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GENERAL NELSON A. MILES.
   The locomotive with its long attendant train of cars has now become
such a familiar feature of our landscape that it attracts but little notice.
Still it is less than the three score and ten years that are the allotted
span
of human life since,through the magic power of steam, was evolved so potent
a factor in our civilization. A journey that once might have consumed
weeks can now be performed in a day; and a journey, which in winter,
could only be accomplished at the cost of exposure to cold and storms and
the suffering entailed thereby, can now be taken with as much comfort as
if we remained in our own homes. Now the products of each respective
section are no longer enjoyed merely in that particular portion of the
country, but are obtainable everywhere; and in our new West are popu-
lous cities, that seem to have sprung up almost in a night, which never
could have been born, much less attained such a growth if they had not
been connected with the older portions of the country by the shining
bands of steel over which glides the swift train.
   The idea of a graded or artificial roadway is not a new one by any
means, for as far back as when Rome was mistress of the world, her
people, who were always famous road builders, constructed ways of cut
stone. About one hundred and fifty years ago what were known as tram-
roads were built in England to facilitate the conveyance of coal from the
mines to the place of shipment, and here iron was used instead of steel for
rails, as at the present day.
   Railways would be of little value without some power of rapid trans-
portation, so when James Watt invented the steam engine in 1773, earnest
thinkers began to conceive the idea of a locomotive, and the tropical
imagination of Erasmnus Darwin led him to make in 1781 his famous
prediction:
                 "Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam! afar
                 Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car."
   The first locomotive that was successfully used was the " Puffing
Billy"
built in 1813, which can to-day be seen in the museum of the English Pat-
ent Office. In 1821 the Stockton and Darlington Railroad in England used
a steam locomotive, built by the Stephensons, but it was only used to haul
freight over a road twelve miles long. In 1825 a locomotive drew the first
passenger train over this road, making the distance of twelve miles in
two hours. In order that no one might be injured by their indulgence in
this swift rate of speed the kind-hearted manager sent a horseman ahead
to ride down the track in front of the engine and warn people to get out
of the way.
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