TH, NEW YORK 319187 ASTOR, LENOX AND 1907 BOOK OF THE ROYAL BLUE. PUBLISHED MONTHLY. COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT, BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD. (All rights reserved.) VOL. VIII. BALTIMORE, OCTOBER, 1904. OCTOBER BY STRICKLAND W. GILLILAN, 0 MORNING UT to the purpling pastures and the hill-tops tinged with brown; Out to the haze-hung valleys and out from the red-walled town; Out to the heart of Nature where cloistered with Nature's God, EVENING. Home from the purpling pastures, from the hill-tops fringed with brown, We took of the purple asters and glorious golden-rod. L'ENVOI Autumn of life is coming with shadows of dun and brown; No. I. S SKETCHES. BY R. M. CHESHIRE. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. HOULD the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, the waterway of which George Washington was the founder and which runs almost parallel with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Washington to Cumberland, pass into other hands and be utilized as a roadbed for a railway, it will be the doing away of one of the main lines of the old Underground Railroad. THE CHESAPEAKE & OHIO CANAL. This old Underground Railroad was a mysterious organization which existed: from 1838 until Emancipation; it had osalaried officers, no public reports; no fast flying schedules, and declaredo. dividends.. For one purpose only was it organizedto assist fugitive slaves in reaching a place of safety. So perfectly were the plans of the "railroad" carried out that the lines and stations extended from and through almost every Southern State and into Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, New York and all the Eastern and New England States and on into Canada. Quiet, easygoing Quakers of Philadelphia were the originators and promoters of the Underground Railroad, and they gave liberally of their money to perfect the organization. After the "system" was thoroughly understood by the abolitionists throughout the country there was no difficulty in securing all the money needed to pay every expense. Samuel Rhoades, a wealthy Philadelphian, was the chief financier-the J. P. Morgan -of the enterprise. While on a visit to England he raised a very large sum for the Underground. Charles Wise was treasurer 66 John Hunn was the chief engineer of the Southern end; Samuel Burriss, colored, general conductor; Levi Coffin and John Needles, presidents. There was a board of directors or vigilance committee,' composed of such men as Nathaniel Depee, J. C. White, Henry Gordon, Robert Purvis, William Whipper, Samuel Rhoades, Rev. W. H. Furniss, J. M. McKim, William Lloyd Garrison and others, not to mention a number of wealthy and influential ladies who gave freely of their money and time. Money was spent where it was believed it would do the most good, and when it was found that captains or masters of boats on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal were approachable" there was no time lost in 66 |