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There were other deep nocturnal voices that reached us from the long freight trains becircling that branch of the Northwestern Rail road which followed the endless links of the Static [??] lying to the west of us. You could imagine the big steam locomotives steadily pulling their chains of freight cars across the dark, empty land and blowing for the crossings those interactions with dirt roads guarded only by the tinkle of the automatic bell. The houses of the maintenance men stood near their county crossings and their railway velocipedes stood in their dooryards, so that the man could sit there, on the rails and roll away to examine every inch of the right of way for some defect which might cause a derailment. In that way, what with those families living there [??] lives close beside the tracks ready to find and mend every flaw, the great railroads had replaced the course of wagon as they ran their glistening steel ribbons over the deserts and the