Elias Derby

The Overland Route to the Pacific Elias Derby

Messes. Blake Bbos. Co., Bankers of Boston and New York: Gentlemen: At your suggestion, and through the kind permission of the President and Directors of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Raih-oad Corporations, I have made inspection of their present condition, resources and capacity, and I have pleasure in stating that I have traversed the whole line of railways to and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, and carefully examined them on my way, travelling often on the rear platform, and stoj)ping at the more important stations. As some of the trade of Boston with the West now passes over the Vermont Central and a part of the Grand Trunk, I deemed it advisable to examine its line between Montreal and Detroit, and to pass over the Great Western, Michigan Central and Chicago and Northwestern Railways, on my way out, and to take the Hannibal and St. Joseph, C. B. and Quincy, Illinois Central, Great Western, and New York Central Lines on my return, and to draw parallels between some of them and the Pacific Lines. My investigations have been aided by the efficient staff you have given me, in Lord Cecil, from England, who has made English roads and engines a study, and has travelled much of the distance on the engines, and Mr. F. B. Blake, of the London House of Pixley, A bell, Langley and Blake, who accompanied me on the trip. As other duties may deter me from making a more elaborate report, I submit to you a diary of our trip and the conclusions at which I have arrived. I congratulate you and the country upon the despatch with which the Overland Railway has been finished, and the great expansion of business which must attend the completion of the Line. Judiciously managed, with the telegraph on one hand and the express business on the other, and its sources of traffic well developed, I feel confident it will meet the hopes of its projectors and the expect
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)