UNDER
GOULD AND FISK.
A COMPARISON OF THE PAST AND PRESENT MANAGEMENT,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE STOCKHOLDERS
AND BONDHOLDERS GENERALLY.
BY GEORGE CIOUCH..
H      e.  _ —-4wo
NEW YORK.
1870.








PREFACE,
TrIE facts contained in the pamphlet entitled "c Another
Chapter of Erie" were first submitted to the public in the
columns of the New York TYorld, of December 11, 1869,
under the then novel and somewhat startling caption,
" A Plea for Erie."  The article attracted the attention
of the press throughout the country, many influential journals finding it of sufficient public interest to be reprocluced in extenso; and in financial circles and the railroad
world, its favorable exhibit of the results accomplished
by the able management of Gould and Fisk, occasioned
no little surprise. Those who had been most influenced
by the unfavorable reports so industriously circulated by
baffled monopolists and speculators, confidently predicted
the speedy publication of such an irresistible counterblast
of contradictions as should materially damage, if not
completely demolish the writer's reputation for veracity,
and at the same time close the public ear to any further
pleas for Erie. But the members of the different cliques
in league against President Gould and his official associates
were thoroughly aware of the satisfactory condition of the
road and its business while they were fabricating and
promulgcating their infamous reports to the contrary, and




iv
they, of all men, knew whether the statements published
in the World were reliable or not, and therefore, made no
attempt to challenge them. Let them forever after hold
their peace.
Such general interest being manifested in the affairs of
Erie, the writer was induced to republish the result of his
investigations in pamphlet form. An edition of 10,000
copies of the Second Chapter, which was disposed of in
the course of a few weeks, having failed to satisfy public curiosity, the present extension-a brief history of
Erie under Gould and Fisk is respectfully submitted.
G. C.
Naw YORK, -Mlarch, 1870.




ERIE UNDER GOULD AND FISK.
AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM.
Messrs. Gould and Fisk need put forward no other defence than the history of the Erie road under their management. It effectually silences all the malicious statements which have been so industriously circulated in the
interest of rival parties and corporations for the purpose
of injuring them in the estimation of the general public,
and destroying the confidence of such as are pecuniarily
interested in the magnificent property entrusted to their
care, and proves them fully entitled to the commendation,
"' Well done, thou good and faithful servants." Aware of
the fact that a very considerable quantity of the figurative
dirt with which the reputations of these men have been
so profusely bespattered acquired adhesive properties in
consequence of the utter contempt with which those who
hurled it were regarded; and that-in spite of all that has
been done since Gould and Fisk were at length roused
to self-defence, in order to preserve the credit of the
corporation-so much yet sticks, the writer confidently
anticipates seeing the above commendation of the
two best-abused men in the world characterized as
A sublimely audacious," or something equally complimentary. With equal confidence, however, does he rely
upon the final verdict of public opinion. As the matter
stands now, with such powerful prejudices to fight against,
A




6
whoever undertakes to defend Fisk and Gould on any
one of the counts of the voluminous indictment prepared
by their persecutors must be equally ready to defend himself: in proof of which the following case may be cited. On
the publication of Jay Gould's Report, a leading morning
journal, with characteristic enterprise, dispatched one of
its most reliable correspondents to make a tour of the
Erie road and investigate its condition thoroughly, with
a view to test the accuracy of the statements put forward by the President. After a thorough examination
of the entire line, the correspondent, who had started
with a most unfavorable impression, and the full convic —
tion that he would be able to pick Mr. Gould's report to
pieces, found himself in a rather embarrassing predicament. So much had been written and said against the
road, its condition had been so shamefully misrepresented,
and the erroneous impressions prevailed so extensively that
he foresaw that the man who first dared to publish an
impartial statement would have considerable difficulty in
proving himself a disinterested observer. To his credit be
it said, the correspondent decided to proclaim the truth at
all risks. Being an old attacew, and a man of unimpeachable integrity, he escaped the suspicion which would certainly have attached to one less tried and trusty, but nevertheless, the fact that his close scrutiny developed nothing
in corroboration of the unfavorable statements advanced.
by the opponents of Gould and Fisk, but on the contrary,
revealed so much in favor of the present Erie management, occasioned such intense surprise in all quarters, and
particularly in the editorial sanctum of the journal referred to, that the impartial commissioner was hurriedly
recalled. On making the explanation required of him,
the correspondent submitted conclusive evidence that he
had not been imposed upon, or biased in any way, and




was deservedly commended for his courageous attempt to
shame the patron saint of the speculators and monopolists
who have leagued themselves against the men who saved
Erie from bankruptcy and raised it to its present proud
position as the first railroad of the American continent.
The stockholders and bondholders of the Erie Railway
are even more indebted to this fearless correspondent than
President Gould or Comptroller Fisk himself.
Until recently, the President of Erie and his able coadjutors have paid little or no heed to the slanders promulgated by their Wall Street enemies and parties interested in rival lines; while for the blind and blundering
censure of ignorant outsiders they manifested the utmost
unconcern. It was only when their unscrupulous adversaries adopted the expedient of-subsidizing the more corrupt portion of the public press, and, exasperated at finding that mere personal attacks failed to further their
ulterior designs, commenced promulgating false and malicious charges, calculatedl to i'nore the credit of the corporation,
that Gould and Fisk awoke to the necessity of taking
some notice of these dastardly attacks. As regards
themselves individually, confident that success would gild
their efforts, however extraordinary, these much-enduring
men remained indifferent-too indifferent, as they at last
realized, to personal attacks, while devoting themselves,
with all the marvelous energy for which they are alike
famous, to the two grand ends they had in view-the
reconstruction of the Erie road and the restoration of
the ruined credit of the corporation. Let their bitterest
enemies, the managers of rival railways, answer as to
whether or no they have succeeded in accomplishing the
first of these Herculean tasks, and let the stockholders,
American and foreign, who have been so egregiously imposed upon by the enemies of Erie, make thorough and




8
impartial investigation of the financial policy of the present administration before delegating the second task to
less able, and, may be, far less reliable hands.
Since the "Erie Princes" became famous, it may be said
they have been on trial at the bar of public opinion. Their
every word has been noted and every movement chronicled, for they have been subject to the strictest surveilance of the press.  They have been portrayed by Jenkins and pestered by interviewers-written up and written
down, over and over again; and now that we have such
an abundance of evidence concerning them, it is about
time to close the case for the prosecution.
There is no need for elaborate argument in behalf of
the accused; they rely confidently upon the stubbornness
of the facts which are to speak for them, and believe that
in the plainest statement of a fact there is a superlative
eloquence which effectually disposes of the weak inventions of their enemies.
THIE REAL ENEMIES OF ERIE.
The English shareholders, in their utter ignorance of the
history of the Erie Corporation, make the absurd mistake
of blaming the present managers for the crimes of their
predecessors. It must be remembered that Messrs. Gould
and Fisk have been but a very short time in office, and it
must be admitted, even by the most jaundiced of their
opponents, that during their brief term they have worked
a vast amount more good than evil to the property entrusted to their care. This latter fact is patent to all who
have given the affairs of the road sufficient attention to
enable them to form an opinion, and, consequently, no one
will be more benefitted by the discoveries of a really
thorough and imlpartial investigation, than the men who




are accused of throwing every obstacle in the way of such
a proceeding. Of those who are interested in the welfare
of Erie, none are so anxious to have the condition of the
magnificent property of the corporation thoroughly ventilated as the more responsible members of the present
management. Much and wrongfully as these officers
have been abused, the speedy and vigorous prosecution of the proposed investigation is a consummation
devoutly to be wished, and the publication of the result a matter of simple justice. But when so many
powerful cliques are struggling against the best interests
of the Corporation for their own base purposes, the difficulty is in finding men who will make full and fair examination, and honest report. To none others will the
present managers afford the necessary facilities.
Absurd as is the nistake made by the English party it
is in a measure excusable, seeing how grossly they have
been imposed upon by the agents of the two men, of all
others, Drew and Vanderbilt, whose insatiable greed has
been to Eric the " direful spring of woes unnumbered."
The disastrous results of the operations of this wonderfully
well-matched pair of veteran financiers are too well known
on this side to be recapitulated here; but it is about time
our cousins over the water posted themselves a little on
this head. Let them but take the pains to ascertain the
condition of the road under preceding administrations,
and they will have the whole thing at a glance, and be
able to realize the fact that Drew brought the corporation
to the verge of bankruptcy, and that the present management saved the road from ruin and Vanderbilt. Those who
desire to be impartial, must have the previous history of
this great national artery of commerce in view, while passing judgment upon the present administration. Thanks
to the persistent misrepresentations of their opponents,




10
Gould and Fisk were condemned before they were even
called upon to give an account of their stewardship.
Unltil recently, it has been the fashion to abuse the present managers of Erie whenever occasion could be made,
but fortunately the thing was carried too far-their opponents overdid it, and the public tired of it. Then, and
not till then, (" better late than never," however,) the
question arose, " What have they done to deserve it?"
That question has been replied to in many ways; but as
far as the interests of the Erie Corporation are concerned,
the defamers of Messrs. Gould and Fisk have yet to answer it. There is abundant proof that those who took the
initiative in trumping up accusations against the so-called
Erie Princes. were actuated by a desire to further their
own ends rather than the interests of the Corporation,
notwithstanding their loud-protested devotion to the latter; but it is equally evident that a large proportion of
those who joined in the recent senseless outcry, did so
"for the mere fun of the thing," much as people sometimes join in the cry of " mad dog," when, for all they
know to the contrax-y, the unfortunate object of their
clamors may be more self-possessed than his pursuers.
Fortunately for the road, the men who have undertaken
to restore its fallen fortunes are remarkable for coolness
and indomitable will, and, adhering to the masterly plan
they had originally mapped out, they pur-sued the tenor
of their way, swerving  neither to the right nor left, until
they had saved Erie firom all danger of absorption by
rival corporations, and secured such connections as make
their line the highway of the Continent. It is possible
that at some time or other the enemies of Erie may triumph,
and deprive the present incumbents of office, but they
cannot deprive them of the credit of having battled
bravely for the 1onad in the most critical period of its event



11
ful history, established its indel)ndence on an enduring
basis, and made it at once the greatest and best line in
the country. If: on the other hand, the control of this
great national thoroughfare is left to the men who have in
the marvelously short space of twelve months raised it
from ruin to its present prosperous condition, until they.
have had time to fully develop its resources, and realize
their dreams of its glorious fiture, neither Fisk nor Gould
will be under the necessity of putting up their own monuments. They will deserve a bronze memorial apiece-one
at New York and the other at San Francisco, where the
western terminus of Erie is destined to be located at no
distant date.
Indeed, the stockholders of Erie, American and foreign,
may congratulate themselves upon the fact that their
property is in the hands of men of rare ability-men who
seem to have been specially endowed for the great and
responsible work which has fallen upon them. Fisk and
Gould being so thoroughly posted in the intricacies of
American finance, and the ways of Wall Street, no better men could be found to defend the interests of the corporation from the rapacity of the speculative cliques who
have done so much to damage its credit, both at home
and abroad. Then, ill addition to their other qualifications, they have proved themselves to be the most able
and progressive railroad men of the day. Certainly no
line in the United States was more in need of good management than the Erie was when they assumed control,
while to-day it is in every respect a model for all others.
Now that the public is so thoroughly posted as to the
affairs of the road, and so intimately acquainted with its
able managers the designs of the disappointed ones who
have been at the bottom of all the recent troubles and
misrepresentation are revealed in all their enormity.




12
Drew, in his seventeen years more or less criminal mismanagement, had things all his own way. Few persons interested themselves in the affairs of the corporation then
but the stockholders, and they were easily pacified with
paltry dividends and deluded with cheap promises whenever they ventured to be at all inquisitive or complaining.
In what Mr. Drew calls "the good old times," the press
was not quite as vigilant as it is now, and consequently
the general public were in blissful ignorance of the unsatisfactory condition of the finances of the Erie Company. The ruinous state of the line and its rolling stock
of course did not escape notice, but the management was
criminally indifferent on this head and so there was no
help for it. To-day it is different. Such a broad flood
of light is directed on the affairs of Erie by the press and
the courts, that no move, however slight, on the part of
its management, escapes attention and criticism, and consequently Gould and Fisk could not follow the examples
set by those of their -predecessors who did plunder the
corporation, were they so minded. The legal war of 1868
made Erie famous, and the brilliant triumph which Gould
and Fisk gained over their unscrupulous opponents, Drew
and Vanderbilt, gave them a world-wide reputation. Drew
was fairly beaten off, and Vanderbilt, to his shame be it
said, consented to be paid off. To those who take exception to the manner in which the ancient mariner of Staten
Island and the ex-drover of Putnam County were made
to relinquish their clutches on the Erie treasury it may be
remarked that violent diseases *need violent treatment.
True the remedy in such extreme cases is sometimes more
disastrous than the evil, but the prosperous condition of
Erie at the present time proves that its case was in good
hands.




13
EXIT RAMSEY & Co.
Subsequent to the publication of the second Chapter of
Erie the Ramseyites have suffered a complete rout. The
secret history of the action brought by IMr. Ramsey
against "the leading conspirators in the present Erie management" has already been made public, and the revelations made during the trial plainly demonstrated that the
leading conspirators against the present management are
the real enemies of the Erie stockholders. The Ramsey
party failed F ignominiously, as they deserved-their
charges being so utterly absurd as to make all connected
with them ridiculous, and their pretence of championing
the rights of the "stockholders and bondholders generally" being too transparent to deceive anybody. The
result of this abortive attempt to place Mr. Groesbeck in
control of the Erie treasury proved how accurate was
Mr. Fisk's summary of the case as given in the previous
chapter. In saying that it could not be characterized as
malicious because it was so utterly ridiculous the genial
Prince of Erie and jovial Admiral of the Narragansett
navy was a trifle too charitable. But then Mlr. Fisk is
ever prone to err on the side of charity. The fact is,
Messrs. Ramsey & Co. expended a great deal of malice
in the prosecution of this suit, but fortunately it proved
impotent. The confessions, extorted from the principal
conspirators on examination under oath, give a sufficient
insight into their plot to prove who were sinning and who
sinned against.
The following charges, made by the Ramsey factionthe only clique, by the way, which had the hardihood to
attack Gould and Fisk on their strongest point, the management of the road —are specimen splashes of the mud
so continuously showered at the " powers that be " by the
2




14
more envious and spiteful of the powers that were, ancl
the more mendacious of the powers that would be.
1. The said persons and their confederates have made
no material additions to the earnings of'the road.
2. Little or nothing has been done in the way of extending the line, or improving its equipment.
3. Their management has not been attended with any
gain of cheapness, safety or comfort in transportation.
4. The employes of the road have become demoralized,
and less serviceable, and its net earnings have diminished.
5. The present managers are extremely.unpopular
among the employes of the road.
6. There are an unusual and needless number of illadvised and unjust business arrangements, relative to the
affairs of the said Company, and its relations with competing roads are needlessly unfriendly and disadvantageous.
Each of the above deliberate falsehoods, and others too
numerous to recapitulate, are effectually disposed of by
the irresistible array of impressive facts and unanswerable
figures, set forth in President Gould's remarkably clear
and business-like Report. But, notwithstanding the absence of any supporting evidence, they had currency, and
found believers for a time, and similar slanders, equally
groundless, prevail to-day. However, to use one of Mr.
Fisk's favorite quotations, " The truth is mighty and
must prevail."
Now, then, it may be asked, whose fault is it that the
Erie management became somewhat unpopular for a time,
and that there was a consequent "loss of patronage, confidence and earnings"?  Whose fault but the men who
were guilty of manufacturing and circulating the atrocious slanders which have done so much damage to the
credit of the Erie corporation both at home and abroad?




15
And another question. Had Fisk and Gould been as
black as they were painted in the subsidised journals referred to, would it not have been better policy for the parties interested in the welfare of the road to have held
their peace until they had secured a sufficient majority to
remove them? But no, the "irreconcilables" who have
waged such merciless war against the present dynasty,
reeked little how much ruin they worked, provided they
could only fasten their greedy clutches on the earnings of
the road. And now that speculators on this side have
been foiled at every turn and forced to seek "fresh fields
and pastures new," the foreign stockholders are urged by
a contemptible ring of English speculators to pursue the
same suicidal course. But since Gould and Fisk have so
bravely battled it out with the different American cliques
and conquered all domestic difficulties, it would be something like a national disgrace if Erie were allowed to fall
under British rule. There is no fear of this, however,the Oneida on which the irrepressible Admiral has determined to sink or swim is not destined to be destroyed by
the piratical Bombay commanded by Barrister Burt —for
already the-foreigners begin to realize the mortifying fact
that they have been grossly deceived, and have discovered that, all things considered, Fisk and Gould are the
right men in the right place.




16
ERIE UNDER THE OLD REGIME.
THE TRACK IN 1868.
Reference has been made to the ruinous condition into
which the road had been allowed to fall under the criminal mismanagement of the previous administration. Evidence on this head is embarrassingly abundant, but the
following official documents alone will be sufficient to
prove that the sins of the old regime have been visited
on the new.
OFFICE GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT,
NEW YORK, March 3, 1868.
HON. JOHN S. ELDRIDGE,
President Erie Railway:
SIR:-On the 3d of December, I addressed a communication to,
the Vice-President, recommending the purchase of 5,000 tons of
steel rails, and at an interview with you, I expressed the opinion
that 15,000 to 18,000 tons of rails would be required for the repairs of track during the year 1868.
Since that opinion was given, we have passed through three
months of unusually severe winter weather, and moved more than
an average winter tonnage, with the road-bed frozen solid as a
rock, the rails encased in snow and ice, so that it has been impossible to do much in the way of repairs; the iron rails have broken,
laminated and worn out beyond all precedent, until there is scarce a
mnile of your road, except that laid with, steel rails, between Jersey City and
Salamnanca or Buffalo, where it is safe to run a train at the ordinary passenger-train speed, and many portions of the road can only be traversed
safely by reducing the speed of all trains to 12 or 15 miles per hour,
solely on account of the worn out and rotten condition of the rails.
Broken wheels, axles, engines and trains off the track, have been,
of daily, almost hourly, occurrence for the last two months, caused




17
mostly by defective rails. Fully one thousand broken rails were
taken from the track in the month of January, while the number
removed on account of lamination, crushing or wearing out was
much greater. February will show a still worse record than
January.
The failure of rails is confined to no particular make, although
there is a difference, easily observed, between those made at Scranton and those re-rolled at Elmira. The former break readily into
many pieces, and by so doing are pretty sure to throw a train from
the track; a large number of these rails have broken with less
than six' months' service, some with scarce one month's wear.
With the track laid with the John Brown Bessemer Steel, no fault
need be found. But one rail has broken during the winter, and no
lamination, and'very little wear is perceptible. Twenty steel rails
were laid in Jersey City yard last March, the iron rails adjoining,
subject to the same wear, have been renewed four times since the
steel was put down, and I have no doubt the steel rails will outlast three times as many more iron rails.
This winter's experience has satisfied me that the quality and
weight of the iron rails in use cannot be depended upon to sustain
the traffic of the Eric Railway. Forty-two ton locomotives hauling trains of fifty and sixty loaded cars, and passenger engines
weighing thirty-seven tons, running at a speed of thirty to forty
miles per hour, literally crush and grind out the iron rails beneath
them. Instances have been reported to me of rails removed from
track too much worn for safety, where the first imperfection was
visible but the day before.
In view of this state of things, what is the remedy? Manifestly
the adoption of steel rails as far as practicable, and iron rails of
superior quality and heavier section, to be followed by the gradual
reduction of the weight of engines and cars as new equipment becomes necessary. The tendency of late years has been to larger and
more powerful locomotives, and heavier, stronger cars, and this
has been carried to such an extent as to render them out of all
proportion to the strength and durability of track. Especially has
this been the fact upon the Erie Railway.
The condition of the iron at the present date is stlch as to give nes
mnuch anxiety and apprehension for the safety of trains.  We cannot and do
not attempt to mnake the schedule timne with our trains, nearly all lose from two
B2




18
to five hours in passing over the road, and it has been only by the exercise of
extremne caution we have been able thus far to escape serious accident.
A very large quantity of rails must be laid as soon as the
weather will permit and they can be furnished.
In conclusion I desire to modify my estimate of the quantity of
rails required for the current year. After a careful observation of
the whole road, assisted by information obtained from Division
-Superintendents and Track Masters, I have come to the conclusion
that twenty-five thousand tons of rails will be needed to keep up
your track in 1868, and I would earnestly recommend that as large
a proportion as possible shall be of steel.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
H. RIDDLE,
General Sup't.
INADEQUATE MOTIVE POWER.
OFFICE GENERAL SUPERINTEINDENT,
NEW YORK, March 3, 1868.
HON. J. S. ELDRIDGE,
President Erie Railway Co.,
SIR: —A careful review of the present condition of the Motive
Power of the Erie Railway Company enables me to present the following statement for your consideration:
The company own 271 locomotives-of this number about 30
are condemned as entirely useless, and some 40 more are of but
little value, owing to their long service and general infirmity, being considered unsafe to carry even moderate steam pressure, and
sure to break down if run long distances. 220 engines have performed over ten years service, and 143 of that number over 15
years service. The master mechanics report 128 of these locomotives as requiring new boilers, and recommend the complete reconstruction of 107 of the number whenever the boilers shall be renewed, or in other words, instead of giving the old engine a new
boiler, it is deemed more to the interest of the company to construct a complete new engine, for the following reasons: most of
these engines are of the kind known as half-crank engines, an expensive and troublesome class to keep in repair. The engines having been so long in service no dependence can be placed upon the strength
and durability of any of their parts-they are of a great variety of patterns, and make it necessary to keep a very large stock of mate



19
rial on hand to provide against breakages, there being something
over sixty different kinds of engines on the Erie road.
It will be seen by the foregoing, that the Company have only
300 serviceable engines, considerably less than that of really efficient ones. From 15 to 25 per cent. are in shops undergoing repairs, ordinarily, at this season often a larger proportion. Our
mechanics estimate the life of an engine at 15 years. Assuming
that to be true, we should build 20 every year to keep our 300
good, to say nothing of the 70 now idle and worthless; but as we
have added by purchase and construction only 12 new engines to
our stock, during the last two years, we are at the present moment some 28 engines short of what we should have to make good the
depreciation. In view therefore of the certain increase of the coal
tonnage, and probable increase of both through and way traffic, I
feel justified in saying there should be 50 new locomotives added
to the equipment of the road during the next. twelve months. In
the Company's shops at Susquehanna and Dunkirk, if worked to
their capacity, with a slight increase of machinery, it is estimated
30 engines per annum  can be built-at present we are working
only force sufficient to build about one-third that number. The
engines built in the Company's shops, in point of strength, durability and perfection of workmanship, far excel those procured,
from locomotive builders, and while their cost may fully equal,
perhaps exceed, the price for which similar engines may be constructed for, I yet deem it good policy to fully employ our own
facilities for the constiuction of engines.
To fill out the number I have ventured to suggest as needed, 20
will be required outside of the Company's ability to construct.
These I would contract for to be built after specifications and plans
to be furnished by the Company's officers, and under the inspection of a good mechanic to be selected and paid by the Railway
Company. In this way I think we could obtain satisfactory
machines.
I also deem it my duty to recommend an increase of Freight
and Coal cars: say 300 Box Freight cars and 100 Coal cars, in adaddition to those heretofore ordered.
The Coal cars are sure to be needed, and the Box Freight cars,
unless the freight traffic should fall off contrary to all expectations.
Respectfully your obedient servant,
H. RIDDLE, General Sup't.




20
P. S.-Since writing the foregoing Report, I have learned from
General Potter that he is desirous of establishing stock yards at
Urbana and Cincinnati, on the line of the Atlantic and Great
Western Railway, and taking stock for the New York market that
has hitherto gone via Pittsburgh, provided the Erie will furnish
her full proportion of stock cars. This we cannot do without adding, say 200 stock cars to our present number, and to meet this
and other demlands I would respectfully submit the following estimate for new cars:
300 Box Cars,   -   -   -   at $800     $240,000
200 Box Cattle Cars,   -     "  900      180,000
100 Coal Dumps,    -   -    "  625        62,500
$482,500
iival corporations profited immensely at the expense
of Erie, by publishing the above damaging reports of
the dangerous condition of its track, and the utter inadequacy of its motive power as advertisements of the
superiority of their respective lines.  In fact its passenger traffic has not yet recovered, although to-day the
accommodations of the Erie line far surpass those of
any other railway in the world. Thanks to the careful
nursing of Gould and Fisk, however, this branch of the
business is now  steadily increasing, and the earnings will
soon be a long way ahead of previous figures. The freight
business, increased by recent extensions and connections,
is already in excess of the most sanguine expectations of
Gould himself, and consequently far beyond the wildest
dreams of the fossils ofthe old regime.
After reading the foregoing documents and Presiadent Gould's Report, the most prejudiced must be convinced that the road is now under able and efficient
management, and that untiring efforts have been made
and are still being made, to advance the credit of the corporation. No wonder that the road lost patronage, and
that its reputation was of the worst-the wonder is that.




21
so nuch has been done to increase its business and improve
its condition in so short a time. Whatever may be the
faults of Fisk and Gould, and, bold as the assertion may be
in view of the countless accusations which have been put
forward, nothing of a serious nature has yet been proved
against them —the Erie stockholders will do well to retain
them in office until they are perfectly certain of obtaining
better men to succeed them. - This is a point which cannot be too carefully considered.
THE SECOND CHAPTER OF ERIE.
" Trade now dominates the world, and railways dominate trade," says the author of the first "Chapter of Erie,"
and, accepting this hypothesis as correct, it follows that
the men who dominate railways, dominate pretty nearly
all that is worth dominating in this mundane sphere. There
are countries where railway presidents and directors are
held subject to the laws of governments, which are jealous governments, and will not tolerate the worship of any
other powers but their own; but here, owing to certain
little defects in "the best government the world ever
saw," railway rule is becoming stronger every day, and, in
default of check, will soon be paramount. If current reports are to be believed, the State of New York affords
the most remarkable instance of the kind of imperium in
imnperio referred to, yet developed. The "Erie ring," then,
being such a "power in the land" for good or evil, and
the Erie road being one of the great lines of travel and
commerce, the public cannot know too much concerning
the men who rule Erie, and the manner in which they




22
wield the tremendous power vested in them and discharge
their respective duties.
James Fisk, Jr., and Jay Gould have figured so frequently in the public prints during the past two years that
their names have become as "familiar as household
words," but as they were first forced into notoriety in connection with their veteran opponents, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Daniel Drew, in consequence of the extraordinary
legal, and other proceedings, which marked the exciting
contest for the control of' the Erie road, and latterly in
connection with Abel R. Corbin, General Butterfield and
others, concerned in the recent gigantic gold-ring conspiracy, the fact that Messrs. Fisk and Gould have the business and working of the. Erie Railway under their immediate control has been generally overlooked. They have
been discussed and criticised as financiars and speculators;
some censuring their conduct, some applauding them, but
all astounded at the grandeur of' their schemes. Fisk has
been "written up" repeatedly in his character of speculator, operatic manager, and admiral, but of his rendition of
his principal role-that of a "railway manager" —little or
no notice has been taken. So far as his connection with
the business af the Erie road goes, Mr. Gould has also escaped attention hitherto. The object of this Second Chapter of Erie is to show how the road is worked under the
present dynasty, and how far Messrs. Gould and Fisk are
qualified for the responsible positions to which they have
been elected. With this highly important end in view,
the writer has recently made a close and careful survey of
the entire line, not omitting even the smallest of its numerous branches, and the information thus obtained will
enable the reader to draw his own conclusions as to
whether or no the Erie princes fail in their duties as servants of the travelling public.




23
ERIE HISTORY.
The history of the Erie Railway has been, indeed, a
checkered one, and if written in full, would be as instructing as interesting. But great as its financial difficulties
have been, or may yet be, they can never be at all commensurate with the physical difficulties which were surmounted or removed by the indomitable energy of its constructors. Scaling lofty mountains, skirting rugged precipices,
skimming through fertile valleys, and bridging broad rivers-connecting the Hudson, the Susquehanna, the St.
Lawrence and the Ohio, and spreading its ternminal
branches along the sholes of Lakes Erie and Ontario, well
has it been said that this magnificent monument of national enterprise is as important in our civilization as was the
Appian Way in the "most high and palmy days of Rome."
The financial troubles of Erie commenced long before
XMessrs. Gould and Fisk became connected with the line,
and apropos of this fact, it may be parenthetically remarked that financial troubles are as inevitable in the;early days of railway corporations as measles in infancy.
The difficulties which resulted in the titanic conflict of
1868 had their origin as far back as 1850, when Mr. Daniel
Drew first took his seat in the directory and commenced
manipulating the stock, and culminated in consequence of
Vanderbilt's manoeuvres to obtain absolute control of the
Erie road in order to establish a gigantic monopoly by
which he could lock the vast trade of the West in his
iron arms.  At any rate, all accounts agree that when
" the cruel war" was over, and in accordance with terms
upon which the settlement was effected, Messrs. Fisk and
Gould assumed the control of the Erie Railway, they
found its treasury empty, and its reputation ragged in the
extreme. "It may well be believed," says the author of'B




24
the First Chapter of Erie, " that Messrs. Fisk and Gould
could not have regarded their empty treasury, just de —
pleted to the extent of nine millions-trust funds misapplied by directors in the process of stock gamblingwithout serious question as to their ability to save the
road from  bankruptcy."  But the road was saved from
bankruptcy; and to-day there is abundant evidence to
show that it is in a fair way of becoming, ere long, the
most prosperous line in the country. Gould and Fisk
boldly undertook the apparently hopeless task of engineering the Erie corporation through the financial difficulties which impeded the working of its existing lines, and
blocked its destined path throughthe fertile valleys and
growing cities of the far West, and the sequel so far as it
has been developed, has demonstrated that they are men
fully as skillful, energetic, and persevering in their respective ways as were the engineers who blasted their path
over the rugged heights of the Shawangunk ridge, scaled
the perpendicular precipices along the Delaware, and ran
their line to stations 1,800 feet above the level of the sea,,
and thence to the objective points on the lake shores.
TIHE INDEPENDENCE OF ERIE.
Nor Drew nor Vanderbilt believed in the possibility of
maintaining the independence of Erie after the crisis of
1868, but up to the present Messrs. Gould and Fisk have,
held their own against all comers, and even their bitterest
opponents cannot but admire the extraordinary abilities
they have displayed. Deplorable, however, as was thedepletion of the treasury at the time that Vanderbilt and
Drew concluded to compromise with their opponents and
abandon the struggle they had so remorselessly waged
for the control of Erie, the dangerous condition and defective equipment of the road was a subject for still wider and




25
deeper lamentation. Only stockholders and speculators
were affected by the grievous reduction of the company's
finances, but the ruinous condition into which the road
and all connected therewith had been allowed to fall, was
a public calamity. IMr. Fisk, who, like his predecessor,
Drew, and his wily antagonist, Vanderbilt, is evidently a
believer in the Jesuit dogma, that "' the end justifies the
means," makes no secret of the nPodus operandh by which
the treasury was refilled, and the much-neglected machinery of the Erie road lubricated and put in running
order; so that it now works, as all who make examination must admit, far smoother, and more profitably than
at any previous period in its history. Whatever complaints the Erie stockholders may have against Mlessrs.
Fisk and Gould, on account of stock manipulations, &c.,
are matters in which the traveling public and the traders
and manufacturers who freight the trains on this great
national thoroughfare have very little concern. The
morality of Wall Street is a distinct virtue, peculiar to
the locality, and professed only by those who are engaged
in the more or less questionable transactions to which it
alone applies. The outside public cannot consistently be
called upon to render decisions in cases where breaches of
this unique virtue are alleged, and consequently all matter
pertaining to the charges of " watering stock," " goldcornering operations," " unlawful appropriation of funds,"
&c., &c., which have been preferred against Messrs. Fisk
and Gould and their associates in the Erie directory, must
be ruled out of this chapter as altogether irrelevant.
In the cases referred to, were they guilty of all the
"irregularities " of which they stand accused, it would be
hard to decide-blamelessness giving priority, by virtue
of the scriptural precedent, which of their many accusers
would be entitled to the privilege of casting the first stone
3




26
at them. In the case in hand, however, Jay Gould and
James Fisk, Jr., are arraigned before the public solely in
their capacities as' railway men"-as the parties directly
responsible for the conduct of the vast business of the
Erie road.
First and foremost among the accusers stands one
Joseph H. Ramsey, who had a " little difficulty" with
Messrs. Fisk and Gould, respecting the directorship of the
Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. Mr. Ramsey having
purposely purchased a small quantity of Erie stock, and
been furnished with a bond or two, was induced by certain parties who are desirous of ousting some of the present incumbents, and securing for themselves positions as
directors, to commence an action "on behalf of the stockholders and bondholders" generally, against Jay Gould,
James Fisk, Jr., Frederick A. Lane, " and other leading
conspirators in the present management." From the carefully prepared abstract of the multitudinous charges
crammed into the complaint entered in this case, the following are selected as the only points on which the people
who are in the habit of traveling over, or of doing business with the Erie Railway are at all seriously interested.
THE ACCUSATIONS.
Concerning the defendants as "railway men," Mr. Ramsey alleges, that while " the said three persons and their
confederates" have largely increased the common. stock
of the Erie Railway Company, no material additions have
been made to the earnings of the road, and little or
nothing has been done in the way of extending the line
or-improving its equipment; that their management of the
road has not been attended with any advance of its credit
or good name, " or with any advantage to any class of
creditors, or with any gain of cheapness, safety, or com



27
fort in transportation on its road; but, on the contrary,
and as the result of the abuses of the defendants, transportation on said road has been visited with calamities of
unusual horror, damage and death; the credit of said
Company has been impaired, and its good repute has
been injured; its most experienced and valuable servants
have been forced from self respect to seek employment
elsewhere; its creditors have suffered loss, delay and vexation; its employes are becoming demoralized and less
serviceable; its stock and bonds have greatly fallen in all
the markets of the world, and its net earnings have diminished, while all its rival roads have made increase in
such earnings, and have had their stock greatly advanced
in all such markets, and the Erie Railway, and its managers in such period, have become in the highest degree
unpopular and disreputable, to the great loss of patronage, confidence, credit and earnings. That several of the
most efficient and experienced men, long in prominent
positions in the employment of said Company, have, in
self-respect, been compelled to resign their places, rather
than hold them subject to such demands as said three persons made upon them; and by reason thereof, the discipline of the men on the line is much impaired; that there
are an unusual and needless number of ill-advised and unjust business arrangements relative to the affairs of said
Company; the men on the line are dissatisfied; their most
experienced, able and superior executive officers have been
driven away, and strikes and other combinations are constant, increasing, and of threatening proportions, and the
relations of the Company with competing roads are needlessly unfreindly and disadvantageous to the Erie Railway Company. That said three persons are extremely
unpopular among the employes of the Company, and are
by them, when they think it safe to do so, severely blam



28
ed,; and the agents of the road generally regard said
three persons as having impaired the public respect for
the said Corporation and its road, and as having disgraced
the corporate name; and for such reasons all said persons
are under less discipline, serving the Company less efficiently, and many of them have all the more readily engaged in the recent strikes and dangerous combinations
lately so much more fiequent than formerly existing along
the road; and the great body of the disinterested bond
and stockholders and creditors of said Company, and the
better piublic sentiment of the people of New York, hold
said three persons in abhorence, and consider it a public
disgrace and wrong that they are allowed to control said
corporation."
The real origin and principal object of the Ramsey suit
are revealed by the fact, that the documents setting forth
the above charges, were prepared in the office of the private attorney of the President of the New York Central.
THE BALLET-GIRL CHARGES.Now, although there is a superabundance of matter in
the complaint, about scantily attired ballet-girls dancing
around the desks of the railway office to the lascivious
strains of lutes, dulcimers, and all kinds of wind and string
instruments, while the demoralized clerks and attaches are
accused of singing time-tables set to opera bouffe melodies, and otherwise disporting themselves with an outrageous disregard to the proprieties of business —and a sufficient amount of similar nonsense to warrant the belief
that the whole thing is simply a burlesque, written to order, for the purpose of affording a vehicle for the promulgation of the false and malicious statements concerning
the working of the Erie road, which have been concocted
in the interest of rival lines and parties-yet public inter



29
est requires that the actual condition of the road-good,
bad, or indifferent-should at once be investigated and
published for'the benefit of those who intrust life and
property to the care of those responsible for its working.
The comparatively unimportant questions between the
Erie managers and their disaffected stockholders are matters for the Courts to decide at some time or other, but
the charges concerning the road are matters which require immediate investigation and thorough ventilation.
However, before submitting the evidence collected on
this point, let us hear what the accused have to say for
themselves, accepting 3Mr. Fisk as their spokesman.
A VOICE FROM -ERIE.
"We have never done anything-we have never attempted to do anything-but there was somebody to find
fault with it for the mere reason, as it seemed, that we
had done or attempted to do it."  With this preliminary
protest: the irrepressible Admiral proceeds as follows:
"The first thing we found in our investigation of Erie
matters was a very well'dusted' treasury. We were next
made aware that on each side of Erie there existed antagonistic lines, which were aiming at its speedy absorption.
We resolved to preserve the independence of the road,
and to do all that lay in our power to extend it. But we
found that our equipment was altogether inadequate to
our work. We needed more engines, more cars, and the
track was in bad order. The trouble was there was not
money to carry up and complete the foundations that had
been laid. As we went on our need for money became
more pressing. I did not stop to run and ask my mother
how I should get it-the first thing was to get it-get it.
I knew if' we got it at all, we should get it right. Well,
we issued convertible bonds, the proceeds of which en



30
abled us to put the road in good order and extend the
lines, connections and business. We kept on selling
bonds, and have paid out, on the Erie Railway bills that
have been audited, fourteen millions of dollars. These
fourteen millions have been expended on the road, its
equipments, its engines, its cars, its steel rails, its road-beds,
its connections, and in increasing its business conveniences.
This has been done notwithstanding the great plannings
and plottings, mandamuses and injunctions of our opponents. Mr. Gould has in all this been entitled to a great
deal more credit than I. His head is long enough to control and carry out all the projects he undertakes; but it
may be well enough, you know, to have a little assistance,
and I have assisted him a little. We didn't suppose that
money could be created and paid out in such magnitude
without making a world of comments, but we paid little
heed to comments. We were pushing on our railroad,
making our connections and getting ready to do our work.
We have a good road to-day, and can do an enormous
amount of work with it. The road earned for the year
ending September 30, 1869, $18,790,905, against $14,376,872 for the year ending September 30, 1868. How's that?
An increase of three and a quarter million dollars! No
wonder Messrs. Vanderbilt, Ramsey & Co. swear we are
neglecting the interests of the road, and'damaging and
demoralizing everything in general.' It seems to me that
if we continue'fighting it out on that line,' we shall succeed in'damaging and demoralizing' the monopolists who
are now in league against us. We'll try, anyhow,"
THE ERIE RAILWAY SHALL GO ON.
"We don't care how low the competing lines on each
side of us put down their rates, we can run our road today and haul our freight cheaper than they can, if they are




31
forty years older. We shall go on with the Erie Railway
as we have been going. If there are others that own, or
have larger interests in it, let them come and take charge
and we will stand aside. As long as we have the control
we will do our best to break up the monopoly that charges
one dollar and eighty cents per hundred for freight, and
three dollars on a barrel of flour from Chicago to New
York. We are content to abide by the voice of the majority of the stock; but don't see any reason, if we can
manage the Erie road why we should give it up. We are
doing all we can for it. If our ideas are wrong, sooner
or later the road will pass into other hands. At any rate
we are doing no harm in laying steel rails, building comfbrtable cars, and in making travel safe and pleasant. The
accidents which have occurred are not attributable to
want of care on the part of the company, but to the villany of the man Bowen in the Carr's Rock disaster, and to
the negligence of an engineer at Mast Hope. The Erie is
the greatest corporation on the American continent, and
is as vital to the welfare of New York City as the Croton
water is to her comfort and safety.
" As to this Ramsey case it amounts to nothing. He
has been at law with us for several months respecting the
possession and directorship of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. Being unfriendly towards us, and having
more or less influence with certain county judges, he was
imported from Albany by some of our Wall Street enemies, and furnished with a little stock in order to enable
him to harrass us, and produce a counter-irritation to this
suit now pending at Rochester. D. B. Eaton, who is engaged as Ramsey's attorney, was dismissed by us from the
Erie service for causes for which the company is now-sueing him. The 100 page complaint, of which they furnished
their own abstracts to all the city papers, contains hardly




32
anything calling for a serious reply-the greater portion
of it being a mass of absurdities-one cannot call it malicious, it being so completely ridiculous. In order to put
us to greater trouble and inconvenience, Ramsey was sent
off to Delhi, in the County of Delaware, the most out-ofthe-way place in the State, being 40 miles from the Erie
road, 20 miles fiom  the Albany and Susquehanna, and
150 miles from the residence of any person who could be
a witness in the case. By swearing'upon information
and belief,' Ramsey procured from his friend Judge
Murray, one of the most extraordinary injunctions ever
heard of. Judge Murray was then a member of the Court
of Appeals, and was not obliged to act at all in the Supreme Court. Generally speaking I find the press to be
tolerably fair and impartial, but in this case I think the
papers which have abused the judge who thought it his
duty to grant an order giving us a moment's time to
answer a complaint of 100 pages or so, which has taken
malicious parties and learned attorneys months to concoct and draft, have not taken a proper view of the
matter."
CONDITION OF THE ROAD.
The people who are most competent to give information as to the actual condition of the Erie road are those
who are engaged in working it, and those who are most
in the habit of travelling over it. The former class will,
of course, make their testimony as favorable as possible
to their employers, and the latter will be more likely to
exaggerate in blaming than in praising. While engaged
in making a thorough survey of the lines and works, the
writer availed himself of every opportunity of conversing
with the company's servants, and of comparing notes with
fellow passengers. The men engaged on the line make




33
only one serious complaint against the management, and
that is the excessive severity of the discipline now enforced, and the rigor of the rules which Messrs. Fisk and
Gould, and their Division Superintendents, have framed
to insure " eternal vigilance " and the faithful discharge of
the respective duties of their subordinates. The patrons
of the road make no other complaint than that one or
two serious accidents have occurred. Those most conversant with the affairs of the road admit, however, that
it would be wrong to lay the blame of those disasters
upon Messrs. Fisk and Gould, knowing, as they do, how
much the road has been improved by the present managers,
and what great exertions are being made to improve it
still further.
THE FUTURE OF THE ERIE RAILWAY.
It needs only a glance at the map to convince one that
the Erie Railway is destined to be the grand highway for
the Western portion of this continent. The glorious future of the interminable and all-embracing network of
rail, of which the Erie of to-day, great and important as
it is already acknowledged to be, is but the parent stem,
is an interesting and pleasing subject for the contemplation of such as take a patriotic concern in the welfare of
this country, and desire to see the present altogether inadequate facilities for communication between the different sections of the republic speedily improved upon, and
our railway system brought as near perfection as possible.
It needs no prophet to tell us that the Erie Railway will
soon be to the continent what Broadway is to New York
-a central artery whose tributary branches ramify the
most out-of-the-way corners and vitalize the most remote
extremities. Eminent foreign engineers and competent
native authorities concur in the opinion that the Erie is
3c




34
one of the best constructed roads in America, and when
it is considered that its broad gauge double-track already
unites the great Lakes with New York-the destined
commercial centre of the world-and connects all the important lines of the productive West with the great Eastern centres of trade and manufactures, who can doubt
the glorious future of Erie? What can obstruct its manifest destiny as the great business thoroughfare of the iron
age? Nothing. It is already the principal thoroughfare
for the teeming products of the mighty WVest in their
transit to the sea. It is much to be marvelled at that the
men who helped to bring into existence this vast artery
of trade and travel, and those who have hitherto had control of it, should have contented themselves with uniting
New York with Lake Erie, and never have made any effort to push forward and grasp the colossal fortunes
awaiting them in the West. Evidently they were not up
to the age in which we live. The present managers, are
men of the period, however-a little in advance if anything. With a deep and well-founded faith in the glorious commercial future of the country, these men have
bent themselves to the task of securing a continuous line
of railroad penetrating the very heart of the immense
agricultural basin of the Ohio River, and thence, following the course of the empire of civilization to the shores
of the Pacific. In getting the control of the Atlantic and
Great Western, they have made their first successful step
towards securing the business of the rich regions lying
east and west of the Mississippi River. Despite the genius and energy of the late management, and the liberal
support of foreign capitalists, the Atlantic and Great
Western, although a line of magnificent construction and
equipment-second only to Erie, in fact-went steadily
down until it was reserved for Messrs. Fisk and Gould to




35
rescue it from bankruptcy and. impending ruin, as they
had previously rescued Erie, and make it one of the connecting links in the all-circling chain which their fertile
brains have patterned, and which they have determined
to devote all their vast wealth and exhaustless energies
and resources to create. The prospects of the Atlantic
and Great Western were bright and flattering at first, but
the anomalous position it held between competing roads
cramped its growth, and, not receiving the support of any
great arterial line of communication, its business finally
dwindled to a deplorable extent. Its history is not alone
curious but instructive, as illustrative of the fate which is
sure to overtake any enterprise started in opposition to
the natural laws of commerce. The Atlantic and Great
Western road can only be rendered a success by a union
with Erie-a union under one management, with identity
of interests and co-operation of capital and influence.
Far-seeing and full of enterprise as they are, Fisk and
Gould readily comprehended the necessities of the Atlantic and Great Western, and bent their energies to the
work of accomplishing the desired consolidation.  It
needs no stretch of imagination to realize that when these
two roads are as one, stretching from the great port of
New York to the central waters of the Ohio, Erie stock
will rise with a calm and steady and well-warranted persistency above all other stocks in the market. Look at
the map and say if this is not an inevitable consequence.
THIE EASTERN DIVISION.
Take the first, or Eastern Division of the Erie road,
and follow the line of its broad-gauge, steel-railed, double
track, past busy Paterson, and other of the more important and populous cities of New Jersey, thence through
the heart of the rich farm lands of far-famed Orange




36
County, connecting a thickly dotted line of thriving
towns and growing cities, such as Turner's, Munroe, Greycourt, Chester, Goshen, Middletown, Otisville and Port
Jervis. At the last-named point, which is the terminal
station of the Eastern Division of the line, the Company
has located extensive machine-shops, car-shops and other
works. At Port Jervis the Erie commences to freight
its trains with the precious produce of the vast coal fields
of Pennsylvania, and consequently the earnings of this
division, with its immense local traffic, profitable connections, and tributary branches, are enormously large.
The Newburgh branch, extending from Greycourt
Junction to Newburgh, on the Hudson, affords an outlet
to tide-water for immense quantities of anthracite coal,
which is transhipped to various ports of the United States.
The Boston, Hartford, and Erie Railway, terminating at
Fishkill, opposite Newburgh, connects with Boston, passing through numerous thriving manufacturing towns, and
branches to Providence. From the important cities above
named, lines radiate to every portion of New England and
the Dominion of Canada. The Warwick Valley Road,
extending from Greycourt to Warwick, is operated by the
Erie Company. The branch from Suffern to Piermont on
the Hudson, is eighteen miles in length. An immense
pier, one mile in length, runs out into the river at the terminus of the line, and extensive freight-houses, engine.
houses, and workshops are located at this point.
THE DELAWARE DIVISION.
The Delaware'division extends from Port Jervis to
Summit station. The scenery along this section is beautiful in the extreme. Three miles beyond Port Jervis the
line crosses the Delaware River over a wooden bridge
800 feet in length, and for the next 26 miles runs on the




37
soil of Pennsylvania. The Erie Company pays to the
Quaker State $10,000 per year for the privilege of running
their road on this side of the river, but in consideration of
that sum is exempt from further taxation. Leaving Pond
Eddy the road runs for a long distance along the steep
and rugged bank of the Delaware-occasionally passing
along the edge of some tremendous precipice. The most
timid passenger need not be alarmed while in transit over
these seemingly dangerous points, however, for every precaution is taken against accident. This portion of the
road was extremely difficult and expensive to construct,
being hewn through solid rock. In making the surveys
for this portion of the line, the engineers had to be lowered
down the almost perpendicular sides with ropes. The
Hawley branch, which connects with the Erie main line at
Lackawaxen, carries over a million tons of coal annually
from the mines of the Pennsylvania Coal Company to
Newburgh, Piermont, and Jersey City. Hancock, one of
the most western stations of this division, is destined to
be a place of considerable importance, it being the railroad
outlet for the entire valley of the East Delaware branch.
THrE SUSQUEHANNA DIVISION.
The Susquehanna division, which terminates at Hornellsville, three hundred and thirty-two miles from New
York, embraces about one-third the distance between this
city and Buffalo. It is under the superintendence of Mr.
H. D. V. Pratt, a gentleman who has been connected with
the road for over twenty years. The business of this section is really immense, and the fact that no accident of a
serious nature has ever occurred on it is sufficient evidence
of the satisfactory manner in which it is worked. The
local business of the Susquehanna division pays the expenses of the road three times over. This section connects




38
with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western at Great
Bend, and the trains of that line carry coal along the Erie
track to Binghamton. They also run one or two trains
per day to Owego and Ithaca. At Binghamton the Syracuse and Binghamton road, controlled by the Delaware
and Lackawanna, and the Albany and Susquehanna lines
connect with Erie. At Owego, the Owego and Ithaca
connects, as also the Southern Central, running from
Owego to Auburn. The Lehigh Valley road connects at
Waverly, and brings the Erie an immense business in the
way of coal, iron, and merchandise from Philadelphia,
receiving as return freight grain and other products of the
West. The Lehigh Valley line runs in direct and damaging competition with the Northern Central. Two new
lines now in the course of construction will also connect
with the Erie at Waverly-a line of forty miles from
Ithaca, and a line of about twenty connecting with the
Southern Central. Both will be completed some time next
summer, and, as tributaries of Erie, will monopolize the
immense business of the great coal fields of the Lehigh
Valley, Towanda, and Fall Creek. The Northern Central road, running trains direct from Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, connects at Elmira, as
also the Chemung branch. The Tioga road, which in the
summer season brings in about 5,000 tons of bituminous
coal per day, joins at Corning, and last there is the line
from Corning to Rochester, with the Branch from Avon
to Attica, of which the Erie Company has a perpetual
lease.
At Waverly the Erie Company has a branch line extending to. the Towanda mines, thirty-four miles distant,
from which source is drawn all the coal consumed by the
Erie line, along its entire length. No other line in the
country is so advantageously provided for in this respect,




39
an enormous saving being effected by supplying trains with
coal fresh from the mines. The town of Waverly owes
its importance in a great measure to the fact of its being
one of the principal coal depots of the Erie road. The
"pockets" erected by the Company at this point are
capable of containing 14,000 tons of bituminous coal, and
an equal quantity of anthracite.  The former quality
comes from Towanda, and the latter chiefly from Pittston
and Lehigh Valley. Under the present management the
station buildings are being extended, additional tracks
laid, and the most modern and improved appliances for
handling coal, loading locomotives, &c., have been erected.
VAST IMPROVEMENTS.
Twelve years ago the number of cars passing Susquehanna station, bound east, averaged but 2,412 per month.
The average of the last ten months is 7,778-the bulk of
the freight being grain, flour, and stock. Twelve years
ago the sale of tickets at this point amounted to $300 or
$400 per month, and about $600 or $700 was received for
freight. Ticket sales now amount to $2,000 per month,
and about $5,000 is collected for freight. It is estimated
that the population of the towns and c't'es along the Erie
road has more than doubled within the last ten years, and
the' probabilities are that within the next ten years a
much larger increase will take place. Competent authorities at Susquehanna and elsewhere declare that the
business of the line has largely increased since Messrs.
Gould and Fisk assumed control, and the impression generally prevails that the present managers are by far the
most efficient men ever in charge of Erie. Owing to
Fisk's enterprise and Gould's careful nursing, it appears
that the local business of the road has been doubled along
its entire length.




40
Principal among the important improvements and extensions now being made in the neighborhood of Susquehanna, is a branch road from Carbondale to Lanesborough,
connecting with Erie at the latter point. The object of this
extension is to carry the coal from the mines at Carbondale to the Western markets. The new line will be thirtyfive miles in length. About twelve hundred men are no'w
engaged upon it. The work of laying rails will be commenced by May, and July will probably find the line in
-running order. The track follows the Lackawanna about
half way from Carbondale, and then follows the course of
the Starrucca Creek. Its profitable working is already
assured-the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company have
ing agreed to ship at the rate of 750,000 tons of coal per
year over it-coal which is now being forwarded by the
longer and proportionately expensive route of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western line. This is only one of
the numerous extensions projected by the genius and enterprise of Messrs. Fisk and Gould for the purpose of increasing the earnings of the Erie road-but this one alone
adds $3,000,000 to the yearly revenues. The present management have determined on accomplishing, as soon as
possible, two vast improvements, which, even in the absence of its other advantages, will render the Erie line first
among the railroads of the future. Steel rails are to be
substituted for iron, from one end of Erie to the other,
and massive iron bridges are to span the waters now
crossed by wooden frames, which are liable to be swept
away by every freshet. Already some 180 miles of steel
rails have been laid, and this work is being rapidly proceeded with. From New York to Susquehanna the rails are
nearly all steel. One of the new iron bridges is now being
thrown across the Susquehanna river, a short distance beyond the station. The bridge was constructed at Paterson,




41
from the plans furnished by S. S. Post, civil engineer of
Jersey City-a gentleman who has the reputation of
being one of the most experienced bridge builders in the
country. A mile or so on this side of Susquehanna is the
Starrucca viaduct, one of the great wonders of American
engineering.  This magnificent and costly structure is
1,200 feet in length, 110 feet in height, and has eighteen
arches. The span of the central arch is somewhere near
100 feet. Viewed from the valley below, the appearance
of this massive yet graceful structure is imposing in the
extreme. Some idea of the difficulties surmounted by
the engineers of the Erie road may be formed on considering the following points: Twenty-six miles on the east
of Susquehanna is Deposit, a station some 997 feet above
the level of the sea; between Deposit and Susquehanna
is Summit, which is exactly 1,366 feet above the level-a
difference of 369 feet in eight miles. From Summit to
Susquehanna the road descends at a grade of fully 60 feet
to the mile for a distance of eight miles. Six or seven
heavy engines are kept on either side of Summit for the
purpose of acting as "pushes."
SUSQUEHANNA AS AN ERIE DEPOT.
The picturesque and prosperous town of Susquehanna
is one vast Erie depot. Of its population of 5,000, nearly
all are dependant on the road. Twenty-two years ago
the site of Susquehanna was a wild forest, but in 1848 the
spot was selected as a central point, and the Erie Company purchased about 300 acres, and levelling a space by
the side of the river, erected repair shops and other
necessary buildings. No better location could have been
chosen. The town has grown with the business of the
road, and the greater portion; of the 300 acres is now
owned by the employes of the company, $375,000 having




42
been realized so far by the sale of lots.  The station
buildings are handsome and commodious, and the company's hotel is a first-class institution, its accommodations
comparing favorably with the best metropolitan establishments. The shops connected with the road form a considerable town by themselves, covering over six acres of
land and employing about 600 men. They are under the
immediate superintendence of Mr. J. B. Gregg, who has
been connected with them since 1851. The machine or
main shop is the largest of these structures, being 774
feet by 138-probably the largest building of its kind in
the world, but certainly one of the best appointed and arranged. The centre aisle of this vast temple of industry
is lined with locomotives-some just built, and others
being repaired and reconstructed. Here is a spick-span
new one, glittering with polished brass, and gorgeous
with paint, snorting impatiently as it is driven out for its
first trip on the road, and there is a worn-out iron-horse,
being dragged on to the traverse table, which is used as
an ambulance for disabled locomotives to be taken down
to the other end of the shop and broken up. Looking
down the long avenue of lathes with their interlacing
bands humming so smoothly and rapidly over the whirring wheels, and listening to the tremendous "thuds" of
the ponderous steam-hammers, the ringing blows which
the muscular sons of Vulcan are showering upon their
sounding anvils, and the deafening rattle of boiler-makers,
who are busy, like Shakespeare's armorers, "closing rivets
up," the visitor to these shops realizes in a measure the
vastness of the business, and the wealth, power and importance of the corporation which built the town of Susquehanna for a division depot. The under-mentioned
buildings adjoin the machine department: Boiler shop,
measuring 200 feet by 116; blacksmith's shop, 180 feet by




43
86; carpenter's shop, 120 by 70; pattern shop, 120 by 70;
paint shop, 120 by 60; pattern store-room, 120 by 60
coppersmith's, tin, and sheet-iron shop, 120 by 50; storeroom, 120 by 50; foundry, 200 by 62; cleaning room, 85
by 40; sand rooms, 100 by 25; engine-room for foundry, 35
by 20; engine-room for shops, 85 by 25; and the hammer
shop, which contains several steam-hammers, the heaviest
being a 2,200-pounder.
In the semi-circular engine house, from which the
different tracts connecting with the depot lines diverge,
forty first-class locomotives repose, each in its separate
stall. This is the stable for such of the iron horses of the
unequalled Erie stud as are kept in reserve. Adjoining
this building are handsome quarters occupied by the engineers of the station. At the rear is the gas manufactory,
from which the whole of this extensive range of shops is
lighted. The superintendent's office adjoins and overlooks
the main machine shop, and attached to the offices is a
large library of well-selected works, and a magnificent
lecture-hall, capable of seating 600, provided for the use
of the employes of the company. Some further idea of the
extent of these works may be formed when it is stated
that the steam-pipes which heat the different departments
measure altogether something over ninety miles. A magnificent Corliss engine of 100-horse power, drives the machinery of the shops and gives motion to the line of shafting attached to the lathes. A fire engine of 100 lbs.
pressure is kept going night and day, ready and equal for
any emergency. The capacities of these works-enormous
as they are-require frequent extensions to enable them
to meet the daily increasing requirements of the road.
The machinery employed throughout is of the most modern
and approved pattern. The company's hotel, known as
the Starrucca House, forms the center of the long range




44
of station-buildings. The dining hall is a magnificently
appointed appartment, 120 feet by 40, and lofty in proportion. The meals furnished here, as at the other establishments along the line provided by the company for the
express accommodation of their passengers, are vastly
superior to the "refireshments" supplied along other lines,
and ample time is allowed for their dispatch. In this important particular the Erie managers have  effected
wonderful improvements, and are entitled to the gratitude of the travelling public. Why do the managers of
rival lines —the New York Central and the Pennsylvania
Central, for instance-not endeavor to compete with Erie
in this respect?
ERIE WORKS AT ELMIRA.
At Elmira the Erie Company has some extensive works,
principal among which are the car shops, which are
superior in some particulars to the kindred establishments
located at Jersey City, Port Jervis, and Buffalo. The
work performed at Elmira is mainly of the better class.
The magnificent drawing-room coaches and luxurious
sleeping cars of the Erie line, which so far surpass those
of any other road in the country, are mostly built at the
Elmira shops, as also the superb first-class carriages now
in use. The machinery of the Erie car shops is marvellously complete-performing almost everything but the
joining and upholstery work. The greater portion of the
elaborate  carvings and costly  ornamental wood-work
which decorates the palatial drawing-room coaches is, of
course, the result of artistic handiwork. Fresco artists of
rare ability are employed to gild and fret the roofs with
rich designs, and landscapists of considerable genius enrich
the panels and fixtures with charming little bits of picturesque scenery. Occasionally fruit, flower, and even figure




45
pieces enliven the interiors, and transform the drawingroom coaches into ambulatory art galleries. Of the men
employed in the Elmira shops, about 150 are skilled artisans of the first-class. MIr. Rutter, the superintendent of
the works, is engaged upon some new cars of his own design, which promise to be marvels of railway architecture,
and will inevitably attract much additional traffic to the
road.
THE BUFFALO AND NORTHWESTERN DIVISIONS.
The Buffalo division diverges from the main road at
Corning, a large and rapidly growing town, situate in
Steuben County, 291 miles from New York. Leaving
Corning, the line of this division runs parallel with the
main road for a short distance, and then diverges to the
north, passing up the valley of the Cohocton River,
through Steuben County, thence through Livingston
County, between Conesus and Hemlock Lakes, to Avon,
from which point a branch extends to Rochester. From
Avon the route continues directly west through Batavia,
in Genesee County to Buffalo. From Livonia, a station
on the eastern border of the rich Genesee Valley, more
grain is shipped than from any other point on the road.
The most important station between Corning and Rochester is Avon, which is the center of one of the richest
agricultural districts in the State of New York. From
this point the Erie has two lines, one to Rochester,
the other running west to Buffalo; and here the Genesee
Valley road connects, and opens communications with
Genesee and Mount Morris. Enormous quantities of grain.
wool, fruit, and other farm produce are shipped from this
locality. The Erie's connection with the flourishing City
of Rochester results in tremendous additions to its revenues, making the grand total larger than the revenue of




46
the government of the United States under Washington's
administration.
The North-Western division diverges from the main line
at Hornellsville, 332 miles from New York, and runs to
Buffalo via Portage and Attica.  The line crosses the
Genesee river, in close vicinity to the famous Falls, over
one of the largest wooden railroad bridges in the world.
This wonderful structure stands upon thirteen massive
stone piers, set in the bed of the river and rising sufficiently above high-water mark to be secure against freshets.
The timber trestle-work supporting the track rises 234
feet above the piers. The bridge is 800 feet long and is
so constructed that any timber in the whole structure can
be removed and replaced at pleasure: it was built at a
cost of $175,000. At Attica the Buffalo division of the
Erie Railway, which diverges at Corning, as previously
stated, re-unites with the North-Western division, forming a single line from this point to Buffalo, which city is
twenty-five miles distant.
BUFFALO ERIE BUSINESS.
Mr. H. C. Fisk, the Superintendent of the Buffalo and
North-Western divisions (who is, by the way, no relative of James Fisk, Jr.), speaks in glowing terms of the
enterprise and ability of the present managers, and adduces much that is patent and irrefutable in support of
his assertion that Messrs. Fisk and Gould have done more
to extend the business and increase the earnings of the
Erie road during the short time they have had the management of it than all the " old fogies" who preceded them
put together could ever have accomplished, had they the
brains to conceive such masterly plans and lives of patriarchal length to devote to their execution. And Mr. H. C.
Fisk must be allowed to be somewhat of an authority on




47
this point, since he has been in the employ of the Erie
Company for over fifteen years, and is thoroughly posted
as to the affairs of the road.
Until Fisk and Gould assumed the reins, the depot and
freight buildings at Buffalo were altogether inadequate
to the requirements of the road at that important point;
but Gould " came, saw," and, with the able assistance of'
the Admiral, soon " conquered" the many difficulties
which had so long cramped the business of the Buffalo
division. " There never was such a team as Gould and
Fisk!" exclaimed one of the Erie veterans on being
asked for his candid opinion of the present managers;
" let Gould make his plan, and Fisk put his broad
shoulders to the wheel, and the thing is done instanter."
The old servants of the Erie, by whom all positions of responsibility are occupied, express the greatest surprise at the
close attention Messrs. Fisk and Gould pay to the business
and condition of the road-nothing of any importance escaping their notice; and say there is some satisfaction in
working under men who can appreciate their services.
The Erie freight houses on the dock at Buffalo measure, respectively, 300 feet by 200, and 560 by 200, and are
fitted with every convenience for the handling of goods.
The arrangements for the shipment of coal are being rapidly extended to meet the constantly increasing requirements of the road. The company owns about 2 000 feet
of dockage on the river, and contracts for the excavation
of rock along the bank have been entered into, which,
when fulfilled, will give 3,000 feet additional dock room,
and a coal yard of about two acres. A double track connects with the Niagara elevator-the largest and best in
the city; and the extensive elevator owned by the company is similarly provided. In this respect the Erie enjoys
a great advantage over every other line. Among other




48
important matters to which Mr. Gould has devoted special attention is the loading of grain in bulk, and under his
able management this new feature has been developed
until it adds about a million and a half per year to the
earnings of the road. In this particular, the interests of
the corporation have not been neglected, and there is
abundant evidence of a- like nature all along the line, to
prove that Messrs Fisk and Gould have done, and are still
doing, all thaf lies in their power to benefit the Erie road.
An important addition has recently been made to the
freight facilities in the shape of a transfer house 600 feet in
length, attached to which is a platform measuring 800 feet,
specially designed and constructed for the purpose of
transfering grain in bulk. In connection with these conveniences, arrangements have been made with the Lake
Shore and Michigan Southern, which result in very material additions to the Erie revenues-from 75 to 100 cars
of additional freight being received per day. When all
the improvements projected by Fisk and Gould shall
have been completed the business of the Buffalo division
will be about three times as extensive and fully four times
as profitable as it was before they became a power in Erie.
The additional car and machine shops erected at this point
during the past summer are now in full blast. The new
engine-house, 150 feet by 30, is fully as well appointed as
the larger establishment at Susquehanna. One hundred
and fifty skilled artisans are kept constantly at work in
the Buffalo shops. The passenger depot at this station is by
no means in keeping with the handsome and commodious
structures the company have provided at other points,
but plans for a new range of buildings have just been approved, and the work of construction will be pushed on
with all possible speed. Much attention has recently been
devoted to the improvement of facilities for lake ship



49
ments, and twenty-one first-class steamers are now engaged in the transport of Erie freight. Here, then, is another
instance of the extraordinary enterprise and exhaustless
energy of Fisk and Gould-another illustration of their farseeing policy. Then, again, the agencies and connections
they have established in the different villages, towns and
cities along their line influence additional business from all
the points now touched, and pave the way for future extensions.
IIOrNELLSVILLE TO DUNKIRKi.
Hornellsville is- 332 miles from  New York and 128
from Dunkirk. Leaving the valley of the Canisteo River
at this point the line now bends towards the south and
commences ascending the WVhitney Valley at a grade of
about fiftyi feet to the mile. From  Tip Top Summit
Station, the highest point on the entire route, being 1,760
feet above tide water, the road descends on a grade of
forty feet to the mile. At Genesee the trade of a large
region of country, extending into Potter County, Pennsylvania, centres, this being the nearest railway station,
and accessible by the deep valleys of the tributaries of
the Genesee River. From this point the route changes
abruptly to the northwest, running through picturesque,
valleys flanked by steep hills ranging from 700 to 1,000
feet. Belvidere, the lowest point of the Genesee Valley
reached by the Erie Railway, has become the outlet for
the business of the surrounding country. From Cuba
Summit, which is 1,677 feet above tide-water, the road
passes over the Allegany bridge, on the eastern side of
which rills, rivulets and rivers flow towards the great
lakes, and thence down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic;
while on the other side, only a few rods further west, the
4




50
water-shed becomes tributary to the Allegany River, and
passing down its devious course to the Ohio and Mississippi, finds its way to the Gulf of Mexico. From Olean,
which is situate at the junction of Oil Creek and the Allegany River, a new branch of Erie will, at no distant day,
extend into the Pennsylvania coal regions. The Bradford, Buffalo, and Pittsburg Railroad (Bradford branch)
connects with the Erie at Carrollton, Cattaraugus County,
and runs south about twenty-eight miles to the bituminous coal mines of MicKean County, Pennsylvania. At the junction of Little Valley Creek with the Allegany River is Salamanca, the initial point of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, which extends from this
point through Pennsylvania and Ohio to Cincinnati. From
this station the Erie runs northwardly, while the Atlantic
and Great Western follows the course of the Allegany
River. Leaving Little Valley, the Erie again strikes the
Allegany water-crest. From Dayton, which is 1,595 feet
above the sea-level, and 1,015 above that of Lake Erie,
the road descends on a gentle grade until it reaches Dunkirk, its original western terminus.
DUNKIRK.
Dunkirk was selected as the western terminus of the
Erie Railway on account of its fine harbor, which is the
best between Buffalo and Cleveland. At this point the
Erie Company has an extensive range of warehouses and
a number of workshops.
THE PRESENT EQUIPMENT.
While showing the enormous increase of three and a
quarter millions of dollars in the earnings of the road for




31
1869 over the total of the previous year, the present management has increased the equipment as under:
bDecember 1st, 1868.            D)cccmsbcr 1st, 1869.
Engines,................  371  Engines,................ 448
Passenger Cars,...........  188  Passenger Cars,...........  225
Freight Cars,............. 6,200  Freight Cars,............   8,748
The difference being 77 engines and 2,585 passenger
and freight cars.
FOURTEEN MILLIONS ACCOUNTED FOR.
The following statement, which is compiled on information obtained from most reliable sources, shows the cost
and magnitude of the extensions and improvements made
by Messrs. Fisk and Gould:
Constructing the New York and Newburgh Railroad,....   $500,000
Constructing the Paterson and Newark Railroad,.......    600,000
Cost of Cattle-yards at Weehawken,..................    900,000
Cost of Oil-yards and Elevators at Jersey City,.........  1,800,000
Cost of improvements at Jersey City-new Passenger and
Freight Depots, &c.,                                250,000
Constructing new anthracite coal road from Susquehanna
to Carbondale, 40 miles,........................   1,200,000
Cost of new Machine and Car Shops at Buffalo,.....      50,000>
Cost of improvements at Buffalo for coal and freight traffic,    200,000
Constructing Pockets, Shoots, and Tressels at Waverly for
coal brought by the Lehigh Valley Railroad,...     25,000
Cost of new Freight House at Binghamton,............   6,000
Cost of additional equipment, Engines, and Freight and
Passenger Cars,...........................   2,500,000
Purchase of half share in Rolling Mill at Trenton,.......    250,000
Cost of Steel Rails,.................................   1,920,000
Improvements at Honesdale to do the traffic for Delaware
and Hudson Coal Company,.....................       40,000
Carriedforward,........... 10,241,000




52
Brought forward,............$10,241,000
Cost of' establisling Steamboat Lines running in connection with railway from Buffalo to Toledo, Detroit, and
Chicago,............1..........................  l700,000
Coal mines to supply the line with cheap fuel,...    450,000
Laying Double Track,..............................   1,200,000
Advance to Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company, under lease securing control of the road. 1,600,000
New Coal Pier at Weehawken for traffic of Penn. Coal Co.    78,000
Track to connect with same, and right of way,          20,000
Cost of new Oil Depot and real estate at Pen Horn.....    192,000
Cost of new Iron Bridge at Susquehanna..............  64,000
Total.................................... $14,545,000
The fourteen millions expended as per above statement,
may be regarded as a dividend shared between the travelling public and the freight patrons of the Erie road.
TIlE RAILWAY OF TIIE FUTURE.
That there is a glorious future for Erie must be evident
to all. Its great destiny is already manifest. The untold
mineral wealth which lies buried in the Susquehanna hills
will ere long freight its trains, and this traffic alone will
make Erie a dividend-paying corporation.  Coal is abundant along the entire line, and capital is all that is required
to make certain sections of the adjacent country rival the
Lackawanna Valley.  Money, enterprise, and increasing
population will in a few years hence open up the immense
resources of Western New York, and a little later in the
coming period of general wealth and  prosperity  the
wharves of Buffalo, Dunkirk, and the other harbors of Lake
Erie will be crowded with shipping, freighted with the
produce of the North-West-copper, lead, and quicksilver
from the Superior mines; lumber and grain from Minnesota, and products of' various kinds fiom  the country




53
bordering Lake Michigan. Extended according to the
grand design of the present managers, the Erie will soon
draw off the thronging fireights which crowd the wharves
and docks of Cleveland. This is no fancy picture. The
Union Pacific Railroad was an " impossible scheme" ten
years ago. To-day it is a marvellous reality. But greatest prospect of all for the Erie road is that of controlling
the carrying trade of the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific
slope.  Striking St. Louis, twenty miles below the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, the connection
of the Erie Railway extending from Cincinnati, will draw
off the produce of the States bordering on the two greatest
western rivers. Over the Central Pacific Railroad, now
being pushed forward to the Rocky Mountains, the great
bulk of California trade will finally be carried, and the
dream of uniting the opposite civilizations of the worldthe hoary oriental with the young and vigorous occidental-will be realized by the completion and consolidation of the Erie, Atlantic and Pacific, the railway of the
future. Where will Erie stock be then?  Built in the
face of such formidable natural obstacles as met its course
at every step; continued as a double track from the blue
Atlantic to the gleaming waters of Lake Erie; with whole
towns owing their birth and prosperity to it; with millions
upon millions of dollars expended in improving its roadbed and equipments, and with an army of 23,000 men in
its employ, the Erie Railway is not destined to be ruined
by speculators.
The fight for the possession of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad suggests a few thoughts which are in perfect harmony with the foregoing predictions as to the
destined greatness of Erie. United to the Erie at Binghamton, the Albany and Susquehanna will connect at
Albany with the New England lines running through the




v54
manufacturing sections " down East."  By following the
line of the Atlantic and Great Western road to Cincinnati,
it will be seen that direct communication can be had with
the cotton-growing regions of Tennessee, Georgia, and
Alabama, and that New England manufacturers can purchase on a plantation and ship cotton direct to their factories. By this route it will come far cheaper than via the
Mississippi and New Orleans, and thence transhipping by
sea to New York, breaking bulk again for transit per rail
to its destination. Every year the quantity of cotton consumed by New England mills is increasing immensely,
and if only five dollars a bale is saved by direct railway
transportation, we can easily see a quarter million dollars
economized in the course of a month or so. If any men
can accomplish this great overland freight line they will
earn a high niche in the commercial wing of the Temple
of Fame. MIessrs. Fisk and Gould have already shown
their appreciation of the one great difficulty under which
our producers, manufacturers, and merchants are at
present laboring, viz: the absence of cheap and sufficient
freight accommodation, and it remains to be seen whether
they will succeed in bringing about the much-desired improvements. Full and fast freight trains are particularly
needed, for the country is filling with astounding rapidity
and its distant parts demand better means of communication. The traffic of the continent centers to New York,
and this city is altogether inadequately supplied with lines
of communication fbr the accommodation of the everincreasing burden of trade that seeks its patronage. Of
all the roads leading from this point, however, the Erie
offers superior facilities for the present trade, and makes
the grextest efforts to meet the requirements of the future.




55
1IOW TIIE SECOND CHAPTER WAS RECEIVED.
[Commenting editorially on the contents of this second
CHAPTER or ERIE, the World of December 11, 1S69, says:]
"-Audi alteran partern, even on Erie matters.  So many
charges of fraud and corruption have of late been made
against Messrs. Gould and Fisk-charges, too, which, with
all the circumstance of detail, have attracted wide attention everywhere-that the World, true to its usual fairness
and impartiality, gives the defendants a chance to be heard
in public. Their case certainly is a strong one, and the
plea set forth in their behalf certainly has the merit of
novelty.  Fisk and Gould virtually appeal from  Wall
street to the people; from stockholders and speculators
to Erie passengers and railway travellers; from  courts
and juries to shippers of grain and merchandise generally,
and ask, "Are these our enemies?" and console themselves with the idea that they are not. They then show
the improvements made on their great highway-the depots, workshops, and other buildings erected for the better traffic of the road; and last, but not least, furnish a
tabular statement of extraordinary expenses incurred for
said improvements, which, they say, accounts for the.$14,000,000 over which there has been so much hue and
cry since the Ramsey suit was first instituted."
IF NOT TRUE, OPEN TO REFUTATION.
From the N. Y. Evening Post of JTaneary 13, 1870.
Mr. George Crouch tells the world in a little pamphlet, called
"' Another Chapter of Erie," that it has greatly mistaken the char-.acter and designs of Messrs. Gould and Fisk, and asserts that in all
their dealings they have had a single eye to the interest of the trav-.elling and freighting public, and to the ultimate glory and usefulness
of the Erie Railway. Mr. Crouch's account is not as clear of terse
as it might be, his style is not as effective as that of the writer




v~
who gave us the first " Chapter of Erie;" but we have read what
he writes, and this is the sum of it:
He asserts that when Messrs. Gould and Fisk came into control
of the road, they found an empty treausry, and an urgent need of
money; that they have raised and spent fourteen millions of dollars
in improving the road; that they have improved its discipline,
administration, efficiency, economy and power of serving the public and earning money for its stockholders; that the road earned
during the year ending last October, $18,790,905, against $14,376,872
during the previous year; that the line is now in a more efficient
condition, and better managed for both public and stockholders
than ever before; that " owing to Fisk's enterprise and Gould's
careful nursing, the local business of the road has been doubled
along its entire length "; that 180 miles of steel rails have been
laid, and this work is rapidly going on; that new iron bridges
are substituted for wooden ones, new depots have been built,
new branch lines bought, new connections perfected, preparations
made for loading grain at lake ports in bulk; and that whereas
in December, 1868, the road owned 371 engines, 188 passenger cars,
and 6,200 freight cars; a year later, or last month, it possessed
448 engines, 225 passenger cars, and 8,748 freight cars.
The stockholders, Mr. Crouch tells us, may settle their quarrel
with Messrs. Fisk and Gould; but the public have only to ask how
well they are served, and need not trouble themselves with the
woes of the stockholders. To a certain extent this is true. A railroad company is, so far as the general public is concerned, a creature to serve it; and if it doee its work at a loss to the stockholders, so long as it does the work well, its managers may say that
the public have no right to look into the ledgers of the Company.
We will add, that if a body of stockholders become so careless of
their property and rights as to suffer them to fall into the hands of
persons whose management is adverse to their interests, that also
is their business and not the public's.
But there must be limits to this general rule, and these limits
are believed to have been transcended by Messrs. Fisk and Gould
in some of their transactions: We have been told that Mr. Fisk
has acounted for these acts, on the ground that he found himself
dealing with men of no conscience or respect for right or justice;
that he and Mr. Gould took part in a great game of grab, and naturally " went in to win; " and that those who complain most loudly
are precisely those who would have most unscrupulously fleeced
them, if they had the power or opportunity.
This is a cynical view of the great Erie war; but it has also aln
element of truth in it, and we will only say of it now, that in such
a contest no honor is to be won, and that scrupulous men would
keep out of it.
If the statements of this Second Chapter of Erie are true-and if
not they are open to refutation-Messrs. Fisk and Gould seem at
least to have acted upon a general and broad plan in their management of the Erie Railway. Their offences against public morality




57
are not to be condoned by this; but at least they may expect, if
they increase the usefulness of the great road which they control,
to earn a reputation for ability, which has not, so far, been conceded to them. If they are satisfied with this, they are easily contented; public opinion deeply resents their reckless and unscrupulous methods, and will not easily forget, whatever ability they
may display, that they have outraged the moral sense of the conimunity.
To say " we are no worse than others of our class," is to say too
little. Nothing of late has excited so much indignation and ridicule throughout the country as the so-called monument to Mr.
Vanderbilt. The whole press of the United States, with not an ex-,ception, so far as we know, except two journals in this city, spoke
with contempt and derision of that attempt to suborn fame. If
any man of first-rate ability is content to win no higher esteem
and no greater character in the community than has been achieved
by such men as Drew and Vanderbilt, it must be said that his ambition is not lofty.
A TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION OF FISK AND GOULD.
From the IHudson County -Demnocrat Jan. 21, 1870.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE ERIE ROAD. —There is no portion of the
country more directly and, prospectively, more largely interested
in the success and good management of the Erie Railway than
Hudson County. Its great tide-water terminus is at our shore, numerous work shops for the manufacture and repair of its cars and
running gear are in our midst, and the future wealth and commercial importance of our immediate locality must necessarily
depend in a large degree upon the results of its business. Everything, therefore, which concerns the prosperity of this great artery
of trade cannot be otherwise than interesting to our readers.
We have just perused with much pleasure, and received considerable instruction from a pamphlet entitled " Another Chapter of
Erie, by George Crouch." It is evident that the author is well
versed in his subject, and that he brings to his task not only
ability, but a thorough appreciation thereof. The importance of
the road, and the mighty advantages it has conferred, and the still
greater ones it is destined to confer in the development of agriculture, the building up of towns and cities, the increase of commnerce and the facilities of inter-communication throughout a vast
line of country embracing the wealthiest portions of the American
continent are depicted not only with fervid eloquence, but with
fair and logical certainty of anticipation based upon indisputable
facts. The statistics of the road, its past history, present condition, and future prospects are portrayed with clearness and accuracy, and many errors which have gotten into the press through influences selfish and adverse to the present management are exposed
and refuted.
4D




58
The author is evidently a warmi admirer of the genius and ability of Messrs. Gould &; Fisk, yet he speaks of them  with entire
frankness, and makes no effort at special pleading in regard to the
numerous charges which have been preferred against them; his
chief object seems to be the success of the road as a good national
blessing, and in so far as Fisk &  Gould have contributed to this
end, they receive his commendation. Putting by all side issues
and making no attempt to defend these gentlemen as "financiers
and speculators" lie regards them  simply as the mlanagers of the
Erie Railway, illustrates their administration and gives a highly
interesting account of the present condition as compared with
the past of the road and its interests, vwhich is in itself a triumphant vindication of Fisk & Gould upon the great issue of the
prosperity of the workl they have undertaken.
Mr. Crouch in the first place described graphically the miserable
condition of affairs when Messrs. Gould and Fisk first assumecd
control of the road; he says, " tlhly found its treasury empty, and
its reputation ragged in the extreme," and quoting from a prior
pamphlet which we have not seen, adds: " that Messrs. Fisk and
Gould could not have regarded their em pty treasury, just depleted
to the extent of line millions-trust funds nisapplied by directors in the process of stock-gambling —without serious question as
to their ability to save the road from  bankruptcy."  " But the
road was saved from bankruptcy," he says, "and to-day there is
abundant evidence to show that it is in a fair way of becoming,
ere long, the most prosperous line in the country."
The advantages of the road are glowingly set forth, and the improvemlents which have been made under the present malnagenent,
are described with an accuracy of detail which implies a full
knowledge of the subject. The laying of steel rails, the purchase
of additional engines, the new  connections, with  important
branch lines, and various improvements of a nature to enhance
greatly the value of the property, as well as increase the public
iacilities, have been done under this energetic m:tnagement, and cost
money; Mr. Fisk says himself, that $14,000,000 have been expended
on the road in increasing its business conveniences. To do all this it
is acknowledged that stock hlas been pretty fireely " watered,"
which may have seemed hard upon stockholders, and which Awas
disastrous to speculators; but our author considers this as a minor
evil in comparison with the public benefits accruing from the improved condition and facilities of the road. On this subject he says
very naively: " Whatever complaints the Erie stockholders may
have against MIessrs. Fisk and Gould on account of stock manipulations, &c., are matters in which the travelling public, and the
traders and manufacturers who freight the trains on this great
national thoroughfare, have very little concern." Hlie considers the
morality of Wall street a distinct virtue peculiar to that locality,
with which the outside public cannot be consistently called on to
interfelr, a(ndL that the charges preferred against Messrs. Fisk and




59
Gould about " watering stock," "gold cornering," " unlawful  appropriation of funds," &c., are altogether irrelevant to the subject
under consideration.
It is not with Fisk and Gould as financiers of Wall street that we
have to do any more than our author, but with them as the managers
of a great national work, in which capacity we think lhe has shown in
his pamphlet, to which we shall recur alain, that they have consolidated the interests, increased the facilities and added largely to the
business of the Erie road, conducting it for the public benefit with
great skill and ability, and if their prcjects in connection therewith
seem vast andc comprehensive, they are at the same time reasonable
and likely to be accomlplished in the hands of such men.
A YI1T0OOiS DI:]ENCE —-- -1 EETING CEVERY  CIIAICEG  WATI[ FAC'TS
AND FIGURES.
11omw t1ne Boston Post,.Fb. 7, 1870.
The defence of the Erie Railroad management is vigorously mado
by Mr. George Crouch, in a pamphlet statement of the actual condition of the affairs of that road. It is entitled " Another Chapter of
Eric," and should certainly be read with care by those who perused
the assault.  This very plain statement meets every charge of
arbitrary conduct, of waste, and self-enrichment on the part of Messrs.
Fisk and Gould, with such facts and figures as go to relieve them of
the allegations which hostile parties have rained down on their heads.
One can obtain from this new " Chapter of Erie " some adequate conception of the grand purposes of these two railway managers, and
realize in a great degree the extent and complication of plans that
stretch to their results across an entire continent.  The statement
brings forward into proper publicity the condition of the road and its
exchequer, showing how heavily it had lost at the hands of a preceding
management, the urgent necessity for raising money, the success of
the great enterprise of extricating the company from its embarrassments and newly equipping the road, providing steel rails, securing a
broad gacuge, and constructing large and powerful engines and elegant
mand commodious cars; and it furnishes the actual figures to prove the
immense progress in its business, thus appealing from rival judges and
critics to the public that receives the benefit. It is a very strong, if'
not a convincing, chapter that is presented.
The tens of thousands of passengers over the road, the increasing list
of shippers of grain and merchandise, the towns and cit'es along its
line which have doubled their population in the last ten years-these
are the best evidences to adduce, if the object is to show that the road
is in the way to a grand and permanent prosperity. Within the past
year, we are told, seventy-seven engines and twenty-five hundred cars
have been added to the rolling stock of the road. The increase in the
earnings has beel three and a quarter millions of dollars. And a
tabulated statement is given, item with item, to explain the reason




60
-of the expenditure of fourteen million dollars, on which is based
the main charge of extravagance and misappropriation against Messrs.
Gould and Fisk. These gentlemen are resolved on proving them-:selves great, not in Wall street, but in managing an arterial continental
adine of railway.  They possess proven capacity and courage, cool
heads, and vigorous determination, and are likely to make their magnificent promises good if suffered to go forward with their enterprise
to the end.  Mr. James Fisk has not his superior for liberal
planning and energetic execution, and is bound up, heart and mind,
in this gigantic task of making complete the Erie, Atlantic and Pacific
Railway.




61
THE EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY,
FOR THE YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1869.
To the Stockholders of the Erie Railway Company:
So much has been written and said both for and against
the present management of the Erie Railway, that I deem
it proper, in presenting a summary of the business of the
last fiscal year, to take the opportunity of giving to the
Stockholders the following account of what has been accomplished in the way of improvement to their property
and the establishment of a reliable and profitable business
for the future.
It is something over a year since the present management came into power.
THE CONDITION OF THE ROAD
at that time was not such as to attract the confidence of
the traveling public, nor of the shippers of the products of
Eastern manufactories and of importers to the Western
States, and of the products of the West to the Eastern
markets. The iron used in the track had been of an inferior quality, and was much of it worn out and unsafe:
this, coupled with the accident at Carr's Rock the previous
Spring, was injuring the business of the road, both passenger and freight, to such an extent that I felt it my duty to
adopt the most effective measures at once.
By careful inquiry into the experience of European Railways in the use of




62
sTEEJIL hALLS,
and of the operations of a few tons that had been laid on
this Railway the previous year, I fully satisfied myself as
to their great durability and strength, and of the necessity
of our using them on the Eastern portion of the road where
the very heavy traffic and the nature of the roadbed operates so disastrously to the iron rails. We have laid on the
Eastern and Delaware Divisions nearly one hundred miles
of solid steel rails-ten miles of American manufacture and
the remainder procured from the best experienced manufacturers of England.  The very great first cost of these
solid steel rails-being more than twice the cost of iron
rails-constrained me to investigate whether a middle
course could not be adopted with advantage and economy:
and while on the subject I was brought in communication
withMr. Abram S. Hewitt, of the firm of Cooper & Hewitt,
who had just returned from Europe, where he went as one
of the U. S. Commissioners to the " Exposition Univer —
selle," and was then preparing to manufacture at the'TRENTON MJILL, STE]L-IIEADEID IA ILS.
While in Europe SIr. Hewitt had superior facilities for
the investigation on the subject of steel-headed rails at the
various places of manufacture as regards the process, and at
the places where they were used as regards their service,
and their relative value as compared with iron and with
solid steel rails, and I availed myself of the favorable opportunity to secure the advantages to be derived from his
valuable information and experience by making a contract
with his firm, by which we became joint owners with them
in the Trenton Mill, where, during the past year, they have
been rolling these rails for us, in all about twelve thousand
tons, or one hundred and twenty miles, and so far the re



63
suits of their wear are eminently satisfactory.'We have
laid in all during the past year, including the steel and
steel-headed rails, about four hundred miles of new track.
The present condition of our track is equal if not superior
to any in the country, and the reputation of the road in
this respect is fully established as is fully demonstrated by
our large and constantly increasing passenger traffic. By
December 31, 1870, we hope to get the Eastern and Delaware Divisions, which have the heavy coal traffic of the
Pennsylvania Coal Co. and the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Co., entirely relaid with steel, which, though of
greater cost in the first instance, is safest and cheapest in
end, and will enable us to largely reduice the expenses of
keeping up our track.
I1.ON BRIDGES.
My attention at the same time has been called to the
matter of the bridges, which, being of wood, require frequent renewals, and the increasing scarcity of suitable timber along our line enhances their cost fiom year to year,
and we have concluded to adopt iron bridges for all future
renewals where the proper foundations for permanent pielrs
and abutments can be obtained.
During the past season, in addition. to several small
bridges, we have had built an iron bridge 650 feet long —4
spans-for the crossing of the Susquehanna River, just
West of Susquelhanna Depot, which is now being placed
in position.
Writh steel rails and iron bridges for a permanent way,
we can safely predict large reduction of expenses, even
Awith an increasilng business.
LOCOMIOTIVE S.
The presenlt management found the Locomotive equipment in a very worn and unserviceable condition, many of




64
the engines having been run for years and maintained by
patching, so that a large proportion required new boilers
and fire-boxes, and many, entire rebuilding-the old machines being worth only the old scrap, but standing on the
books and records of the Company as so many engines.
These old engines have received the necessary attention as
fast as possible for our shops to take them in, and they
have been overhauled, and entire new engines in many,cases turned out, with the same designating number, the
whole expense being charged to repairs.
As additional equipment we have purchased from Pater-;son Locomotive Manufactories fifty new engines, ten of
which have yet to be delivered on present contracts, and
they are coming along at the rate of about four per
week.
PASSENGER TRAFFIC.
During the fiscal year ending September 30th,
1869.        1868.
Number of passengers carried
in cars,      -   -   -   2,497,113.    2,194,348.
Number of passengers carried
one mile,     -   -   - 128,445,158.  124,312,884.
Earnings from passengers,  $4,043,048,82. $3,531,503.88.
To accommodate the increasing passenger business of
the road, and also to keep pace with our competitors, we
are rapidly replacing our old passenger equipment by new
coaches of the best approved style of construction. We
are also adding Palace or Drawing-room Coaches to our
day trains, and have found them to be a popular feature
of the road.




65
FREIGHT TRAFFIC.
186P.       1868.
Number of tons of freight
carried in cars, -   -   -   4,312,209.    3,908,243.
Total number of tons carried
one mile, ).   - 817,829,190.  595,699,225.
Revenue from frieght,   $12,583,793.73. $10,780,975.66.
To accommodate this large business we have made extensive additions to our equipment and endeavored to keep
up to the wants and requirements of our local business as
well as the through business. A very important feature
of our freight business is the
COAL TRAF1 IC.
The Erie Railway will, I hope, in a short time, become
one of the most important coal carrying roads in the country. This business is very desirable-it is given to us in
full trains and the rates are good.
During the year we have renewed the contract with
the Pennsylvania Coal Company and increased the quantity to be transported for them annually from 900,000 to
1,200,000 tons, commencing December 1, 1869.
We have also concluded a contract with the Lehigh and
Susquehanna Coal Company for a period of twenty years,
with a gradually increasing tonnage commencing at 150,000
and running up to 500,000 tons annually from Honesdale
to New York.
Under the present management this Company has obtained control, by a perpetual lease, of the Jefferson Railroad, extending from Hawley to Honesdale, where it connects the Erie system of roads with those of the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company. This road was completed and
opened for coal traffic in Januaray last, since which time we




66
have received from that Company a large and constantly
increasing business. We are now loading at Honesdale
from 200 to 300 cars per day. I estimate that in the year
1870 we ought to take from two millions to two millions
five hundred thousand tons of anthracite coal from Hawley
and Honesdale to tide-water. WVe certainly can do so if
we can provide the cars and engines, and I hope not to
default on that account.
Early in my connection with this Company I became
convinced, that from the geographical position of our road
and the many advantages offered by it to that end, it should
do the carrying of the largest part of the anthracite coal
consumed in the Western part of this State, as well as that
sent to the Western States by the Lakes. On assuming
the Presidency of the Company I at once commenced action to secure that trade, which I considered so very desirable, as it would be reliable, constant and increasing, and
the haul would be long and the revenue large. Negotiations
were opened with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
Railroad Company, whose road connects with ours at Great
Bend, and the terms of contract to run a number of years,
for the transportation of a large amount of coal to Buffalo,
a distance of 222 miles, were all agreed upon. And, though
the agreement was not executed, negotiations had proceeded
so far that shipments were commenced, and we had constructed more than one hundred cars of the large number
we were to build and mark'"D. L. & W." for that line,
when that Company concluded an arrangement with the
Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad, and the agreement
with us was not executed nor carried out.
It then became necessary for us, in order to secure any of
this trade, and assume the position to which we are entitled
by reason of our line, to form some other connection, and




67
to tapthe very heart of the coal region. Negotiations were
accordingly opened with the
DELAWARE AND HIDSON CANAL CO.
which, for the magnificence of its coal estate and the magnitude of its annual production, stands first among all the
anthracite coal companies of the country, and an arrangement was made with them by which we agreed to construct a
RAILROAD FROM CARBONDALE TO SUSQUEHANNA,
a distance of forty miles, over which and thence 231 miles
further on our main line to Buffalo, they are to ship
annually a large amount of coal, commencing at 150,000
and running up to at least 500,000 tons by 1873, at favorable and remunerative rates. To make up for the time lost
in the fruitless negotiations with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, the construction of this road
has been pushed forward with all possible dispatch and
will be completed before the next summer months. By
this Carbondale road we have the shortest line from the
anthracite coal fields to Central and Western New York
and the Lakes.
THE LEHIGII VALLEY RAILROAD
having been extended, to form a connection with us at
Waverly, gives us another coal-traffic feeder from whichwe
are already receiving an average of about seventy-five car
loads of coal per day. The coal from this road, at present,
is loaded in our returning freight cars which would otherwise go through to Buffalo, 167 miles, empty. The time
is but short when this Waverly connection will be of very
great importance to us as a connection for coal and other
freight.




68
PAVONIA FERRY.
We found the Pavonia Ferry running from the foot of
Chamber steet, New York, to the passenger depot at Long
Dock, Jersey City, for the accommodation of the passengers by our trains and the few people living near Pavonia
Avenue in Jersey City. We constructed the ferry-houses
and slips at 23d street, New York, and built two large,
fine boats to run on that line. By this new line of ferry
we have established a new depot in New York convenient
to all the up town hotels and residences.
To increase the travel over our ferry beyond the train
passengers, we have loaned our substantial aid to the construction of a horse railroad through the streets of Jersey
City to Hudson City. This street road already promises
to be a very profitable investment-it has assisted in building up that part of Jersey City and Hudson City through
which it runs, and has brought larger increase to the revenue of our ferry as it connects with other street roads in
Jersey City, running thence to Hoboken and to Bergen:
and it has been of further advantage to this Company, as
it runs through our property on the hill, at Hudson
City, over the tunnel, and has enchanced its value by making it more marketable and desirable.
To further increase the ferry revenue we made an equitable contract with the
NORTHERN RAILROAD OF NEW JERSEY,
then running their trains over the New Jersey Railroad to
the Cortland Street Ferry, for operating their road, by
which we brought their trains to our ferry. So far under
that contract we have averaged for that road about eight
hundred car loads of passengers per month each way over
the ferry, all of which is new business, and the contract for
operating the road, which has so far paid its way, must
eventually be profitable of itself.




69
We have also made the same kind of an operating contract with the
HACKENSACK AND NEW YORK RAILROAD,
which has averaged about five hundred car loads of passengers each way per month for the ferry.
The quantity and character of our freighting business
has expanded to such an extent as to prove the comparatively large property at Long Dock altogether inadequate
for the purposes of the Company, and we have deemed it
absolutely necessary to procure more.
PROPERTY FRONTING HUDSON RIVER.
We have purchased, at a cost of $1,600,000, the property of the Weehawken Docks Company, situated just
north of Hoboken, of about sixty acres, giving a river
frontage of two thousand feet, where we have constructed
a large pier for the handling of coal in transferring it from
cars to boats. This pier has the best working arrangements, and is one of the largest on the river-capable of
handling about four hundred cars per day.
This property is also used as the depot for handling refined oil, in barrels, and crude oil, in bulk. We have also
concluded arrangements for the construction here of a large
and commodious grain elevator, which will be the means of
very largely increasing our transportation of bulk grain,
and facilitate the unloading and prompt return of grain
cars, thus enabling us to get much more service out of
them.
We have also purchased the "Gregory Farm," situated
about two miles North of the Weehawken Docks, of eighty
acres, giving a river frontage of sixteen hundred feet. Here
we have established our depot for the unloading of Live
Stock, and built larger and commodious barns and pens, af



70
fording all the facilities for making it a Live Stock Market.
It is already very popular with the stock men and will undoubtedly become the Live Stock Market of this city. The
river frontage of this property we have improved by the
construction of a strong and substantial bulkhead the whole
length, making it available and desirable for the erection
of warehouses, abattoirs, or other similar structures and
for a lumber depot.
Between the Weehawken Docks and the Stock Yards is
the property of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company where they have large facilities for unloading and
storing coal transported over our road.
Access is had to this property over the road of the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, running North
from the East end of Bergen Tunnel to the Canal Company's property, thence over the Fort Lee Railroad. With
both of these Companies we have fair and equitable arrangements for use of their tracks. So much of the Fort
Lee Railroad as is completed was built by us, which enabled us to obtain much more favorable terms for its useto our Stock Yards.
AT LONG DOCK
we have built two new piers, for the accommodation of our
freight business, and added to and improved the old piers.
We have also built a new passenger depot on an enlarged
plan, to enable us to provide accommodation for the trains
of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, and the Hackensack railroad, and we are now re-building and adding to
the number of the ferry slips.
JERSEY CITY SIIOPS.
We have commenced the construction of a large machine
shop which we found to be necessary on account of our large




71
additions to our motive power-the walls, of brick, were all
up when Winter set in and stopped the work-soon as the
Spring weather will admit we shall resume work, and hope
to shortly after complete it, when we shall have one of the
largest and best appointed shops in the country. We have
also built an extensive car shop, wvhere, in addition to our
repairs of coaches and freight cars, we are now turning out
twenty new coal cars per day. We are also building several
new coaches, with all the modern improvements, at this
shop.
AT PEN HORN
we have made extensive purchases of real estate for the
handling of crude oil in bulk, as we found the hauling of
tank oil cars east of the tunnel was considered as endangering property and increasing rates of insurance, while
it was too valuable a traffic for us not to work for, and give
it all necessary accommodations. The oil is conveyed from
here in pipes to Weehawken, and is only pumped through
as vessels may be there to take it. All of this property
will be in demand in a few years for refineries and warehouses of various kinds, as it is accessible by vessels via the
HIackensack River. Already one refinery has been established there with a capacity of twelve hundred barrels per
week, all the oil for which is transported over our road.
THE PATERSON AND NEWARK RAILROAD
which connects with us at Paterson was built with our
aid, and we have entered into a contract with that Company for operating the road.
We found this railroad being constructed with a narrow
gauge, and intended to connect at Newark with the narrow
gauge roads running thence in connection with the Pennsylvannia roads for the West, and they were also promising




72
to make such connections as would enable them to compete
with us for passengers and freight between Newark and
Paterson. Rather than allow a rival to reach the carrying
business of our line we concluded it would be better to
control the instrument, and by making it of the Erie broad
gauge, enable us to tap the business of the extensive manufactories of the City of Newark and compete with the other
roads for Western trade from that point, and also extend
the market for coal and lumber from our main line. By
the charter of that Company they will construct their road
from Newark to make another connection with us at the
West end of the tunnel, and such extension will make the
road a profitable one and bring a large business to our
ferry.
TILE NEWlBURLI AND INEW YORK RAILROAD
was constructed by us from the Junction near Greenwood
to a point on the Newburgh Branch, five miles from Newburgh, a distance of 13 miles, thus giving us a direct line
between New York and Newburgh (sixty-two miles), and
enabling us to compete with the River and with the Hudson River Railroad for the Newburgh and Cornwall travel.
THE DOUBLE TRACK
has been extended by us by the construction of the second
track on the Delaware Division from "Turnout" to "Mid
daugh," nine miles, and from Hancock to Deposit, thirteen
miles; and on the Susquehanna Division from Painted
Post to Erwin, four miles, and from Canisteo to IHornellsville, four miles. In all we have completed and opened
thirty miles of double track; besides which we have done
a large amount of work for the second track on other parts
of the Delaware Division, and have done the grading and
masonry for second track on Buffalo Division from Lancas



73
ter to Buffalo, ten miles, which is now all ready for the
ties and iron.
ADDITIONAL SIDE TRACK
have been put in on all parts of the road as rendered necessary by the increased number of trains. At Buffalo, alone
within the past year, more than two miles have been laid;
Jersey City, two miles; Millville, WVaverly, Hornellsville,
and Castile, about one mile each, and other stations in proportion.
AT BUFFALO
we have also erected a large and well appointed car shop
for the construction and repairs of coaches and freight cars
at that end of the road. We have also erected an engine
house and machine shop at Rochester.
The improvements at other stations, in the way of new
freight depots, &c., as at Binghamton and Hornellsville,
have been commensurate with the business requirements.
The increase in the tonnage and mileage of trains has
made a corresponding increase in the quantity of fuel consumed, which is one of the very important items of operating expenses. Consideringthatthe use of wood as locomotive fuel, besides being more expensive in the first cost per
mile run, requires a very large amount of capital invested
all the time, to keep a year's supply of properly seasoned
wood ahead, we concluded to change our locomotives to
coal-burners as fast as possible, and but a comparative
small number are now burning wood. We are now using
about eighty-five thousand tons of anthracite coal and one
hundred and fifty thousand tons of bituminous coal per
year; and in order that this large amount shall be procured at the lowest possible price, we have for the bituminous coal secured the
5




74
BARCLAY RAILROAD AND TOWANDA COAL MINES,
The railroad runs from Towanda, Bradford County,
Pennsylvania, twenty miles from Waverly by the extension
of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, to the coal mines, a distance
of sixteen miles, and the coal is delivered on our road at
Waverly to the transportation department at cost-at the
present writing this coal is costing us about four cents per
mile run less than in former years for the same kind of fuel.
We have also made a proportionately good arrangement for
our supply of anthracite coal, and we confidently expect
that future statements will show a large reduction in this
item of our operating expenses.
GENERAL OFFICES, 23D STREET.
The old offices of the Company in Erie Buildings, West
Street, were constructed nearly twenty years ago when the
requirements of the road for office room for the accommodation of the officers and clerks were not one fourth of what
the now are, and this old building had been so enlarged
and altered over to meet the increased wants from time to
time, that by many it was considered unsafe to make any
more alterations to it. It had also arrived at that condition
on account of its various changes, as to beincapable of being
properly heated in winter, and the ventilation was so bad
as to be destructive to the health of the many persons employed in it. We, therefore, considered it necessary to
make a change, inasmuch as we required more room, and
as there was no necessity of the offices being on the dock,
we thought best to move up town, where it would be more
convenient for all persons connected with the Company in
going to and from their homes. The building where we
now are was the only one large enough for the purpose that
we could secure, and here we have arranged offices to suit
the wants of the several departments; and in fitting them




75
up it was considered the best economy to make them not
only comfortable and convenient, but attractive for the
many persons necessarily employed on the premises, as
well as for the large number of officers of other railroads,
and the business public, whom we have to receive from
time to time.
The foregoing is a brief statement of the principal operations of the present management, on the line of the road;
the object in all cases, as will clearly appear, has been for
the permanent improvement and lasting benefit of the
Company;-if mistakes have been made in any, time alone
will show them. In my judgment they were all entered
into on correct principles, and on reviewing the work at
this time I am clearly of the opinion that it is but a few
months before that fact will be clearly demonstrated to all.
Having treated so far of our domestic arrangements and
policy, I have a few words to say in regard to our
FOREIGN RELATIONS.
When we assumed the management we found combinations being formed all around us, by the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Central Railroad Companies,
which threatened to cut us off from all connections controlling any of the through business of the West and so
leave us merely a local institution. Believing the capacity
of this road to be such as to enable It to take care of its
full share of the through traffic, and that it was the intention of the originators of this enterprise that it should
be a National institution, and one of the main (if not the
very principal) channels of commerce between the East and
the far West, we considered that the good of the whole
country as well as the interests of our Stockholders demanded of us that these combinations should be defeated.
We therefore entered into the spirit of this contest, deter



76
mined, if possible, that the Erie Railway should take its
true position in the carrying trade of the country. Our
first attention was called to the
ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY,
which was built with a six feet gauge from Salamanca, N.
Y., to Dayton, O., where it connects with the Cincinnati,
Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, over which there is a track
of the same guage to Cincinnati, connecting with the Ohio
and Mississippi Railroad to Saint Louis, making a road of
continuous six feet guage from New York to the Mississippi River, with a branch to Cleveland and another to the
oil regions of Pennsylvania. The Atlantic and Great Western Railway had been built under the influence of the Erie
Railway Company, who had for a term of' years paid tribute to it in the way of extra allowances or commissions for
the through freight and passengers brought to Salamanca,
which extra allowances had amounted to more than half a
million of dollars, and had been the means of enabling it to
get through, but was then in the hands of a Receiver. It
was in contemplation to take that road into the narrow
guage system, and in the interest of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, which would leave us only the necessary
traffic between their local stations and the local stations of
our road, when in December, 1868, we took possession
under the terms of a lease to operate it for a per centage
of the gross earnings. After we took possession and
had advanced the necessary money to pay the obligations
of the Receiver, which was a condition of the Court, it was
found that under the then existing laws of the State of
Ohio, the lease, so far as related to the operations of the
road, was of no validity. We then had a bill placed before the Ohio Legislature amending the Statutes so as to
remove the difficulties of the question raised, which was




77
passed, when Mr. McIlenry, who had a scheme for funding
the past due interest on the bonds, and which he found
likely to fall through, interposed objections and prevented
ratifications of the lease under the amended law. The road
then, necessarily, went again into the hands of Receivers.
That lease was entered into by us in good faith, but we
were unwilling to be a party to the payment of any money
on it for the benefit of any one until the Bondholders were
satisfied, otherwise there would be no permanency to the
arrangement, as any unsatisfied Bondholder could break it
and remove us from possession by obtaining the appointment of another Receiver.
Uncertainty, and litigation brought on by disappointed
parties, followed; but the matter has now all been adjusted
and we are again in possession and operating the road on
substantially the same terms as of the original lease.
THE CINCINNATI, HAMILTON & DAYTON R. R. CO.
have made a contract with us, giving us the use of the
broad gauge track over their road to Cincinnati, and of
their depots and station accommodations at all their stations on very favorable terms, the expenses of the road
being pro-rated according to the amount of business done
on the broad and narrow tracks. We thus have control of
a road to Cincinnati and to Cleveland, and by an arrangement with the
OHIO & MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD
for mutual exchange of business, have unbroken communication with St. Louis, and in a few weeks a broad gauge
line will be open to Louisville.
We have also secured control of a majority of the Eastward business on Lake Erie, at Buffalo, by an arrangement
with the




78
UNION STEAMBOAT COMPANY,
who, in season of navigation, run a line of twenty-two
steamboats from that port.
At the same time our relations with the
LAKE SHORE AND MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAILROAD
for exchange of business at Buffalo, Dunkirk and Cleveland are eminently satisfactory and secured by mutual understanding and agreement, so that business connections
and relations are secured with all Western roads, and we
are placed on the same footing with them in that respect
as other trunk lines.
BOSTON, HARTFORD AND ERIE RAILROAD.
Prior to my becoming the Executive officer of the Company, the Board of Directors had voted to give the Boston,
Hartford and Erie Railroad Company substantial aid in the
shape of a purchase -of $5,000,000 of their first mortgage
bonds. Since I have been President, we have paid for and
taken up the bonds. This road will be a very important
connection, as it will open to us the heart of the manufacturing district of New England. It is expected that the
line will be open for business during the year.
NARRAGANSETT STEAMSHIP COMPANY.
Our relations with New England have been further
greatly improved and cemented during the past year by a
close alliance with this popular line of finestinland steamers
in the world, connecting us directly with Newport, Fall
River, andBoston. Our bnsiness of cotton from Cincinnati,
and the South-West, to Fall River, which has more
spindles than any other manufacturing town in this country,
is large and rapidly increasing.
Before closing this report I have a few words to say in
regard to the so-called " Director's Bill," which was passed




79
by the Legislature of this State last winter, providing for
the classification of the Directors of several railway companies, and the election of but one-fifth of the whole board
each year. This law was carefully considered in both
branches of the State Legislature, and was passed with
scarcely a dissenting vote. No action whatever was taken
on it by the then existing Board of Directors of this Company-and they had a right to take advantage of it and
extend their term of office-but it was left for the Stockholders themselves to say whether they would accept the
law or not. At the annual election, last October, it was
accepted without a dissenting voice, and the present Board
was elected by over three hundred and fifty-five thousand
votes. In my judgment this is a wise law, and will secure
to the property a responsible, experienced, and intelligent
management, and be the means of preventing in the future
the sudden changes in the policy of this magnificent railway, peculiar to it in the past while it was a mere creature
of Wall street speculation.
The litigation that has been forced on us from time to
time has not been of our seeking. We have considered that
we were put in charge of this great trust by the expressed
choice and will of the Stockholders, and we considered it to
be our duty to them after having accepted, to retain
possession against any small minority, until the Stockholders themselves should express their pleasure for a change
bythe choice of another Board, and to manage the property
as we might consider for the permanent good.
For details of the operating expenses, &c., of the year, I
refer to the annexed statement, made in the form required
by the Legislature.
JAY GOULD,
President]
OFFICE ERIE RAILWAY CO.
New York, January 17, 1870,




80
RE PO IR T
OF THE ERIE RAILWAY COMPANY TO THE STATE ENGINEER
AND SURVEYOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, made pursuant to CHAPTER 140 of the Laws of 1850.
Being for the year ending September 30th, 1869.
STOCK AND DEBTS.
1. TEIE CAPITAL STOCK, AS BY CHARTER:
2. ThIE AMOUNT OF STOCK SUBSCRIBED, -- - $78,536,910 00
3. THE AMOUNT PAID IN, AS BY LAST REPORT, 46,302,210 00
4. TILE TOTAL AMOUNT NOW PAID IN OF CAPITAL STOCK,               -       78,536,910 00
5. THE FUNDED DEBT, AS BY LAST REPORT,. 23,398,800 00
6. THIE TOTAL AMOUNT NOW  OF FUNDED
DEBT,.                  23,398,800 00
7. TIIE FLOATING DEBT, AS BY LAST REPORT, 4,893,735 81
8. ThE AMOUNT NOW OF FLOATING DEBT,...
9. THE TOTAL AMOUNT NOW OF FUNDED AND
FLOATING DEBT,-                   23,398,800 00
10. THE AVERAGE RATE, PER ANNUM, OF INTEREST ON FUNDED DEBT,             7 per cent.
COST OF ROAD AND EQUIPMENT.
By last report.  By present report.
11, 12. For Graduation
and Masonry,.. $1,501,643 11  $2,309,125 47
13, 14. Telegraph,           12,326 52      12,326 52
15, 16. Superstructure, including iron, -    2,179,724 20   3,274,894 79
17, 18. Passenger and
Freight Stations,
Buildings and
Fixtures, -.. —..  849,536 34    881,182 93
19, 20. Engine and CarHouses, Machine
Shops, MIachinery and Fixtures,            1,580,516 21   1,784,018 47
Carried forward,- $6,123,746 38  $8,261,548 18




81
By last report.  By present report.
Brought forward, $6,123,746 38  $8,261,548 18
21, 22. Land, Land Damages and Fences,    335,563 36    350,922 88
23, 24. Locomotives and
Fixtures,   and
Snow Plows, —-   2,672,611 96   3,103,907 16
25, 26. Passenger & Baggage Cars, ----    694,818 17    847,908 15
27, 28. Freight and other
Cars,- --- - - _   2,654,706 77   3,488,760 28
281. Pavonia and 23d
Street Ferries, -    266,210 48    526,962 43
29. 30. N. Y. & Erie Railroad Company,  43,738,948 85  48,551,949 93
31. Total cost of road
and equipment,. $56,486,605 97 $65,131,959 01
CHARACTERISTICS OF ROAD.
32. Length of road,.- —.- —. -         459 Miles.
33. Length of road laid,.-..._.          459 "
34. Length of double track, including sidings, 380] "
35. Length of branches owned by the Company, laid,  _                      364_  "
36. Length of double track laid on same, -- - 50   "
37. Weight of rail, per yard, on main track, 64 a 70 lbs.
38. Number of engine-houses and shops, - - 40
Number of engines,       ---  404
Number of 1st class passenger cars (rated
as 8-wheel cars),. —--....    _   213
Number of 2d class and emigrant passenger cars (rated at 8-wheel cars), - - - - -  54
Number of baggage, mail and express
cars (rated as 8-wheel cars), --      71
Number of freight cars (rated as 8-wheel
cars),-_  7,447
Length of main line of road from Jersey
City to Dunkirk,   _   _ —— 459 Miles.
5E




82
DOINGS OF THE YEAR IN TRANSPORTATION, AND TOTAL MILES RUN.
40. Number of miles run by passenger trains,  2,837,407
41. Number of miles run by fireight trains,.    4,924,172
43. Number of passengers (all classes) carried
in cars,-....                    2,497,113
44. Number of miles traveled by passengers,
or number of passengers carried one
mile,-                               128,455,158
45. Number of tons, of 2,000 pounds of freight
carried in cars,                       4,312,209
46. Total movement of freight, or number of
tons carried one mile,               817,829,190
47. Average rate of speed adopted by ordinary passenger trains, including stops
(miles per hour),                              20
48. Rate of speed of same, when in motion,         26
49. Average rate of speed adopted by express
trains, including stops,              26 and 30
50. Rate of speed of same, when in motion,.  30 and 40
51. Average rate of speed adopted by freight
trains, including stops,                      10
52. Rate of speed of same, when in motion,.        12
53. Average weight, in tons, of passenger
trains, exclusive of passengerls and
baggage,                                    150
54. Average weight, in tons, of freight trains,
exclusive of fieight, __  __.           220
55. The amount of freight, specifying the quantity in tons:
Of the products of the forest,.      19 1,629
Of animals, -...                    _       273.548
Of -vegetable food,-....                   322 978
Other agricultural products-     -          15,752
MIanufactures,.-   -.                    436,846
Merchandise,          ---                  459.784
Other articles,  -    -      - -         2,6 11,672
Total,         -....... 4,312,209




83
42. " The rate of fare for passengers, charged for the respective classes per mile," as follows:
Cents.
For first class through passengers,                                     2.05
For first class way                     "                               2.73
For second class through  " 
For second class way                    "
For emigrant through                    "                                1.2'2
For emigrant way                        "                                1.47
EXPENSES OF MAINTAINING THE ROAD OR REAL ESTATE OF
THE CORPORATION.
ALLOTTED TO
AMiOUNT. 
Passenger      Freight
ranspolt ation.  Transportation.
56. Repairs of Road-bed and Railway,                                l
excepting cost of Iron, (see law) *i..$1,984,560 26   $535,831 27 $1,448,728 99
57. For depreciation of way................
58. Cost of Iron used in repairs:........ 1,559,122 50    420.963 08  1,138,159 42
i     Allotted to passenger transporta- 
tion, length in feet,... 1,017,691
weight in lbs.,..20.983,781                                           l
Allotted to freight transportation, 
length in feet,........2,751,535 
weight in lbs....... 56,733,928  
59. Repairs of buildings,...............   322,983 61    87,205 57 1 235,778 04
60. Repairs of fences and gates,........    48,111 91 j   12,990 22    35,121 69
61. Taxes on real estate............... 333,495 08        90,043 87 1 243,451 21 1
62. Totals,.......$..................... 4,248,273 36 $1.147.U034 01 $3,101,239 35
* 56. "For repairs of road-bed and railway, excepting cost of iron, which shall be the
cost of labor and materials used during the year; also use and cost of engines engaged in ballasting; also the renewal and repairs of gravel and stone
cars, and all items of cost connected with keeping the road in order."
EXPENSES OF REPAIRS OF MACHINERY.
ALLOTTED TO
AMOUNT.
Passenger      Freight
Transportation. Transportation.
64. Repairs of engines and tenders...... $1,373,867 49   $401,931 40   $971,936 09
65. Depreciation of engines and tenders,....
66. Repairs of passenger & baggage cars,  396,076 80    395,076 80
67. Depreciation of passenger and baggage cars........................
68. Repairs of freight cars.............. 1,144,675 14....     1,144,675 14
69. Depreciation of freight cars,........
70. Repairs of tools and machinery in
shops............................   138,378 54     49,816 27     88,562 27
71. Incidental expenses, including oil,
fuel, clerks, watchmen, &c., about
shops,...........................   129,636 10     46,669 00     82,967 10
72. Totals,...........................  $3,182,634 07   $894,493 47 $2,288,140 60




84
EXPENSES OF OPERATING THE ROAD.
ALLOTTED TO
AMOUNT.
Passenger      Freight
Transportation. Transportation.
73. Office expenses, stationery, &c.,....  $251,080 14    $64,770 04   $186,310 10
74. Agents and clerks,............   872,952 93    218,238 23    654,714 70
75. Labor: loading and unloading fr't.,  633,223 66....        633,223 66
76. Porters, watchmen & switch tenders,   198,813 49    -53,679 64    145,133 85
77. Wood and water station attendance,   27,692 51        7,496 98      20,195 53
78. Conductors, baggage and brakemen,  854,382 34    262,028 74    592,353 60
79. Enginemen and Firemen,..........   900,968 28    276,809 59    624,158 69
80. Fuel, cost & labor of prepar'g for use, 1,406,412 24    506,308 41    900,103 83
81. Oil and waste for engines & tenders, ~ 165,197 79    50,249 24    114,948 55
82. Oil and waste for freight cars......    25,096 66....         25,096 66
83. Oil and waste for passenger and
baggage cars,....................     7,990 13      7,990 13
84. Loss and damage of goods & bag'ge,  141,543 45       38,216 73    103,326 72
85. Damage for injuries of persons,....   67,547 49     67,547 49
86. Damage to property, including damages by fire & cattle killed on road,   10,194 41    2,752 49      7,441 92
87. General superintendence,..........   119,234 14     32,193 22     87,040 92
88. Contingencies,.....................   146,029 52   39,427 97    106,601 55
89. Totals............................ $5,828,359 18 $1,627,708 90 $4,200,650 28
90. The above statements are to be made without reference to the sums actually received or paid during the year.
EARNINGS AND CASH RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS.
1ST. EARNINGS.
91. From Passenger Trains,-.                                   $4,043,048 82
92. From Freight Trains, —-                                     12,583,793 73
93. From other sources, -.. —               94,657 79
Total,                      _-$16,721,500 34
94. The above to be stated without reference to the amount actually collected.
2D. RECEIPTs.
95. From Passengers, ---------------- $3,429,629 18
96. From Freight, —--------                                     13,046,803 76
97. "From other sources-specifying what,
in detail," as follows, viz.:
Telegraph,               -           —.   -   33,562 61
Storage,  - -3,740 14
Rents,                        _                      22,831 76
Mails,   - -150,409 61
Pavonia Ferry,    - -                                34,523 28
Total, —.._._._  $16,721,500 34




85
3D. PAYMENTS OTHER THAN FOR CONSTRUCTION.
98. Transportation Expenses,.$13,259,266 61
Hudson River Ferry,                             184,514 15
Telegraph,                                     107,273 59
99. Internal Revenue Tax,                            88,566 44
Loss on Lake Erie Steamers, --------             78,464 64
$13,718,085 43
100 Interest on MIortgage   Debt, -------         1,703,773 00
Rents of Railroads,-                           824,020 00
$16,245,878 43
101 Surplus October 1st, 1869,            -         475,621 91
$16,721,500 34
ACCIDENTS FROM OCTOBER lST, 1868, TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1869.
PASSENGERS.   EMPLOYES.      OTIIES.     TOTAL.
DATE.                                                        -
Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured. Killed. Injured.
1868.
October,.....  1  2        2      8     2..      4    10
November.   4                     3     2      1      6      4
December,.              3 1   5       2     1      5 
1869.
January,.   1  1..  3            4      5      7
February,           6      3      6     1..      4    12
March,...        1  2     1  i  4      2      4      4    10
April,.....               3      6     1      1      4      7
May,......  1          6      2     2..      8      3
June...      1     2..      8      1     5      2    15
July,.....    6     8..    11       3     1      9    20
August,..    1             5      6     3      2      9      8
September..       1      9-     6     6      6    35    12
Killed,    10..    40..     25..    75
Injured,....    229..    68..    24..   114
(Signed) JAY GOULD, President.
(Signed) L. D. RUCKER, General Sj;)erinteandent.
f:s




86
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
The impression created by the foregoing report, on the
parties in interest and the public at large, has been of such
a satisfactory nature as to determine the present management of Erie to pursue the same bold policy of reform
and retrenchment with which they have achieved such
marvelous results during the first year of their stormy butextraordinarily successful administration; and has given,
them  the gratifying and  stimulating assurance that at last
there is a prospect of their services being recognized and
appreciated by those who are destined to be most benefitted thereby, viz.:-the owners of the vast and magnificent
property they- have rescued from ruin by their indomitable energy and perseverance, and the travelers and traders who have profited so largely by their vigorous opposition to extortionate monopolists.
The following comments on Mr. Gould's report, selected almost at random  from  an embarrassingly extensive
collection of equally favorable editorial reviews, will
suffice to show how wrongfully the present management
has been abused in the past, and how necessary it is for
the  interests  of Erie  and  the  maintenance  of national
credit at home and abroad that they should have fair play
in the future.
<X FLATTERING FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ROAD.".From the New York Herald, January 21, 1870.
THE ERIE RAILWAY-ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMPANY TO THE STOCKHOLDERS.The President of the Erie Railway has prepared on behalf of the Company an elaborate report of the operations of the road for the last fiscal year. We publish the report
elsewhere in our columns this morning. Inasmuch as the public have loudly complained of the management of Erie affairs, the report of Mr. Gould is in a measure
defensive of the policy which has been pursued by the company since the present direction came into power. The showing is certainly flattering for the future of the
road, whatever has been the course of its management in the immediate past.  The
earnings have been increased nearly two and a-half millions during 1869 as compared with 1868, but the money has been expended in extensive improvements, the
character of which is given in detail in the report; hence the absence of dividends.
As the stockholders of Erie are legion, and comprise capitalists and private investors at home and abroad, the facts and figures as set forth in the report will be read
with great interest.




87
Ct ADMIRABLE. SUCCESSFUL AND ECONOMICAL MANAGEMENT."
From the New York Tribune, January 21, 1870.
Alaska has a tropical climate, and strawberries in their season. The Borgia was a
saintly, much-slandered, martyr of a woman. The Devil is white. Mr. Jay Gould
shows how admirable, successful and sconomical is his management of the Erie
Railway.-[See Opinzonzs on the Press,for Tribune article in extenso].
A GRATIFYING EXHIBIT TO THE STOCKHOLDERS.
From the N. Y. Evening Telegram. Jan. 22, 1870.
A document scarcely less important, in many respects, than the recent Message
of the President of the United States, or still later that of Governor Hoffman, is
the report of Jay Gould, President of the Erie Railway Corporation, to the stockholders of the company. The immense interests involved in connection with this
road, and the peculiar circumstances surrounding the present management, render
this report of far more than ordinary interest, and bespeak for it an attentive consiaeration quite equal to either message above referred to. The one under consideration at present has the merit of brevity, and is nothing more than a simple statemezt of what has been done by the present direction in Erie dulring the past year. The
exhibit is certainly a gra'fyinqlRq one to the stockholders, beginning with the laying of
400 miles of new track. inclludinr steel and steel headed rails, reciting further the
building of an iron bridg,'e, 650 feet long, four spans, over the Susquehanna river,
and several small iron bridges, the repairing of all the old locomotives and the purchase of fifty new ones, and the establishment of machine shops at Jersey City and
Buffalo-together with repair shops at various points along the line. The report
contains likewise particulars of contracts entered into with numerous coal companies, and closer business connections made with various ferry and railroad companies and steamboat lines, as well as extensive purchases of real estate.
After reviewing fully, although succinctly, these proceedings so far as they relate
to the " domestic policy" of the road, the report enters upon a review of the " foreign
relations," showing the policy pursued in that connection to have been of the offensive-defensive kind forced upon the road by the combinations of rival corporations.
Referring to the progress making in  the  Boston, Hartford  and Erie  road, and incidentally  puffing  the  Narragansett Steamship Company, this most interesting document winds up with a defense of the so-called " Directors' Bill."
" AN ACCURATE REPORT AND SATISFACTORY EXHIBIT."
Frosm the.Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, January 24, 1870.
On our first page will b? found a full and elaborate report of the operations of the
Erie Railway for the last fiscal year, signed by its President, Jay Gould, Esq. So
much has been said against the present management of the Erie, on all sides, that we
regard it as due to truth and justice to give them a full hearing; and it is in the interest of fair play, therefore, that we bespeak for the rather long but interesting
document a caretul and candid perusal by our readers.
We have no doubt whattever that the statistics given, and the description of the
improvements made in the road, may be relied on as accurate; and certainly the facts
constitute a most satisfitctory exhibit of the condition, and w.:rrant the most
encouraging view of the future, of this great national thoroughfare. Say what you will
of the stock-jobbing and legislative operations with which the management have
been charged,-and we would certainly interpose no defence of such illegitimate
practices,-the fact remains well established that under no previous management of
the Erie have the details of its practical working, and the interest and comfort of the




88
traveling community, been so conscientiously looked after as under the management
of Mr. Gould; and the natural result of this is clearly shown in the great increase of
business over the line, as demonstrated by the statistics given in the report. It appears, in brief, that the earnings have been increased nearly two and a-half millions
during 1869 as compared with 1868, though the money has been expended in muchneeded and extensive improvements.
SHOWING GOOD RESULTS IN THE WAY OF PRESENT BUSINESS,
AND FLATTERING  PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE.":
From the Buffalo Express, Jan. 24,1870.
The just published report of the President of the Erie Railway Company, Jay
Gould, makes a more favorable exhibit of the management and business of that road
during the past year than the public has had reason to expect.   *   *     
[Herefollow extractsfrom the report.]
Much of the report is given to a detailed account of the negotiations and arrangements by which a new extensive and prospectively immense coal traffic is secured
for the road.
Into the long details which the report gives of the "foreign relations " established
by the company, looking to far-reaching Western combinations, we cannot enter.
The whole exhibit of management, as we have said is favorable, and shows both sagtcity and energy of policy, with good results of present business and flattering prospects for the future. If, along with the shrewd, indomitable energy which unquestionably characterizes the Gould management, there could only be more scrupulousness of measures the affairs of the Erie Railway would seem to be in capable hands.
AN UNEXPECTEDLY GRATIFYING EXHIBIT.
From the Cleveland Leader, Jan. 24,1870.
In solemn contradiction of all that has been said and written
against the managers of the Erie Railway, there comes fiom the
Opera Building in New York the long and glowing report of President
Jay Gould, setting forth the past management and the present condition of the road. To the public generally, and to the patient stockholders of that corporation in particular, the report in question will
be a surprising and unexpected piece of reading. According to this
report, the Erie Railway is now in the full tide of success. Mr.
Gould sets forth, that upon taking charge of the road, something over
a year ago, he found the machinery, the buildings and the roadway in
a most deplorable condition. The iron composing the track had been
of a cheap, inferior English grade; many of the rails had broken
down after only a few weeks' use, and the deplorable disaster at Carr's
Rock during the preceding spring had made the very name of " Erie"
a terror to travelers. Under these trying conditions, his earnest and
constant purpose has been to put the road and its equipment into
thorough working condition.  Worn-out engines have been rebuilt or
replaced by new ones, many thousand new cars have been added to
the machinery of the Company, and almost the entire track relaid
with either steel or the best grade of iron rails. New and advantage.
ous combinations have been made for developing and fostering the
traffic in coal, oil and the other leading products along the line;
branch roads have been leased and made subsidiary to the Erie interest, and valuable property purchased and adapted to the needs of




89
the Company in New York city, Buffalo and various points along the
line. Mr. Gould takes up seriatim all important expenditures, and
explains upon what grounds the outlay was deemed necessary. In the
matter of earnings, the report makes an unexpectedly aratifying exhibit.
After reading this statement, the first and most natural question
that will ocur to tile stockholders is, why so prosperous a company
should not enjoy the luxury of an occasional dividend. This is a
question which the Erie management has doubtless often been asked
before, and it is the avowed purpose of the report to set all such questions definitely at rcst. It is not so much an official report of the usual
type as it is an explanation by Mr. Gould as to where the money goes.
It must be admitted that tile Erie President makes his point. He shows
the road and its e(luipment to have been, at first, in an almost totally
unserviceable condition.  Upon this point his testimony certainly cannot be questioned. He shows that a new track has been laid, new
engines and cars supplied, and valuable branch roads subsidized to
the interests of the main line. All this is likewise true. But will the
improvements pointed out account for the missing dividends?  Are
the scores of units aainst the managers of the road for violations of
trust or individual rights consistent with the character of a well-man.
aged line'l  These  are  among the questions which  the report
leaves bctwvema the Erie PLesident and his shareholders, and upon
these points it is not the province of any one outside the corporation
to decide. It tl,e report exhibits correctly the present condition of
the road, the stockholders have cause to congratulate themselves upon
their President and its managememit. That su.ch may be found to be
the case, the public will earnestly, if not confidently, venture to hope.
THE it HOWL AGAINST ERIE" -JUSTICE TO GOULD AND FISK.
From thle Paterson oaily Guardian, Jan. 24, 1870.
We ask every reader who desires to form an unprejudiced opinion
respecting the Erie Railroad management, to rea(l the highly interesting and instructive Annual Report to the stockholders. It
seems to us to be most conclusive, and ought to satisfy all fairminded men that the Erie Company will in a year or two make it
the best paying road in the world. It has monopolized the important branch railroads, has purchased a great stretch of river
front, and its terminal, as well as its carrying facilities, can
hardly be realized without a careful perusal of the facts in detail,
published in our paper to-day.
Let every citizen who has been disposed to lend an ear to the
"howl against Erie," read the facts as set forth in the report to-day
printed, and learn that there is quite a different state of things existing from that attempted to be impressed upon the public mind.
After all, the contest in this State is between the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western Railroad, a heartless and soulless monopoly of faith-breaking propensities (see by the report in to day's
paper) and the Erie.




90
Our people must remember that it was the Erie Railroad which
broke down the high price monopoly of coal. We must remember
that the Erie Company keeps our shops busy manufacturing locomotives and iron bridges. Why, then, should our people be dragooned into a deadly hostility to the Erie? Our interests demand
the Midland R. R. also for Paterson, but we must not forget that to
the Erie we owe much of our prosperity as a town and our wealth
as a city, and we will always have to rely upon the Erie for the
greater portion of our accommodation.
As for Paterson alnd the Erie, we do not hesitate to say what
everybody will admit, that we never had better accomodations
for passengers upon the Erie than under the administration of
Messrs. Gould & Fisk, and that no town on any other road has
such beautiful and commodious cars on its accommodation lines.
Let our citizens feel ready and willing to give justice to Messrs.
Gould & Fisk in that they have placed the road and its whole
equipment in perfect order. When they took hold of it, it was going
downward with fearful rapidity. If with their purchase of branch
lines and extended improvements they have not been able to create
(in addition to all this increased valuation,) heavy dividends, the
stockholders may rest assured that the time is not far distant when
every stockholder will feel grateful to its present management for
establishing it throughout its length and breadth upon such
a basis as will make it permanently successful and eminently
profitable.
THE BEST ABUSED CORPORATION IN CHRISTENDOM.
A YEAR'S WORK ON THE ERIE RAILWAY.
Fromn the Buffalo Courier, Jan. 25, 1870.
That best abused corporation in this or any other country, the
Erie Railway Company to wit, have presented through Jay Gould,
President, their eighth annual report, comprising a history in detail of the operations of the road for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1869. " It is something over a year," says Mr. Gould,
" since the present management came into power. The condition
of the road at that time was not such as to attract the confidence
of the traveling public, nor of the shippers of the products of eastern manufactories and of importers to the western states, and of the
products of the west to the eastern markets. The iron used in the
track had been of an inferior quality, and was much of it worn out
and unsafe; this, coupled with the accident at Carr's Rock the
previous spring, was injuring the business of the road, both passenger and freight, to such an extent that I felt it my duty to adopt
the most effective measures at once."
What has been done, and with what results the action has been
accompaniedl, the report details.




91
Mr. Gould's first effort was directed to the substitution of steel
rails for the worn out iron of the road. There have been laid on
the Eastern and Delaware divisions nearly 100 miles of solid steel
rails-ten miles of American manufacture and the remainder procured from the best experienced manufacturers of England. Besides these, a large extent of track has been laid with steel headed
rail, rolled at the Trenton mills. In all, about four hundred miles
of track have been relaid, the present condition of which is said to
be "equal if not superior to any in the country, and the reputation
of this road in this respect is-fully established, as is fully demonstrated by our large and constantly increasing passenger traffic.
The management has decided to adopt iron bridges for all future
renewals, and in addition to several small bridges, there has been
constructed, during the year, one large iron bridge 650 feet long
-four spans-for the crossing of the Susquehanna river.
To renovate the dilapidated locomotive stock of the road, fifty
new engines have been purchased and an unlimited amount of repairing done.
[Here follow long extractsfrom the Report ]  Mr. Gould proceeds to
give an account of the Pavonia Ferry and the connecting Horse Railroad to Hudson City, both of which have felt the inspiration of the
Erie Management during the year.  With regard to the Opera House
offices, Mr. Gould gives a brief and plain statement-the building
wvas the only suitable one which could be obtained.  Passing from
the consideration of the domestic arrangements of the Company, Mr.
Gould glances at their " foreign relations.'  The problem presented'n the incoming of the present management was to break up the combinations of rival trunk lines which threatened to cut off the Eric fiom
all profitable connections.
In concluding his able and impartial criticism  of the report the
editor says: ",F ANY CORPORATION MANAGEMENT CAN SHOW A BIGGER
YEAR S WORK THAN THIS O0' WHICH WE HAVE SKETCHED THE OUTLINES,
IT HAS NOT YET BEEN HEARD FROM!"
TIHROUGH FROM TIIE MISSISSIPPI.
PFromn the Waverly Enterprise'ebruary 1, 1870.
This magnificent thoroughfare is fully realizing the wildest predictions of its early projectors and builders, under its present
splendid management. The gentlemen who now direct its great
energies fully comprehend the idea which it incarnates. The main
track was settled down upon the earth through a country so geographically conformed and related that if the proper enterprise
were combined in its management a vast area of territory North,
East, South and West must pour over it an incalculable traffic. The
present management, as we have remarked, are wise, broad and
sagacious enough to perceive and measure the full magnitnde of
their trust, and they have the enterprise and energy to push




92
these views of its destiny to successful demonstration. All interested in the material growth of this State, and particularly of this
section, have read the Annual Report of Jay Gould, the President
of this road. Its statements of the enterprises accomplished and
those inaugurated read almost like romance.  Westward they
have pushed their enterprise.  Other roads running Rocky Mountain-ward-running beyond to the shores of the Pacific-they have
bought outright or perpetually subsidized.  "Through from the
Mississippi."  This is the amazing information that procession
after procession of freight loaded cars conveys to us who stand
here, a thousand miles this side of that mighty river, and gaze at
the passing trains sweeping constantly by. North and South after
passing through Bergen Hill, the giant begins to throw out its farreaching arms. Through every mountain gap that leads to a rich
land of minerals, or up and down vallies teeming with the still
growing wealth of the fields. We shall not attempt in the brief
space allotted us, to enumerate the many enterprises of large magnitude this company have prosecuted to results and those being
pushed to completion. All of the richest and largest coal and iron
fields of northern and middle Pennsylvania they have reached with
the shortest and most practicable lines, connecting the great coal
traffic with the commerce of the north, the lakes and the great
West. Some nlonths since we undertook to show the influence upon
the business prospects of this place by the completion of the L. V.
R. R, and of the proposed arrangements for conducting the coal
traffic. Our vaticinations looked to many then as rather airy.
The present facts are fully realizing them. Then President Gould
speaks very plainly about the great importance of the Waverly
connection and of the future growth of the business here. We
have no doubt that there is much ill-blood, outside of any interest
in the management of this great railway, at the bottom of the bitter and persistent abuse and persecution which the managing officers encounter. The road is emphatically our great thoroug]fare of
travel and trade.  So long as its vast business is shown to increase so rapidly and its great enterprises, such as the opening up of
other lines, and the building up of immense trade along the main
trunk, are pushed forward to success, we who are directly interested in its success should stand by its officers.
ERIE TO BE THE WEALTHIEST CORPORATION ON THE CONTINENT.
Fromn the Hlcd8son County Daily Deemocrat, Feb. 5, 180.
We have read with much satisfaction the Eighth Annual Report
of the Erie Railroad. It develops a fair-seeing and comprehensive
energy, as well as a marvelous industry, on the part of the present
managers. Taking hold of its affairs when they were at the
lowest ebb, with a depleted treasury, an impaired condition of the
railway, a disorganized state of all its resources, and a fairly wornout equipment, they have, in little more than one year, regenerated




93
and reorganized the road, so as to make it one of the best, if not
the very best, on this continent. Traversing, as it does, the richest and most important regions for trade, its magnificent advantages had been hitherto neglected, until, at the touch of the most
remarkable genius, its wonderful resources have been developed
beyond precedent, considering the difficulties which had to be surmounted. Not only has the main trunkway been repaired and fortified upon a secure foundation, but it has been made to stretch its
Briarean arms on every side, seeking out and grasping the ihcalculable wealth of the most productive regions in the country, and
making it tributary to its own success, as well as the general benefit of commerce.
No one can read the clear, business like and truthful report of
the President, Mr. Jay Gould, without feeling lost in astonishment
at what has been accomplished in so brief a space of time, under
such seemingly overpowering embarrassments.  The well-considered and comprehensive arrangements which have been made
by the present dirertion, seem to give an assurance of permanent
prosperity and usefulness, far beyond the ordinary calculations, even
of so great an enterprise. Nothing appears, however, to have been
left to speculation, but every estimate is based upon sound business
principles. Diversified and vast as the scheme of its new organization is, the plans will bear the closest scrutiny, and the logical results of every proposition, so far as we are capable of comprehending the matter, appear inevitably to vindicate the forecast and wisdom of the management. All along the line of the road connections have been made with a view, not only to economy and
ptoflt in the transactions of its own business, but to the more perfect development of the industrial interests of the great productive
regions through which it passes, and with which it has established communications. So that whatever may be said by speculators, or rivals of the gentlemen who have wrought this change in
the affairs of the " Erie," commerce and industry, from the great
West to the Atlantic seaboard, inust feel the invigorating influences
of their policy, and the people will owe them a debt of gratitude
to be measured only by the immense advantages which have been
conferred.
Our space will not allow us to review in detail Mr. Gould's report,
so as to give facts and figures which he sets forth; but the system
which has been adopted is truly wonderful for its comprehensiveness
and complexity; but no less so for the order and harmony by which
its results are simplified and made to conduce to the benefit of the
public, as well as the prosperity of the corporation.
The outlay has unquestionably been large; but the results. promise
to more than justify the expenditures by the steady and permanent increase of business secured. As an evidence (f the success of the
system we instance a statement of the receipts of the road under its
present management, and those of the previous year. In 1869 the
revenue from the passenger traffic shows an increase of over half a




94
million of dollars, while from the freight traffic the increase for the
same time is near two millions. This has been accomplished in a single
year, and under adverse circumstances; but with the improved
facilities of the road a much larger margin may be fairly anticipated.
The property acquired under the present management has been
most judiciously selected, and must add largely to its business facilities
and to the value of the stock, making it hereafter the Healthiest corporation on the continent, if not in the world.
Now we have nothing to do with what is said of the outside business
of Messrs. Gould and Fisk; the Erie road is our objective point, a3d
a most important and interesting subject it is for us Jerseymer,
especially in Hudson County, and therefore the conduct of these
gentlemen in its affairs becomes a legitimate matter of scrutiny with
us, and we say frankly, in the light of a careful observation of their
administration that they have displayed an ability and fidelity to their
trust which well deserves the gratitude and confidence of the public.
FAIR PLAY FOR THE ERIE.
From the St. Louis Times, January 16, 1870.
A correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer comes to the rescue of
the Erie road against the army of detractors. He is heartily sick,
and reasonably so, of the fuss and misrepresentations of the press
concerning this road and its management, and thinks it has received
anything but "fair play." In support of his convictions, he relates
his recent experience, which is daily that of thousands of others, and
from  which we extract the following: "I have recently returned
to Cincinnati from the East over this line, and all I have to say is, that
if the Erie is badly managed, I wish all the roads in the country were
badly managed too. It is, without any exception, the most comfortable line I ever traveled over. A great portion of its track has been
recently furnished with new rails; and a railroad superintendent,
whose ability and judgment has been acquired by thirty years' experience, assured me that he never in his whole life rode over a
smoother or safer track than that fiom New York to Cincinnati by
this route. He is not interested in the line, and would hardly have
given so warm a commedation unless it were deserved. I certainly
never was in coaches more elegant in adornment, substantial in struc.
ture or easy in motion, while for safety the fact stands out that in the
last year but one passenger, out of 800,000 carried over the Atlantic
and Great Western portion of the route, lost his life, and he, conllessedly, by his own negligence. On the who e way homeward I watched
the advertised time table closely, and have never, in considerable
travel, seen one adhered to so closely and certainly. In short, I was
never on a better, and I think I never was on so good a line of road
before.




95
MORE GOOD WORDS.
From the Turf, Field and Farm, February 18, 1870.
We heartily concur with the correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and with the
St. Louis Times, in their commendations of the Erie. We have traveled much upon this
road, and as it is the thoroughfare for all the valuable horses traveling to and from
the West, to meet their turf engagements, we have had occasion more than once to
see Mr. Fisk in reference to their transportation.
Recently we suggested, in view of the very great value of such stock, the building
of special racehorse vans, such as are used in England. With that decisive promptness
so indicative of administrative power, Mr. Fisk at once acceded to our proposition, and
promised to build the vans as soon as drawings could be obtained for the gutdance of
his workmen.
ERIE FAR AHEAD OF ITS RIVALS.
From the Saginaw Courier, February 19, 1870.
The report of Mr. Jay Gould, President of that much-abused corporation, the Erie
Railway Company, shows that improvements, far ahead of what has been accomplished by many of its rivals, have been made to that important line of communication between the East and the West during the year 1869. The road was in bad condition and low in public estimation when the present management took hold of it, a little
over a year ago. [Here follow extracts from the report.] This exhibit is a better
illustration of the character of the management of the Erie Directors than the clamors
of the various stock-jobbing cliques, and shows that in the direction of the practical
affairs of the Company there is efficiency and success. The Erie Railway is fast recovering its old time popularity, and with another year of such improvement it will
take the lead among the through lines from East to West.
ERIE AT DUNKIRK.
Special Correspondence of Buffalo Eveniny Express, Nov. 9, 1869.
Speculating as to the prospective prosperity of Dunkirk the correspondent writes:
"' There is not a town in Western New York that has had its equal in variations of
its business prospects, but recent changes in connection with the work done here for
the Erie Railway Company have terminated the uncertainty heretofore existing, and
its future will be marked by a steady increase of its manufacturing interests and
consequent addition to its growth and prosperity. The want, hitherto of a certainty
of continued employment has retarded, in a great degree, the growth of Dunkirk,
but that drawback is removed by the changes lately made by the Erie Railway Company relating to its extensive machine shops in this town. All the shops and machinery at this point are now leased to an association of wealthy capitalists known
as the "' Brooks Locomotive Company." At least thirty-five locomotives per year
are to be built at these works and a very considerable amount of heavy repairing
done. The above, with the large business expected from other railways will make
the works the most extensive of the kind in the country, and will undoubtedly eventuate in the addition of blast furnaces and rolling mills, employing in the aggregate,
thousands of mechanics and laborers.
"Whatever may be said about Messrs. Gould and Fisk, neglect of the welfare of
this road cannot be charged. The road has never had such able executive ability
and moved with such perfect regularity as under their direction; and the great increase in its business attests their foresight in preparing for the immensity of its
traffic. But for the superhuman efforts put forth by Messrs. Gould and Fisk, this
great Erie Road, with its almost endless ramifications, would have been but an attachment, a feeder to the Central, under the grasping monopoly of Mr. Vanderbilt.
If ever the people of the Southern tier of counties and the vast region benefitted-by
the Erie Railway, had cause to congratulate themselves, it was when the above gentlemen gained permanent control of its management. Nothing that tends to benefit
the road escapes their attention, and no undertaking too immense to prevent its accomplishment if desired for the welfare of the Erie Railway.




96
"FAIR PLAY IS A JEWEL"
The following is one of the many calls for fair play
which have been made from time to time:
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 18, 1869.
Editors New York:Express.
Will you permit a constant reader of your paper, and consequently
one desirous of now and then having his " say" regarding current
matters, to inquire why it is that the press, not only in this city,
but throughout the country, lose no opportunity of dwelling editorily upon every accident occurring along the line of the Erie
Railway as an " Erie horror," while they content themselves with
a brief mention of any casualties that may happen on any other
line? The question occurred to me this morning. Taking up the
paper, I read: " Collision on the Central Railroad —an entire passenger train disabled."  Ah, thought I, we shall have another
homily from the editor on the subject of railway mismanagement.
But, to my surprise, there wall no comments to be seen elsewhere;
nor had any of the other papers, as I afterwards found, a word
more than the simple recital of the flct.
Now, Mr. Editor, I don't care a fig for one railway more than
another. They may, as far as I am personally concerned, go as fast
as the winged steed Pegasus, or as slow as Sisyphus, laboring at his
up-hill task.  I rarely ride, and own no shares; you may, therefore, rely on my discriminations when I say that the Erie, which,
to my observation, advertises more liberally than any other line,
is by the general press most unfairly and illiberally treated. Let
us have a variety of horrors-a " Central horror," a " Pan-handle
horror," or else give us no horror at all.
A VETERAN OBSERVER.
FISK A SHREWD MANAGER AND ORGANIZER.
From the Evening Telegram, Niov. 27, 1869.
That bright little sheet, the Evening Telegram, which fiequently serves as pilot fish to the Herald and its "blanket
sheet " contemporaries, shows its superior penetration in
the following article:
THE ERIE-PRESSIBLE CONFLICT.-The schemers and plotters engaged in the buying, selling and holding of railway stocks are
determined to keep themselves everlastingly before the public, and
the most imnjortant and notorious line to operate on being the
Erie Railway-they generally select this road for the purpose of
creating excitement. The Erie Railway has been highly unfortunate for the past twenty years. The broad and narrow guage war




97
wrvagcd at Erie some eigfrltenl or nineteen years ago was tile inlauuration of the strife, then  the unhappy  selection  of a $25,000
President and an imbicilc boarl of directors, soon drove the road
into the lh;ids of a receiver.   It was not until the redoubtable
Fisk, Jr., obtained control, th-at this road has been in a semi-decent
condition. With all of Fisk's faults, the fact of his being a shrewd
manager and organizer cannot be denied.  His great ambition to
uanite the Erie Railway with every road leading West is not only
practical and important, but this very importance  raises the ire
of his enemies, hence the  injunctions and  counter injunctions
which are issued almost daily.  These legal squabbles, if carried
on much longer, will in themselves become criminal, as the only
result is the robbing of the stockholders of tiieir interests and fattenin  up of the hulngry droves of lawyers.
A GROWING  SENSE OF JUSTICE.
American Standard, March 8, 1870.
The attentive o)server of current events cannot have ftiled to perceive of late a
very mnarkel clhmtnc in public opinion in favior of the great Eric Railway, as an avenue of transit to and from the ~Metropolis, and a very general acknowledlment on
the part of the press anl the traveling public that the slanders at one time so widely
circulated by interested parties, to the prejudice of the line, are not only unfounded
in fact but calculated seriously to inconvenience travelers, by inducing them to take
more circuitous and less luxurious modes of journeying. The truth is, the public,
never, as a body, ltar from right in its conclusions, has come to look with mistrust
upon the oft-repeated assertions prejudicial to this great route. They find that, notwithstanding all said to the contrary, there is no line which, in point of comfort,
punctuality, and reliability, offers such inducements as the broad gaugre Erie Railway, which delivers its westward-bound passen-ers either at Buffalo, Dunkirk, Cleveland or Cincinnati, without change of cars, and provides for their comfort and accommodation, during the journey, spacious and luxurious coaches, provided with
all the accessories of a first-class hotel parlor or bed-room, and fitted up in a style
which can only be compared to the fabled glories of the palace of Sardanapalus.
Seeing and appreciating all this, the American traveler unconsciously exclaims,
"Can this be the road which has been so persistly represented as unsafe, irregular,
and inconvenient to travelers? If so, [to use the words of a recent correspondent of
the Cincinna-ti Enquirer], all I have to say is, I wish all the roads in the country
were "badly managed, too. It is, without exception, the most comfortable line I ever
traveled over." And this testimony is daily corroborated by scores of people, who,
-rompted by curiosity or by the advice of those who have already traveled over the
line, give Erie the preference, and before their journey is half over, are enthusiastic in
their admiration of its merits. Every day this reaction is more apparent in the augmented demand at all the central offices for through tickets, in the increased length
of the-passenger trains leaving Jersey City every morning and evening and in the
construction of some elegant new Sleeping Coaches, which for beauty and luxury of
finish must be seen to be appreciated. Public opinion, long misled by the industriously circulated slanders of rivals, is at last becoming settled in the conviction that
there is but one great National route between the West and East, and that is the
Broad Ganuge Erie Railway.
A FRIENDLY WORD FOR FISK AND GOULD.
From the Scranton, Pa., Daily Democrat, January 25,1870.
These two great railroad magnates seem to be the object of the spite and envy of a.
great many people now-a-days; especially do we find the radical press pitching into
them without gloves. Now, we have never seen anything of either of these genthemen




98
that should occasion the pouring out of such vials of wrath upon their devoted heads,
as every once in a while comes spat upon our eyes and ears. What it all means is
rather a mystery to us, especially that our neighbor across the way should take so
much pains to traduce them. MIen of such remarkable ability and whose career exhibits such wonderful success, will always have their villifiers; but when we see them
traveling away out of their ordinary course to bespatter their slime, it looks as though
there might be a "nigger in the fence." The duce of it is with us, is to know just
where that nigger is, and what he is there for.
Certainly the management of the New York and Erie has never been so able, as
under the manipulations of these gentlemen. If they have been looking out for
themselves, about which we neither know nor care, they have kept steadily in view
the prosperity of their great road, until now, associated with its connecting links, it
almost spans the continent. Under their control, too, they have brought the New
York and Erie into our valley, a circumstance in connection with our prosperity and
futurd welfare we can hardly at this time appreciate. It does seem to us that men of
such enlarged and liberal views should rather be the recipients of the good wishes of
our people than their kicks, and if they have been a little too much for the infernal
rascals with whom they have been thrown in association so much the better.
Hurrah for Fisk and Gould. More anon.
110W  TIlE ROAD IS WORKED,
f'reons thle NTew YIek iDenzocrat, -Decenber 9, 1869.
The Erie trains go and come on the Erie with marvelous promptness, notwithstanding the great snow storm.  The track is kept.
clear, and the trains come in on time, full laden with passengers
from the West, who give the Erie preference over all other roads.
The Division Superintendents and track-masters on that road, with
all others connected with the running of trains, take great pride
in doing well the work confided to their care, and by so doing
make this one of the most popular roads in the country for travel.
No matter how  Erie stock is quoted, the  -Erie Radlway is always
above par.
VANDERBILT AND ERIE.
j'own the Netw Yor k Evening CnsnolnoZuealts, Novemnber 22, 1869.
The public have often been obliged to disapprove of certain doings of " the Erie people," as Messrs. Fisk and Gould are popularly
called. There is one movement, however, that these gentlemen
are making in which they will have the best wishes of a large majority of the public. Commodore Vanderbilt last year tried to get
possession of the Erie Railroad, as he had already done of the Hudson River and the New York Central.  Had he succeeded, he would
have become the monopolist of every avenue from the West to this
port. All traffic would have had to pay toll to him, and that healthful competition which is so essential to the public good, would
have been at an end.   Mr. Vanderbilt, conscious of his financial
strength, set to work to buy up all the stock that he could get, and
spent several millions of dollars in this effort. The Erie Company,
claiming that they had legal power, issued a large amount of new
stock.  The Commodore, finding  that his purse was not long
enough to buy the new stock as well as the old, gave up the attempt, and several suits were at once brought against the Erie




99
Company, and the disgraceful scandals of this litigation are fresh
in the memories of our readers. It is remarkable, however, that although Commodore Vanderbilt's namne twas not seen in any of these suits, still
the Co6npany paid four millions of dollars to him, and the suits were all comnpromised or withdrawn.
Now, all this was done by the old Board of Directors of the Erie
road. The present Board repudiate the bargain, and bring a suit to
recover back the Company's money. The Commodore was in court
on Saturday, and his testimony amounts substantially to thisthat he sold at 80, fifty thousand shares of the Erie stock he bought
last year; that his stock was sold to Daniel Drew, and not the
Erie Railway Company, and that he engaged to sell 50,000 shares
more at the same price, if required to do so, within twelve months;
that in consideration of these stipulations, he received $3,500,000
in cash, and $500,000 worth of bonds of the Boston, Hartford and
Erie Company. The whole case turns on two points: first, whether
the transaction is one which the Erie Board were legally competent to perform; and, secondly, whether if competent, the Erie
Company did actually complete the negotiation, or, whether it was
doze by D)aniel Drew in Ihispersonal, individual character.
TIE LAST ERIE STRIKE.
Experience has demonstrated that strikes are seldom, if
evei, productive of any good result, either to labor or
capital. The last Erie strike would appear to be an exception however-the benefit being with the Company.
The loss of the Jersey City malcontents is considered a
gain, not only by their late employers, but by the better
class of their fellow craftsmen all along the line. It is
asserted that they were always trying to create some
difficulty, and that in discharging themselves in a body
they have saved the trouble of weeding them out one by
one. No difficulty was experienced in filling their places
with men fully equal in mechanical skill and vastly superior
in all other respects. The total failure of this last strike
is considered a great triumph for the Company, and the
opinion prevails among the employes of the road that it
will be the last for some time to come.  Under the loose
administration of the old management, the men in all the
departments did pretty much as they pleased, and striking
D




100
became a chronic disorder. Mais, noun avos changes tout ela.
Since the present dynasty ascended the throne of Erie,
the different departments have been thoroughly overhauled and reformation has been the order of the day.
Among the first to feel the power of the new regime
were the corrupt conductors, and no better evidence of
their guilt is needed than the enormous increase in the
passenger returns which followed their summary discharge.
Figures do not lie, and the books of the Company prove that
these men were as arrant a set of knaves as ever " took to
the road." Next came the old brakemen, who, flushed with a dozen victories over the effete administration?
which preceded the present, sought once more to assert
their supremacy over their employers and extort increased
pay. But in Gould and Fisk they found they had men of
far different metal to deal with and consequently they
failed ignominously and made way for better men. Last
came the Jersey City mechanics; and their recent fiasco,
however disastrous to themselves, cannot fail to be productive of much good to their more sensible fellow craftsmen at the different shops along the line. All that was
necessary to enforce proper discipline in the ranks of
Erie was pluck and determination-attributes with which
the present management is abundantly well endowed and
which their predecessors lacked utterly.
LABOR VERSUS CAPITAL.
The Erie managers and the employes of the road are
equally indebted to the Commercial Advertiser for the following sensible article on the little difficulties which
occasionally arise between them:
" Whatever may be thought of the Erie Railway management, one thing is very certain, the public do not look
with favor upon the demonstrations made by the employes




101
of the road. Affairs have reached a high pass if laborers
can, with impunity, demand of capitalists the removal of
this and that overseer or manager, and the restoration of
this or that employe. Once let such demands be complied
with and all the natural relations existing between labor
and capital will be disarranged. If men choose to foolishly
strike for higher wages they have a perfect right to do so.
But they have no right to attempt to bully, intimidate, or
force their employers to accede to any or every request
which they may see fit to make. Because the Erie employes were partially successfiul in their late demonstration they make bold to begin another. Let these new
demands be acceded to and why will they not in a short
time make still others? What is to prevent railroad employes all over the country from organizing against their
respective corporations, and under the threat of stopping
travel, force compliance with arbitrary and unjust demands?
For our part we approve of the past course pursued by
the Erie managers in this matter. They have done exactly
right in saying to these disaffected employes we will not
yield a whit more to your demands, but will, if need be,
resort to compulsory efforts for cleaning you out and filling your places with new men. This matter of labor
revolt against capital is being carried altogether too far,
under the impetus resulting from the success which has
attended strikes in various branches of employment. It
is high time for the press to bring its influence to bear
upon such organized disorganization, before capital is
paralysed all over the country. As for railroad malcontents, they are pursuing just the course to lead railroad
corporations to combine against them, and establish uniform rates, ruling considerably lower than those now paid.
Our advice to them  is, to hold up in their career of folly
at once, if they would avert such a combination. There
are tens of thousands of men wanting employment all over
the State, and the labors connected with railroading are
by no means so difficult that new hands cannot very soon
acquire "the handling of the ropes."




102
TILE LAST ERIE STRIKE.
The New York Evening _Express of Jan, 26, gives the following editorial opinion of the last Erie strike: "The
men in the Erie workshops discharged themselves, and
like the dog in the manger, would neither work themselves
nor permit others to work. They had a perfect right to
quit work if they chose, but their attempt to coerce other
laborers, as well as their late employers, was wholly without excuse."
REPORT OF TIIE HERALD COIMMISSIONER.
So many conflicting reports being in circulation as to
the condition of the Erie road, and the conduct of its vast
business, and to the necessity of an impartial investigation
in the interest of the travelling public, and of those who
had invested their money in the securities of the corporation being so obvious, the Hferald, with the liberality and
enterprise which is its distinguishing characteristic under
the present young and vigorous management sent a special
commissioner to make a thorough survey of the line. The
following extracts from the Report of the Herald Commissioner need no further introduction and but little in the
way of comment.
Writing from Port Jervis, under the date Jan. 17, 1870,
the correspondent gives the opinions of the workmen at
that point on the foolish conduct of the Jersey city malcontents, who, it will be remembered, only succeeded in
"striking" their names off the company's pay-roll, and
supplies much valuable evidence showing the utter falsity
of the oft-repeated assertions that the present management was " extremely unpopular," &c., &c.
"Do the employes regard the present management as
unreliable and unsatisfactory?" asked the representative
of the HIerald of a representative mechanic.




103
"No,' he responded. "On the contrary, the road was never
nanaged better, and I myself look upon the complaints made
by certain people, as just what folks will say when they
are knocked out of easy, profitable positions. I recollect
a time when everybody on this road appeared to do as he d-d
pleased, but now things are changed, and fellows have got to
show something for the money that's paid them."
The Port Jervis letter concludes as follows: "The most
satisfactory thing, however, to discover here is that all
the trains run on time, and that there is no falling of in
freight or passengers."
From the New York Herald, Jan. 21, 1870.
THE FEELING ALONG THE ROAD.
THE TROUBLES AND ITS CAUSES —ABSENCE OF SYMPATHY AND EXPRESSIONS OF CENSURE-ALL ABOUT THE ROAD AND ITS MANAGEMENT.
SUSQUEHANNA, Pa., Jan. 18, 1870.
There is no strike here and no likelihood of any occurring. Those reports to the effect that the men here and
at Port Jervis sympathized with their fellow craftsmen in
Jersey City in the present difficulty and expressed their
determination to join them I find are altogether unfounded. From this standpoint the strike is looked upon as a
rash, inconsiderate and altogether unwise movement, productive of no good, injurious to the interests of the men
themselves and decidedly incapable of securing any greater harmony in the future between the company and its
workmen.
As it was stated in the letter from Fort Jervis, the men
there discountenanced the action of their brethren in Jersey City, because of its ill-timed character, but here I find
they not only view it in the same light, but they consider
there has been a most unwarranted trifling with the legitimate purpose of the association. They say an agreement was entered into that when a positive grievance to
their interests was inflicted by the company a strike should




104
be simultaneously entered upon, but no difficulty of the
kind that happened at Jersey City, and which might have
been  quietly  and quickly adjusted, afforded sufficient
grounds for a number of men quitting their customary
work and involving themselves and their families in embarrassment. When such sentiments are held by those
who of all others should be most in sympathy with the
strikers, there must be something radically wrong in the
whole affair, and attention is naturally directed to the nature of the employments which the men follow, their pay,
their prospects and the capacity of the road to which
they belong.  The outside public are apt to supposer
when hearing of a railroad strike, that everybody attached to the concern has put on his hat and left. rThe brakeman has given a last disgusted turn to the wheel, the conductor made a. final and fretful punch in a passenger's
ticket, the engineer jumped fromL his sad and silent locomotive, the switchman made a pocket handkerchief of his
signal flag, and all the rest of the railroad army have shaken the dust firom  their feet and struck out' for a change
of air. The idea is, of course. a delusion
This road, with a much exaggerated strike at one end
of it, is working just the same as if no commotion whatever had occurred; and even if all the shops here and
elsewhere were empty of their industrious inmates, the
road, it seems to me, could get along for a considerable
time without them. It is an old and extensive road, with
an enormous supply on hand of all that material which
forms the product of the mechanic's labor. It has more
locomotives than it can conveniently use, and as for cars,
they are reckoned by thousands. To building and repair —
ing locomotives the labor of the machinists is directed,
and they are the men who almost entirely monopolize the
glorious privilege of' striking. The car builders do not
share in the luxury, as they hold themselves aloof from
the organization.'lhe brakemen once struck, but it broke
them down firom a sheer miscalculation of their mechanical value. They were swept out on the instant and twice
as many other brakemen offered their services next morning. The strike of the machinists interferes with nothing
in the line of travel, whether of freight or passenger




105
trains. All these run just as usual, and the general work
of the road is in no wise disturbed.
EFFECT or THE STRIKE ON THE COMIPANY.
It is dobutful if a body of mechanics could select a
more unimpressionable corporation to operate upon at
this particular time than the Erie. Their supply of rolling stock is so large that they have been forced to reduce
the working capacity of the shops, and mechanical labor
is consequently at a discount. Again, judging from the character of public opinion here, the new management, embracing the blonde and bold Prince of Erie-the immortal
Jim Fisk, Jr.-and Prime Minister Jay Gould, are credited
with a share of determination that promises to put an end
to strikes forever. They will stamp out disaffection or
perish in the attempt, while at the same time they show
every disposition to agree to anything reasonable. Fisk
has a curious reputation up this way. People think he
stumbled on the lamp of Aladdin, and some fine day will
come up to Susquehanna and turn its barren hills into
virgin gold. Gould is very popular with the railroad men.
They say he knows a locomotive from the nose of the
cowcatcher to the coupling at her tail end, can run with
the machine, plan a bridge, lay a rail, switch a freight train
and divers other things too numerous to mention. The
truth is, one has to leave home to learn the news. We
gave Gould credit enipugh for raising "old Harry " in Wall
street, but it is hardly within the popular estimate of his
abillity that he could drive a locomotive and keep out of
a smashup. Candidly speaking and after impartial investigation, the present management, whoever they are, have
done vastly for this road, which anybody who knew it some
years ago will readily admit. In the work of improvement and reformation they have to contend with established
prejudices with old, venerable employes, of comparatively
stage coach notions and with lazy and turbulent labor.
To get a proper appreciation of what is disturbed in the
workings of the Erie Railroad by a strike of machinists,
it is necessary to give some idea of the class of men employed, the interests involved, the kind of work done and
the scale upon which it is performed. A sketch of the
6F




106
shops at this point will, therefore, be appropriate, while at
the same time the views here and there of some of the
men will tend to shed a better light upon the subject.
TI1E-S OF ONE OF TIHE MEN.
Mllr. T. J. Maayo, engine despatcher, in answer to the
question as to the cause of the strike in Jersey City, replied:-" I believe if the association makes a demand of
men all along the road to strike for- the purpose of supporting those in Jersey City there will be a split in the
camp here and very few will respond to the summons.
You see, most of the mechanics with us who have been
here any time possess property in real estate, and perhaps
design spending all their lives inl Susquehanna. The whole
population, of course, depends upon the road andtake an interest in it. In 1848, when the company concluded to select
this place for a leading point on the line, they bought 300(
acres of land, alnd after putting up their shops upon it they
concluded to dispose of' what remained to the employes
at a low prlice. T'he men saved their earnllings, bought lots
and put up houses, and naturally feel a concern for the
welfare of' the town. That large number of houses you
may observe scattered over the face of' the hill above are
owned by men who work in the shops. They are more
comfortably situated  than any class of mechanics ira
America, and perhaps nmore independent.  Now  these
men know the folly of such a strike as the present one
and they wont go into it, nor will the men at Port Jervis:
but those at Jersey City and Buf1alo are a different classThey are lusettld and floating, without mucll to lose firol
a strike and ready for one at any time."
"Is there any cause of' complaint here?"' I inquired.
"'None that I know of;" replied liMr. AIayo. "We were
promptly paid, and I can't see any reason:or trouble.  I
have been connected with the road a good many years,
and I don't know that it was ever better managed than it
is now. Within the last two years therle has been a big
change for the better, and if the same management continues a little while longer there won't be any fault to find
-with Erie. AWe have firesh, new locemotives, fireight and(




107
passenger cars added to the rolling stock every day; new
road bed for miles, steel rails, iron culverts, new bridges
built of iron going up in place of the old wooden ones,
and a hundred other improvements that go to make a railroad complete according to the English standard. These
strikes don't agree with our people here, because they
want to see the road go ahead, and such things have a bad
effect, but I think this is the last of them you will see for
some time. The manaTgement will hardly stand it any
longer."
Other men like Mil. Mayo spoke in a similar way, indicating more censure than sympathy for the movement in
Jersey City. There is no question that officials have it
frequently in their power to annoy and harrass those
immediately under them, and that the exercise of such
authority may lead to a strike without the Company being
directly responsible.
10oW SUSQUEHANNA X W'OULD SUFrER.
Some idea of the disastrous results which would happen
to the natives of Susquehanna from a strike may be formed
from the fact that the Erie Company disburse for wages
at this point fiom $30,000 to $35,000 per month. A strike
enduring for a term of two weeks vwould consequently involve a loss of at least $15,000. But this fails to a measure
the extent of pecuniary embarrassment entailed; for it is
easy to see that a large body of men idle for two weeks
will encroach upon their savings considerably, and, perhaps, dissipate all they laid by. Then there are many
other ways in which the thing works injuriously. It breeds
ill feeling and leaves irritation after it; for whichever side
loses is bound to take the first opportunity for revenge.
A RAILROAD RIDE,
An invitation from Mr. J. T. Camero, to the new experience of taking an airing in the fiesh and early morning,
was accepted by your correspondent, and under the
guidance of Messrs. Mayo and Atwater we started a mile
or so down the road from here to see one of the great
wonders of American engineering, the Starrucca viaduct.




108
This immense structure is so like the High Bridge that the
visitor from New York fancies himself on the banks of
Spuyten Duyvil creek. It is 1,200 feet in length, 110 feet
in height, and has eighteen arches. Looking up at it from
below, at its vast and solid buttresses, one is tempted
to believe for a moment that this work of man's hands will
last as long as the eternal hills upon which its extremities
repose. Having satisfied our curiosity well and fully we
again mounted our steam carriage and flew away past
Susquehanna a short distance to see another bridge-one
of iron- in process of being built.
The original structure was of wood, but here was the
iron going in, rod and bolt and bar replacing the beams of
wood and lifting up a light, airy and strong firamework of
metal many hundreds of feet long over the turbid and
brawling Susquehanna. W]e stayed a brief time; talked
with the accomplished engineer, Mir. S. S. Post, and then
rattled back to view the celebrated
ENGINEER'S QUARTERS OF TIIE SUSQUEIIANNA WORKS.
They are very complete indeed-neat, clean and handsome as the drawing room of the best hotel —a place for
everything and everything in its proper place.  The
building is devoted exclusively to the use of the men who
drive the locomotives, and has done a world of good
in bringing them together in a pleasant, sociable way, and
with the attractions of a sitting and reading room, where
books and papers furnish a relaxation from the fatiguing
labors of the day. This is a great trout fishing region, and
in one of the lower rooms of the engineers' quarters a big
tub, like a tank, contains a countless shoal of minnows to
serve as bait when they go on their piscatorial rambles up
the higher waters of the lovely Susquehanna.
A GLIMPSE AT THIE W'ORnIIKOPS.
But it is the workshops proper that give a character
and an importance to this place. They cover over six acres
and employ altogether something like a thousand men.
They are under the management of a gentleman named
Mlr. J. B. Gregg, who has been over twenty-five years con



109
nected with the road. The machine shop is 774 feet long
by 138 wide. Its interior appearance, when all the slippery belts are moving to and fio overhead in a seemingly
endless series and the machinery beneath is polishing,
pairing, punching and hammering the thousand things
that make up the anatomy of a locomotive, has an extremely impressive appearance. Here the steam-engine,
so familiar to the eyes of the million, with its funnel-shaped
smokestack and polished belts of brass, is built from the
foundation up. There you see them as you look along in
all stages of construction and in all stages of repair. They
stand in a long, imposing row, like soldiers on parade,
and look as if they could carry the house away with them
if the steam was turned on. Nothing strikes the visitor
so much as the scrupulous cleanliness and order of this
immense workshop. You fancy for a moment you are in
some great government arsenal, and the impression is confirmed in looking at the determined, clear cut military
features of your chaperone, Mir. Gregg. His face is in fact
one of methodistic severity. Not a scrap of iron lies loose
around, and you walk between the huge locomotives lifted
off their legs several feet above their ordinary level without having occasion to step an inch aside by reason of any
rubbish lying in your path. All along one side of the building benches are ranged of curiously complicated machinery,
which performs the nice fine work of turning out finished
pieces of brass and steel that one notices stuck here and
there around a locomotive. Not many men seem to be
attending these machines, for they are of such improved
and semi-automatic character that they need but a limited
guidance from human hands.
No better idea of the magnitude of the railroad and its
traffic can be had than in looking through this shop at its
colossal collections of machinery and the capacity it exhibits to perform an immense measure of labor. Adjoining
the machine department are the boiler shop, 200 feet by
116; blacksmith shop, 180 by 86; carpenter shop, 120 by
70; pattern shop, 120 by 70; paint shop, 120 by 60; pattern storeroom, 120 by 60; coppersmith, tin, and sheetiron shop, 120 by 50; storeroom, 120 by 50; foundry, 200
by 62; cleaning room, 85 by 40; sand room, 100 by 25;




110
engine room for foundry, 35 by 20; engine room  for
shops, 85 by 25; and the hammer shop, which contains
several steam hammers, the heaviest being a 2,200 pounder.
The semi-circular engine house near at hand has accomodation for forty locomotives, the most of that number being generally under its shelter in reserve.
OTH'ER A WORKS OF LIIE COMPANY.
A gas manufactory belonging to the company supplies
the worlks with light. Adjoining the machine. shop is
the superintendent's office, and in the same building are a
well-appointed library and reading-room for the men, and
a lecture hall that need fear no disparaging comparison
with any outside of Philadelphia. The different departments are heated by about 200 miles of steam pipes. A
Corliss engine of 100 horse power drives the machinery
of the shops, and a fire engine of' 100 pounds pressure is.
ever ready to throw a powerful stream of water on any
conflagration that may occur. All the buildings are built
of massive stone and substantial brick work, and, taken
altogether, with the order and cleanliness everywhere
apparent, form, perhaps, the most complete railroad workshops in the country. About a stone's throw from the
works the company have a hotel, known as the Starrucca
House, which in its appointments beats anything of the
kind known this side of New York. The dining room is
like a baronial banqueting hall, or the transcept section of
a Gothic Cathedral. It is 120 feet by 40, and 50 feet from
the floor to the roof: The whole of Susquehanna might
be comfortably fed within its capacious and gorgeous
interior, and it is no unmerited eulogy to say that its
meals are of a higher order than those of Murby Junction.




111
F;rom. thle New York Heraild, J-vanuary 29th1.
THE ERIE MANAGEMENT.
TILE WORKS OF TIlE ERIE RAILROAD AT ELMIIRA-A LIGHT UPON
TIhE ROAD-A (chAPTER:. OF TIIE IRON AGE —NATUR.LBE OF TIIE
STRIKE AND ITS CONSEr'QUEN-CES.
ELMIRA, Jan. 24, 1870.
The fiurther one gets fiom Jersey City the less interest
appears to be taken in the strike which is agitating the
souls of the sons of labor at that point. Here the mechanics talk of the subject in as feeble and indifferent a
spirit as if it were no concern of theirs whatever. This is
easily explained.  The men on strike at Jersey City are of
a different type of mechanics in this respect, their social
surroundings produce an influence on their way of living.
and thinking, which has much to 10o with their ready disposition to start a strike.  The men at Jersey City spend
more of their earnings, are less tractable and feel less
dependent for work on the Erie Company than those at
any of the shops intervening between there anld Buffalo.
At Port Jervis there are restraining influences \7which have
more or less effttct on the minds of the iworkmen,;he absence of surrounding attractions in the shape of' similar
labor outside, in which they might get employment in case
of losing, what they have; the tact of having a house, and
perhaps a lot, and of having  a family; and, it may be, an
ambition to start sonme day in the little town in some sort
of business. In Jersey City, on the contrary, the mechanic;
lives after a different and less satisfactory fishion.
I.ANNERL OF LIF:E.
His eveninig   resort may be other than his home, his
companions are, perlhaps, nomadic mechanics, who, having
nothing to bind them  to one place, are prepared for a
strike, and ready to hlndle up their traps at a moment's
notice and start for other fields and pastures new. At
Susquehanna, most of the men have houses and lots of their
own; they feel themselves part and parcel of the place,
take an interest in its orowth and prosperity, live decent,
ftugall, happy lives, and show  no precipitate humor to




112
plunge into a strike without full and due provocation.
Here it is a good deal the same way. Living is cheap,
the town is quiet, comfortable, and progressing, houses
and lots can be bought at a figure within the reach of a prudent and saving mechanic, and therefore it is that the men
who know the non-paying character of most strikes, prefer
to suffer some inconvenience rather than run the risk of
being indefinitely out of employment. At Buffalo, I am
told, there is much similar class of mechanics to that of
Jersey City-men who have little at stake beyond the loss
of a few weeks' wages, and who are generally able by
moving off to another point to procure the like kind of
work to that which they have left.
AN INFLUENCE OF TIIE STRIKE.
In talking with Mr. Rathbone, Superintendent of the
rolling mills here, he said much of the influence which
helped to produce the present strike was due to the efforts of the people, as he called them, of the Rogers Locomotive Works at Paterson, and Paterson folks generally. The feud existing between the Erie Company and
the proprietors of the Rogers Works is one of uncommon
bitterness. The former once gave an order for thirty engines to a firm in Pennsylvania, and the latter resented
the slight by sending their locomotives, manufactured for
Western roads, around by Harlem and the New York
Central, rather than over the Erie road, which passed by
the door, and was a much more and less expensive route.
Then the people of Paterson had many of their pleasant
traveling privileges abrogated recently, and Erie has, in
consequence, come in for some high and healthy criticism.
The people of the Rogers works, it is alleged, have tampered with the workmen at Jersey City and supplied the
means of carrying on the strike, and it is broadly given
out that corporations of a rival character to Erie, and
with no sympathy for its fortunes, have secretly fomented
the disturbance and kept it alive. Again, it is insinuated
that those who profess to lead the disaffected workmen
do so to make capital out of it and have no particular
wish to hasten an amicable settlement.




113
From those who are not in sympathy with the strikers
the statement is oftentimes made that a class of men have
been at work in Jersey City whom it would be good policy for the road to get rid of. They have always been a
disturbing element of the workshops and are of no particular ability as mechanics. However it is, one cannot
help thinking that many of these strikers are based upon
an erroneous and ignorant appreciation of the rights of
labor as opposed to capital. The Erie Company had as
perfect a right to dismiss their men, even though the number exceeded two or three hundred, as any store on
Broadway has to dispense with the services of its clerks
-a thing which is frequently done in the dull season.
But that the men working away quietly and well in all
the other shops, without any cause for complaint, should
be called upon to turn out and support the indiscretion of
the rest, appears very absurd to sensible men. It is clear
that those who seek this method of rectifying their
wrongs presume upon the measure of annoyance which
they are capable of giving and on the weakness with
which they are met. It can hardly be said that this is a
right and moral justification of their proceeding, or what
is calculated to secure them any real sympathy from the
public.
THE SENT[IMENT AATELMIHRA.
The mechanics here are a peaceable and industrious set
of men, and I understand disconnected with the association called the "Mutual Protective Association of Erie
Employes." Asking the superintendent of the car shop
if he heard any intention of his men being about to strike,
he replied " Not until I tell them." He, however, may
be exceptionably situated; for his kindness of manner
would smooth over many a difficulty which others less
enviable endowed might render a serious and painful embarrassment. As in my letter from Susquehanna, I sought
to give some idea of the vast scale on which the mechanical labor of the Erie Railroad is conducted. I will endeavor here to give a sketch of another branch of work
equally interesting-the manufacture of cars, freight, passenger, sleeping, and all sorts, together with the immense




114
rolling mill where the rails for the track are turned out at
the rate of 2,000 tons a month. As the strike is attracting so much attention the working of the road and the
kind of labor at which its mechanics are engaged seems an
appropriate subject for description.
TIHE W-ORKIO'S AT ELMIRA.
Opposite and away to the northeast of the Elmira depot are the various shops, apparently scattered in confusion over several acres of land. On coming to make a
tour of them you discover there are great method and
order in their arrangement, and when you meet Mr. Rutter, the superintendent of the car shops, you find that all
of it is due to him-to his tireless industry and love of regularity. As the locomotive at the Susquehanna works
rises gradually from a horizontal frame work of iron so
does the passenger car lift itself from a curious looking
floor of wood braced up and down and every way into a
bright and airy structure of light yellow walls, crystal windows and gorgeously decorated interior. Machinery plays
an important part in the building of passenger cars. It enters into every feature of construction save the upholstering and painting. People have noticed as they jogged
along in an American railroad car of the latest model
what a profusion of delicate and artistic work is expended
upon the interior. Some folks are apt to think it is a positive extravagance to fit a vehicle up on so lavish a scale
of unappreciated decoration. The perfection of the machinery in the car shop explains how easily and cheaply
all this thing is done. The old art of carving was a
mighty slow and wavering process of fashioning shapes of
beauty out of wood. By machinery the work is done in
an incredibly brief space of time. On a small table uncomely pieces of walnut are transformed in an instant
through the medium of a little piece of steel-worked, of
course, by steam-into figures of ornament that the poor
wood carver might sigh for a lifetime to imitate in perection of finish. The ease and rapidity with which this
is performed are astonishing. The walnut, rosewood,
mahogany and other woods that enter into the orna



115
mental part of a first class passenger car are turned out in
less time than it takes to write about it.
When the ground floor of the car is completed, resting upon span new iron trucks, it is shoved out of the first
car shop into the second, where the sides are built up and
the painting done. Improvements have been made from
time to time in the general construction; but now it appears a new school of railroad men has sprung up, crying
out for light built passenger cars and rolling stock in general as being much superior in point of speed, cheapness,
aud comfort, and much better adapted to the railroad of
the future.  Mr. Rutter, after twenty-one years' experience in building cars, and an enthusiast of the light
weights, contrives to take half a ton of wood less than
the quantity used for passenger cars some few years ago.
This is done in a great variety of ways-by rendering parts
hollow, which were hitherto deemed necessary to be
put in solid, by introducing thin iron bands where
beams were formerly used, and by substituting glue
and canvas where boards an inch thick were considered
indispensable. A bright, glittering first-class passengercar, fresh from the hands of the painter, stands on the
track outside the shop, and its detailed description is
thus given: forty-nine feet long, ten and a half wide;
height, in centre, ten and a half; on side, seven feet eight
inches, a dome roof running the whole length of the car,
thirty seats for sixty passengers, four trucks weighing six
and three quarter tons, body of car ten and a quarter
tons, four journal and six bolster springs to each axle.
Exterior, the standard color yellow; interior finish consisting of walnut panellings between the windows, ornamented with carved sprigs, a fanciful carved piece over
each door, and all relieved and set off with gilt mouldings
and a panelling in each end-cost of the whole $5,000. Our
chaperon tells us of the wonders the shop has performed,
the freight cars by the mile it has turned out and repaired,
the passenger cars, the hand cars, the caboose cars, and
then with a glowing pride he talks of the drawing-room
coaches, with their flashing mirrors, Turkey carpets, crimson velvet seats, walnut mouldings, private rooms, and
general fittings, grander far than ever a prince before the




116
age of steam could command in riding to his coronation.
The painter's studio, the upholster's room, and the polisher's
department, are all worth a visit, as showing the variety
and completeness of the details necessary to build and
fully equip those passenger cars with which people are
familiar.
LUXURY ON WILEELS.
But the drawing-room  coach, as it stood with all its
fittings in, and its light airy frescoing still damp with the
paint of the artist, gave the highest notion of the perfection to which this branch of railroad art has been brought.
Imagine a whole series of the most richly firnished and
elaborately decorated ladies' boudoirs placed side by side
and opposite to each other, and some notion may be had
of the drawing-roonm coach. Passing along the thicklycarpeted aisle, the eye glances from left to right with a
curious delight in peeping at each new and splendid compartment, and trying to distinguish which is the grandest
and most complete. The heavy padding of the crimson
plush and the thick folds of the parted curtains made of
ruby silk, give a richness of appearance to each cosy
compartment of a truly royal character. Then, for lace
curtains, you have the large windows embossed around
the border in imitation of chantilly, the pattern peeping
out from the glass from the fblds of the looped up terry.
For paintings you have the roof and panels frescoed in a
style of art seldom seen outside the canvas of a first-rate
picture. At the side are pipes for heating the compartments with hot water, and last of all is the crowning triumph, a gas apparatus for supplying light. In the wide
parlor or reception-room lounges, and heavy chairs of red
velvet and carpeted cushions for the feet are strewn
around. The interior finish is solid walnut, inlaid and
veneered with ash buhl, French walnut buhl, and Hungarian ash. The cornices, even, of the door posts attract
attention, but the eye, above all, delights to wander over
the field of fresco on the wide ceiling. Here the artist
seemed to revel iu luxuriance of fancy and variety and
brilliancy of color. But a truce to description, for any
that can be given would fail to convey fully the luxury
and beauty of these drawing-room coaches.




117
TIHE RAILROAD ARTISTS.
It is interesting to take a peep at the artist's studio
where the designs for car panels are painted. Around
the walls are square pieces of canvas slowly drying. One
piece contains two different bits of landscape at either
side and in the middle; at the top, a Chinese dragon,
flourishing his lively tail high in air. This is intended
to stretch across one end of the car above the entrance;
but the stretch of the canvas is nothing to the stretch of
the artist's imagination. All around are sporting, marine
and rural pictures on wooden-panels, waiting to be used.
In the upholsterer's room you are let into the secret of
how these smooth and handsome velvet seats are made.
Great improvements have been introduced in this direction. Light spiral springs, beneath a thin board, now occupy the place of solid wood, and the apparently heavy
back feels little heavier than a cigar box. Horse hair is
extensively used, but the introduction of springs in the
seat backs is the feature of chief' interest.  The work
done by the mechanics is in no instance of a heavy or laborious character. Machinery takes upon itself all that
is cumbrous and fatiguing, and only the lighter details
need manipulation at the hands of the workmen.
TIlE TRADES AND WAGES OF TIIE MEN.
The following are the trades of the men employed and
the average rate of wages, working  at eight hours per
day, the recently reduced term  of time: —One superintendent car repairs, $5 per day; one clerk, $2 33; one
general foreman, $2 50; one department foreman, $2 16;
fourteen gang foremen, $2 58; fifteen machinists, $1 99;
nine blacksmiths, $2; eleven blacksmiths' helpers, $1 43;
two tinsmiths, $2 73; one helper, $1 40; two stationary
engineers, $2; three general laborers, $1 45; one shop
sweeper, $1 80; one watchman, $1 66; fourteen painters,
$1 50; twenty-eight passenger car builders, $2 25; three
upholsterers, $1 07; five passenger car repairers, $2 23;
twenty-five freight car repairers, $1 87; twenty-nine
truck and box repairers, $1 46; ten car inspectors, $1 54;
three car sweepers and cleaners, $1 43. The quantity of




118
work which this department is capable of turning out cannot be estimated from its present force, as it has a much
greater capacity than is now needed by the road.
A CHAPTER or THIE IRON AGE.
The rolling mill, a few hundred yards away from the
car shop, is a structure of immense size, and as a centre
of a vast industry is well worth a visit. The first thing a
stranger entering Elmira one of these winter nights observes is the flame-capped chimney which towers above
the rolling mill and throws a lurid glare across the widening valley. With the light of dawn the fiery eruption
from the chimney pales its ineffectual flame and darkens
into a dense cloud of smoke which, borne by the sportive
breeze to the distant hills, fills the morning air with all sorts
of vapory forms. Under the guidance of Mr. Henry Rathbone, who officiates as high priest in this temple of industry,
your correspondent made an inspection of this busy hive
of mechanical labor. The uninitiated need a little nerve
amid the fiery fragments that come ever and anon thick as
a hailstorm from the rolling machines. Dodging the dazzling dangerous lengths of red hot rails and bars which
seemed to be running about at random made the time pass
in quite a lively and exciting way. And then sauntering
through showers of glowing sparks with all the sang froid
of stoicism of a salamander escaping with three holes in his
hat and a severely singed overcoat, the smart of a red hot
metallic pellet down his neck, which lodged near the lumber
region, and other casualties too numerous to mention, we
came from the scene with a vivid remembrance of its primary features. Of course, in passing through this fiery
ordeal, the eyes had to do double duty, since the ears were
completely deafened by the ceaseless whirring of the
mighty wheels turning the ponderous rollers, the wierd
humming of the interlacing bands overhead and the fierce
roar of the numerous furnaces. Nor could the eyes be
trusted altogether, for noticing a pile of iron which seemed
to have turned blue from very cold, we approached to take
a seat and take notes, but were quickly made to understand the mistake.




119
TILE TEMPLE OF VULCAN ILLUMINATED.
First in the line of observation are the "puddlers," who
to the number of' a dozen or so are puddling away their
more or less precious time over huge cauldrons of molten
metal, purging it from dross and preparing the residum
for manufacturing purposes.  "Look out," cries the watchful guide, and while clearing the track for the passage of
a number of hand cars loaded with iron bars, the visitor
is brought up sharp by the scorching heat from the gaping
furnaces. Into the midst of the white heat the black piles
of iron go in quick succession, and presently the furnace
doors are flung open and out comes the mass glowing like
the summer sun. It is then placed on another car, and as
it goes blazing through half the length of the shop, like a
bright meteor in full combustion, it sends a broad, rich
light along the dingy walls and gives the sooty, thickly
tangled beams above a glow of golden glory. The strong,
black teeth set in the jaws of the resistless rollers seize
upon the bright, yellow metal and roll it backwards and
forwards as though it were a savory morsel.  Now it disappears as if it had been swallowed in the black depths
behind but instantly returns, trickling like fiery saliva
between the teeth of the rollers. It seems struggling to
drag itself away from the power that holds it, but until it
is sufficiently attenuated there is no escape. On either side
stand lithe and stalworth Vulcans, armed with peculiar
tongs, who seize the blazing bar and dexterously toss it to
and fro until it has been tortured into the proper shape.
It is then allowed to escape on to a long slide, which conducts it within reach of the sharply serrated edges of two
rapidly revolving saws, when whiz, crash, and a blinding
shower of sparks spring across the wide width of the building. The rail has been cut to the regulation length at
both ends, then passes into the open air by easy stages, is
inspected, and if found faultless is shoved out of doors
into the open air to form a part of the great Erie railway.
The rapidity with which this is accomplished is something
marvellous, being at the rate of over a rail per minute.
The rails are all steel headed and turned out for the use of
the Erie Railroad on an average of 20,000 tons a year.




120
Although not in full blast the Elmira mill gives employment to 350 men, at wages averaging three dollars and
fifty cents. The men are paid by the ton, not by the day
and expert hands make as much as eight and ten dollars
per day.
A POSTSCRIPT OF CONTRADICTIONS.
Mr. Rathbone desired to contradict the statement given
out by the Paterson iron workers that Messrs. Fisk and
Gould owned and controlled the rolling mill. He says
they have an interest in the works but not a controlling
one. In reply to the accusation that Fisk and Gould
bought a share in order to charge Erie exhorbitant prices
for rails, MIr. Rathbone shows by his books that the mills
are now supplying rails to the Erie line at a much lower
rate than ever before, and this was the object the parties
accused had in taking an interest in the concern. Furthermore, he considers that the road was never in such superior order, that its rails will soon be all of steel and its
bridges and culverts of iron, and that these statements are
but justice to men who really take a live and active interest in rendering the road better than it ever was before.
PIromz the NVewv York Ilerald, F;eb. 6, 1870.
THE ERIE RAILROAD.
OBSERVATIONS HERE AND THERE UPON TIlE MANAGEMENT —IMPROVEMENTS MADE AND CONTEMPLATED-OPINIONS OF-PEOPLE IN
THE MATTER —HISTORY OF TIlE ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTFRN RAILROAD.
BUFFALO, Feb. 2, 1870.
The recent report of Jay Gould on the management of
the Erie Railroad, has doubtless given people a clearer
idea of the condition of this important line than they possessed previously. Not less instructive was the last strike
which has been a positive benefit to the company. It has
enabled them to get rid of a class of men who were at all
times ready to quit work on some slight pretext or other,
and it has demonstrated to all employed, that the present management of the road is not to be trifled with.




121
As an instance of this spirit the strike of the brakemen
and conductors may be instanced. They were swept away
and a new class of men employed. In the matter of the
conductors a large pecuniary saving was effected-something like $70,000 more than the previous average having
been turned into the treasury of the company the month
after they were discharged. Some of the conductors, on
salaries of $100 per month, lived at the rate often thousand
a year, had their own handsome houses and horses, and
made their nominal waoes run wonderfilly far. Jim Fisk
I believe it was who perceived that a healthy change would
be that of exchanging one set of conductors for another,
and he did so, with consequences of an eminently satisfactory character. The old conductors, of course, had numerous friends and acquaintances at ever point on the road,
and when they were discharged they had many sympathizers, and the road had many enemies.
THE ERIE MANAGEMENT.
The management of the road is a matter which is an
important corollary of the late strike. At this particular
time, when so much attention is directed to the Erie Railway and the report which Mr. Jay Gould has made excites
so much interest by the figures it gives of progress and
prosperity, the actual impressions of one who has traveled
carefully over the road, stopping at various points, and
conversing with people more or less connected with it,
may be of advantage in forming an estimate of what this
great highway is like and what has been done for it. There
is no question that it is vastly improved from what it was
three or four years ago, and that its future prospects look
brighter day by day. One hundred miles out from Jersey
City the traveler, standing at the rear of the train and
looking at the track over which he has been rapidily
whirled, is reminded of an English railway in the broad,
firm and carefully packed road bed, and the high, smooth,
solid and unsplintered steel rails. This is one improvement
of very material importance-expensive, no doubt, in the
start, but cheap and every way more profitable in the long
run.
Then, there are the cars, which at one time in the history
7




122
of the Erie Railway were mean-looking and very uncomfbrtable for passengers, but are now certainly equal, if not
superior, to those of any other line. There, for instance,
is the drawing-room coach already described, which, for
luxury on wheels, beats anything that I am acquainted
with. You find the station houses are of an improved
order. Those at Susquehanna, Elmira and Hornellsville
are decidedly fine. Some are of stone, as at the first mentioned place, and, on a small scale, are as luxuriously
appointed as the Grand Opera House itself, where the festive Fisk reigns amid the princely surroundings of walnut
furniture penciled in gold.  The bridges and culverts are
being overhauled; iron is taking the place of wood, and
the length of the double track is being extended. At this
point the Erie suffers one geat drawback in the absence
of a passenger depot commensurate with its large and
rapidly increasing traffic. Buffalo being one of the principal competing points between the Erie and its principal
rivals this is a great disadvantage. Propositions have been
made from time to time to construct a grand union depot
for the Erie, Lake Shore, and Central roads, and considering that their lines, run side by side here this would be an
admirable arrangement, and afford every convenience and
accommodation to the traveling public. But the Central,
being already provided with a pretentious structure, prefers to stand aloof from its dreaded competitor. Nothing
remains then, but for Erie to build a depot of its own, and
that has been determined upon by the present management. If the plan exhibited to your correspondent be
carried out in all its elaborate details the projected depot
will be one of the architectural ornaments of this city of
magnificent intentions. It will be a broad gauge building
par excellence, and the waiting rooms will rival the saloon
coaches in the magnificence of their appointments. The
existing passenger depot is a standing reproach on the old
management, and the sooner it is improved upon the sooner
the passenger traffic from this point will increase. The
workshops at this point are not so extensive as at Jersey
City or Susquehanna. They are used for repairing disabled
locomotives, passenger and freight cars; but, if necessary,
can be adapted to the original conctruction of rolling stock.




123
There was a time when the road was so reduced in efficiency that it was necessary to buy and borrow engines in
different quarters, but now this is all changed. They have
ample capacity at Susquehanna to build all the locomotives
they need, and they do so, and at Elmira cars are constructed on a scale commensurate with the wants of the
company. Here they have a car shop where repairs can
be carried on extensively. It is curious to witness the
transformation which one of the disabled vehicles of travel
undergoes in this department. It may be some poor old
passenger car bruised, broken and disfigured all over that
to-day comes in to get renovated, and is sent out to-morrow the very counterfeit presentiment of its original self
as on the day it first left the hands of the workmen. They
wash, scrub and paint it anew, mend the broken places,
and take the faded plush seats, and by some process
restore the color to a more dazzling crimson than it was
originally.
THE TRANSFER OF FREIGHT.
In his report Jay Gould speaks of his arrangements
made in exchange of business here with the Lake Shore
road. This I find to be the exchange of freight in bulk
from the cars of the Lake Shore narrow gauge to those of
the Erie board gauge. Hitherto corn from the West
when not shipped by canal, went by rail in bags, but now
it is brought here in bulk and shovelled quickly from one
set of freight cars to the other, as they lay side by side.
Another style of transfers is from the boats, of which the
Erie Company owns twenty-six, by elevator to the cars.
The elevator stands by the river shore, towering up a
great height in the air and looking like a dismantled cathedral. Under its ponderous trunk-a good name for the
apparatus which dips into the hold of a boat and swallows
up the grain-the propellers cast their moorings and discharge their cargoes. The corn disappears from the boat
in quick time and drops into freight cars drawn up inside
the elevator house. These propellers, twenty-six in number, are each of considerable size, somewhat larger than
the steamers between New York and Newburgh. In the
season of their usefulness they ply to every place of any




124
importance on the lakes. They reach away up to the
mines of Lake Superior and bring down these mountain
piles of ore that burden the docks around here. They
fetch down everything of a commercial value, and are indeed a great institution, taken collectively. The freight
thus brought to the Erie Railroad is something enormous,
and to the far-sighted vision of Jay Gould is the road indebted for the addition. Looking around here, first at
the geographical position and next at the concentration of
lines of communication, it is easy to forecast a great future
for Buffalo. The present conception of the Erie Company
is to make it a great depot for coal brought from their
own mines and shipped by their own boats to a thousand
places on the lakes. To do this effectually they have determined to extend their frontage 3,000 feet and increase
the depth of water to fifteen feet. Here the boats will
draw up, and by an incline plane the cars will be made to
carry the coal to an elevation from which it will be shot
like a flash of lightning into the awaiting holds below.
The improvement under way is of an arduous nature, an
immense coffer dam having to be erected and a vast body
of water pumped out for the purpose of blasting the rock
in the bed of the river.
The freight houses of the Erie Company are large, commodious brick buildings, the principal one being 560 by
200 feet, and well calculated to convey an idea of the iminense freight business that flows this way eastward.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESENT MANAGEMENT.
Talking with a gentleman, who was one of the old
directors of the Erie road, and has been living here for
the past ten years, as to the former management, he said,
" the men we had in the direction in my time were a set
of barnacles; they let the road run itself, compromised
with every kind of strike, and never showed a solitary bit
of enterprise. I could see fifty ways of improving the
road, but they could see none; they were fossilized. The
present management is the best the road ever had,
and everybody says so who knows anything about it.
Jay Gould has given more time, attention and energy to




125
developing, building and sustaining this road than all the
boards of directors that have gone before him. I know
this, for I travel over the road very frequently to New
York, and can see a great many things he has done for the
purpose of benefiting it. He has doubled the supply of
rolling stock and doubled the coal traffic. In my time we
hardly ever got freight from here to Rochester; now they
send 100 cars per day. No effort was made under the
old management to compete with the Central at Rochester, and the receipts from passengers reckoned only a few
thousand dollars a month; now they count over fifty thousand. On every side I see evidence that great strides
have been made towards making Erie what it ought to
have been long ago, the great highway of the East, but
for the number of sleepy old fossils that had the management; and I think, too, that the people of Albany are
standing in their own light in neglecting the chance of
incorporating the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad with
that of Erie, and sharing in the enterprise that directs it."
Others I have met outside of the men immediately identified with the road, who speak in a similar way, all going
to show that no matter what Fisk and Gould may do in
Wall street they have done much of substantial service
for the Erie Railway.
MISREPRESENTATION OF THE ROAD.
The persistent misrepresentation of the condition and
conduct of the Erie road, which certain rival corporations have found it their interest to invent and circulate for the purpose of diverting a portion of the immense business of the great thoroughfare to their own
lines, may have influenced such as are far removed and
have no opportunity of judging for themselves. In New
York the Erie management is more widely known by
its connection with the recent gold conspiracy, but here
in Buffalo its fame rests principally upon the genius and
enterprise of its guiding spirits.  "While Drew  had
charge of the road," remarked a leading flour merchant
to your correspondent, "' I would not send a single barrel of flour over it, much more risk myself on it. I did




126
my business by the Central, but now that the Erie is
in good hands I send all my stuff over it." Pointing
to an immense pile of lumber in a yard near the depot, one of the officials of the road remarked. "There
sir, is a business which is materially increasing our revenue, and yet it is only about a year since Mr. Gould set
about developing it. We had no lumber business at all
before his time, and now, though yet in its infancy, it has
outgrown our present facilities," and so on. The coal and
iron shippers are especially loud in their praise of the
present management, as they have been afforded facilities
for shipment and transportation they never enjoyed before.
In conclusion, it is fair to say there is nothing strained
in the interesting report made by Jay Gould to the stockholders. If' he succeed in declaring a dividend one of
these fine days everybody will believe him. The report
is satisfactory enough, but a dividend would be still more
so. His enterprise in securing the carrying trade of the
extentive coal region of Carbondale and other points in
Pennsylvania redounds vastly to the benefit of the road,
and time will prove the correctness and vast pecuniary
value of the speculation. When Gould's plans for making the Erie road rich and powerful are matured, he may
bid defiance to adverse criticism, for so far he has sufficiently demonstrated the ability to move forward and be
successful in spite of almost overwhelming difficulties.
The Erie will then no longer be a reproach to New York,
but rather the brightest gem in her glittering diadem of
gland and noble enterprises.




127
ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD.
RESUME OF ITS IISTORY -A SPLENDID ENTERPRISE AND ITS
EARLY MISMANAGEMENT-VISIONS OF TILE PROJECTORS-THE
RUIN OF TIHE ROAD-FISK AND GOULD TO TI-IE RESCUEFUTURE PROSPECTS.
From the NVeu York Herald, Feb. 6, 1870.
MEADYILLE, Pa., Feb. 4, 1870.
The history of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. which has one of its principal stations at this point,
furnishes a curious and instructive lesson in commercial
enterprises. It was projected under splendid auspices, ten
years ago, from the Indian village of Salamanca, on the
Erie Railroad, the well-known James MIcHenry being contractor, foster-father, and finally came near being funeral
undertaker. Thomas W. Kennard, who came, it is alleged, to this country with hardly enough means to pay
his passage, was chief engineer; but when he severed his
connection with the road, he claimed the wealth of a millionaire. The stockholders hailed from England, and
among them figured Sir Morton Peto, who freely unlocked the fountains of his treasure, and poured it into the
new enterprise, which the dauntless MIcHenry undertook
to carry through. High hopes accompanied it. Visions
of grasping the whole trade of the West, North-west and
South-west, the lakes, the Mississippi, and finally the Pacifie coast, floated before the fancy of the projectors, while
just as it was started came the wildly exciting intelligence that oil of precious properties was springing like a
fountain of living waters fiom the soil almost directly in
the path of its progress. An immense force of men was
placed upon the work, andl it was hurried forward under the inspiring genius of MIcHenry at as rapid a pace as
the Union Pacific. English capital was lavished upon it
as capital was never lavished before. Here at Meadville a
station was put up rivalling, in the style and beauty of its
surroundings, any of those you may notice in the best railroads in England; charming cottages for the officers of




128
the road; a park at the rear, with winding walks, fir
trees, rose and jessamine bushes. A hotel of over 100
rooms, and a dining-room as long as a train of freight
cars were a portion of the grand enterprise. In the full
of 1862 the road reached here, after creating two towns,
named Corry and Jamestown, on its way from  Salamanca.  It was pushed steadily along-broad gauge
all the way to Dayton —and from there, by laying down a
third rail on another road to Cincinnati, ultimately reached
the Queen City of the West-striking the Ohio and aiming for the Mississippi.  A branch called the Franklin
was built from here to Oil City, and another from Braceville to Cleveland. The region of flowing petroleum was
tapped at the opportune moment, and by way of the line
to Cleveland the oil was carried to the refineries. Looking over the railroad map, which represents one contiguous
broad gauge road, extending from New York first by the
Erie, then by Atlantic and Great Western to Cincinnati,
you will readily admit that the visions of James MIcHenry
and his confiding English friends were none too sanguine.
How much more exalted might the British fancy have become had the two roads at that time been of the one
construction and management, the Erie stretching to the
lakes through the great State of New York, and lapping
its branches around the richest coal beds of Pennsylvania,
while the Atlantic drew off the abundant and exhaustless
riches of the oil region! Such is the state of affairs now,
but it was not reserved for MIcHenry to be the instrument
of its:realization. The road started out with really magnificient prospects. It opened up a new and wonderfully
rich region; it struck for the carrying trade of the mighty
West; it infused a quickening growth into the old and
fossilized towns through which it passed, building up an
important local traffic and directing a fresh current of
commerce towards the State of New York.
Notwithstanding all this the road failed to prosper, and
went steadily down until the beginning of the year 1869.
Grossly corrupt and inefficient management brought this
splendid highway to a condition of reproach. The directors and others identified with it appear to have shown a
strange lack of energy andforesight when a little of either




129
might have rescued the concern from the verge of bankruptcy at which it had arrived. The present management
of Erie, which succeeded in saving that road from bankruptcy or absorption by that hardy mariner, the muchbronzed Vanderbilt, is the only one it seems to me, that
can bring back the prestige and carry out the destiny
of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad.
WHAT THE ROAD CREATED.
That this destiny is one of vast import may be seen by
a brief study of the map. The first station of note after
leaving Salamanca is Jamestown. It is situated at the
head of the rapids at the outlet of Chautaque Lake, New
York State. Two steamers ply to Mayville, a station on
what is called the Cross Cut Railroad. Vast quantities
of lumber are floated down to Jamestown, and from thence
sent by rail or river in various directions. Jamestown
was created by the Atlantic and Great Western road less
than ten years ago, and is a lively, bustling town. The
next place of importance is Corry, a similar creation to
the one already mentioned, but of larger and more earnest growth. It is the terminus of the Oil Creek Railroad,
the Brocton Cross Cut Railroad, and the crossing point
of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. It has railroad
communication in five different directions, and will shortly
have a sixth. It has large machine shops, woollen, and
hardware factories, three national banks and seven
churches; yet twelve years ago, it was a dreary wilderness. Next comes Meadville, an old village, lingering
for years in venerable vegetation, but, touched by the
magnetism of the railroad, bloomed into willing freshness
and prosperity. It has factories, banks, and colleges, and
a population of about 12,000 inhabitants. A line of boats
run to Pittsburg and to Erie, on the lake by the Erie
Canal, of which the Venango River is the feeder at this
point. West of here are other towns on the line of the
Atlantic and Great Western, which have been either
called into existence, or impelled to prosperous expansion
by the road.
7 G




130
ONE WAY OF ROBBING THE ROAD STOPPED.
It should be understood that before the projection of the
line this section of Pennsylvania was a comparative terra
incognita, its resources unknown and means of communication rude and primative in the last degree. The measure
of development it has received through the agency of this
railroad cannot be adequately gauged by figures, but that
the railroad itself should have failed to reap the reward for
the benefits it conferred is a question which resolves itself
into the simple solutation that its management was extravagant and incompetent. I heard a good joke at Salamanca
going to illustrate the light in which the former conductors
on this road viewed the change of management, which occurred over a year ago. The road had depreciated so
much, its receipts had diminished so low, that it went into
the hands of two receivers, one of whom was Jay Gould.
The latter set to work with his accustomed energy, and
pursued the same plan of action in striving to resuscitate
the fallen fortunes of the Atlantic which he had previously
used in the case of Erie. He saw one leak in the receipts
was the stealings of the conductors, and according to all
accounts these were notoriously wholesale.  Whether
American prejudice to many things English got the better
of their conscience or not, certain it is the conductors indulged an easy swing of the passenger receipts and made
a beggarly show to the treasurer. "Now I don't see why
Jay Gould should have discharged us," observed an exconductor shortly after his dismissal, "for if we had not
knocked down the stamps as we did he would never have
been made receiver."
The doings of the conductors, detrimental as they were
to the pecuniary interests of the road, were but a trifle
compared with those of officials higher in authority.
United to extravance in almost every department was a
total absence of enterprise or effort towards arresting the
downward progress of the concern, and hence a receiver
was appointed, and hence it was that English capitalists
bewailed their American experience. But there was really
never a better prospect before the road than there is now,
and a year or so will certainly prove that the wisest thing




131
its stockholders eve did was to lease it to the Erie line and
let the two be consolidated under one vigorous management. Time will show that the destiny of these lines and
that of the Ohio and Missisippi, the three being of the
broad gauge width, is to reach from the Atlantic to the
Father of Waters in unbroken union and under a single
direction.
THE DIVISIONS OF THE LINE AND ITS TRAFFIC.
The Atlantic and Great Western is made up of five divisions-first, from Salamanca to Meadville; second, from
Meadville to Kent; third, from Kent to Gallion; fourth,
from Gallion to Dayton, and fifth, from Mahoning branch,
which now extends from New Lisbon to Cleveland, and
has a spur running out to Sharon. Each of these has a
superintendent, and then a general one for all, who resides here-Mr. 0. S. Lyford. Mr. L. D. Rucker was
formerly general superintendent for a term of two years.
He introduced an administration of economy which proved
very distasteful to many of the old employes, who remembered the halcyon days when the princely Peto and his
party of reputed millionaires journeyed over the line and
said everything looked lovely, though their money had
been squandered or buried in the roadbed over which
they rolled. The branches or feeders of the line are numerous and increasing in number. The one from Oil City
to Corry brings the crude petroleum in tanks for shipment over the Atlantic and Erie to New York. The Mahoning branch to Cleveland is almost exclusively an oil
route, and supplies the refineries in Cleveland with the
crude oil from the wells. The importance of a freight
like this, the bulk of which is every year increasing, cannot be overestimated. Petroleum is not about to give
out, as the popular anticipation would have it, but will
continue to form one of our great and permanent staples
of export, even as cotton and grain do. The oil trade is
one heavy item of traffic on the Atlantic line, next coal,
then grain, and lastly general merchandise. The through
passenger traffic has greatly increased since the consolidation with Erie. The local traffic is considerable. The increase of 1869 over 1868 on the Erie line is, according to




132
the President's report, 302,765 passengers, and this, in a
great measure, is due to the consolidation. The freight
traffic of the Erie shows an increase in 1869 over 1867 of
787,216 tons. Next year will probably exceed this figure
by a quarter of a million and the year after by over half
a million. To this prosperity the Atlantic and Great
Western Railroad has contributed no inconsiderable share.
As a passenger route from New York to Chicago and
Cincinnati it makes with the Erie one unbroken broad
gauge track to the latter city and Cleveland.
THE PRESENT MANAGEMENT.
The Atlantic and Great Western was leased by the Erie
company 1st of January, 1869, for one year, and has now
been leased again by the same company on " substantially
the same terms as of the original lease." The rolling
stock of the Erie operates on the other road along with
that of its own. The Atlantic and Great Western road
was wretchedly provided with freight and passenger cars
and owned but a limited number of locomotives. The
Erie motive power is now used extensively from one end
of the road to the other. The station houses on the line
from Salamanca here are good, the trains make excellent
time and the roadbed is improved very much from what
it was a few years ago. The future before it is vast and
only needs a clear-headed management to make it certain
of attainment. Talking to a gentleman to-day on the
prospects of the line, said he, " If they will only leave it
in its present hands the Atlantic and Great Western will
be one of the first roads in the country. They may talk
as they please about these men, Fisk and Gould, but
you've got to fight the devil with fire. You've got to
fight Vanderbilt, Drew and such men with their own weapons, and it's all a waste of talk to say a road like this
can be made what it ought to be without raising a hue
and cry in some quarters." But it is necessary to penetrate the oil regions before saying more about the great
resources upon which the road may rely for support.




133
OPINIONS ON THE PRESS.
The New York papers having paid such particular attention to the affairs of the Erie Railway Corporation, and
differed so widely in their conclusions, the following
remarks may enable the reader to decide as to which are
the more independent and impartial of our leading daily
Journals.
HERALD.
First and foremost comes the Hierald-the most independent, liberal and enterprising journal in the World.
Fearless alike in praising or blaming, as evidenced in its
treatment of the Erie managers. It was the first to censure
Gould and Fisk for their share in the Corbin & Co.'s celebrated gold corner, and it was among the first to give
them credit for the wonderful energy and ability displayed,
and the marvelous success they have achieved, in the management of the Erie road. It has refrained from condemning the Erie officials of " abusing trusts, " " misappropriating
funds," etc., etc., for the simple but sufficient reason that
their accusers have not yet been able to substantiate any
one of the many serious charges, from time to time, circulated throughthe medium of subsidised journals. But when
the Messrs. Gould, Fisk, Lane, et al., render the account of
their stewardship of the finances of the Corporation, which
is now in course of preparation, that statement will undergo no closer, keener, or more impartial scrutiny, item by
item, than at the council board presided over by the
Nestor of American journalism-and, commendation or
condemnation, the Erie officials will be rewarded according to their deserts.
The columns of the Herald will be searched in vain for
anything like the gratuitous abuse and shameless slanders
which the Times and Tribune, conspicuous among all other




134
journals, have published in the interests of the enemies of
Erie.
In view of what Messrs. Gould and Fisk have already
done in the way of increasing the business facilities of the
road under their care, and of what they have determined to
do in order to establish a through line for the produce of the
far West, it would seem that these men, of all others, have
profited most by the teachings of the Herald, which has
ever been the advocate of national enterprise, and the
pioneer of American progress. And yet, the time was when
the Herald, now acknowledged the leading paper in the
World for enterprise, and equally well entitled to the
proud distinction of being the only really independent
organ of public opinion, occupied a similar position in the
world of journalism to that the Erie Company fills to-day
in the railway world.  It was a journalistic Ishmael.  A
war of annihilation was waged against it by a band of
powerful rivals, and, receiving no quarter, it could not
afford to give any. At that time its indomitable editor
had as good a claim to the unenviable distinction of being
one of the best abused men in the country as Fisk or Gould
have now. To-day, in his nobly earned prosperity, Mr.
Bennett's friends are legion, but how few and far between
were those who had the courage to stand by him during
the long years in which he so bravely battled through
trouble to triumph.
As yet, the HEerald has done nothing more than to demand fair play for the accused; it has cautiously abstained
from rendering anything in the way of" aid and comfort,"
until the production of satisfactory evidence that the persons associated in the present management of Erie are really the good and faithful servants they claim to be.
With the bitter experiences of the dark days of his own
eventful and marvelous career in mind, it may be that the




135
aged veteran, who, while reposing from his life-labor, enjoys the pleasure of watching the straightforward and
fearless course of the young journalist, to whom he has
relinquished the helm, feels something like sympathy for
the daring spirits who so boldly undertook the apparently
hopeless task of defending the shattered craft Erie from
the mutinous directors, who had conspired to scuttle it,
the pirate monopolists who were bent on capture and
plunder, and the hungry horde of WVall-street speculators who were in hope of stealing something from the
wreck. While being so skillfully navigated through the
financial dangers which encompassed it and periled its existence, the good ship Erie has been thoroughly repaired,
refitted, and rendered seaworthy, and it is to be hoped
it will yet forge ahead of its rivals, and rank A 1, like its
journalistic prototype. Having survived so much, Gould
and Fisk will undoubtedly live down the malice of their
opponents, and command respect and admiration throughout the length and breadth of a land benefitted by the reresults of their genius, enterprise; and all-conquering
energy. So mote it be.
THE ERIE REPORT.
Frem the N. Y. Tribune, Jan. 21, 1870.
Alaska has a tropical climate, and strawberries in their
season. The Borgia was a saintly, much-slandered martyr
of a woman. The Devil is white. Mr. Jay Gould shows,
in other columns, how admirable, successful, and economical is his management of the Erie Railway.
Here and now, we prefer to utter no dissent. We leave
Mr. Gould's report to speak for itself;-only commending
it to the earnest attention of those bewildered stockholders who cannot quite understand why so prosperous
a concern doesn't pay any dividends.
Meanwhile we venture to place beside Mr. Goifld's
glowing exhibit, another statement. Some forty or fifty




136
law suits and supplementary proceedings are pending
against the Erie Railway Company, or rather against
Messrs. Gould, Fisk, and Lane, its officers and managers.
It is a point worth considering. In these cases various
allegations and charges are made under the solemnity of
an oath, some of them of the most grave and serious
nature, affecting character and integrity. These gentlemen are openly charged with having made wholesale
issues of Erie shares and bonds, and with having misappropriated the moneys derived therefrom, as well as having taken the entire earnings of this great line of railway
without accounting therefor, except in payment of running expenses and in meeting the interest and lease obligations of the company.
These charges are either true or false. The persons
thus accused are either honest men, striving with their best
ability to manage the affairs of the company for the benefit of its
stockholders, or they are swindlors, actively engaged in
stealing money which belongs to others. We do not seek
now to judge between the parties, Messrs. Fisk, Gould,
and Lane have a right to be heard in their defense, and should not
be condemned in advcance of trial. But the gravity of the
charges seems clearly to demand more than a rose-colored
official report. Mr. Gould can have these written by the
dozen, in far better style than the present one, with half
as many facts and twice as good a showing, for less than
the cost of one injunction. WTe speak plainly. The affairs
of Erie have come to such a pass that neither the stockholders nor the public believe a statement authenticated
by the signature of its officers. The charges made can
only be set at rest by a thorough judicial investigation;
and we cannot see why these gentlemen should not themselves
court it. If the moneys received have been honestly appropriated for the benefit of the company, there can be
no serious difficulty in making that fact appear; and it
seems due to themselves, due to the Erie stockholders, to
the holders of other railway shares, and to the public, that
these gentlemen promptly submit themselves to the test
of a trial. If they have been falsely accused the odium will
rest upon the accusers; they will put their enemies to shame
and stand exonerated before the public. Why not, then,




137
permit some of these suits to be fairly tried?  If }Mr.
Ramsey has made false charges against Fisk & Co., et
them be disproved judicially, and let Mr. Ramsey take the
consequences. The opponents of the Erie managers aver
that they dare not risk the chances of a judicial investigation; that they are avelrse to being cross-examined in open
court, and that all their legal measures are intended to
delay or postpone indefinately, by money influence or
otherwise, suits which threaten to bring them to a reckoning with the long-suifering stockholders.
We do not now make these charges. We do say that
if Messrs. Gould &- Co. desire the pufblic to accept and
believe them, they could hardly find a more effective way
of accomplishing t1hat result than by resorting to subterifuge in order to evade an early and fair trial of the main
issue involved.
Reports, gentlemen, -ill not ansNwer thle puirpose. What
is wanted is T'rial!
The foregoing is really an excellent specimen of the
meaningless mixture of Bunsbyism and bile with which
a certain member of the editorial staff of the kTriibunel is
allowed to serve up his hermlaphroditical opinions. The
three startling statements with which the article opens are
so entirely foreign to the suabject in hand that one is at a
loss to account for their abrupt introduction.  Can it be
that the writer indulged in them by way of consolation
for the obviously distaseful duty of admitting' that 3r.
Gould's'Report "shows how admirable, successful, and
economical is his managemenlt of the Erie Railaway."  Is
it possible that the naked truth is so unpalatable as to require a treble coating of mendacity to enable one pungent pill
to pass the editorial gorge? Alas, it would really seem sootherwise, what motive could there be for the promulgation of such a palpable fiction as that concerning the climate
of Alaska?  Why, 3Mr. Seward himself did not go as far as
strawberries in enumerating the "fruits" of that frozen..p




138
waste. That Lucretia Borgia was "a saintly much-slandered martyr of a women" is somewhat contrary to the
opinion hitherto entertained of that not much lamented
lady. Yet, it may have been so. This statement however
would be much easier of belief were it supported by one
(equally probable) to the effect that the Borgia's saintly reputation was ruined by the persistent misrepresentations
of the licentious press of the period.  Apologists for his
Satanic Majesty have repeatedly declared that Lucifer's
complexion is much lighter than the conventional lampblack in which it is customary to portray him, but the
Tribu2ne goes the length of saying:  "The Devil is white."
Well, its no use being particular as to a shade. Some
people will insist upon it that black is white, and vice versa,
and in the event of the editor being mistaken on this comparatively unimportant point let us be charitable and hope
he may yet have an opportunity of discoverling, if not of
recanting his error.
In preferring to "utter no dissent," and leaving Mr.
Gould's report to speak for itself the Tribztne does wisely
and well. In commending it to the attention of the stockholders the editor puts himself to unneccessary troublethe document commends itself.
After setting forth the accusations made against Messrs.
Gould, Fisk & Lane et al, the Bunsby of the Tri6bune edifies his readers with the following solid chunk of wisdom:
"These charges are either true or false."  If not, why so?
We are next informed that " the persons thus accused are
either honest men, striving with their best ability to manage the affairs of the company for the benefit of the stockholders, or they are swindlers, actually engaged in stealing
money which belongs to others."  Just so! and wherefor
because? Well, by a similar token, it may be as boldly
advanced that the "officers of the Tribune Association are




139
either honest men, striving with their best ability to further the interests of the proprietors, or they are a pack of
swindlers actively engaged in endeavoring to conceal their
manifold sins against the ten commandments. And also,
that the writer of the article under treatment, is either a
knave, a fool, or a sensible and conscientious journalist.
If so be as how, why then? Sauce for the goose is sauce
for the gander.
Cognizant that "some forty or fifty law suits and supplementary proceedings are pending against the Erie Railway Company, or rather against Messrs. Gould, Fisk & Lane,
its officers and managers," the Tribuene "cannot see why
these gentlemen should not themselves court " additional
litigation of a hostile nature. May it not be that the Erie
managers are sensible enough to confine their efforts to
combatting the ills they have, instead of pursuing the
suicidal policy of meeting trouble half-way?
In conclusion, the editor rules that the accused " have a
right to be heard in their defence, and should not be condemned in advance of trial." The existence of a doubt is
admitted, but the "impartial" journalist seems exceeding
loath to give the Erie managers the benefit. However,
in clamoring for a trial the Tribune acknowledges that no
proof of guilt has yet been established, and, this more or
less influential sheet being so notoriously destitute of anything like moral conviction, must perforce allow presumptive innocence.
It would be unjust, however, to condemn the entire
editorial staff for the faults and follies of any one writer,
and prominent among the honorable exceptions in the
present instance is Mr. Greeley himself.  Some paragraphs, written much in the style of the article on Mr.
Gould's Report, appeared in the Tribune a few weeks ago,
charging the Erie managers with complicity in what was




140
alleged to be an attempt to murder a certain member of
the legal profession. A demand for a retraction of these
infamous insinuations was insolently refused by one of the
subordinate editors; but no sooner was Mr. Greeley's attention called to the matter, than the wrong so maliciously
perpetrated, was promptly confessed and editorially
atoned for.
TIMES.
The N. Y. Times has, perhaps, done more for the Vanderbilt interest, in the past, than any other journal, and,
consequently, has been particularly inimical to the present
managers of Erie. The gentleman who holds the responsible position of financial editor of this once impartial
and influential sheet, is credited with the authorship of
the more slanderous of the many unjust and inconsiderate
articles it has published for the especial benefit of combinations antagonistic to the best interests of the Erie Corporation, and to the detriment of American credit abroad.
An open and avowed enemy of Messrs. Gould and Fisk,
this gentleman enjoyed the immense advantage of being
able to manipulate one of the leading organs of public
opinion, and make it the engine of his personal hostility
-an advantage of which he did not scruple to avail him.
self. Quite recently, however, it has been discovered that
it does not pay to allow contributors, however old and
valuable, to make use of the paper as a vehicle for private
animosities, and our financial friend, who so long had " full
swing," is now so restricted that though he "nothing extenuates," he is not permitted to set down ought in malice.
This is a great improvement, and the Times will undoubtedly be as much benefitted thereby as the Erie management. Being the recognized English organ, this paper is
of course bound to support the British financiers who are




141
now filibustering for the control of the great highway of
the American continent.
SUN.
The Sun, as its appropriate motto truthfully asserts,
"shines for all," and is in many respects a bright example
to its more pretentious and less impartial cotemporaries.
While giving full publicity to all complaints against the
Erie managers-no matter whence they may emanate,
from the Jersey City strikers, WVall-street speculators, or
the Ramsey-Eaton Vanderbilt ring, the accused have also
had the benefit of its enormous and ever-growing circulation for such defence as they might put forward.
WORLD.
Although the first to publish a plea for Erie, the WForld
was the first paper to give aid and comfort to the English
triumvirate, Messrs. Raphael, Heath and Bischoffschiem,
who, under the shallow pretence of championing the rights
of the foreign stockholders, have conspired with the managers of rival American lines against the best interests of
the Erie stockholders generally. It is rumored that in
securing the services of Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, as one of his
counsel, Mr. Burt, the emissary of the pretended Protection Committee, secured the influence of the World.
In all the other contests in which the Erie management
have been engaged, the leading Democratic organ has
advocated fair play, and it is not yet so far committed
to Mr. Barlow's British patrons as to preclude the possibility of retreating with honor.




142
THE ENGLISH PROTECTION SCHEME
EXPLODED.
JAY GOULD IN DEFENCE OF TIIE AMERICAN MANAGEMENT.
Mir. Charles Burt, a British barrister, having appeared
before the Senate Railroad Committee, at Albany, and,
with the insolent assumption of superiority which is such
an objectionable characteristic of the majority of his
countrymen who condescend to visit this benighted
country, coolly demanded that the laws of the Empire State
should be immediately altered for the exclusive benefit
of a clique of London stock-jobbers, Mr. Jay Gould, the
President of the Erie Railroad Company, presented himself
before the same committee on the 23d of March, and made
the following able and unanswerable argument against the
repeal of the so-called Erie Bill:
GENTLEMEN:-In replying to the' charges made against
the present management of the Erie Railway by one
who claims to represent a large majority of stockholders resident in England, I shall state only such facts as
are capable of the clearest proof, as I deem this course the
best fbr the cause of truth and justice, and calculated to
carry conviction to the minds of all who hear me, of the
utter groundlessness of the accusations against me and my
associates, so boldly made before this Committee.
First. I claim that the real clients of Mlr. Burt are two
Jewish bankers (Heath & Riaphael); that the money to
carry on the proceeding was obtained by coercion and
fiaud, and that Mr. Burt represents only a small minority
of bona fide owners of Erie stock, viz., Robert A. Heath,
1,100 shares; Heath and Raphael, 3,500 shares; Raphael
& Sons, 56,400 shares. Total, $6,100,000. Letters from
London stockholders have been received, protesting
against the proceedings of the Committee. I and another
gentleman own two millions of Erie Stock, which we are
carrying in London. I was compelled, by a resolution of the




143
London Stock Exchange, to have it stamped, and pay a shilling per share to Mr. Burt's Committee to fight myself. Now
this Committee propose to go a step further, and compel
me, if I expect to carry my stock in Lordon or have it
merchantable at the London Stock Exchange, to register
that stock in the name of Heath & Raphael-by a resolution of the London Stock Exchange, that no certificate of
Erie stock shall be a good delivery except it is registered
in the name of these gentlemen. Comprehend for a moment
the result of this proposition. You condense in the hands
of two gentlemen the entire voting power of the Erie
Railway stock, while it is actually owned by 2,000 different individuals. Of this stock Messrs. Heath & Raphael
need not own one dollar. Bona fide owners are to have no
voice, and the Board of Directors to manage the affairs and
administer to the wants of this great corporation is to be
made up in the dingy office of a Jew banking-house in
London. It seems to me that such a condition of things
is the most conclusive argument of the wisdom of the law.
By this judicious enactment the control of the road is
prevented from passing into the hands of inexperienced
and irresponsible parties, and it is effectually secured from
been sold out to the Pennsylvania Central or the New
York Central Companies, either of which could well
afford to pay two millions or three millions to shut up or
localize the Erie. So much for the origin and object of
the London movement.
Second. With regard to the statements made by Mr.
Burt before your committee, I can only say that they conflict with expressions used both in conversation with myself and in the hearing of others. When it became known
that Mr. Burt had arrived in New York, I took immediate steps to afford him every facility for an examination
of the Company's affairs. I obtained the services of an
influential gentleman, who called on Mr. Burt in my interest and made to him, at my request, the most fiiendly
and conciliatory advances, offering to take him over the
line and show him the actual condition of the Company's
property and the working of the departments. Mr. Burt,
however, refused to hold any intercourse with Erie Directors until the demands of Messrs. Raphael & Co. were




144
fully satisfied. I naturally felt hurt at such rude and uncourteous treatment, and determined to allow matters to
take their course without further interference. Shortly
afterward, Mr. Burt apparently ashamed of the position
he had at first taken, sent a message to me requesting a
personal interview and asking me to call upon him. It
seemed to me that this was a little more than he deserved,
considering the spirit in which he had received my advances. But feeling anxious to harmonize any difference between us, and willing to do all in my power to assist in arriving at a settlement of the question at issue in the controversy, I complied with his request, and our interview took
place -accordingly. To relate all that occurred between us
on that occasion would tax my memory and your patience
more than would be either pleasant or profitable. Some
observations and admissions of Mr. Burt's may, however,
be repeated here. He approved of the principle of classification as embodied in the Director's bill, and remarked
that a similar provision was in force on many English railroads. He spoke in very flattering terms of myself and
Mr. Fisk, going so far as to pronounce us the ablest railroad managers in this country, and stating his wish that
we should remain in the Board of Directors. He demanded, on behalf of those he represented, that he should
have the nomination and selection of twelve out of the seventeen directors, and hinted at his own appointment as
Treasurer. I asked him to name the parties whom he wished
to include in the list of directors, and would use my influence to have them substituted for an equal number now
in the Board. I also offered to resign my place as Treasurer, saying I should be glad to have some good responsible man to carry on the finances of the road as I had been
doing, first, however, reimbursing the amounts I had advanced to the Company during my term of office. To
these propositions, however, I could get no intelligible reply, and soon afterward the interview was closed.
It remains for Mr. Burt to reconcile, as best he can, the
statements made to me and those uttered before your
Committee.
Third. As to the Classification bill, the repeal of which
Mr. Burt so loudly demands, I would say that it is, accord



145
ing to his own admission, by no means unknown in England. The principle of classifying railroad directors, so
that only a small proportion of the whole number would
relinquish office each year, was first introduced in the
United States on the Illinois Central Railroad. It has
been gradually extended, and is now the law in most of
the States. The reasons for such a law are obvious, its
tendency being to furnish an experienced and competent
management beyond the control of speculative influences.
The only objection made to the law was that it did not in
the first instance allow the stockholders to vote.
Previous to the last annual election, however, the old
Board of Directors voted to invite an expression of opinion
by the stockholders, as to the expediency of adopting the
classification. A meeting was accordingly held of all or a
large majority of the stockholders, and aresolution adopted
directing the new Board to classify its members in accordance with the provisions of the Director's bill. In this
way, I submit, the only objection ever made to this enactment by the press, either of this country or of England,
has been removed. Mr. Burt does not represent a single
share of stock that has not approved of this bill, When
the law was passed, only a small minority of the stock of
the Erie Railway Company was held in England. Messrs.
Raphael & Co., have purchased their stock since the passage of the law, with full knowledge of its existence and approval of its provisions. If, as Mr. Burt says, he represents
a majority of the stock by an ownership acquired in a few
months, held by foreigners having no sympathy with the
growth or development of this country, whose manufactories and great iron interests are in direct antagonism to
ours, and whose money is freely subscribed and lavishly
spent in their National Legislature to cripple and destroy
the manufactures of this country, what more effectual
method could they employ than to send over a batch of
Englishmen to run the Erie Road, under importers' restrictions, that would crush out every manufactory on the line
of the road? In this way a blow could be struck which
would do irreparable injury before the mischief could be
xemedied.
Fourth: With regard to mismanagement and extrava8




146
gance on the Erie Rtailway. Now, gentlemen, Mir. Burt
makes a broad-assertion in this matter, but does not choose
to point out any particular department in which there is
a want of economy. He does not furnish either facts or
figures, nor does he present the opinion of a single practical railroad man to sustain this charge. He has not visited
the line where he could have conversed with the inhabitants and ascertained their opinions as to the efficacy of
the management. I am the more surprised at this, because Mr. Burt, in a conversation with myself and another
gentleman, expressed entirely different views, as I have
already had occasion to state. Gentlemen, we took charge
of the Erie Railway in July 1868, less than two years ago.
At that time it was fast becoming localized. The gross
earnings had declined from $16,426,000 in 1865, to $14,376,000 in 1867, a loss of over $2,000,000. We have
brought the earnings up to $16,500,000 the past year.
When we assumed control of the road the property had
been allowed to deteriorate, and the traveling public had
lost confidence in the road. Now, the fine condition of
the line is the theme of universal comment, while the
luxury of our cars is spoken of by travelers as surpassing
any rival route. In the matter of economy, I would say
that there are three great elements which enter into the
operating expenses of a railroad, namely, fuel, iron, and
steel, and labor. With regard to the first, the cost in 1866
for fuel per mile run on the Erie Railway was 24 cents,
and at the present time our fuel costs us only about 13
cents per mile run, a very important saving, when it is considered that we run about eight millions of miles annually.
This saving is the result of using coal instead of wood,
the Company owning mines from which they can obtain
their supply for many years to come, thus saving all intermediate profits. As to the second item of expenditure,
we manufacture our iron and steel rails at our own mills,
under the most rigid inspection as to strenght and quality,
believing that in this department especially, the best is
always the cheapest. We have reduced the cost of manufacture since we took the road $10 per ton on steel, and
$5 per ton on iron, besides securing rails that will weal
twice the length of time that those originally used would




147
last.  There remains for special notice the item  of labor,
which enters very largely into all calculations of the cost
of operating railroads; and thinking that reliable statistics
would not fail to interest you, I have had estimates prepared, showing the amount of the gross earnings of the
past three months, together with the amount paid for
labor during the same period, as compared with the three
corresponding months of the preceeding year, as follows:
GROSS EARNINGS.              AMOUNT OF PAY-ROLL.
December, 1868,...$1,199,309 88 December, 1868,... $530,530 14
January. 1869,.... 1,147,685 15 January, 1869,....  514,623 12
February, 1869,...  998,793 74  February, 1869,...  486,059 50
Total,......... $3,315,788 77  Total,........ $1,531,212 76
December, 1869,...$1,170,891 00 December, 1869,.. $487,367 12
January, 1870,.... 1,140,748 00 January, 1870,....  428,756 72
February, 1870,... 1,061,311 00 February, 1870,...  408,632 25
Total,.......$3,372,950 00   Total,........ $1,324,756 09
Increase in earnings, $27,161 23 Decreas'd cost labor, $206,456 67
Gentlemen, I have now laid before you the facts and statements which fully meet every accusation of Mr. Burt and
expose the slight foundations on which his charges are
based. Permit me to thank you, gentlemen, for the patience
withwhich you have indulged me, and allow me to ask your
indulgence for a few moments while I offer some suggestions as to the true policy of the State Legislature dealing
with the great avenues of transportation, and the vast interests with which they are connected. The completion
of the Erie Canal marked an era in the prosperity, not only
of the City of New York, but of the whole State. The
products of the Great West found an easy channel of communication with the seaboard, and the position of New
York as a great commercial and financial center was from
that date secure. As time passed on, however, the canal
was found to be inadequate to transport the immense and
increasing productions of the new States of the NorthWest, and a year after witnessed the construction and expose of our railroads whose vast network now covers the
face of the country; and now came the struggle for the car



148
rying trade, and riNval lines strained every nerve to obtain
the lion's share of the lucrative traffic. What wonder, then,
that in this eager strife between the railroad interests, the
canal should have been comparatively neglected, as, both
in capacity and speed of transit, it was outstripped by the
more modern method of transportation. It has transpired
that a project is on foot to improve the revenue of the
canal by legislation contemplating a reduction of tolls in
order to compete with railroads. I would most respectfully urge upon the Legislature the policy of "letting well
enough alone." There should be, in my judgment, no conflict between the canal and railroads.  The teeming west,
as yet but partially developed, will furnish business sufficient for every avenue of communication at remunerative
-rates, and the people of the State of New York whose
means were so freely contributed for the construction of
the Erie Canal, be assured a fair return for their investment.
There is ample proof of the fact that in every struggle for
supremacy between the canals and railroads, the canals
were invariably the sufferers. Let the experience of the
past point out our true policy in this matter, and once more
let me say, "Let well enough alone."  One more suggestion, and I have done. It should not be lost sight of that
Philadelphia and Baltimore are rivals of New York, and
that they are 100 miles nearer the Great WVest by rail than
New York is. If, therefore, the commerce of our great
city is to be sustained and protected, we must overcome
this disadvantage in distance by every means in our power,
although in this effort we are compelled to materially lessen
the charge of transportation.
A BRITISH COUNTER-BLAST TO BURT.
Mr. George Crouch, an Anglo-American stockholder, next addressed the Committee on behalf of the English shareholders,
who protested against the scheme of Messrs. Raphael & Co. Mr.
Crouch said:
My excuse for trespassing on your time is something similar to
that of Mr. Burt. I own 5,000 shares of Erie stock in England,
and in addition I represent the shares of a number of correspondents there, who protest against the scheme of which Mr. Burt's
clients (Raphael & Co.) are the prime movers. I would say, by way
of preface to my demurrers to Mr. Burt's plea, that while connected with a leading New York journal, I had an opportunity




149
of obtaining an insight into  the operations and afilirs of the
Erie Railway Company, in consequence of which, I was applied to
by friends in England for further information.  I then called
upon the President of the road for such information, expecting that
it would be denied me, but I was agreeably surprised to find that,
on the contrary, every facility was given. I was allowed to inspect the books as far as I wanted, and to examine the road itself.
In fact, I had every opportunity to obtain the information I desired.
That information was published here very extensively, and no point
in it has been denied, although it contradicted nearly every charge
that has been made as to the business and condition of the road.
On the papers in which it appeared reaching England, the parties
whom I now represent concluded to hold their stock as long as
there was any prospect of the present management remaining in
control.  Apprehending the worst possible consequences for all
parties in the interest from the action of the self-constituted Protective Committee, a number of prominent holders on the other
side have placed their shares under my control, instructing me to
make protest in their behalf. To-day I speak in behalf of $2,000,000
worth of Erie stock, owned in England, and I am advised that
within a very short time there will be a much more serious reduction in the number of shares Messrs. Raphael & Co. are now striving to control. The partial insurrection of the foreign stockholders of Erie is one of the last, but by no means the least, disastrous,
of the many evils which have resulted to all parties interested,
from the reprehensible measures adopted by the enemies of the
present management. Disappointed at the failure of their individual and united efforts, the Ramsey-Eaton-Vanderbilt party in
their determination to be revenged in some way or other, finally
hit upon the bright idea of using the English interest as a,
cats-paw.  Their plans in this connection were admirably well
laid, and so far successful at the outset as to raise the most
sanguine hopes of obtaining  almost immediate possession of
the long-coveted chestnuts. Ignorant alike of the history, conedition and prospects of the road, and, most obvious point of
all, ignorant of the ulterior designs of the contemptible conspirators who are stirring them up to mutiny against tLe best managers Erie ever had. A very considerable number of the foreign stockholders have been shamefully imposed upon by the agents of rival
American corporations, and the would be successors of Gould and
Fisk. The most tempting bait, however, was the prospect of ousting
the American directors and filling their places with Englishmen.
Thanks to that dazling delusion, the London stockholders did not
perceive the hook on which they are now suspended until they had
been bled by the philanthropic financiers whD compose the so called
"Protective Committee," to the tfune of ~25,000. They see the hcok
now, and feel it; but they will be bled pretty dry before they are allowed
to wriggle off. Their confidence in the protestations and promises of the
men to whom they so foolishly intrusted their shares will be somewhat
8H




150
rudely shaken iwhen they learn that Mr. Burt, while pleading, as he
says, in their behalf before the Senate Railway Committee in Albany,
said: " If we could have the opportunity to-morrow of appointing a
board of directors of this Company, we should not appoint men who
live in London, or men who would look simply to the interests of the
shareholders in England." No better illustration of the sublime imprudence with which the English shareholders resident on the other
side have been imposed upon from time to time by their American
friends, is needed than the fact that they were actually bamboozled
into the belief that Drew and Vanderbilt fought the great fight of 1868
for the benefit of the stockholders generally, and the English interest
particularly.
Absurd as this preposterous belief must appear to such as have
even the slightest knowledge of the case, it was nevertheless fondly
entertained by the majority of the foreign stockholders, until a few
weeks ago, when in order to persuade them to subscribe for the furtherance of the schemes of the English " Protectors," it was found necessary to dissipate the delusion concerning their American " friends."
Much surprise and no little indignation was manifested when
Mr. Raphael, the head center cf the "Protection Ring," told the
British shareholders that " it had been pointed out to the committee
that the actions brought against the Erie directors by Mr. Drew and
Mr. Vanderbilt and others, had been instigated for private purposes,
and that they (Drew and Vanderbilt) were so far satisfied with the result, they had attained ($5,000,000 worth of plunder), that the law
suits had been allowed to drop. No doubt Commodore Vanderbilt
would rejoice exceedingly if the lawsuits were allowed to drop-he
can afford it; but Fisk and Gould,seem to think the Erie shareholders,
English as well as American, would stand a much better chance of
receiving an early dividend if the Commodore would only be conscientious enough to drop the five million, as well as the lawsuit, and the
proceedings in the suit instituted for the purpose of forcing him to
disgorge, it cannot fail to be exeeedingly interesting and instructive to
those who have been victimized by Messrs. Raphael & Co. It is
passing strange, however, that what was so plainly discernable to all
the other enemies of Erie, had to be pointed out to the concoctors of
the infamous " protection': conspiracy. And the questions naturally
arise, what has so suddenly opened the eyes of the men who have
hitherto been so lamentably, confessedly, and may be criminally blind
to the interests they are now so suspiciously anxious to protect?
What assurance have the English shareholders that Messrs. Raphael
Heath & Co. will not make use of the extraordinary powers which
they so arrogantly assumed for their own enrichment.
It would appear that, notwithstanding their claims to high standIng, etc., the members of the Erie Protection Committee are by no
means above suspicion. For instance, Messrs. Gould and Fisk
claim to be in possession of proofs, furnished by their agent in
London, that the members of the so-called Erie Protective Commnittee are merely agents of a gigantic conspiracy formed by the




151
union of the interests of the New York Central and Pennsylvania
Central lines to crush out the Erie as a competing line. The main
object of the English clique, it is alleged, is to secure possession
of the $50,000,000 of stock now owned on the other side, and, after getting it transferred into their own names, dispose of the
proxies to the managers of the two above-named antagonistic corporations, both of which have recently secured the passage of
laws authorizing them to purchase. But Gould and Fisk, it will
be objected, are very deeply prejudiced against the prime movers
of the projection scheme, and are consequently willing to believe
anything that may be advanced to their discredit. Well, as this is
not at all unlikely, in fact highly probable, it may be well to make
all due allowances. In this connection, however, the Eric directors are not the only parties who doubt the sincerity of Raphael &
Co's declaration of disinterestedness, and the indignant protest,
which was published in the English journals over the signatures
of a large number of holders of Erie, deserves most serious consideration.
PROTEST OF FOREIGN SIAREHOLDERS.
The undersigned, holders of a large number of shares of the
Erie Railroad Company, do most earnestly protest against the action lately taken by the so-called Erie Protection Committee as being contrary to the true interests of the shareholders. In justification of their protest they beg to state that after the minutest inquiries they have discovered that the demand by the above committee of one shilling per share, and the stamping of it under the
menace of it being excluded from the stock market, is nothing but
a blind, calculated to coerce the shareholders to dispossess themselves from their most valuable right of electing a new manager
of the Erie Railroad Company, without having previously been
made acquainted either with the name or the qualifications of the
candidate for the management of said company whom the Protection Committee intend to support at the next election. The fact
that not less than 400,000 or 500,000 shares can, by such a wholesale registration as advised by the committee in favor of trustees,
insure the election of an unknown person as manager of such an
important company, without his having to buy, as in ordinary
way, the required number of shares which would give him the
majority of votes, must be well understood by the shareholders,
who would thus lose through such an inconsiderate registration
all the benefit of higher prices which their shares would necessarily attain if bought successively by the unknown candidate or
his party desirous to obtain the control of the new elections.
We have reason to believe that the well known, influential party
who has been for many years trying in New York to get the management of the Erie Company would cheerfully pay a large
amount as a bonus to have the 400,000 or 500,000 shares held in
this country registered in their name or in those of their friends,




152
in order to conquer for the candidate of their choice the position
of the Erie Railroad King. The well-combined, but too transparent plan of the so-called Protection Committee has no other object than to take from the hands of the shareholders, without giving them any compensation whatever, the most valuable right of
electing an unknown person as manager of such an important
company, and dispensing him and his party from buying the majority of its stock, which, if bought by such a person or party in
competition with the party now in power, would raise the price of
shares at least fifty dollars.
The above explanation will suffice to prove that somebody else
but the shareholders would get the enormous bonus, which may
be easily calculated, and which would be gladly paid by the candidate manager proposed and supported by the so-called Protection Committee. Our fellow shareholders will, therefore, do well
to abstain from falling into this new trap, by tightly holding their
shares, and by refusing to sign any paper whatsoever or to pay
any shilling fee or accept any stamping, which ceremonials are
but a blind to a scheme which should be denounced for their benefit. It is sincerely hoped that the London press and the board of
stockbrokers will immediately discountenance the action and
measures lately taken by the pretended Protection Committee, as
their maintenance would inaugurate, in the first financial centre
of the world, a most disastrous system of organizing similar protection committees, which would spring up like mushrooms along
the long list of stocks and which, under the pretence of protection and stamping, would extort shilling fees for registration of
shares in favor of such or such opposition party from shareholders
already sufficiently bled by exorbitant commissions and by the unscrupulous mismanagement of their companies.
Having read the above, IMr. Crouch continued:
This protest, gentlemen, bears the signatures of the more sensible of the English shareholders, and also the names of many influential. American residents. The latter, in their laudable anxiety
to sustain American credit abroad, have been mainly instrumental
in exposing the designs of the soidisant Protection Committee.
However foolishly they have acted in other respects, the British
stock-jobbers, who are at the head of this new fillibustering raid
on the Erie treasury, deserve considerable credit for their more
than Yankee smartness in raising the funds necessary for the accomplisliment of their private ends. Their first move plainly demonstrated that they are as little inclined to stick at trifles as the
more reckless and disreputable of their American allies. Calling
a meeting of stockholders in London, the leading conspirators
voted themselves into power as a committee, and no sooner were
the self-constituted protectors thus empowered than they commenced plucking their poor proteges by the imposition of a tax of
one shilling per sllare. Withl a view to forcing all holders on the




153
other sidle to submit to thiis extortion, and to securing absolute control of the English interest, Raphael & Co. went so far as to threaten
that shares not bearing their stamp should be excluded firom the
London stock inarket. Why, the Erie Directors have not even been
accused of atteml)ting anything half so despotic as this first act of
the English protectorate. Protectorate! tHeaven save the mark!
While anxious to do all thlat lies in their power to satisfy the just
and reasonable demands of the forei, n shareholders when properly
presented, the Eric Directors are colnpelled in self-defense, and for
the defense of all parties interested, to use all the means at their
disposition to frustrate the schemes of tile unscrupulous clique of
speculators represented by Mr. Bu'rt  The fiact is, ais Mr. Fisk dclcclares, in his figurative but forcible style, these EFglishlmen —
Raphael, Heath & Co. —have gone iin on a vwhirl of speculation;
they are all on the make, tland are goi1ng in for what they can root
out.  Judging by the vigorous opposition Vanderbilt's English
agents have had to contend with on both sides of ti.e Atlantic
since the timely exposure of their plans Mr. Fisk was also  itght
when lie prophesied that they would not make enough to pay
for court plaster to cover the raw spots whichl the rooting process
would inevitably canse on their respective snouts. The language
of the irrepressible Admiral maiy not allways be elegant, but it is
wonderfully expressive.
BURIT PS CLAIMS CONSIDERED.
In the somewhbat contradictory  statement Mr. Burt
made before the Committee, he made the best of a very
bad case  I-Ie claimed to represent $50,000,000 of the entire share capital of the Company; but, as I understand,
produced no credentials in support of his preposterous
pretentions.  The question is how  much  is Mr. Burt
auttlorized to represent?  Jay Gould, for instance, owns:about 2,000,000 out of the 50,000,000 31r. Burt claims to
represent; but it is hardly likely that the President of the
Erie road authorized Raphael & Co. to ask for the repeal
of the Directors' bill on his account.  Fisk, who is also
carrying stock in London, is, I imagine, Tather opposed to
the scheme of the self-constituted Protection Committee
than otherwise. Then, again, the shares of the large body
of foreign stockholders, who see through and protest
against the selfish schemes of the English conspirators, are
to be deducted from Mr. Burt's round total, making it fine
by degrees and beautifully less, and causing our faith in
the sincerity of all the other claims advanced by him, as
the mouthpiece of the three conspirators, from whom he
E




154
derives the little authority he has, to dwindle in proportion. The amount really represented by the agent of the
English ring is a  comparatively unimportant point,
however. He would be entitled to a hearing if he only
represented one share.
Now, then, let us see how far his complaint as miade to
this Committee is worthy of consideration. In the first
place, he says: " Before the election in 1868, the transfer
books of the Company were closed for sixty days. The
articles of association of the Erie Railway Company provide that no transfers shall be made for ten days next
previous to the annual election of Directors. I have not
been able to see the by-laws of that Company, and cannot
say whether any alteration has been made in those articles
of association since 1861; but I am assured that the
practice of Companies is to close their transfer books for
only thirty days before the election of Directors, while
on this occasion the books of the Erie Railway Company
were closed for sixty days." The by-laws of which Mr.
Burt pretends to have no knowledge, provided that no
transfers should be made for thirty days. For his further
information it may be stated that the by-laws and articles
of association were framed for the express purpose of preventing transfers within the time limited, and of enabling
the Company, whenever it may be found necessary, to
close the books for a longer time. There has been no
uniform practice regulating the time of closing the books
before election, and at the period referred to it was necessary to close the books sixty days on account of the
enormous amount of transfers, so that the books might be
written up. Every Company make its own regulations in
this respect.
Secondly. It is complained that " The present Board was
elected in 1868, and they were elected for one year, and
they would have gone out of office on the second Tuesday
in October, 1869, and the shareholders would then have
had an opportunity of expressing their opinion." In
answer to this, it is simply necessary to state that the
Board which Mr. Burt said would have gone out, did go
out, and that the shareholders, who in that contingency
would have had an opportunity, did have an opportunity of
expressing their opinion, and made the best possible use of




15-5
it by electing the present Board. The next objection is a
very serious one. In criticising the charter of the Erie
Railway Company, the English lawyer objects that " the
power given to the Directors by the Legislature are far
greater than are ever given in such cases in England; and
it seems that the only protection whi'ch the Erie shareholders have in respect to the conduct of their Directors, is
the annual election. They have no right to call any extraordinary special meeting in the course of the year;
they have no means of examining the affairs or accounts
of the Company, and they are solely at the mercy and
discretion of the Directors for the whole year. It is only,
therefore, once a year, at the general election, that they
have an opportunity of expressing their judgment as to
the management and policy of the Directors; and, that
being so, I am sure I need not say that it is the most inlportant and valuable right which the shareholders of the
Company possessed."
Gentlemen, should you make up your minds to acknowledge the superior wisdom of English legislators, I
would then ask you to consider M'Ir. Burt's complaints as
to the large powers granted to American directors, &c.,
&c., in view of the fact that the English shareholders of
Erie have never appeared personally, and but to a small
extent by proxy, at the annual meetings of the Company,
and then decide whether it may not be justly claimed,
considering their apathy heretofore, that the law in question was firamed in the interest of these lukewarm Enolish
permanent stockholders, and to prevent control of the
election by the purchase and sale of the proxies of their
speculative compatriots.
Mr. Burt told this Committee he knew of no other casein which any other mode of managing the affairs of a railroad company had been adopted than the election of
directors annually.
Had he taken the trouble to maLke any inquiry on this
head, he would have found a number of precedents for the
classification adopterd by the Erie shareholders. Several
other American companies in different States have taken
advantage of a law, in every respect similar to the so-called
Erie bill, and in classifying their directors have found it,
for the interest of their roads, that, to use Mr. Burt's own




156
language,' there shall be?2ermanence in the management
of railway companies, and that it should not be possible
for speculators to get hold of shares, and hold them for a
few weeks, long enough to turn out the existing Board of
Directors, and substitute another Board, not for the advantage of the public or of the shareholders, but for their
own advantage.'
In conclusion, it is evident from AMr. Burt's own showing, that nothing is so likely to defeat the above desirable
end, than the very thing for which he so inconsiderately
clamors on behalf of his clients-the repeal of the classification bill.  Should this wise and beneficial law be annulledcl, the trials and troubles of Erie will commence
anew, the voting power of the majority will be vested
in the hands of the three unscrupulous speculators who
are behind Mr. Burt, and the permanence of such a management as would be formed by President Raphael,
Comptroller Heath, and their English associates, with
their legal agent as Treasurer, could only result in the
utter ruin of the vast and magnificent property they are
so utterly incapable of controlling.
As an English stockholder, therefore, for myself, and in
behalf of such of the foreign stockholders as Mr. 3Burt does
not represent, I would respectfully ask that this Committee
would postpone its decision, and hold over the petition
for the repeal of the Erie bill until those of the shareholders on the other side who protest against this pernicious protection scheme, and who ask, through me, to
be saved from such friends as Raphael & Co., have had
an opportunity of submitting their views."
It now remains to be seen whether the legislators of the
Empire State will stultify themselves by repealing a law,
which is also the law of the States of Pennsylvauia, Ohio,
and Illinois, at the insulting request, or rather demand,
of three or four London stockjobbers, who are conspiring
to obtain control of the Erie Railway-the Broadway of
the American continent. This demand is all the more insulting, since, as Mr. Burt himself admits, the more important of the English Railway Corporations are governed
by a similar law.




157
THE BATTLE OF THE BRITISHERS.
Albany Correspondence of the N. Y. Sun, March 31, 1870.
THE ERIE FIGHT.
The battle on the Erie Directors classification bill was
resumed to-day before the Assembly Railroad Committee.
Burt and Crouch, the representatives of the rival English
interests, being the contestants. Neither Mr. Gould nor
his counsel were present, the Erie forces having assumed
an attitude of armed neutrality. The Anglo-American
stockholder first stepped into the arena and replied to the
attack made by the British barrister as follows:
" Lawyers are licensed to be abusive, as physicians are
licensed to kill. The able counsel fbr the Erie Railway
Company, Mr. Shearman, gave you to understand that
there was a difference between what he said as a lawyer
and what he said as a man. In consideration of the fact
that he is a stranger in the land, I make the same distinction between the statements of Burt and the lawyer and
the man. Burt the lawyer told you he could always' answer the fool according to his folly.' It comes easy to
him, I suppose. Being no lawyer I do not consider it
worth my while to answer'the fool' at all, but I will do
Mr. Burt the justice to say that I do not consider him a
fool by any means, and it must be apparent to the Committee that if there was not something serious and
damaging in the protests of the shareholders represented
by me, Mr. Burt would not have honored me with the
exceedingly flattering attention bestowed yesterday. I
congratulate myself however upon the significant fact that
Mr. Burt confined himself to criticisms and misquotations
from the pamphlet entitled' A Second Chapter of Erie'
and failed to make satisfactory reply to any one of the
points of my argument before the Senate Committee. I
said I did not consider Mr. Burt a fool. If he is as wise
as I take him to be, he will do well to cure himself of the
peculiar kind of kleptomania with which he is afflicted.
y his own confession he is guilty of filching a document
which he saw Mr. Gould' lose' in the Senate Committee
room yesterday. He gloried in the theft, and flourished
the paper before you."
9




158
Mr. Burt here interrupted, and said he protested against
the matter being regarded in that light. His opponent
continued:
" I have no knowledge of the affair but your own confession, and that confession was made to this Committee.
I want no other witnesses than the gentlemen who saw you
with the paper in your hand, and heard you tell how you
came by it. But, gentlemen, I have another charge of a
similar nature to make.  Last night a document was
missed from this room, and the gentleman who now
occupies the chair (the Hon. Mr. Patrick of Chemung)
arrested Mr. Burt on suspicion while leaving the room,
and on 5Mr. Burt's capacious pockets being searched it was
discovered that he had coolly possessed himself of it. To
that document, which had been consigned to the Hon.
Eugene Durnin, the clerk of this Committee, our champion
of English honesty had no more right than a pickpocket
has to his plunder. Gentlemen, there appears to be such
a method in Mr. Burt's madness that I consider it my
duty to caution such of you as have any papers relating to
this Erie business about you to keep a very sharp eye on
him." [Loud laughter, in which Mr. Burt did not join].
Mr. Burt was so much embarrassed at the effect of this
expose that he held over his defenc3. A special meeting of
the Committee is to be held for the purpose of considering such excuses as he may be able to prepare in the
meantime. The Chairman and Clerk of the Committee
being the principal witnesses against him, however, conviction is almost certain. This kleptomania business has
damaged him and his cause to an irretrievable extent.
There is serious talk to-night of making this matter a
question of privilege of the House.
Mr. Crouch then went over the main points of his statement to the Senate Committee, and delivered a long and
able argument, setting forth some strong extenuating circumstances connected with the present management, and
making vigorous opposition to the repeal of the classification bill on the petition of the London Erie Protection
Committee.
Mr. Burt, after a lame attempt at damaging Mr.
Crouch's argument, replied at some length to the eloquent




159
defence put forward by Mr. T. G. Shearmlan yesterday on
behalf of the Erie Railway Company, but it was evident
that he spoke as one without hope.
SOL.
TIlE COMING DIVIDEND.
Fr'om the Stenographer's Report.
Mr. Crouch then went on to say:
Gentlemen, I assure you I am as anxious for a dividend as any of Mr. Burt's clients, and so are the holders
of the two million dollar's worth of stock, whose interest
I am now endeavoring to protect; but we do not join in
the inconsiderate clamors of those who have been seared
out of their votes by Raphael & Co. It is asked: " If
these men are such good managers, why do they not pay
dividends?" I say the present managment have paid dividends, are paying them; larlge ones too-dividends to the
traveling public, and that in paying those dividends first,
they have put the earnings of the company to the best
possible use-the only use in fact to zvhich they had any
rig/ht tj) put thein, colesitlerng the dangerous condition of the
road. HIad they not spent the enormous sums they have in
order to make the road safe, they might have paid dividends to the stockholders. But, while the stockholders
were pocketing such dividends, what fearful disasters
might not have happened, owing to the shameful condition
in which the track, the rolling stock, etc., had been left by
the men who paid paltry dividends with the money the
road needed so badly, and so pacified the stockholders
whom they were plundering, and whose property they
were ruining.
The last dividend from the previous management was
paid at the price of 28 lives, and the maiming of some 60
passengers, and resulted financially in a loss of two
millions of dollars to the company. I refer to the Carr's
Rock catastrophe, that frightful illustration of the terrible
consequences of forcing dividends at the expense of the
road. And, mind you, Gould and Fisk had nothing to
do with this, although it is so often cited as an instance of
their mismanagement. This awful warning to impatient
stockholders, occured in the good old dividend-paying
9I




160
days of Gould's predecessor, remember. I advise all dividend-desiring Stockholders, American and foreign, to
cease this suicidal interference with the managers of their
property. Let Gould and Fisk go on with the work they
have so well commenced, and are so admirbly fitted to
finish, and larger dividends will be forthcoming than ever
before.
THE ERIE BUILDING.
And now, a few words about the removal of the headquarters of the Company from the dirt and confusion of
West Street to the elegant and commodious building which
adorns the corner of 23d Street and 8th Avenue. Here
again the enterprising Erie managers point the way of
progress. No one who has given the future of New York
a moments thought can doubt that in a very short time
the neighborhood in which the principal offices of the
great Corporation are now located will be the commercial
centre of the city. What if the directors' rooms are handsomely and substantially furnished? What if the employes
have pleasant and comfortable surroundings while at
work? This is an age of improvement and refinement as
well as of invention. Why should Railroad Corporations
be behind Banking and Insurance Companies in this
respect? Compare the palatial buildings occupied by our
leading journals-such as keep pace with the age-with
such dingy dens as the Tribune office. Contrast the filthy
festoons which the spiders weave from day to day over
Mr. Greeley's old white hat, with the artistic tracings
which glow upon the lofty ceil of the Herald sancturn
sanctorurn, and you have some idea of the difference between the old and new Erie Buildings. Drew didn't mind
cobwebs! iHe no more thought of removing them than
he did the worn-out rails on the Erie road. The new brooms
have made a clean sweep of both however. MIore power




161
to them. (Loud laughter.) All who have visited the Erie
Building admit that nothing could be more pleasing or
appropriate than the frescoes which adorn this magnificent
temple, dedicated to the genius of the iron age. Banners
bearing the portraits of Fulton, Franklin, Watts and
]Morse waive from the four corners of the main ceiling;
tablets inscribed respectively: "' New York," the initial
point, and " Chicago," "St. Louis" and " San Francisco," the
principal objective points of the Erie line, fill up the
central compartments, and exquisitely executed groups of
allegorical figures and trophies of railroad implements
and machinery meet the eye at every turn-symbols
of the mighty power of the God, Steal —the Jupiter of the
mythology of science, who breaths the breath of life as it
were into the nostrils of the iron-horse.
The rollicking Ramsey, of Albany and Susquehanna
notoriety, circulated some exceedingly amusing fictions
based upon the fact that there is a theatre somewhere in
rear of the extensive structure on 23d Street. The Grand
Opera House however is to the Erie Building what Niblo's
theatre is to the Metropolitan HIotel-a separate and distinct establishment. Vanderbilt has a weakness for fast
horses, Fisk is a patron of the drama, and Ramsey is one
of those dog-in-the-mancger sort of people who delight to
bark and bite at everybody. Every one to his taste,
gentlemen.
Now then, let IMr. Burt make up his mind to avail himself of High Priest Gould's courteous invitation, and when
he returns from his trip over the road and enters the
portals of the Erie Temple he too will fall down and
worship.
TIHE CLASSIFICATION BILL.
I would ask you to bear in mind that Mr. Burt does not




162
think there is anything wrong in the bill itself. He admits
that some of the principal railroads in England are
governed by a law exactly similar in its operation, and
admitting that, he acknowledges that he cannot possibly
find any fault with it, since in his estimation whatever is
English is right. He has discovered that the law you
thought fit to adopt had been previously adopted in other
States of the Union, and is now in force in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and elsewhere, and that here in
New York it applies to the Hudson River, Harlem and
Central lines as well as to the Erie, and consequently, was
not framed for the especial benefit of any set of Directors,
and yethe deliberately makes the insulting demand that you
shall repeal it for the especial benefit of his clients. Who
are his clients? Three London stock-jobbers who have
obtained a number of shares under false pretences, and
who had the audacity to count upon your assistance to
enable them to lord it over the commerce of the great
through-line of the continent, as thanks to their Alabamas,
British shipowners now monopolize the carrying trade of
the Atlantic.
Gentlemen, I am sure -Mr. Burt sees his mistake, and I
think he is sorry for it. An Englishman by birth, I feel
myself bound to apologise for him. An American by
adoption, and in feeling, I ask you as American legislators
to reject this foreign petition for the repeal of a law of
the sovereign State of New York.
Foreigners may appeal to our Courts, but I maintain
that none but citizens of the Republic should have a voice
in the making and un-making of our laws.