Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending over More Than Fifty Years
History
Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending over More Than Fifty Years
Railroads
In the town of Chesterfield the Centenary was celebrated most
befittingly. It was there the father of railways spent his latter days,
and there he died. Although there was not such a flood of oratory as at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, many interesting speeches were delivered in
connection with the event. We give some extracts from an address
delivered by the Rev. Samuel C. Sarjant, B.A., Curate-in-Charge at that
time—delivered at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield. An address which,
for ability, nice discrimination of thought, and true appreciation of the
subject, would not disgrace any pulpit in Christendom:—
“We meet to-day for the highest of all purposes, the worship of Almighty
God. But we also meet to show our regard for the memory of one of the
great and gifted dead. It is no small distinction of this town that the
last days of George Stephenson were spent in it. And it adds to the
interest of this church that it contains his mortal remains. With little
internally to appeal to the eye, or to gratify taste, this church has yet
a spell which will draw visitors from every part of the world. Men will
come hither from all lands to look with reverence upon the simple resting
place of him who was the father of the Locomotive and of the Railway
system. And perhaps the naked simplicity which marks that spot is in
keeping with a life, the grandeur of which was due solely to the man
himself, and not to outward helps and circumstances . . .
“Toil has its roll of heroes, but few, if any, of them are greater than
he whose birth we commemorate to-day. He was pre-eminently a self-made
man, one who ‘achieved’ greatness by his own exertions. Granting that he
was gifted with powers of body and mind above the average, these were his
only advantages. The rest was due to hard work, patient, persistent
effort. He had neither wealth, schooling, patrons, nor favouring
circumstances. He comes into the arena like a naked athlete to wrestle
in his own strength with the difficulties before him. And these were
many and great!
“I need not dwell upon the details of a life which is so well known to
most, and to some present so vividly, from personal intercourse and
friendship. We all know what a battle he fought, how nobly and well,
first striving by patient plodding effort to remove his own ignorance,
cheerfully bending himself to every kind of work that came in his way,
and seeking to gain not only manual expertness, but a mastery of
principles. We know how he went on toiling, observing, experimenting,
saying little—for he was never given to the ‘talk of the lips’—but doing
much, letting slip no chance of getting knowledge, and of turning it to
practical account. He was one of those, who
While his companions slept
Was toiling upwards in the night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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