The "wanderer" was hardly a new arrival on the American scene; the itinerant drifter has been a recurring character throughout history. The railroads, however, presented the wanderer with the ...

Hill was "the last and greatest American railroad leader in the heroic era ... "We do not care enough for Rocky Mountain scenery," he said, "to spend a large sum of money developing it." ...

“Railroads were part of the American consciousness at the time ... The ritual of miniature villages and nativity scenes beneath Christmas trees came to the U.S. with European immigrants ...