From the window of the hotel the great men made speeches in the evening, President Fillmore and Senator Douglas leading and being followed by ex-Governor Seward and others. This group was of great interest to the political world as having six presidential candidates in its ranks--Fillmore, Crittenden, Douglas, Seward, Marcy, and Webster. The last-named was to have spoken that night, but he was so hoarse from previous efforts that he could only say a few words in answer to the calls of the people for him, and postponed his speech until the next night. With suitable éclat, the ocean and the lakes were once more “forever united,” this time in very truth, by a service which took only twenty hours in contrast to the three days of the Erie Canal. In the words of one of the banners in the hall, “’Tis done,--’tis done, the mighty chain that binds bright Erie to the main.” “Bright Erie” was not yet connected as closely as the public might naturally demand, as was shown by the famous Erie war of 1853. On all the roads between what are to-day the great cities of the country there ran one or at most two trains a day. Even on the New York and Erie itself, which was one of the fastest and best equipped in the matter of service, the mail train ran one-half the distance in one day, and then stopped overnight at Elmira before it proceeded on its way. These arrangements made it very necessary that the traveller should make good connections and that the various roads should run in harmony, for each piece was operated by a separate company. Besides this there was another complication. The tracks of different roads were of different gauges or widths, so that the train of one could not by any possibility be run on another. This condition of affairs was particularly bad at Erie, twenty miles beyond Dunkirk, where all passengers had to leave the cars, ride across the town in omnibuses, or walk a mile to the other station, and if connections failed, as they often did, dine or even stay overnight in the town. This state of affairs was satisfactory to the local hotel and baggage men and others who gained from the opportunities offered by a large transfer of baggage and people, but it was very annoying to travellers. The railroad manager of the eastern road decided to alter the gauge of his road and attempt an arrangement by which passengers could be carried through direct to Cleveland. He began by buying up all the stock he could of the other line. This was the pioneer attempt at a railroad merger and resulted in one of the most bitter local wars the country has ever known, involving every one in the region and the people of both states in a protracted and very serious struggle. The issue was complicated and intensified by state and railroad rivalry, but the whole affair began because the people of Erie were unwilling to be made a “way-station,” as they termed it, on a through route and thus lose the commercial advantages of being a terminus for railroads and