The Publicist. (Chandler, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 6, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, July 28, 1899 Page: 3 of 8
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George H. Daniels, general passenger
agent of New Yorlt Central and Hud-
son River Railroad, recently delivered
an address before the New York Press
Association. Among other notable
things, he said:
Four years ago I predicted that ac-
tive efforts toward the extension of
American commerce by commercial
bodies, supported by a liberal and
broad-minded policy on the part of
our government, would undoubtedly
secure to the United States the bless-
ings that come from a great and varied
commerce, and I said that the New
York Press Association, and similar
associations all over the country, could
stimulate a public spirit that would in-
sure the important results outlined.
At that time we had no Idea that a
war between one of the old nations of
the earth and our young republic
would be fought; at that time we had
no idea that American manufacturers
would be furnishing locomotives to the
English railroads, as well as Japanese
and no one thought four years ago that
American bridge builders would go in-
to the open market and successfully
compete for the building of a great
steel bridge in Egypt; nor that in so
brief a time American engineers would
be building railroads into the interior
of China from the most Important sea-
ports and furnishing locomotives by
the score to nearly every country on
the globe. In a letter from a friend In
Tokio, Japan, written only a short time
ago there was this significant sen-
tence: "You will be interested in
knowing that I have hanging on the
wall of my office a framed picture of
your 'Empire State Express,' and we
expect in the near future to be haul
lng a Japanese 'Empire Express,' with
an American locomotive." They have
now in Japan nearly 100 locomotives
that were built in the United States
In Russia they have over 400 of our
Jooomotives, and nearly every railroad
In Great Britain has ordered locomo
tlves from this country since the be-
ginning of the war with Spain.
I
4
In this connection it will be inter
estlng to note in passing that the sec-
ond American locomotive was built at
the West Point Foundry, near Cold
Spring, on the Hudson river, and was
caJled the "Best Friend," and from
that day to this the locomotive has
been one of the best friends of all our
people. But It is not alone our loco-
motives that have attracted the atten-
tion of foreigners who have visited
our shores, our railway equipment gen-
erally has commanded admiration and
Is now receiving the highest compli-
ment, namely, imitation by many of
our sister nations. Prince Michel Hll-
koff, Imperial Minister of Railways of
Russia, has, since his visit to the
United States a few years ago, con-
structed a train on much the same
lines as the New York Central's Lake
Shore Limited. Only a short time ago,
at the request of one of me
Imperial Commisisons of Ger-
many, the New York Central
cent to Berlin photographs of the
Interior and exterior of our finest cars
and other data in relation to the opera-
tion of American railways. Several
other countries have asked for similar
Information and there is a general
waking up of foreign nations on the
subject of transportation, brought
about mainly by the wocderful r.ct!:v-
ments of American railways.
The admiration of foreign nations
for us is not by any means confined
to railways. One Incident that startled
the entire world, ar.d riveted the at-
tention of thinking people everywhere
to American achlevments in machin-
ery, was that of the United States bat-
tleship "Oregon," built at the Union
Iron Works in San Francisco, and
which steamed a distance of more than
half round the globe, without loosening
a bolt or starting a rivet, and arrived
at her post off the island of Cuba pre-
pared to perform any service required
of her; and then having given a most
satisfactory account of herself on that
memorable 3d of July, 1898, off Santi-
ago, she steamed back to the Pacific,
and without unnecessary delay crossed
that great ocean to join Admiral
Dewey's fleet at Manila. On her arriv-
al there the Secretary of the Navy re-
ceived one of those condensed mes-
sages, for which the admiral—who has
shad undying luster upon the name of
the American navy—is so noted, which
read as follows: "Manila, March 18,
1899.—The Oregon and Iris arrived
here today. The Oregon is In fit con-
dition for any duty. Dewey."
These demonstrations of what Ameri-
can shipbuilders can accomplish, cre-
ated a desire on the part of every nav-
al power in the world for ships of the
character of the Oregon, and the log-
ical conclusion of thinking people was
that if we could build ships like the
Oregon, anything else that wo built
must be of a superior quality, and the
demand for American manufacturers
began to increase and is increasing
with each day, until hundreds of our
factories are now running night and
day, and business In the United States
was never in a more prosperous con-
dition than It is on the 21st day of
June, 1899.
It has been said by a great Ameri-
can writer that "trade follows th«
flag." Our war with Spain has placed
our flag upon the islands of the Pa-
cific, directly in the natural track be-
tween the Pacific coast of the United
States and Japan and China, and as we
contemplate our growing commerce
with these old nations we are remind-
ed of the prophetic statement made at
the completion of the first continuous
line of railroad between the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans, by the joining of
the Union and Central Pacific rail-
roads, more than thirty years ago, by
that prophet of his time, Thomas H.
Benton, who, standing on the summit
of the Rocky Mountains and pointing
toward the Pacific ocean, said: "There
the East; there is India." Mr.
President, since the meeting at Lake
George, four years ago, the fortunes
of war have placed the United States
in the front rank among the powers
of the world, and we can no more shirk
the responsibility which these events
have brought on us as a nation, than
we can shirk our responsibility as pri-
vate citizens.
There are some who seem to think
that we might get along without trade
with .China, and that it Is a new tan-
gled notion that Chinese trade can es-
pecially benefit the United States.
Commerce with China is much older
than many suppose, for it began 115
years ago, the first vessel sailing from
New York on Washington's birthday
In the year 1774. This vessel returned
to New York May 11, 1775. The suc-
cess of the venture was such as to war-
rant its repetition, and from that day
to this, trade between the United
States and China has continued with
out material interruption, until it is
now greater in Importance and value
than that of any other nation trading
with China, with the single exception
of Great Britain. If we are to continue
as one of the great nations of the
world, we can hardly afford to Ignore
a country that comprises one-twelfth
of the land area and nearly one-fourth
of the population of the globe.
>y
CHAPTER II.—(Continued.)
I played in the sunny garden,
amongst the thyme and rosemary, the
climbing roses, the lilies, the sweet
basil, and the scarlet anemones. I said
my prayers in the dim chapel, and
went to rest In my tiny cell.
This lasted till I was ten years old.
One day It rained heavily. As I have
said, it was the only wet day that I
remember. Soon after our midday din-
ner the great bell clanged at the gate,
a very unusual occurrence. Sister Ursu-
line went to the gate, and I remember
that one or two curious nuns and I
were peeping through the grille when
she came back, in evident agitation,
and sought the mother superior. I was
carried off by one of the nuns, my con-
stant playfellow, a sweet woman of
fifty, with the heart of a child. She
kissed me lovingly ag she held me in
her arms. I remember it all so well!
'Sister Desiree,' I whispered, 'thou
art crying.'
'No, no, Bebe,' she said; 'it Is noth-
ing! I am rightly punished. My af-
fection for thee has grown too deep,
beloved—It is earthly. I know thou
wilt be taken from me; it is but just.'
'I did not understand her then. I
was wonderfully childish for my ten
years. But you cannot think how viv-
idly I recall it—how I should remem-
ber every stone of the dear old con-
vent, every path in the sunny gar-
den!"
"You make me feel as if I could
see It all myself—you Interest me ex-
tremely," said Mr. Martineau. "Pray
go on."
"Well, that was my last day with
the nuns. It was the very last happy
day of my life. They told me present-
ly that my uncle had come for me. My
uncle! The words conveyed no impres-
sion to my mind. Who was he? I did
not want him. I declined, with thanks,
the honor of relationship. When mey
made me understand that it was not a
matter for my choice at all, that I
must go with him, it was terrible. I
boxed my ears—once when he told me
to leave off crying and I did not, once
when I stumbled over his foot; but,
what with being always in tears, and
always traveling in the dark, my idea
of our route Is very indistinct.
"I remember at last starting from
sleep at the sound of bolts and bars
being withdrawn, and seeing a glare
of lamplight and a woman's face, mid-
dle-aged and rather kindly. My uncle
dragged me out of the carriage and
handed me over to her, blinking with
sleep, dusty with travel, half crying
with fatigue. I think she put me to
bed at once. At first, any conversa-
tion between us was very difficult, as
I could not understand anything she
said, and I was quite determined not
to learn English, which stood con-
demned in my eyes as the language of
my uncle. At last, however, I had of
course to give in, and to acquire by
slow degrees, a knowledge of col-
loquial English.
"It was a dilapidated bouse, and, I
am sure, in a most out-of-the-way
place—there was no railway for sev-
eral miles. There was a small village,
and a tiny church in a very bad state
of repair. I did not even remember
the name of the clergyman."
"Pardon me," interrupted Mr. Mar-
tineau; "but, from the way you were
talking, you lead me to imagine that
you don't know where this place
Is that so?"
"That is so, unfortunately,' she
answered, with drooping eyelids.^
"How long did you live there?"
"From the time I was ten till about
the time that I was sixteen."
"And you don't know where the
place is?" His tone expressed ..^e
most absolute incredulity.
"No, I don't," she admitted shame-
facedly.
"I hope you will forgive me; but I
can scarcely believe such a thing," he
said, looking rather excited and pale.
"Don't you know the name of the vil-
lage? You must know that."
The Influence of the press, particu-
larly in this country, is immense, and
It Is growing year by year, and with
reasonable co-operation and reciproc-
ity between the press, the transporta-
tion companies and the commercial
and Industrial Interests of the country,
there can be no doubt about our su-
premacy.
At times there have been periods of
legislation adverse to the great trans-
portation interests of the country, al-
most invariably the result of a misun-
derstanding of the real situation, and
the hasty legislation of such times has
usually been repealed upon the sober
second thought of the people, for in the
language of our great Lincoln: "You
can fool all the people some of the
time, some of the people all the time,
but you can't fool all the people all
the time." There are still some people
who fear that consolidations, especial-
ly of transportation companies, will
result disastrously to the general in-
terests of the country. There is one
example to which I wish to call your
attention, and which, I think, each of
you will appreciate. Forty-seven years
ago, there was Issued an annual pass
over the Central Line of Railroads, be-
treen Buffalo and Boston, and by the
People's Line of Steamboats to New
York; this pass bearing the .following
signatures on the back thereof: Eze-
klel C. McIntosh, President. Albany
and Schenectady R. R. Co.; Erastus
Corning, President, Utica and Schenec-
tady R. R. Co.; John Wilkinson, Presi-
dent, Syracuse and Utica R. R. Co.;
Henry B. Gibson, President, Rochester
and Syracuse R. R. Co.; Joseph Field,
President, Buffalo and Rochester R. R.
Co.; William H. Swift, President, Wes-
tern R. R. Co,; Isaac Newton, People's
Line Steamboats; Job Collamer, Wa-
tertown & Rome R. R. Co.
Mr. E. D. Worcester, Secretary of the
New York Central, says he rode on a
ticket of this kind from Albany to Bos-
ton in the summer of 1852, and he re-
members distinctly the signature of
each of these Presidents. What would
you think if in preparing to attend
your annual meeting you had to write
to eight different persons to secure
transportation from New York to Ni-
agara Falls? I am sure you appreciate
the fact that it does not require eight
letters to secure such transportation,
nor does It require seven changes of
cars to mak« the Journey as It did In
1852.
I
\k
w
YOU STARTLED ME," HE SAID.
threw myself into such a passion as
the nuns had never seen me in. But
there was no help for it. I never
asked who or what was my uncle; but
he must have come vested with full
authority, for the nuns never hesitated
to resign me to him. I remember how
I clung round the neck of each, and
promised to come back soon. My dis-
tress was unbounded, but It changed to
terror when I beheld my uncle.
"I had never seen a man but the old
confessor and Jean Baptiste Leroux,
who dug the garden. This new arrival
was not at all calculated to impress a
child favorably. He was a stout man
with a short red beard, red hair, and
very small, twinkling, pig-like black
eyes. His expression was cunning and
cruel; and, to make matters worse, I
could' not understand a word he said.
He was English. I was to all intents
and purposes French. He did not con-
sider It at all worth his while to at-
tempt to cajole me in any way He
packed me into a carriage, heedless of
my screams and tears; and bo we
drove away in the dusk, the pelting
rain descending In a blinding mist and
hiding the beloved convent walls from
my poor aching eyes.
"I have very faint recollections of
my Journey to England; but the one
thing which I distinctly remember Is
that we always traveled by night. I
remember, too, that my uncle twice
"But I don't," she faltered.
"But I can't understand It," he
said.
"I used to know it, of course," she
remarked.
"You used to know it?"
"Oh, yes; but I have forgotten it!"
She blushed deeply while making this
admission.
"I am hopelessly at sea," said Mr.
Martineau. His grey eyes rested on
her face with suspicion. It was easy
to see that he thought she was trying
to deceive him.
"May I go on," she said, "and try to
explain how I came to forget all these
things? I can offer you an explanation;
but I don't know why I should expect
you to believe it. I have often thought
that no lawyer would believe my
story. But what can I do?"
CHAPTER III.
Mr. Martineau was compelled to con-
fess to himself that her sincerity was
self-evident.
"Please go on," he said.
"It is a difficult thing to tell, I know
so little about it my&elf," she resumed.
"The woman whom I have mentioned
was my uncle's housekeeper. She was
kind to me, but I was afraid of her.
She was a very reserved, silent wom-
an—I think she spoke less than any
woman I ever knew. Our house stood
quite by itself, a good way from the
the grounda without the housekeeper.
"Every day the old schoolmaster
from the village came to give me les-
sons. It was, as you may imagine, a
very old-fashioned education which X
received; but I liked It. My uncle had
a library—neither large nor valuable,
but I read all the books on those
shelves. Robinson Crusoe, Rasselas,
Gulliver, the Pilgrim's Progress—that
was my only idea of fiction. So the
days and months crept slowly by. My
uncle was often away, and I used to
notice, at those times, a greater anxi-
ety on the part of the housekeeper to
have an eye on me, and that I should
not go out of bounds. I was no doubt
closely watched; but by degrees they
grew to trust me more, for I was very
tractable. Constant isolation made
me dull, quiet, unlike other girls. I
had absolutely no link with the outer
world; I had been distinctly forbidden
to write to the nuns—I knew no one
in England. My uncle used to have
visitors—always men—but these I
never saw. I lived quite apart from
him; his rooms were at the other end
of the house. I always had my meals
with the housekeeper."
Pardon my interruption," said Mr.
Martineau, in a low tone. "Did you
say you never saw your uncle s
guests?"
"Wait a minute; I am going to tell
you," she replied. "When I was be-
tween sixteen and seventeen a change
came about in my world. The old
schoolmaster died. There was a pause
in the regular routine of my days. I^eft
entirely to my own devices, I used to
wander all over the upper parts of the
house. In one of the attics I found a
box full of books. Some were dull and
uninteresting, but some were well, I
do not think you can have any idea
of what It was to me to become ac-
quainted with Sir Walter Scott, Ihack-
eray and Lord Lytton. My brain al-
most reeled with an accumulation of
new ideas. I wondered how iu the
world I could have remained where I
was so long in helpless, stupid ignor-
ance of life. I soon resolved that I
would bear It no longer. I would
brave my uncle; I would demand my
freedom; I would ask why I was
mewed up thus In a corner, away from
all companionship.
"I remember that night vividly, it
was August, sultry and still, and both
atmosphere and sky were beautifully
clear. I had spent the afternoon un-
der the willows by the brook, gloat-
ing over my novel till the fading light
compelled me to close the book. The
pastures, as I walked Jingeringly bacjc
to the house, were heavy with dew",
and discolored the hem of my white
cotton dress. I must have been a
strange looking girl; my hair floated
all over my shoulders and down my
back below my waist; nobody had
ever told me that I was growing up,
and that my locks should be arranged
more neatly. I came with slow steps
round the corner of the house, brushing
my hand softly along the thick dark
box trees; my lightly-shod feet made
no noise on the gravel as I turned1
the corner of the clump of thick bushes
which stood at each side of the en-
trance, and advanced toward the heavy
white columns of the porch.
"Then I started back and paused
irresolutely, for there was a stranger
standing by the door— a young man
with bare head and folded arms. I
beg your pardon, Mr. Martineau, did
1 startle you?"
"Not in the least, thanks. You—you
can't think how you interest me.
Please don't pause." „
"It seems a strange thing that up to
that night I had never encountered
any of my uncle's guests, but it is
nevertheless quite true. As he turned
and caught Bight of me, he utttered an
exclamation of surprise.
" 'You startled me,' he said.
" 'You startled me, too,' I answered
vaguely, as I looked at him, there came
floating into my mind reminiscences
of the romances with which I had late-
ly filled my head. I thought of the first
meeting between Ivanhoe and Rebecca
as I looked up at him. He took my
hand, drew me to his side, and patted
my hair kindly.
" 'Whose dear little girl are you?"
he said.
"I felt cruelly wounded and hurt!
There was every excuse for him—you
see how small I am, no taller than a
child, my hair was all down my back,
and the light was fading! But I never
thought of that. Picture to yourself
a girl, with a mind just awakened to
a consciousness of womanhood and its
possibilities, brought face to face with
the first young man she had ever met,
and greeted as I was greeted then! He
must have thought me mad. I burst
into indignant tears, and tore myself
away from him.
" 'How dare you—oh, how dare you
speak to me like that?" I cried. 'I
can't think how you can insult me so!*
"I think he saw then that he had
made a mistake, for he said, 'By
George, I beg your pardon!' But I
would not stay another moment. I ran
upstairs to my own room. There I
cried as if my heart would break. I
had deeply realized how neglected i
was, and there was no one to help ma
to gain redress!"
(To be continued.)
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French, W. H. The Publicist. (Chandler, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 6, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, July 28, 1899, newspaper, July 28, 1899; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc150735/m1/3/: accessed May 11, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.