Though man's form may seem victorious,
War may waste and famine blight,
Still from out the conflict glorious,
Mind comes forth with added light.
O'er the darkest night of sorrow,
From the deadliest field of strife,
Dawns a clearer, brighter morrow,
Springs a truer, nobler life.
Onward! onward! onward, ever!
Human progress none may stay;
All who make the vain endeavor
Shall, like chaff, be swept away.
J. Hagan.
LESSON LXIV
GEORGE STEPHENSON, THE ENGINEER
A famous engineer, named Stephenson, was the first person to demonstrate the fact that an engine could be built which would draw a train of cars on a railway. He was an Englishman. His parents were poor, and the whole family had to live in one room. George was one of six children; none of them were sent to school, because they had to work for their living.
From an early age George had assisted his father in tending the fires of the steam engine which worked the machinery of a large coal mine. He devoted himself to the study of this engine until he had mastered every detail of its construction. In 1813, a rich nobleman entrusted him with money to carry out his favorite plan of building a "traveling engine," as he then called it.
He made an engine that was fairly successful, as it drew eight loaded cars on a railway at a speed of four miles an hour. But he was not contented; he knew that he could do much better. Soon afterward, he was employed to construct another engine, in which he made some great improvements that enabled it to go twice as fast as the other.
Accounts of Stephenson's great invention crept into print, and people began to have faith in the locomotive. In 1822, a company began to build a line of railway between two towns named Stockton and Darlington. Stephenson was employed to construct the road-bed and build the engines. It was completed three years later, and was the subject of great popular curiosity.