59 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



allusion to the riots of 1877 in lurid juxtaposition with the French 

 Revolution ; but — since, wherever planted, the roots of neither of these 

 cataclysms lie in land-grants, construction companies, pools, rebates, 

 or fast-freight lines — it need not detain us here. I have not touched 

 in this paper upon the "Granger" cases (so called), my limits for- 

 bidding. But I do not understand that the pi-inciples enunciated 

 in them conflict with any of the statements I have made. I lately 

 had the pleasure of perusing a learned article in an English magazine 

 which proposed that railway companies, like post-office departments, 

 make rates independently of distances or extent of services rendered ; 

 or at least establish two rates, " one for short distances and others for 

 long distances : so much for every distance not exceeding one hun- 

 dred miles, so much for every distance between one hundred and three 

 hundred miles, and so much for all distances exceeding three hundred 

 miles, keeping the one rate for all distances in view as the ultimate 

 object." It seems to me that, if gentlemen who write in this fashion 

 expect their papers to be read, they expect all they are entitled to. 

 Similarly, I think that Mr. Hudson's loving treatment of the ancient 

 claim that, since railways are public highways, any citizen has a right 

 to send his own limited express along the line at any moment on pay- 

 ment of a trackage-fee, ought to stamp the value of his criticism. 

 But since many of his terrors do very widely obtain among conscien- 

 tious men, I have thought to attempt to allay them. Mr. Hudson's 

 book is printed on better paper and more nicely bound than the usual 

 socialistic attack upon things as they are. But that he is, or is 

 destined to become, the long-looked-for reformer of the American 

 railroad, I fear can hardly be hoped. 



A MOUNT WASHINGTON SANDWORT. 



By GEANT ALLEN. 



WE were not fortunate with our plant-hunting on Mount Wash- 

 ington. Perhaps, for want of a local botanist to show us the 

 lurking-places of the rarer species, we did not succeed in finding all of 

 them. But some of the most interesting to a British naturalist could 

 be gathered everywhere without the trouble of seeking. When the 

 little, puffing, oblique locomotive that drags you up from Marshfield to 

 the summit stopped awhile to rest and refresh itself after its steep 

 climb up Jacob's Ladder, we jumped out eagerly upon the surface 

 of the mountain ; and there, among the erratic bowlders of the Great 

 Ice Age, I lighted at once upon broad beds of two plants my eyes had 

 never before beheld in the living state — one, a pretty tufted White 

 Mountain sandwort, and the other a beautiful bright golden avens. 

 So thickly did they cover the ground on that high shoulder of the 



