Ottawa, Canada.
There are some very fine buildings in this city. The Parliament House and Departmental Buildings are situated on a beautiful hill about two hundred feet high. All three are built of marble. The ground, which is tastefully laid out with lawns and flower beds, is in the form of a square, with the Parliament House in the centre, and a Departmental Building on either side. From the rear of the Parliament House there is a fine view of the Chaudière Falls and the surrounding country.
A bridge joining the provinces of Quebec and Ontario has just been completed, which is the second largest bridge in the world.
Edward L.
Danville, Illinois.
I want to tell the Post-office Box of the fun I had this afternoon. We met at two o'clock, and went to the river. We coasted a long while on the large hills, then we went on the ice. The river is frozen hard, and the skaters took some of us riding on the ice. We had a splendid time. Afterward we went back to the hills, and built a large bonfire. The flames were about eight feet high, and we hurrahed and shouted. We went home about five o'clock.
I can not express in words how much I like Young People. The stories and pictures are elegant.
Will you please tell me which was the first railroad in the United States?
Colmore S.
The first railway in the United States was constructed in 1826 from the quarries of Quincy, Massachusetts, to the nearest tide-water. The cars were drawn by horses. The second American railroad was laid in 1827, from the coal mines of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to the Lehigh River. With branches and turn-outs it was thirteen miles long. It was operated by gravity. Mules were used for drawing back the empty cars. The first passenger railway was the Baltimore and Ohio, fifteen miles of which were opened in 1830. During the first year the cars were drawn by horses, but in 1831 the first locomotive built in America was put on the track. It had an upright instead of a horizontal boiler. On its trial trip it drew an open car at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills. The next passenger line built was the Mohawk and Hudson, from Albany to Schenectady.