OCR Text |
Show Our Funny Flrtt Engines. ! If our modern railway cnglnos had tho same power to laugh that they 'H havo to scream, they might, as you jH children say, "nearly die" laughing 'H over tho way our first railway en- jH glues looked. Little, queerly shaped, IiiiiiiiiiiiiiH puny things they were. Tho Slour- ,H bridge Lion didn't weigh one-f-nty- i fifth part of the weight or nit t. ..no jH or to-day. nnd It looked ns If peopla i might well hesitate about risking their 1lllllllllllllH lives, behind it It was first usort nt jH llont'sdute, In Pennsylvania, and it lllllllllllllH run on wooden rails with j thin l.i)cr of Iron on thani. People gnthercd from H near tml from far. that Sih or August, iH In tho year 1S20. when the llttlo Hrlt H Ish lion or Iron mid steel was to mako H Its first run. The wlxearrcs t.h ok H their heads and prophesied nil sorts of probable dlnnstcrs, ami people said that "nothing on or.rth" could tempt H tli em to rldn across the brlili'.e span- nlng tho I.nckawaxcn river on "ttiHt H thing." Hut the llttlo lion went safely over tho bridge and over tho eight or nine miles of track, which was tho entire length of this lino of railroad. H J. U Harbour, In St. Nicholas. |