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Show B NO CAUSE FOR HYSTERICS. B: Salt Lakers are a queer people. Over almost m Impassable mountains the Rio Grande and Rio B. Grande Western road was pushed to this point. B There was no enthusiasm over it; though across B almost insurmountable obstacles, it had made its B way and opened for Utah a new eastern outlet. It B came almost unheralded. Everything the com-B com-B pany wanted it purchased; it demanded no con-B con-B cessions; it came on its merits and asked for B nothing except what it stood ready to pay for. B The road to Los Angeles does not present B one engineering difficulty; its right of way costs B nothing; there is not a bridge, hardly a culvert, B to build or complete it. The grading of a 100 B miles of it would not cost as much as either of B many miles of the Rio Grande; its cheapness and B the advantages to follow its building were polnt-B polnt-B ed out to Salt Lake people almost daily for years, B but not one heart beat faster in contemplation B of it. B At last one man seeing that the road would B pay him better interest on his money than he H could hope to obtain through any other invest- ment the world round, associated himself with a few others and declared his intention to build It. That was three years ago. Now he comes and ; says he is really going to begin and drive the road through and suddenly Salt Lake becomes delirious, fairly hysterical, Indeed, with joy over the prospect. The people seem to forget that the main mover in this matter is shrewd and levelheaded level-headed and not given to making large bequests for ; charity's sake; that when the road shall be fln-, fln-, ished he will see that the rates will insure him a reasonable interest on his investment, and to hail him as a disinterested public benefactor intent in-tent only upon making an immense sacrifice in order to insure the happiness of Salt Lake City, and its inhabitants wealthy, seems like pretty ; much of a joke. i "Who says this is not a queer people? We ' all will welcome the road; we will all hope It ; is to be rushed to completion; we all believe it j will be a real factor in advancing the city (some of us have believed it for a long time); we re- : Joice in anticipation of tho certain fact that it will return a mighty Interest on its cost. It will give Salt Lake a new outlet to the sea; it will draw an immense amount of travel to this city; It will awaken the hum of new industries, in the' desert, out of which now treasures will flow east and west. On the map, it will be marked that one more path has been smoothed and made easy for the chariots of commerce to roll over. But it is only fair to keep in mmfl that all the revenues that will be paid to the road and they promise to be most ample will be paid by the people and that there must always be a mutual dependence as much the road upon the people, as the people upon the road, and that when the road shall be completed, the situation of no man will be changed; the old law will be in full force and if man would have anything, he must earn it; that the road may increase his facilities, but If it does, he will have to pay for them, for if the road is not run on strictly business principles it will be something new in railroads. Something new with the chief promoter of the enterprise. But it will be a good thing, and let us all join in the hope that it will be rushed with all expedition; ex-pedition; that It may the sooner begin to pay interest on the investment and' open the desert to the mines. - |