ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

CHAPTER 19 ~ Rails that Spanned a Nation

"Quick, take off your sunglasses before somebody see us," Jon-Max said to Laura as he removed his sunglasses and attached them magnetically to the front of his shirt.

Even though the brightness of the flash from their time travel "jump" was gone, Laura still had to squint when she took off her sunglasses. Just a few seconds earlier she had been standing on a dark road near the farmhouse of Jefferson Washington, but now she and Jon-Max were bathed in the light of the noonday sun! They were in an alley between two faded wooden buildings, partially hidden behind several battered old barrels and crates.

"Wow, that was a lot easier than walking six miles in the dark," Laura said. They had traveled through both space and time, disappearing from the dirt road near Jefferson Washington's house in the middle of the night and reappearing in this deserted alley in the town of Perryville, Kentucky. Kentucky was one of the border states whose slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

"Can we go back and see Jefferson when we get finished gathering information from the people in this town?" Laura asked hopefully. She had been very impressed by the kindness and bravery of the young boy they had met in the barn, six miles from the town they were now in.

The voice of Gidget suddenly spoke from the empty air. "If you do go back to Jefferson's farm, he'll be six years older than he was when you saw him".

"Six years older?" Laura said in amazement. She stared down at the little device on Jon-Max’s hip, confused by what Gidget had said. "Wait a second . . . I thought we had only jumped in time to the next day!"

"No, actually, you jumped six years ahead of where you were,” said Gidget. “The visit to the Jefferson’s farm was to allow you to meet somebody whose life had been changed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Gazmo and I thought that little side trip would be interesting.”

"It was!” said Laura. “I enjoyed meeting Jefferson. He was great kid."

"Yeah, I thought so, too.” Jon-Max agreed.

Laura stared off into space for a minute, thinking about the fact that the little boy she'd just met — Jefferson Washington — was now a teenager of 14. When they had met Jefferson a few moments ago, he had been the illiterate son of a former slave, a man who had been set free less than a year earlier. Now, six years later, Jefferson had probably been to one of the new school's which the Freedmen's Bureau had built for the former slaves. If Jefferson had worked hard during those six years, he might be able to read even better than Laura or Jon-Max could now!

Weird, Laura thought to herself. Time travel is really . . . weird!

"Okay, I understand," Laura said. "It's confusing, but I get it. My next question is — what the heck are we doing here in 1869?"

Jon-Max gave his friend a big smile. "I think I know the answer to that one. I’ll bet it has something to do with the Transcontinental Railroad!"

“You’re right,” said Gidget. “The year is 1869, and after years of hard and dangerous work, America finally has a railroad that goes from coast to coast.”

Laura's eyebrows shot up, and an excited look came over her face as she remembered what she had learned in school about the building of the very first railroad that had reached all the way across the North American continent.

"My teacher got pretty enthusiastic when he described it to us," Laura said. "He said it had taken thousands of men, working for years and years. Many of the workers had been killed by the dangerous work of building the tracks across the high Rocky Mountains and the scorching deserts of the American West."

"Yeah, our teacher told us that, too. And sometimes those tracks had to be built across huge bridges that spanned deep, rocky canyons. In other places, the tracks were built on narrow rocky ledges that clung to the sides of steep mountains."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that!" said Laura. "And they had to do the work in the dead of winter. Sometimes they had to put the wooden crossties that support the tracks on top of the deep snow that covered the rocky ledges."

Jon-Max wore a look of surprise as he imagined what his friend had just described. "Hey, that wasn't in any of our books or videos we saw! That's amazing!"

"Our teacher showed us an old black-and-white movie from the 1940s called Union Pacific. It had a scene that showed the railroad crews fighting a winter storm while they tried to keep up with their schedule, building the tracks on top of the snow, high in the mountains. But then part of the track collapsed when the snow gave way. When that happened, this big train engine went tumbling down the side of the mountain. It was amazing!"

"I'll tell my teacher about that movie and get him to show it to us."

Laura was a little surprised by the fact that Jon-Max wanted to see an old black-and-white movie about the building of the railroad. After all, the 5th grader from the year 2058 had all kinds of futuristic equipment to use when they were studying about history — like Gidget and Gazmo.

"Hey, let’s get more information about the Transcontinental Railroad before we decide what to do next?"

"Good idea." Jon-Max spoke to his lifeguard unit. "Gidget, tell us about some of the dangerous stuff that the builders of the Transcontinental Railroad had to do."

The voice of the electronic device spoke to Jon-Max and Laura, a voice that would have frightened and confused the people of 1869 if they had heard it. Luckily, Jon-Max and Laura were standing in the empty alley between to buildings, away from the people that passed on the street nearby.

"One of the hardest and most dangerous parts of building the Transcontinental Railroad," Gidget told the fifth graders, "was getting through the Rocky Mountains. Whenever there was no way to build the tracks over or around the high mountains, the builders had no other choice but to blast tunnels right through the solid granite!"

"Man, that sounds dangerous!" Jon-Max said.

Gazmo suddenly took up the narrative. "Many workers of the Central Pacific company died in explosions from those powerful blasts," Gidget continued. "Others died in cave-ins from the tunnels they were working in. And the workers of the Central Pacific company had are hard job, too.

Gidget piped in again, sounding annoyed with Gazmo for interrupting.

"On the Great Plains of the American West, the tracks had to cross thousands of miles of flat, grass-covered regions, the home of the American Indian and the fantastic herds of buffalo — herds that were so large they covered entire states!"

"Wow," Laura said in an awed voice. That's a lot bigger than the herd we saw during the buffalo hunt. Just imagine standing on a hill and watching a herd of buffalo as it went thundering by for hours and hours on the flat land below. There would be buffalo as far as you could see, from horizon to horizon!"

"Whoa, your right," Jon-Max said in a hushed tone. Then he spoke to Gidget again. "Tell us about the people that built the railroad. Like, were there any African Americans on the work crews?"

"The work crews who built the amazing railroad that reached all the way across the North American continent were made of people from many countries. Hundreds of the newly freed slaves from the south joined the construction crews.”

“I remember reading in my Social Studies book that many immigrants from different countries worked on the railroads, too,” said Laura.

“That’s true,” said Gidget. “A large number of the workers were Irishmen who came to America looking for a better life after a great famine had struck their own country. And some of the most dangerous work of building the railroad — the blasting of the rock through the mountains — was done by the Chinese immigrants who had left the terrible conditions in their own country to find a better life in America."

"Thanks, Gidget," said Jon-Max.

"You're quite welcome," said the little lifeguard unit.

The two fifth graders stood there for a moment, thinking about what they had just heard. Laura remembered reading in her Social Studies book that the building of the Transcontinental Railroad had created thousand of jobs for people during the Industrial Revolution, a time in history when new inventions and new machines had turned America into the strongest nation in the world!

And Laura also remembered reading about the place where the tracks from the East and West coasts of the United States had finally met each other, joining to form the first railroad that reached all the way across the North American continent.

In an excited voice, Laura said, "Jon-Max, can we go to Promontory, Utah and see the ceremony where the tracks from the East and the West finally met each other? You know, that place where they drove the golden spike into the last piece of track that linked the East and West together?"

Jon-Max smiled and said, "Good idea. I’d love to watch those guys finish a job that took so long and costs them so many lives."

Jon-Max and Laura stood there for a moment, imagining themselves wandering through the crowd of excited people who would be there in Utah, watching that historic ceremony where the tracks would be linked – tracks which joined the East coast and West coast of the United States of America for the first time!

Thanks to the Transcontinental Railroad, people would be able to get on a train and ride from the cities on the East coast of America all the way to the West coast in just a few weeks, instead of having to spend months and months riding on wooden wagons that were pulled by horses, rolling slowly across the land. Those wagons would often break down and leave the pioneers stranded, freezing in the cold winter or dying of thirst in the scorching hot summer.

It was hard for Jon-Max and Laura to fully appreciate what an incredible thing it would be for the brave pioneers to be able to travel west by train, instead of by wagon. These two young people from the 21st century were used to fast cars that sped along on interstate highways, and jet airplanes that traveled at hundreds of miles per hour. But the people who lived back in the year 1869 considered it an absolute miracle to be able to cross the North American continent in just a few weeks. It had taken a great deal of hard work and human sacrifice to make this miracle happen.







Laura suddenly realized that she didn’t really know why Gidget and Gazmo had brought them to Perryville, Kentucky, instead of taking them to Promontory, Utah. she spoke to her own lifeguard unit. “Gazmo, if we’re supposed to be learning about the transcontinental railroad, why are in Kentucky?”

“People all across America are waiting for word of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. You should spend a little time here in Perryville and find out what the local people think about this historic event. Try to learn as much as you can without asking Gidget and I for help.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun,” said Jon-Max.

"Okay, let's start gathering so information,"

"Right. Come on."

The two fifth graders walked to end of the alley in which they had appeared in a flash of blue light a few minutes earlier, and they peeked out at the busy street of the small Kentucky town.

An elderly lady was walking along the street, and as she passed the mouth of the alley she glanced over at the two young people. With a puzzled look on her face, she stopped dead in her tracks. It took both Jon-Max and Laura a moment to realize why she looked so surprised.

"Oops!" Jon-Max suddenly said. "We forget to activate disguise mode!"

The two fifth graders ducked back into the alley and hide behind a stack of wooden crates for a moment while Jon-Max spoke quickly to his Gidget and Gazmo. He told them to create holographic disguises that would make them appear to be dressed like two kids from the year 1869.

Moments later Jon-Max and Laura stroll back up to the mouth of the alley. They both seemed to be wearing the same kind of clothing that the people in the street wore. The elderly lady was now standing a few feet past the mouth of the alley, looking back over her shoulder, a bewildered look on her face. She saw the two children reappear, wearing completely different clothing, and she looked so startled by the sight that Jon-Max and Laura were afraid she might come back and asked them how they managed to change so quickly.

After a few seconds the lady shook her head in confusion and continued on down the street, apparently deciding that she had somehow imagined the sight of two children dressed in very strange clothes.

The two fifth graders chuckled quietly to each other, then Laura said, "That poor lady thinks she's going crazy."

"She'll be okay," Jon-Max said, watching the lady turn into a store, further down the street.

Laura glanced up and down the busy street, then she said, "Okay, where do we start?"

"Good question," Jon-Max said, scratching his chin as he studied the little town's stores and businesses along the street. "I guess we could just asking people what they think about the new transcontinental railroad, but it seems like there are to be a better way."

After thinking over the problem for a few seconds, Laura said, "How do people in 1869 get information about important news stories like the Transcontinental Railroad? I mean, they don't have the Internet, television, or even radio. So how do they find out about important stuff that affects the entire country?"

Jon-Max looked just as puzzled as Laura. But then he spotted something further down the street. His face lit up with exhilaration. "I got it!" He said with a big smile. "When the people in 1869 need information about what's going on in America, they get it from that place right there!"

Laura looked in the direction Jon-max was pointing. Further down the street she saw a large glass window at the front of a building, and on the window were painted the words:

PERRYVILLE GAZETTE

"I don't want to sound dumb," Laura said hesitantly, "but what exactly does that mean?"

"It means," Jon-Max said with a sly smile, "that you are looking at the CNN of Perryville, Kentucky, in 1869. That building is the office of the locale newspaper. Newspapers were the chief source of news for everybody in America . . . that is, until radio came along during the early 1900's. And then later, television started to take over as the chief news source during the, uh . . . " Jon-Max chewed his lip for a moment while he tried to remember what he'd learned in school. "Hmmm . . . I think it was in the 1950s when television news shows starting replacing radio."

Laura was trying to imagine what life was like before people could simply turn on the TV or go to the internet and instantly find out what was going on in the world.

"Gee, having to wait for a newspaper to be printed and sent to your house sure seems like a slow way to get the news."

"You're right," Jon-Max said. "And it took a lot longer back in those days -- " he stopped and said quickly, "I mean, back in these days – to get a newspaper printed and delivered to the people in town." He waved his hand at the town around them. "Printing a newspaper took a lot of hard work! Before they could print a single page of a newspaper, they had to pick out little metal blocks with each letter of every word, and then they had to stick each block onto a big piece of wood to form the words they wanted to print!

“But how did they use a block of wood with metal words on it to print a piece of paper?”

“After getting all the words set on the block of wood, they had to smear ink on the metal letters and press a sheet of paper down onto it. It took hours and hours just to get the paper ready to start printing!"

Laura couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Hey, wait a second! If it took that long, how could they have printed hundreds of copies of each newspaper and send them out to the people . . . every day?"

Jon-Max shook his head, looking just as amazed as Laura by the whole idea. "Wow, you’re right! How did they do it!" He gazed up the street at the newspaper office for a moment, then he said excitedly. "Come on! Let's go up there and find out for ourselves!"

Jon-Max and Laura left the alley and headed up the busy street toward the newspaper office. As they walked along, they noticed that the street was made of firmly packed dirt and gravel — a big difference from the asphalt and concrete which the two fifth graders from the future were accustomed to seeing in the 21st century. And the traffic on the street was strange to them, too. Moving up and down the busy avenue were dozens of horse-drawn carriages, wooden wagons, and one-horse buggies.


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The elegant carriages were carrying rich people in fine clothing. Most of the battered wooden wagons seemed to be driven by farmers, because they were filled with vegetables or bales of cotton. The buggies were obviously the favorite mod of transportation for families that lived in or near the town. Many of the buggies were filled with barefoot kids who were hanging over the sides of the buggies, looking at everything they passed with wide-eyed wonder.

When the kids in the buggies saw Laura and Jon-Max, they stared with open curiosity. Jon-Max turned to his friend and spoke to her quietly.

"Can you guess why they seem so interested in us?"

After thinking it over for a second, Laura had to give up. "No, I don't get it. Why are we such a big deal?"

"They know we're strangers in town . . . new kids. They don't recognize us as one of the people who have lived here all their lives. So, in a way, that makes us the most interesting thing in town. Remember, these people go for months at a time without seeing any new people!"

Laura suddenly felt like she as wearing a big sign that said, "STRANGE CREATURE FROM ANOTHER PLANET!!!"

"Hey, if we're that weird looking to these folks, maybe we should just get out of here!"

Jon-Max glanced around in a bored manner and said, "Don't panic, okay? All we gotta do is ignore them!"

Jon-Max was right: any new people in town were always a big deal to the folks who had lived here their whole life. The people in 1869 didn't travel around as much as the people from the 21st century. It took too long to get anywhere by horse-drawn wagon. That’s why the transcontinental railroad was such a big deal.

The two time travelers finally arrived at the newspaper office. As they pushed open the door, they noticed some smaller print on the big glass window below the name of the newspaper. It said Editor in Chief: Malcolm Hobgood.

When they walked inside, the first thing they noticed was a strange smell in the air. Laura whispered a quick question to his friend from the future. After a moment of sniffing the air and thinking over the question, Jon-Max offered an answer.

"I think it's the ink. Look around. Black ink is on everything. It's on the printing press, the big plates with the metal letters, the paper that the newspaper is printed on . . . everything! It's even on the man who does the printing!"

Jon-Max finished his comment quickly as a middle-aged man with a bald head and wire-rimmed spectacles stopped his work at the huge metal printing press in the middle of the room and came towards the two young people. He wore an annoyed look, and his face was smeared with streaks of black ink. The white shirt he wore was smudged and streaked with ink, and the tips of his fingers were blackened with it. His baggy pants were held up by red suspenders, and even the suspenders had streaks of ink on them!

Two younger men were also hard at work near the metal printing press. One of them was a pale-skinned teenager with hair as red as Jon-Max's. He was bringing a heavy stack of newsprint paper over to the printing press. The other worker was a dark-skinned African American, a tall and handsome young man of about twenty-five who was carefully placing small metal blocks into the narrow grooves of a wooden plate about two feet by three feet.

Jon-Max whispered quickly to Laura. "I think that guy is putting the letters into one of the plates that will be used to print a page of the newspaper. See that piece of paper in his hand? He's looking at each word on a news story that's been written, and he's arranging the letters on that wooden plate so that it will print the same words that the reporter wrote on that page the young man is holding.

To the left of the big window was the printing press — a mass contraption made of wood and metal which stood eight feet tall. It looked a bit like a guillotine, but more massive and sturdy.

Standing against far wall beyond the printing press was a wooden structure that resembled a drafting table, and on it was the wooden pallet the slot that held the metal letters which would be used to print the newspaper.





As the two fifth graders stood just inside the door of the building watching the workers get the daily edition of the newspaper ready to be printed, the balding man with the ink smears all over himself came over and began to scold them.

"Now listen here, you kids! You know your not supposed to come in here and bother me when I'm trying to get the afternoon edition ready — " He stopped speaking suddenly and studied the two young people for a moment, wearing a puzzled expression. "Hey, wait a second. I don't know you two, do I? Who are you, anyway?"

Jon-Max put on his most charming smile and spoke politely to the man. "Oh, gosh, we're sorry to bother you, Mr . . . uh," he turned quickly and glanced at the name on the big glass window. Even though the letters were backwards from the inside. he managed to read the name. "Mr. . . . Mr. Hobgood. Our school teacher told us that you could help us with a report that we're doing in school. She said you would know more than anybody else about what happened during the making of the railroad. But what we want to know most about is the big celebration in Promontory, Utah."

Laura tried not to giggle at the big act Jon-Max was putting on for Mr. Hobgood. The fifth grader from the year 2058 was acting just like a polite and eager kid from 1869 who wanted to know more about the Transcontinental Railroad. Laura decided to play along with Jon-Max. Keeping her face straight, she said, "Yes, sir, we want to know more about it! Can you tell us what's going on?"

Mr. Hobgood's face lit up with excitement, and he turned to the two young men who were still hard at work getting the paper ready to print.

"Benjamin, you hurry up and get that type set for the story about the Chinese immigrants who worked on the railroad. And Shawn, I want to print 112 copies of today's afternoon edition, so be sure to put enough paper right there next to the press."

"Yes, Mr. Hobgood," both of the young men said at the same time.

Mr. Hobgood turned back to Jon-Max and Laura, and he motioned the two young people closer as be began to speak.

"I'm am so, glad your teacher, Miss Henshaw, has finally realized that I can help teach you kids a thing or two about what's going on in the world today! Sit down and I'll tell you all about it!"

Jon-Max and Laura made themselves comfortable in two old wooden chairs that were located by the wall beneath the big glass window that faced the busy street, and they listened as Mr. Hobgood began to talk enthusiastically.

"Well, kids, this is the biggest story this nation has every seen. They've finally completed the transcontinental railroad. Just imagine — a person can travel from New York City to San Francisco in just four weeks! And he can travel the whole distance in the comfort of a railroad car. None of that bouncy, dusty, slow-moving wagon train anymore. It's amazing, I tell you! Just amazing!"TEXT





Both Jon-Max and Laura couldn't help but feel the some of the excitement that Mr. Hobgood felt at the thought of this great event in America's history.

"Yes sir, we agree! That's really cool!" Jon-Max said.

Mr. Hobgood stared at the two fifth graders for a moment, then he said, "Really what?"

"Oops," Jon-Max mumbled to Laura. "Wrong word for this century." In a louder voice he said to Mr. Hobgood, "I mean, it's really, uh . . . splendid!" He turned to Laura and said, "Don't you think it's slendid?"

Laura nodded vigorously. "Oh, yeah! It’s mega-splendid!"

Mr. Hobgood seemed please by their enthusiasm. "It's better than splendid! It's colossal! And just think, they only started working on the railroad in Nebraska, back in 1862. Just seven years ago!"

"Yes, sir, it's really amazing. Uh, sir, would it be okay if we asked a few questions?"

"Ask away, kids. Anything you like."

"Well, first of all, how many rails does it take to cover one whole mile of track?"

Mr. Hobgood chuckled, then he said, "That's a good question, young man. It takes 400 rails to cover one mile of track. Imagine how hard it must be to lay 400 hundred of those heavy steel rails and drive in all the spikes it takes to hold them securely in place."

"Wow, I see what you mean!" Laura said. "And, sir, we also heard that some of the track had to be laid along snow-covered mountain ledges."

"That's right. And whenever their were no ledges for the work gangs to lay the tracks on, they had to blast tunnels right through the solid rock! Believe me, young folks, that takes a lot of time and energy. And it's dangerous, too."

"Our teacher told us that the Chinese immigrants did a lot of the dangerous work of handling those explosives."

Mr. Hobgood looked thoughtful and serious for a moment, then he looked both the young people in the eye for a moment and spoke sternly. "You know something, kids? Some of the people in this town think that people who have different skin color than them aren't quite as good as they are. They think that people who come from China or Africa should not be treated the same as everybody else. How do you two feel about that?"

Jon-Max looked Mr. Hobgood right in the eye and said, "Sir, we think that everybody should be treated with the same respect and consideration." He paused a moment and then said, "How do you feel about it, sir?"

Mr. Hobgood smiled at Jon-Max and Laura as he said, "I feel the same way, kids. I always have. In fact, the editorial I wrote in today's edition of the paper is all about how hard the Chinese immigrants worked on the transcontinental railroad." Mr. Hobgood turned to the young African American and said, "Is that editorial copy about set, Benjamin?"

"Yes, sir," the young man said.

"Good work." He turned back to Jon-Max and Laura with a smile on his face. Whispering, he said, "Some of folks in this town don't like the fact that Benjamin works right along side a white boy like Shawn. But then again, some of the folks in this town don't like Irishman like Shawn either. Me, I think they're all crazy!" He studied Jon-Max’s red hair for a moment and then said, “Bet you think they’re crazy, too, right son?”

He winked at Jon-Max and Laura. Jon-Max stood up and held his hand out to Mr. Hobgood. "Sir, we really appreciate you're taking the time to explain all this to us. Thank you very much."

Mr. Hobgood had a broad smile on his face as he shook Jon-Max's hand, obviously pleased by the interest which these two young people were showing in the important historic events taking place in America.

"Glad to help out, kids. I hope you'll share the things I told you with your classmates in school. Especially the parts about not thinking less of your fellow Americans just because of where their from."

Mr. Hobgood had no way of knowing that Jon-Max and Laura were from the future, and that they would taking the information he had given them back to share with their classmates in the 21st Century!

Jon-Max and Laura left the newspaper office of the Perryville Gazette, and they made their way back to the alley in which they had first appeared. When they got there, Jon-Max spoke to his lifeguard unit.

“So, Gidget, how did we do?”

“Great, job. Talking to the editor of the newspaper was very clever.”

“Can we go see the ceremony at Promontory, Utah, now?”

“Yes, that’s the perfect place to go next. Press the button whenever you’re ready.”

The two fifth graders from the future wore excited expressions as they carefully watched the mouth of the alley for a few seconds, making sure that nobody was looking as they prepared to disappear in a flash of blue light. There was nobody visible on the street outside the alley, so they pulled out their sunglasses and put them on. Jon-Max pressed the button.

Just as he did so, an elderly lady passed by the alley and saw the two fifth graders just as they vanished in a burst of blue brilliance. It was the same lady who seen the two fifth graders earlier, when they were wearing their strange clothes from the future. She was heading back home after doing her shopping at the General Store.

The sight of two children suddenly vanishing from sight in a blinding flash was just too much for the poor woman. She gasped in surprise — and then she fainted, collapsing at the mouth of the alley. Several people who were standing across the street rushed over to help her.

When she regained consciousness a few moments later, she tried to tell the people around her what she had seen in the alley. They listened to her odd story about two children in strange dark glasses who could change their clothing in seconds, and who could vanish in a bright flash of light.

Everybody who heard the unbelievable tale thought the poor woman had lost her mind, and they helped her stand up on wobbly legs and carefully make her way down the street to the local doctor's office.

NEXT: CHAPTER 19 ~ The Golden Spike
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)