A Promised Fast Train by Ambrose Bierce — Read

I turned my eyes upon the Future's scroll / And saw its pictured prophecies unroll.

I saw that magical life-laden train / Flash its long glories o'er Nebraska's plain.

I saw it smoothly up the mountain glide. / "O happy, happy passengers!" I cried.

For Pleasure, singing, drowned the engine's roar, / And Hope on joyous pinions flew before.

Then dived the train adown the sunset slope -- / Pleasure was silent and unseen was Hope.

Crashes and shrieks attested the decay / That greed had wrought upon that iron way.

The rusted rails broke down the rotting ties, / And clouds of flying spikes obscured the skies.

My coward eyes I drew away, distressed, / And fixed them on the terminus to-West,

Where soon, its melancholy tale to tell, / One bloody car-wheel wabbled in and fell!