40 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



turer, down to the professional lobbyist, whom he uses 

 as the huntsman uses his hound, to run down the 

 game. There being millions at stake, these adven- 

 turers, each in his sphere, are instant in action. They 

 cajole, they seduce, they ensnare. All the arts of 

 temptation ooze from their tongues in drops of honey, 

 and fall from their hands in streams of gold. What 

 wonder if success only too often rewards their nefarious 

 efforts if the not over-stubborn normal virtue of the 

 Senator or Congressman succumbs ? If the records of 

 the Credit Mobilier investigation reveal anything, they 

 disclose this that tactics of this kind were employed 

 with exquisite skill and relentless tenacity; and, de- 

 spite the half-frantic denials of the victims, it is per- 

 fectly evident the strategy of the subsidy adventurers 

 won." 



The lands granted by the Government to various 

 railway corporations make up a total area of 198,165,- 

 794 acres, or about 300,000 square miles an area 

 larger than the State of Texas, which contains 237,504 

 square miles. Texas and the two Virginias combined 

 would make an area smaller than that of the lands 

 thus given away. The total area of the United States 

 is 3,578,392 square miles, and the railway subsidies, 

 it will be seen, comprise nearly one-tenth of the entire 

 Union. 



The following Table shows the land grants to rail- 

 ways since 1850, and the amount of land actually re- 

 ceived or certified by each company : 



