RAIL 



4915 



RAILROAD 



institutions of modern times the Sunday 

 school. He was born in Gloucester, England, 

 where from 1757 to 1802 he published a news- 

 paper called the Journal. Raikes was a pio- 

 neer in the movement to better the conditions 

 of the jails, and his first Sunday school, opened 

 in 1780, was designed to help the children of 

 the poor. For the growth of this movement 

 see SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 



RAIL, a family of birds of many species, 

 found distributed throughout the world. The 

 rail is related to the crane, but is smaller in 



Ir is usually found in marshes, wlu-r- 

 long toes enable it to run swiftly over the soft 

 mud. These birds have short wings and tail 

 and loose plumage of mingled brown and gray. 

 When pursued, they seek safety by running 

 and hiding, taking to flight only as a last re- 

 sort and then flying heavily and soon dropping 



to cover. Rails build their nests of grasses on 

 the ground. Their eggs number from seven to 

 fifteen, and are usually buffy-white speckled 

 with reddish-brown. They feed on worms, in- 

 sects, shellfish, 

 floating seeds and 

 various plant 

 sprouts. The rails 

 most common in 

 Kurope are the 

 water rail and 

 the corn crake, or 

 land rail, which 

 frequents fields. 

 In America are THE YELLOW RAIL 

 found the king rail, yellow rail, clapper rail, 

 Virginia rail, Sora rail and others. Some of 

 those species, especially the Sora, are much 

 sought by hunters throughout their habitat. 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD 



^RfTrain Crossing" Continental Divide] 



.AILROAD, or RAILWAY. Half a 

 century ago, when train traveling was still a 

 novelty, John G. Saxe wrote his famous Rhyme 

 of the Rail- 

 Singing through the forests, 



Rattling over ridges, 

 Shooting under arches, 



Rumbling over bridges, 

 Whizzing through the mountains, 

 Buzzing oVr the vale, 

 ' tills Is pleasant. 

 . on the i 



Poets to-day find riding on the rail too pro- 

 saic a theme ' for verses, but perhaps ' one of 

 will some day sing the song of what the 

 >ad means in the daily lives of men. 



profitable to reflect what tin- hi-tory of 

 thr United States and Canada would h.v.e been 

 without tin- bands of steel which hind thnr 

 parts together. It is realized that if a fan MIT 

 does not live within a few miles of a railroad 

 station it costs him more to h.u the 



iuin to freight it half the 

 across the continent. If, then. : < no 



. nnlv those farmers who lived near lakes 

 or navigable rivers or canals could raise prod- 



uce cheaply enough to sell it to the 

 world at a profit, and few others would have 

 any money to buy food, clothing and furniture. 

 Most farming districts would have to Ix 

 self-sustaining, producing not only food but 

 also flax or cotton or wool for the homespun 

 clothing, and timber for houses and furniture. 

 Yet there are many miles of land now occupied 

 which could not do this, as, for instan 

 open prairies of North Dakota and Saskatche- 

 wan, where it is often miles between 

 Factories would be even more limited than 

 farms, and most of the wonderful mineral 

 wealth of the continent would lie untouched. 

 for it would cost more than the value of tin- 

 iron, copper or coal to bring those products to 

 market. The people of one section of the 

 country would be strangers to their fellow 

 citirens of anotl a time it might i>o 



impossible to hold them all under one p 

 ment. 



Railroads and Governments. This intimate 



between railroads and the national 



life has long been recognised by statesmen. 



Fn>t came the und i>t an.lmu thai 



