The scene was strangely beautiful at night. The tall firs, though drooping under their heavy burdens, pointed to the mountains that overhung them, where the fires that lit seven tunnels shone like stars on their snowy sides. The only sound that came to break the stillness of the winter night was the sharp ring of hammer on steel, or the heavy reports of the blasts.

I wish to call to your minds that the early completion of this railroad we have built has been in large measure due to that poor, despised class of laborers called the Chinese -- to the fidelity and industry they have shown.