The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 32, June, 1860

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Various. The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 32, June, 1860

THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS

IN A FOG

THE GRANADAN GIRL'S SONG

THE HUMMING-BIRD

CHESS

SPRING-SONG

MODEL LODGING-HOUSES IN BOSTON

A SHORT CAMPAIGN ON THE HUDSON

THINE

THE REPRESENTATIVE ART

ROBA DI ROMA

PYTHAGORAS

CLARIAN'S PICTURE

JAPAN

THE VINEYARD-SAINT

THE PROFESSOR'S STORY

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

THE SPHINX'S CHILDREN

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES

NOTE

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS

Отрывок из книги

The condition of our railways, and their financial prospects, should interest all of us. It has become a common remark, that railways have benefited everybody but their projectors. There is a strong doubt in the minds of many intelligent persons, whether any railways have actually paid a return on the capital invested in them. It is believed that one of two results inevitably takes place: in the one case, there is not business enough to earn a dividend; in the other, although the apparent net earnings are large enough to pay from six to eight per cent. on the cost, yet in a few years it is discovered that the machine has been wearing itself out so fast that the cost of renewal has absorbed more than the earnings, and the deficiency has been made up by creating new capital or running in debt, to supply the place of what has been worn out and destroyed. The Illinois Central has been pointed out as an example of the first kind; the New-York Central, of the second; while the New-York and Erie is a melancholy instance of a railway which, never having enough legitimate business of its own, has worn itself out in carrying at unremunerative rates whatever it could steal from its neighbors. The general opinion of the community, after the crash of 1857, was, that all our railways approximated more or less closely to these unhappy conditions, and it was merely a question of time as to their final bankruptcy and ruin. Even now, when they have recovered themselves considerably, and are paying dividends again, capitalists are very shy of them.

It is our belief, contrary to the current opinion, that during the next decade such a change will have taken place in the condition of our railways, that we shall see them averaging eight to ten per cent, dividends on their legitimate cost. We propose in the present article to give the reasons which have led us to this conclusion.

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Mr. Glover ordered in ale, and Mr. Lorrimer ordered in oysters,—and from oysters to ale they pleasantly alternated for the space of two hours.

Cloud-compelling cigars varied at intervals the monotony of the proceedings.

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