Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 294

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(RAILROADS.) Central Pacific Railroad and Leased Lines: Rules, Regulations and Instructions for the Use of Agents, Conductors, Etc. 224 pages, including some blank leaves for note-taking. 8vo, contemporary gilt calf, moderate wear to spine, front joint starting; minimal wear to contents; printed transmittal note and early inscription "L. M. Clement's Office" on front pastedown. San Francisco, CA, 1 January 1882

Additional Details

Much expanded second edition of the regulations for the famed railroad line which was founded in 1861 and stretched eastward to complete the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. Chapters are devoted to the six departments of the railroad, including various auditors, freight agents, passenger and ticket agents, and baggage agents. One ethnicity is singled out for special treatment: "When [overland] tickets are sold to Chinese passengers the word 'Chinaman' must be written thereon, and the signature of the passenger also taken. . . . Conductors in charge of trains carrying large bodies of Chinamen on special tickets must count the number of same en-route" (pages 145, 154). Lunatics and convicts are similarly handled on page 154. Certain cargoes were heavily regulated, such as transport of salmon in August, or intoxicating liquors bound for Iowa (page 101); corpses were also subject to strict rules (page 98, etc.).

This was the personal copy of the Central Pacific's civil engineer Lewis Metzler Clement (1837-1914), who had played a central role in bringing the transcontinental line to life with bridges and tunnels across the Sierra Nevadas. 2 copies traced in OCLC, and none at auction.