The New Jersey Herald says that Newton is laboring
under disadvantages similar to those of Stanhope so far as railroads are
concerned, and urges that the Sussex railroad make connection with the
main line at this place (Stanhope) instead of Waterloo, remarking that
"We, too, are endeavoring to eke out an existence with
railroad privileges which are the laughing stock of every intelligent
person who alights from the train at Waterloo and treads the gang plank
to take passage on the train upon the main line. The blistering rays
of a summer sun or the howling winds of a winter blizzard, make no difference.
The more disagreeable and trying the weather, generally the longer the
wait."
We fear, however, that all efforts to have the connection
of the Sussex railroad changed will be fruitless--at least until the
Lackawanna is forced by competing lines (as at Lake Hopatcong) to make
important improvements in order to save itself from the encroachments
of other roads. The Lackawanna's energy and enterprise lies more in
the direction of large dividends than to the benefit or accommodation
of the people. There is some consolation for the people of Stanhope
in the fact that a few years hence the Lehigh Valley will abandon the
canal and convert the ditch into a railway bed, and then this vicinity
will have a genuine boom.