| From the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph |
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| June 6, 1864 |
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| Sunshine in Atlanta |
| Mr. Editor, |
| It is not our intention to
positively assert that the sun has recently shone to Atlanta, and ???
up the ice and in that beautiful city, nor yet to astonish your ?????
about the "situation," with ????? of the happy countenances
of our ??? over the crushing of Sherman's ta?? ??? by Joe Johnston;
but to record the trial trip of the beautiful locomotive of that name,
just completed at the work shops of the Macon & Western Railroad
Company. |
| This engine has been built at
a time when material of every description was difficult to obtain, and
when the ordinary repairs of the rolling stock were incessant. Also
engines for other roads were undergoing extensive renewing, and all
occasioned by the incessant demands for transportation, during the
past two years, to meet the requirements of two large armies and the
necessities of a large portion of the people, whose crops had failed,
or whose lands were laid waste by the enemy. |
| While many ardent patriots (?)
have been holding called meetings, "to take into consideration
the best interests of the community," and at the same time
receiving heavy importations of good liquors through the blockade, the
management of this road were quietly importing material, at heavy
expense, out of which an engine has been completed, which practically
demonstrates our ability to successfully compete with manufacturers in
any country; and, it will hardly be questioned but what the best
interests of the country have been as fully subserved by this evidence
of its mechanical ability, as it is by many who talk more but do less. |
| No higher mode of praise can
be awarded the Master Machinist, Mr. Crockett, and his workmen, than
the lusty notes of the stentorian whistle, which rouses the echoes far
and wide, and daily shouts "clear the track: for our excellent
engineer, Mr. James Huskeith, and the "Sunshine." |
| Thursday morning the
"Sunshine" coupled on to the regular passenger train, and,
with an additional car attached for the employees, who had been kindly
invited to make the trip, move stoutly off, every one on board being
in good humor with himself and the rest of mankind, The engine worked
splendidly, heavy grades being overcome with no apparent effort, and
the different parts of machinery working as smoothly as the most
sanguine could desire. |
| At every station along the
road goodly crowds were assembled, and to the ladies of Crawford's
Station, Sears Station, Forsyth, Griffin, and East Point, we are
particularly indebted for beautiful bouquets and wreaths with which to
decorate the machine, and other evidences of appreciation of the
representatives of "honest industry," whose skill has made
the Sunshine a constant visitor at their doors, and whose ready
acquiescence to any hint the ladies may give, will bring Sunshine to
their hearts. |
| "For what signifies to you |
| Their lexicons and grammars? |
| The feeling heart is the royal blue, |
| And that's with the boys who swing the
hammers" |
|
| At Milners the party was most
hospitably entertained at dinner by Messrs. Howe, LaSuest, and
Perryman. This is one of the "turnouts" of the road, and,
although the road may be so straight that a way faring man though
a fool cannot err therein, yet, we honestly advise wayfarer to
be wise for once and try the "turn-out." |
| At 4 o'clock P. M. we arrived
at Atlanta. Everything and everybody seemed to be remarkably quiet,
and more concerned about navigating successfully through the mud than
any desire to learn how matters were progressing at the front. Some of
the principal streets are macadamized, but woe to the unlucky
pedestrian who essays a walk beyond these thoroughfares after a heavy
rain. A few surges and all that is mortal of the traveler disappears,
for the geological upper crust does not exist in Atlanta. |
| Last evening the
"Sunshine" returned with a heavy freight train, having
proved a complete success. The whole expedition was under the
superintendence of Mr. Crockett, master machinist, and Conductor Wise,
both of whom acted as commissaries, and, in military parlance, they
are deserving of great credit, for at no part of the advance or
retreat did the men become demoralized, but kept in good spirits all
the way, and if either lives as long as the many draughts that were
drunk to their longevity would seem to imply, it requires no prophet
to foretell that children yet will answer that, the oldest man that
ever lived was Conductor Wise or Mr. Crockett. |
| The party were flanked several
times by dangerous looking columbiads, from which serious damage might
have been expected, yet no harm was done, for the pieces were speedily
captured, the charges drawn and the gallant veterans now retire to
scenes of former usefulness, and in future time "to shoulder
their glass and show how fields were won;" -- that is our field.
If this be "going to the front" we can only say that, when
next that crown doth go abroad may we be there to see. |
| K. |
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