Narrow-gauge Railroads

Tho narrow-gauge principio in the building of ruihoads is steadily uaking its way into favor, lt lias the decided virtue of succes whero it is tried, and the advantage of the oomparative cheapness of uarrow gauge roads will go very far in these hard times. Tuere has been little thought of raüroad extensión during the pastyear ortwo; the crashing failures and the collapse ol reckless enterprises havn prevented mon from investing extonsively in building roads. But it is now annouuced thai the narrow-gaugu Boston, Eovere Beaoh and Lynn railroad, whose bridge and tunnels niake 't moro exponsive than one built through a plain country, has closed its firet year with an eight per cent dividend The Worcester anc Shrewsbury road is two miles anc three-quarters long and oost for build ing Íes than $3,200 a mild, and it is run t'ór ten dollars a day and pays dividends. There are about '2,200 ioiles oi narrow-gauge roads in the Unitec States, very much the larger part o: which lie in California and Colorado Though there does not appear to be detailed statements of their success, i' may still be said they are doing better than the average of railroads. The road-bed for the narrow-gauge track costs about two-thirds what that of an ordinary road would ; the superstructure costa froin one-half to threefifths as much, and the oost of equipment and transportation is much less. The main objection to introducing these roads seenis to be the difficulty of making transhipments at their junctions with broad-gauge roads, but this will by no meaJih hinder them froiu being useful in rural districts wherever the main purpose is to bring in the produce and travel of the country to the oit; centers of eaoh district. They are ad mirably fitted for local business and fo the building up of tho interior, where the great tbrougb-lines do not run The only road of a three-foot gauge operated in Michigan is the Minera Range, running for fifteen miles alonj the ridge of tho iron-bearing peninsu la of Keweenaw Point - a countr where there eau be ueither travel no traffic except for getting at the hidden treasures of the earth - and this road, aecording to the report of the Conimissioner of Railroads, made, in the first three months of its operations, 41 per cent. more than the cost of running it. - Detroit Tribune. " Lo " At the Cenienulal. The Coramissioners of Indian Affairs wants Uungress to give him au appropriation to unablu him to send a large delegation of uur aborigines to the Ceutennial Expositon. The idea is not a bad one - we do not mean as regards the appropriation, but as regards au Indian contribution to the suui of our industries. If Eed Cloud and Spotted Tail - if the Choctaws and Cherokees - only had a thought of what they might accomplish, they would petitiou the Great Father for permission to be present at their own expense. Besides the interesting ezhibition they would furuish of the moráis and manners of savage life, they could show something worth seeing in connection with civilized life also. Conooive au Indian wigwam ot two in which there should be on exhibí tion specimens of the "stores" and " supplies " provided for the keep and oiaiutenance of " the wards of the nation " under the auspices of the Indian Bureau. The effect would be to present American manufactures in a new light, and American ingenuity under new auspices, to the eye of an astouishod world. Contract blankets, contracted to the dimensions of a child's pocket-handkerchief; selected pig-tail tobáceo, composed of oakum and licorice ; olayed and enamelled mustins, flimsy as mosquito netting ; " fast color" calicóes, which rejoice in the aboriginal repugnance to water ; " heavy " sugars, saturated with sorghum and stiffened up with sand ; " St. Louis flour," brown as birch bark and populous with weevils and worms ; hats and caps glued on Torn Murphy's model blocks, and boots and ghoes that own to the soft impoachment of the leather-splitter and the paste-pot. in the way of a shoddy show, Red Cloud and Spotted Tail could make a display 8uch as few people have any notion of. Anatomical beef cattle that can low to the tune the old oow died of, inight be a conspicuous part in exhibition, and they could supply a whole inventory of broken hoes, debilitated ploughs ana other condemned agricultural implements. School books prepared expressly lor the Indian country uiight be exhibited along with the the model school-teacher of the wilderness, and the show would be complete if our savage brothers could continue to bring along with them an Indian agent or two, or their scalps. A sample might be added of frontier whisky (closely stoppered vitriol carboys), and of the anus and ammunition which are suppliod to the huntsinen of the plains. By way of further contributions, our red brothers might bring along soine specimens of the treatios they have made at different times with the Government, and show also the medals am decorations conterred upon them b their constant friend and faithful guardián, the Grimt Father. Such a display would justnow be eminently appropriate for the Quaker city, where Pann made the first treaty with these predestiued wretches ; and we can think of nothing that would appeal so forcibly to the American pride as a wiarwara full of Indinas.-