Building the Pacific Railway. By Edwin L. Sabin. (Lippin- cott.
8s. net.)—Mr. Sabin's sub-title is "A Romance of Ameri- ,-"'tan Achievement.' It is fully justified. The construction of the railway from Omaha to San Francisco in the six years from 1863 to 1869 was something more than an engineering feat. The Union Pacific Company, with Irish labourers, worked
westward from Omaha ; the Central Pacific Company, with Chinese labour, built eastward from California. The two companies strove against one another, and America looked on as at a race, for the competitor which constructed the longer section of line stood to gain in subsidies and traffic. Ultimately the rivals came to terms, but the Central Pacific's Chinese gangs finished their task near Ogden by laying six mites of track in six hours and a quarter, and ten miles within the day. The railway's political and commercial importance cannot be over- estimated. It opened the illimitable prairie to settlers and bound the Pacific States more closely to the Union. Mr. Sabin's enthusiastic and instructive book is well illustrated, and fitly commemorates the jubilee of this great railway, which was celebrated last May.
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