De Witt Clinton Prescott

Early Day Railroading From Chicago is a collection of accounts of people and events connected with the Chicago & North Western (C&NW) railroad in the 19th Century. The book opens with a short history of the old Northwestern – the precursor of the C&NW. It sketches early construction and briefly describes the boom in railroad building and the rapid construction of railroads (10 between the years of 1848 and 1858) which turned Chicago into a major rail hub. The focus of the book shifts from the general to the specific in Chapter 4 with descriptions of the experiences of engineers and firemen. Following on the heels of these stories the author provides a series of short biographies of a number of individuals who were involved in the construction and improvement of various aspects of the C&NW , most notably the motive power. These sketches include stories about accidents, fast running, narrow escapes, etc. and bring the reader up to the opening days of the American Civil War.

Several chapters are devoted to the employees of the C&NW during 1861-1865 and their service in the Union Army. One very curious chapter is titled “Many Kinds of Money” which discusses the problems surrounding the question of paying the workforce with nothing but script due to the hoarding of gold and silver coin at the outbreak of hostilities. The Civil War chapters are followed by several describing people and events in the post-Civil War period. These, in turn, are followed with chapters describing the first C&NW depot, a discussion of stocks, bonds, and railroad finances…and “Something Completely Different” - Chapter 26 titled “A Chapter on Swearing” which is a discussion of swearing as a fact of railroad life. After discussing the issue and providing examples of when and where such behavior might occur the chapter ends with “This chapter is not to be construed as an endorsement by the author of the practice of swearing, for really it is a very wicked and ungentlemanly habit.”

I found Prescott’s book to be a slightly dry but still interesting read. See Common Knowledge for an example of the writing style. (Text length - 265 pages, Total length - 267 pages)… (mais)