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The Hoosac Tunnel and the Second Advent

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 28, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 20.

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The Hoosac Tunnel and the Second Advent.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WHAT has the Hoosac Tunnel to do with the second advent? Surely, says one, you are not so fanatical as to claim that it is one of the signs of the end of the world? No, not directly, but thereby hangs a tale. This Tunnel was begun in 1852, twenty-two years ago. Its length was almost five miles, directly through the mountain at a depth of about 1000 feet from the top. It was to be 18 feet high and 20 feet wide. Of course, the digging of such a tunnel was a vast undertaking which at that day seemed almost impossible to accomplish. But it has been finished, the last blast taking place Nov. 27, 1873.
It is amusing and instructive now to look back and see the objections which would-be wise ones raised to this work before it was accomplished. A writer in the Phrenological Journal says:— “The beginning of great achievements may be small and broken. They may excite ridicule and laughter—many predicting they will amount to nothing; and each failure or awkward move leads to new outcries of derision. In the case of the tunnel, the finding of unknown obstacles, like the demoralized rock at the west end, or the rush of water into the central shaft, accidents and casualties increased and emboldened the cry of ‘fanatical,’ ‘absurd.’ Even the poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, derisively sang:—
“‘When the first locomotive’s wheel Rolls through the Hoosac Tunnel’s bore— Till then, let Cumming blaze away, And Miller’s saints blow up the globe; But when you see that blessed day, Then order your ascension robe!’”
“My dear friend, ‘that blessed day’ has arrived. Have you ordered ‘your ascension robe?’”
Yes, this noble work has been accomplished, and now Mr. Holmes’ wit turns only against himself. According to his own argument, he ought now to order his ascension robe. As he has lived to see the folly of his wit in this instance, so the coming of the Lord which has likewise been so much ridiculed will show the folly of such jesting. D. M. CANRIGHT.