Page 522

2A2 Wagonsm L izberman.
MILWAUKEE & DUBUQUE
Prospectus of the lllwaukee & Dlu-
buque Railroad Company.
Showing what In Required ot the Busi-
nems Men ufMiiwaukee and of the Towns
along the Line, to Ensure the buccess of
the Enterprise.
More than twenty years ago, a charter
for a railroad was grantedgbetween Mil-
waukee aid Beloit; the road was almost
completely graded to Elkhorn, about 40
miles. The 'pnic of 1857 overtook the
company and the iron was never laid. A
mortgage given by the stockholders in
favor of the contractors was subsequently
foreclosed, and the road bed has been
suffered to become grass grown.
The adoption of the narrow gauge sys-
tem of railroad construction in Iowa and
Northern Illinois, which promises connec-
tion with the coal fields and grain fields of
the two sections, has opened the necessity
for the completion of this line, and a com-
pany has been formed and has purchased
the bed of the old company at less than 6
per cent. of what has actually been ex-
pended on the construction.
The road runs ten miles on an average
from any other road to Elkhorn, and
through as fine a country as exists in Wis-
cousin, and under a complete state of cul-
tivation; the people along the route are
enthusiastic for the completion of the
road, and if they expect to have the road
completed must raise most of the money
to pay for the construction of the line
through their territory.
It is well-known that the' parries who
first subscribed irretrievably lost what
thev put into the road, and this was par-
ticularly hard because the road was not
completed, and it is natural that they
should distrust any parties who attempt
to revive the project, and in view of this
state of thing it is proposed to call upon
the capitalists and business men of Mil-
waukee, who would be so much benefitted
by this road to subscribe for enough to get
the road ironed and equipped for ten or
twelve miles from the city, and to ask the
towns to guarantee a certain amount of
stock to be issued when their several
town lines are actually reached by the
superstructure. If this is done in good
faith the road can be completed to Elk-
horn the present season.
It is admitted that the present is a re-
markably good time to build railroads on
account of the low peice of labor and ma-
terial, and if this road is completed at all
it must be in this way, for the day of
building railroads in the west by "plac-
ing" bonds in the east at a ruinous dis-
count to finally swamp the stockholders is
forever past, and we propose it this enter-
prise to conduct its affairs on strictly hon-
est and economical principles. The capi-
talists of Milwaukee never had such an
opportunity for a good investment, and at
the same time ty assist in building up the
city and country along this line, for those
who go into the company receive the full
benefit of the half million already sacri-
ficed by the original stockholders.
rhe charter oflthe road contemplates a
.continuous line to Dabubue, but what
route will be taken after reaching Wal-
worth county will depend upon the induce-
ments that are offered on the several feasi-
ble routes between the two points.
As to the narrow gauge track which is
proposed, it may be well to say that the
cost of superstructure and of running ex-
penses is less than the old gauge, while
the capacity of the track for business is
greater than is done on nineteen-twen-
tieths of the roads in the country.
The iron is lighter, the engine and cars
are lighter and the amount of dead weight
to be carried- in proportion to paying
freight is very much in favor of a narrow
gauge, which will be understood when we
affirm that a narrow gauge train loaded
weighs less than a standard gauge train
empty!
It is admitted that what is wanted in
Wisconsin in common with the whole west
is cheap transportation, and those who
have given this system intelligent atten-
tion are satisfied that the three feet gauge
is to be the principal, instrumentality in
furnishing it.
Iowa has a road 35 miles long in op-
eration, coming from DesMoines in this
direction, and its success has been sogreat
that an extension to the Mississippi will
soon be built, with Iowa money and by
Iowa men as it has been so far on the road
already built.
The Milwaukee and Dubuque road has
the Mississippi and the grain fields of Iowa
as the ultimate objective point, with con-
nections to Nebraska and Colorado, where
several hundred miles of this gauge are in
522