. Between the ocean and the lakes; the story of Erie . es in the heart of the metropolis of theUnion, languished and grew slowly, a companionfootball with Erie in Wall Street. Then CorneliusVanderbilt dreamed his dream of railroad empire andbudded it on this very despised little Harlem Rail-road. The great Vanderbilt system of to-day iscentered where the Erie might have been and shouldhave been. It is idle to speculate on how differentthe countrys commercial affairs and individualpower and fortune would have been if shortsighted-ness, incompetence, or what you will, had not reignedin Erie mana
. Between the ocean and the lakes; the story of Erie . es in the heart of the metropolis of theUnion, languished and grew slowly, a companionfootball with Erie in Wall Street. Then CorneliusVanderbilt dreamed his dream of railroad empire andbudded it on this very despised little Harlem Rail-road. The great Vanderbilt system of to-day iscentered where the Erie might have been and shouldhave been. It is idle to speculate on how differentthe countrys commercial affairs and individualpower and fortune would have been if shortsighted-ness, incompetence, or what you will, had not reignedin Erie management two generations ago. It isreasonable to say, however, that there would havebeen no Vanderbilt kingdom, no Gould dukedom to-day. Who might now be the King of Erie it is im-possible to know; but he would be the greatest rail-road monarch of the age. And an outlay of lessthan $90,000 in 1841 would have made him such ! II. GETTING RES1 I I S, GOOD AM BAD. Although that within a month after James Bowcnbecame President of the New York and Eric Rail-. J « \ $$ i m m <4 3- a M T s & I, ill l •5 a H if W tf « I - - M y O a o C -. 11 T ■!J cl > c - a u - z A E _ C y. E r. O a JZ t/1 u >. 4 - ~ - THE STORY OF ERIE 57 road Company the road had been put in operation half-hearted fashion; for the Company was much in for more than twenty miles, and that this was fol- arrears to them for labor and materials furnished, lowed, in a few weeks (September 23, 1841), by the Finally, at a meeting of the Directors, held at the opening of it to traffic between New York and Companys office, 35 Wall Street, November 15, Goshen ; and in spite of the enthusiasm shown by 1S41, the fact was brought forward by the President the distinguished and influential men from all walks that the State loan was nearly exhausted and that, in life who witnessed and participated in the ecle- in consequence of that emergency, it would be well bration of that opening, and of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecterierai, bookyear1901
