Belt Buckles - Bogus or real?

From: "Laverna" l.lakey@verizon.net

I have one brass buckle, American Express, Wells Butterfield & Co, with picture of 3 horses pulling a wagon, 3 people in seat of wagon, 3 behind and horses with rider on street behind wagon. Back of buckle says "Tiffany Broadway New York."

Another that says Central & Union Pacific Railroad Co. with horses on front, back has "Property of Union Pacific railroad" and has same mark as the other – "Tiffany Broadway New York."

Both buckles look like brass and are about 3 inches square. ... Are they real or fake?

—Laverna

A grand 'anvil chorus'

Can anyone identify the name of the newspaper and/or the exact date of publication of the following famous words and/or supply a copy or transcription of the original article from which this came?

"A light car, drawn by a single horse, gallops up to the front with its load of rails.  Two men seize the end of a rail and start forward, the rest of the gang taking hold by twos, until it is clear of the car.  They come forward at a run.  At the word of command the rail is dropped in its place, right side up with care, while the same process goes on at the other side of the car.  Less than thirty seconds to a rail for each gang, and so four rails go down to the minute ... close behind the first gang come the gaugers, spikers, and bolters, and a lively time they make of it.  It is a grand 'anvil chorus' ... It is played in triple time, 3 strokes to the spike.  There are 10 spikes to a rail, 400 rails to a mile, 1,800 miles to San Francisco — 21,000,000 times those sledges to be swung: 21,000,000 times are they to come down with their sharp punctuation before the great work of modern America is complete."

—Dr. William Abraham Bell, Newspaper, 1866