Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, January 23, 1921

A walk at 10 P.M. along the railroad.; These powerful locomotives represent the spirit of the age – and I thought how strange it was that what an age is absorbed in should be this particular thing; the world did without Industrialism once, so it is not a necessity, but it means that every age must be dominated by something, it matters little what, whether it is religion, art or commerce.; There is no thrill equal to that produced by one of these monsters rushing headlong down the steel road. So the prehistoric trees & plants were packed away in the earth thousands of years ago so that now they might come forth in rolling clouds of smoke from these rushing locomotives, from great square chimneys and stacks, and to make red glows in furnaces on stormy nights.

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, January 23, 1921