So much for the facilities of moving Wilmington’s many products by railway.  It would be too unjust, however, to pay court to these roads, which are matters of yesterday, and show no attention to the system of water-transport for the sake of which her site was chosen two hundred years since.

Long years ago, Wilmington millers, wishing to ship flour to Philadelphia, used to walk down to Market street wharf, and pulling a bellcord that hung outside a little brick office by the river, summon to his duty the easy-going and cheerful freight-clerk of the transport line.  The old sign, with the name of “Warner” upon it, is still upon the office, but the bell is gone, and the premises of Charles Warner & Co. have blossomed out into store-sheds and coal-sheds beyond all calculation.  The guiding instinct of the firm was found to be concentrated in the handsome head of Mr. E. Tatnall Warner, a son and now a partner; and it was he who sketched out the amplitude of the store-houses, and determined to bring the line into victorious competition with the rail for all the freight of the port that would bear slow moving.  The wharves of Warner & Co. now extend from Water street to the Christine River, and from Market to King streets.  There are three communications daily with Philadelphia, and tri-weekly ones with New York and Boston.  Their Philadelphia line consists of two steam-barges of one hundred and fifty tons, and they are constructing a third at a shipyard we have yet to examine—­that of the Jackson & Sharp Company—­of two hundred and fifty tons burden.  The four railroads of Wilmington—­the Baltimore line, the Wilmington and Reading, the Western, and the Delaware Road—­all run their cars by continuous rails to the wharves of Warner & Co., where freight is transferred from cars to steamers with extreme rapidity, by four steam-hoisters placed on the ground for the purpose.  A stationary engine also takes hold of the cars, and moves them from place to place on the rail as wanted.  The handling by steam-power—­a great change from the days of the old bell under the eaves!—­of course reduces greatly the necessity for mere human porters.  The steamers ply to a wharf at Chestnut street, Philadelphia, and also, as aforesaid, to New York.  In respect to the latter port, the Messrs. Warner anticipate an early day when various novel manufactures established at Wilmington will demand new freights from the New York market, and to hasten that day they offer very strong inducements for return cargoes.  Such is a specimen of a transport-office, transformed from old-fashioned ideas to the newest ambitions of the time.  While the iron road will always collect a large portion of moving merchandise, there will still be another large portion for which the superior cheapness of water-transport will be a successful inducement.

[Illustration:  VIEW OF THE WILMINGTON WHARVES.]