CHAPTER XXXVI
THE JUDGE'S FIRST RIDE
SINCE this photograph has been in the possession of the author,
he has been often asked why the engine and train are represented
in the unique and sombre style in which they appear in profile,
or black outline. To this inquiry he will reply by informing those
who are not familiar with the facts, that, from his earliest recollection,
he has been gifted with a rare and peculiar talent or faculty
(entirely intuitive in him) of executing with wonderful facility
and accuracy the outlines or form of any person or object from
a single glance of the eye, and without any machinery whatever,
but with a pair of common scissors and a piece of black paper.
This peculiar style of outline portraiture, or shaping exact
resemblance's of persons or objects with black paper, and commonly
known as profiles, was invented, according to the elder Disraeli,
in 1757, in Paris, and called by the French silhouette. In the
author this faculty was not confined to shaping the mere outlines
of persons or faces, but was extended to portraying entire family
groups, military companies, fire companies with their engines
and hose-carriages, sporting-scenes, racecourses, and marine views,
representing a harbor and shipping. All were executed in black
paper, and with a pair of scissors. Hence, in the same style he
executed the above mentioned likeness of the locomotive "De
Witt Clinton," with the cars and passengers, and afterward
presented the same to the Connecticut Historical Society. This
rare and peculiar faculty or gift was so strongly developed in
the author, that all objects, when once presented to the eye,
are, as it were, photographed upon his brain, so much so, and
with such indelibility, that it was not actually necessary for
an individual to be present and stand for a likeness. A glance
for a moment at an individual in some accustomed position or attitude
only was necessary, and the likeness could be produced hours,
days, weeks, and often years thereafter, entirely from memory
alone.
The author, for several years, made a very lucrative business
by the exercise of this peculiar faculty of taking likenesses,
and during that time visited all the principal cities of the country.
His first object on visiting a new field for the exercise of his
art was to notice several prominent and well-known citizens as
they walked upon the streets, and place their likenesses most
accurately upon paper as evidences of his skill in this peculiar
art and his wonderful memory of persons and forms.
It so happened that, on one of the author's professional visits
to the city of Albany, that a trip, which vas then supposed to
be the first train of cars drawn by a locomotive in America, was
run upon the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad. A graphic and particular
description of this same first trip is given in a letter from
a well-known and distinguished gentleman, now over eighty years
of age, who is one of the few survivors. The letter is as follows:
RIDGEWAY, PA., JUNE 24, 1870
WILLIAM H. BROWN, ESQ.
"DEAR SIR: Your note of the 21st last, asking for my recollections
of such incidents as impressed themselves on my mind in the ever-memorable
first trip by locomotive-power from Albany to Schenectady in 1831,
is before me. In the early part of the month of August of that
year I left Philadelphia for Canandaigua, New York, traveling
by stages and steamboats by way of New York to Albany. Stopping
at the latter place with my friend J. M. Hughes, now of Cleveland,
Ohio, I learned that a locomotive had arrived there, and that
it would make its first trip over the road to Schenectady the
next day. I concluded to lie over and gratify my curiosity with
a first ride after a locomotive."
That locomotive, the train of cars, together with the incidents
of the day, made a very vivid impression on my mind. I can now
look back from one of Pullman's palace-cars, over a period of
forty years, and see that train, together with all the improvements
that have been made in railroad travel since that time, for I
have been a constant traveler for over half a century, and have
observed the steady and constant progression in motive-power and
railroad facilities up to the present time. And now, taking 1870
as a stand point, looking back and forward forty years, who can
say that the next forty years will not exceed the past in railroad
intercommunication, and that Dr. Krumer's theory of using compressed
air as a motive power may not, ere that, be brought into general
use, and that the engineer will manage his whole train with the
same facility and ease that the Mexican caballero starts, runs,
and stops his horse?
"I am not machinist enough to give a description of the
locomotive that drew us over the road that day, but recollect
distinctly the general 'make-up' of the train. The sketch you
showed me when I was last at your place, taken by you in your
peculiar style, is very correct, and brings to my mind, as vividly
as though only seen yesterday, the engine and train as it appeared
on that never to-be-forgotten occasion.
"The train was composed of coach-bodies, mostly from Sprague's
stage-coaches, placed upon trucks. The trucks were coupled together
with chains or chain-links, leaving from two to three feet slack,
and when the locomotive started it took up the slack by jerks,
with sufficient force to jerk the passengers, who sat on seats
across the top of the coaches, out from under their hats, and
in stopping they came together with such force as to send them
flying from their seats.
They used dry pitch-pine for fuel, and, there being no smoke
or spark-catcher to the chimney or smoke-stack, a volume of black
smoke, strongly impregnated with sparks, coals, and cinders, came
pouring back the whole length of the train. Each of the outside
passengers who had an umbrella raised it as a protection against
the smoke and fire. They were found to be but a momentary protection,
for I think in the first mile the last one went overboard, all
having their covers burnt off from the frames, when a general
melee took place among the deck-passengers, each whipping his
neighbor to put out the fire. They presented a very motley appearance
on arriving at the first station. There rails were procured and
lashed between the trucks, taking the slack out of the coupling-chains,
thereby affording us a more steady run to the top of the inclined
plane at Schenectady.
"The incidents of the train were quite as striking as
those on the train. A general notice having been given of the
contemplated trip, excited not only the curiosity of those living
along the line of the road, but those living remote from it, causing
a large collection of people at all the intersecting roads along
the line of the route. Everybody, together with his wife and all
his children, came from a distance with all kinds of conveyances,
being as ignorant of what was coming as their horses, drove up
to the road as near as they could get, only looking for the best
position to get a view of the train. As it approached, the horses
took fright and wheeled, upsetting buggies, carriages, and wagons,
and leaving for parts unknown to the passenger, if not to their
owners, and it is not now positively known if some of them have
yet stopped. Such is a hasty sketch of my recollection of my first
ride after a locomotive.
"Hoping that your contemplated history of early locomotives
in America may be appreciated by the reading public, and a pecuniary
success to yourself,
" I remain truly yours,
"J.L. Gillis"
The writer of the foregoing letter, Judge Gillis, is a native
of the State of New York, and is now eighty years of age. He served
in the War of 1812, and was wounded at the battle of Lundy's Lane.
He moved to Ridgeway, Pennsylvania, in 1822, then in Jefferson
County, now the seat of justice of Elk County. He was an active
member of the Masonic fraternity in the State of New York previous
to his removal to Pennsylvania
Four years later, in 1826, when political anti-masonry took
its rise in that State, in order to show the extent of the conspiracy
for the abduction of one Morgan, a bill of indictment was procured
against Judge Gillis and others at Canandaigua. As soon as he
heard of such indictment, he returned to the State of New York
and surrendered himself to the court and was placed under bonds
of ten thousand dollars for his appearance at the next term. He
visited that county nine terms of the court, the prosecutors putting
the case off at each term. Finally, the trial came off in 1829,
and he was acquitted, no evidence being found for conviction.*
Judge Gillis has served his district in the House and Senate of
the State Legislature and in Congress. He was an active and ardent
supporter of internal improvement in the State of Pennsylvania,
and one of the earliest advocates of the construction of the line
of railroad from Philadelphia to Erie, which he supported until
completed. He was appointed Judge of the Court of Jefferson County
in 1843, and re-appointed in 1844 as one of the first Judges of
Elk County. In 1862 Judge Gillis removed to Mount Pleasant, Henry
County, Iowa, where he now resides. In 1859 the author, having
quitted the profession of artist, was living in Huntingdon County,
Pennsylvania, as an employee of the Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad.
Many years had passed away since he had thought of the "De
Witt Clinton," when he received from an unknown hand a newspaper
containing a paragraph marked with a pen to attract his attention.
It revived in his memory his old picture of the "De Witt
Clinton" and his visit to Hartford very many years before.
The paragraph was as follows:
* It was some time during his trips to attend trial that
Judge Gillis rode in the cars after a locomotive.
A RARE CURIOSITYWe were this day shown by Mr. Bradley,
Secretary of the Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, at Pittsburgh,
a photograph copy of the first American locomotive ever built
in this country and run upon a railroad in the United States.
The photograph was made from the-original picture now in the Connecticut
Historical Society, and was taken by a Mr. Brown in his peculiar
style of art. It was cut out of black paper with a pair of common
scissors. In the cars we recognize the likenesses of several of
the old citizens of Albany, Thurlow Weed, Esq., ex-Governor Meigs,
old Hays, of New York, the celebrated thief-catcher, and several
others. The picture is executed with great skill and fidelity,
and is a rare curiosity when compared with the locomotives and
trains of the present day."
The author then determined to procure a copy of his old world
and applied to Mr. Bradley for information, which he obtained,
and also to F. L. Howard, Esq., of Hartford, from whom he received
the following letter:
HARTFORD, CONN., May 26, 1859,
William H. Brown, Esq.
"DEAR; SIR: We have neglected to answer your very pleasant
letter of the 5th of March, not from any hesitation in complying,
with your request, which we are happy to do, recognizing a right
in the grandfather to have one of his own children's children,
but, anticipating an opportunity of sending it as far as Altoona
free of cost, like the present, we have allowed time to pass.
"Have you any memorandum of the precise time this train
was run?1832 is as near as we can locate the time. Please
say if you have any memorandum of the persons who are represented
in the cars. We personally remember you well, having had our figure
cut out by you when in this city.
With respect, and very truly yours,
JAMES L. HOWARD & Co.
A few days after receiving the above letter, the picture arrived
by Adams's Express, free of cost and charges. The author is at
a loss how to describe his pleasurable feelings of pride and satisfaction
when, after a lapse of twenty-eight years, he placed his eyes
upon this specimen of his handiwork which he never expected to
behold again, rescued as it was from almost absolute forgetfulness.
Every curve and angle in the outline became as vivid as on the
day when it was executed. The likenesses of the citizens represented
in the cars were as fresh in his memory as if only seen the day
before, and he was, as it were, transferred again to Albany and
its associations.
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