Stretching from the Atlantic seaboard on the east to the MississippiRiver on the west, lies the great P. & O. Railroad, comprising, all told,some four thousand miles of track. Look at it on the map and you willsee how it twists and turns and sends off numberless little branches;for a railroad is like a river and always seeks the easiest path--thepath, that is, where the grades are least and the passes in the mountainslowest.Once upon a time, a Czar of Russia, asked by his ministers to indicatethe route for a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow, placed a ruler onthe map before him and drew a straight line between those cities, a linewhich his engineers were forced to follow; but that is the only road inthe world constructed in so wasteful a fashion.That portion of the P. & O. system which lies within the boundaries ofthe Buckeye State is known as the Ohio division, and the headquarters areat the little town of Wadsworth, which happens, by a fortunate chance ofgeographical position, to be almost exactly midway between the ends ofthe division. A hundred miles to the east is Parkersburg, where the roadenters the State; a hundred miles to the southwest is Cincinnati, whereit gathers itself for its flight across the prairies of Southern Indianaand Illinois; and it is from this central point that all trains aredispatched and all orders for the division issued.Here, also, are the great division shops, where a thousand men work nightand day to repair the damage caused by ever-recurring accidents and tomake good the constant deterioration of cars and engines through ordinarywear and tear. It is here that the pay-roll for the division is made out;hither all complaints and inquiries are sent; and here all reports ofbusiness are prepared.