described. The following table, compiled from "Poor's Manual of Railroads," gives the number of locomotives and of different kinds of cars in this country, beginning with 1876, and for each year thereafter. If the average length of locomotives and tenders is taken at 50 feet, those now owned by the railroads would make a continuous train 280 miles long; and the 1,033,368 cars, if they average 35 feet in length, would form a train which would be more than 6,800 miles long. _Statement of the Rolling Stock of Railroads in the United States; from "Poor's Manual" for 1889._ -----+---------+------------++----------------------+---------+--------- | | || Passenger-train cars.| | Year.|Miles of |Locomotives.|+----------+-----------+ Freight | Total. |railroad.| ||Passenger.| Baggage, | cars. | | | || | mail, and | | | | || | Express. | | -----+---------+------------++----------+-----------+---------+--------- 1876 | 76,305 | 14,562 || -- | -- | 358,101| 358,101 1877 | 79,208 | 15,911 || 12,053 | 3,854 | 392,175| 408,082 1878 | 80,832 | 16,445 || 11,683 | 4,413 | 423,013| 439,109 1879 | 84,393 | 17,084 || 12,009 | 4,519 | 480,190| 496,718 1880 | 92,147 | 17,949 || 12,789 | 4,786 | 539,255| 556,930 1881 | 103,530 | 20,116 || 14,548 | 4,976 | 648,295| 667,819 1882 | 114,461 | 22,114 || 15,551 | 5,566 | 730,451| 751,568 1883 | 120,552 | 23,623 || 16,889 | 5,848 | 778,663| 801,400 1884 | 125,152 | 24,587 || 17,303 | 5,911 | 798,399| 821,613 1885 | 127,729 | 25,937 || 17,290 | 6,044 | 805,519| 828,853 1886 | 133,606 | 26,415 || 19,252 | 6,325 | 845,914| 871,491 1887 | 147,999 | 27,643 || 20,457 | 6,554 | 950,887| 977,898 1888 | 154,276 | 29,398 || 21,425 | 6,827 |1,005,116|1,033,368 -----+---------+------------++----------+-----------+---------+--------- The number of cars, it will be seen, has more than doubled in ten years, so that if the same rate of increase continues for the next decade there will be over two millions of them on the railroads of this country alone. Beyond a certain point, numbers convey little idea of magnitude. Our railroad system and its equipment seem to be rapidly outgrowing the capacity of the human imagination to realize their extent. What it will be with another half-century of development it is impossible even to imagine. FOOTNOTES: [9] An engraving of a team and of a "Conestoga" wagon--which was used in this traffic--taken from a photograph of one which has survived to the present day, is given opposite (Fig. 1). [10] It was not really the first train, as the Baltimore & Ohio and the South Carolina roads were in operation earlier.