the Modern Generation, Accustomed to More “Hustle.” A quaint railroad poster bearing the date of 1859 came to light in Chicago

a few days ago which reveals the crudeness of railroading in the days before the Civil war, says the Chicago Herald. The ad v e rtlsement shows a picture of the queer, old-style engine with its towering smokestack, its

toylike boiler and its four clumsily built drive wheels. The engineer is seen standing in plain view of the observer and the little plaything of an engine is hauling a train of passenger coaches that would not do for freight cars in the present’generation. With much pomp and display the poster advertises a “fast” train from La Crosse, Wis., to Chicago. The train was announced to leave the Wisconsin city at 2:15 a. m. and not arrive here until 5:30 p. m., where, the poster says, “Trains leave Chicago on all eastern roads at 7 p. m. and 6 a. m.” The bill was the advertising medium employed by the Milwaukee & Minnesota railroad. The train, which is depicted with such graphic art, ran over the lines of the Milwaukee & Minnesota (formerly the La Crosse & Milwaukee) from La Crosse to Milwaukee, where it connected with “the eastern express train of the Milwaukee •& Chicago railroad line.” The fact was also exploited in large black type that after arriving at Chicago at 5:30 p. m. the passenger could find himself in Buffalo or Pittsburgh the next afternoon and then—wonders not ceasing—he could be in New York, Boston or Philadelphia the next morning after that. The announcement is dated December 10, 1859. By way of comparison, it is a strong commentary on the progress that railroads, particularly those running out of Chicago to the west, have made in the last half century. At the time it was issued the Milwaukee & Minnesota railroad had only a couple of hundred miles of crude track, over which the miniature trains bumped and rattled in a cloud of black smoke. Today the line which might be termed the great grandchild of this old-time transportation line, reaches across the continent from Chicago to the Pacific coast, with a total mileage of over 9,300 miles, and it is spending at the rate of $30,000,000 a year In improving and increasing its trackage. The development thus shown is typical of what the great west has done for the railroad' and what the railroads in turn have done* for the country. Back in 1859 when the Milwaukee & Minnesota railroad was the wonder of all those who rode upon it, the line had not yet crossed the mississippl river and passengers desiring to go to St Paul were compelled to take the packet line up the river from La Crosse. But the railroads in the years that have elapsed since that day have reached out their arms of steel across the plains and a vast empire has sprung into being as if by magic.