tion, the
twenty-five per cent reservation was removed, and one half of government
business was to be paid in money.

The Union Pacific Company effected an important modification of the
charter in respect to their particular interests. Their maximum capital
was still fixed at one hundred millions, but individual shares were
lowered from a thousand to a hundred dollars each. Furthermore, the
hitherto unwieldy board of direction was limited to fifteen members. On
the other hand, the Kansas organization obtained the privilege of making
their own road the grand trunk route, connecting with the Central
Pacific, in case they should anticipate the Nebraska line in reaching
the one hundredth meridian, and the latter road should not appear to be
proceeding in good faith.

As the act which bestowed such signal favors had granted an extension of
a year for the completion of the first division of each road, the Union
Pacific was under no absolute compulsion to hasten its work.
Nevertheless, surveying parties were kept in the field, and the contract
for the construction of the road to the one hundredth meridian was
signed in August. This agreement, though nominally known, as the Hoxie
contract, derived the guaranty of its performance from the Credit
Mobilier,--an organization with an actual capital of two millions and a
half, recently created upon the model of the great Paris corporation,
and in the hands of a few moneyed men whose enterprise and energy were
admirably proportioned to their large wealth. Its heaviest capitalists
were also stockholders in the projected road; and as payment was to be
made in bonds and shares, the Credit Mobilier at once became an
over-shadowing stockholder in the Union Pacific. The arrangement at a
subsequent period may not have been wholly beneficial; but at the date
of the contract the alliance was of incalculable importance. Although
two millions of stock had been subscribed, the Nebraska line had in
reality only twenty thousand dollars in its treasury. Without the Credit
Mobilier, it would have faltered on the threshold of success. Even with
this powerful auxiliary, it was not yet strong enough to prevent an
unexpected and vexatious delay.

The first forty miles west from Omaha had been intrusted to Peter A.
Dey, an engineer of some experience in the West. This gentleman, whose
ideas seem to have been limited to a straight line, had constructed a
track satisfactory in its alignments, but with a