A Steam Car for Juggernaut.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 14, 16 February 1870, Page 7

A Steam Car for Juggernaut.

Religious duties are already to some extent performed by steam, and we may look to see still further application of steam power in the same direction. Singularly enough, it is the religious conservatism of the old wolrd, and not the progress in faith of the new, which has made use of the steam-engine. Mohammedanism permits its devotees to lighten their pilgrimages by availing themselves of the steamships and railways of the infidels. The caravan which used to cross the desert from Egypt to Mecca is practically obsolete, and pilgrims now purchase third class return tickets over the Suez railways and the Red Sea steam ship line. The Hindoo follower of Brahma is not behind his Mahommedan fellow-pilgrim in his willingness to accomplish his ignorance by steam ; and, yearly, many thousands of devout Hindoos are whirled over the Indian railways to Benares, or towards the sacred source to the Ganges. But the most extraordinary instance of the combination and devotion has just been pr-oposed. It is no less startling a proposition than that of mounting the oar of Juggernaut on a series of railway trucks, and so permitting the locomotive to drag the sacred car, to the the great relief of the arms of the faithful. The advantage of such a plan is obvious. Tire car would be dragged further, faster, and easier than it is at present, and the worshippers who desire to throw themselves under the wheel could do so with the certainty of a neat and satisfactory death. The locomotive may yet revive the waning I popularity of Juggernaut.