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invitation to join the party, under date of May 19, 1857, he asked: "If I proceed to Cincinnati via the route dearer above all others for grand scenery, what train had I better take and where can I stop over night, so as to reach Cincinnati, traveling all the way by daylight."

It will be seen from the following paragraphs that Mr. Bancroft made a complete study of the Alleghenies on this trip and embodied all the information which he obtained en route in his famous speech at the Burnett House.

The original wood cut illustrations from sketches of prominent artists at the time are great curiosities as compared with the

tain; of nature in her savage wildness, and nature in her loveliest forms, presents a series of pictures which no well educated American should willingly leave unvisited. We cross the Atlantic in quest of attractive scenes; and lo! we have at home, alongside the great central iron pathway, views that excel anything that can be seen among the mountains of Scotland, or in passes of the Appenines.

"Then the enterprise which achieved this great result is so admirable as to excite our wonder, that what seemed impossible has been finished. This great work is emphatically the work of the city of Baltimore, and it also may be said of Baltimore

modern methods of photo-engraving, and yet at the time they were made, were the most up-to-date and expensive method of reproduction. Both artist and engraver endeavored to bring out every prominent feature without regard to detail or perspective.

The following is an extract from Mr. Bancroft's speech:

"Our course to this city has been by way of the thrice admirable Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The scenery through which it makes its way has a character of grandeur of its own; and in the wonderful varieties of forest and lawn, of river and moun

Latrobe saw at a glance the capacity of the mountain, and scoffing at the threatening ravines and precipices, and lofty summit, gave himself no rest until commerce had carried its safe and easy pathway in triumph over the mountain top, and proved to the world that there are no difficulties which true enterprise cannot surmount; that nature herself is in league with genius.

"To-morrow and the days after we extend our course to the further west; we celebrate the opening of the direct communication between Baltimore, Cincinnati and St. Louis. The occasion is one of national interest; the system of roads bind indissolu

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marches, bivouacing in the wilderness, and then slowly paddling his way on the Ohio, how would he have exulted could he have but seen his great cherished idea of an international highway carried out with a perfection and convenience which surpassed the powers of his century to imagine? How Young America is fulfilling that destiny which her fathers manifestly designed for her; she more and more subdues nature and gives freedom to men. Under her influence the world will be united in peace and commerce, and liberty be owned as the birthright of every nation of the earth." In June, 1856, Mr. Brantz Mayer, with

bly the East and West. The triad of cities which are the fortresses of the Union-the breakwaters against which the angry waves of sedition shall dash, only to be driven back, are now but as one in commerce and culture; in the arts of life and the enjoyments of society; in enterprise and love of country. How would Madison, who loved the Union with such singleness of affection that, after death, the word might have been imprinted on his heart; how would Madison have been gladdened could he have lived to see these days. And Washington, who, when he last came to the West, crossed the mountain by fatigued

the historian Bancroft, Prof. Henry and a number of other distinguished gentlemen, made a leisure trip of inspection of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and Mr. Mayer, in an illustrated article in Harper's Magazine for April, 1857, entitled: "A June Jaunt," gave a graphic description of the line:

"There are few routes of travel in America and none, probably, by railworthier of attention than the region between the slopes of the western gladeland to the mountain exit at Kingwood. It presents splendid bits of forest scenery. There is everywhere the same ragged