The American stage-coaches are such as experience has found out to be most suitable to the American roads, and you have not ridden in them five miles before you long for the delightful springing of four horses upon the level roads of England. They are something between an English stage and a French diligence, built with all the panels open, on account of the excessive heat of the summer months. In wet weather these panels are covered with leather aprons, which are fixed on with buttons, a very insufficient protection in the winter, as the wind blows through the intermediate spaces, whistling into your ears, and rendering it more piercing than if all was open. Moreover, they are no protection against the rain or snow, both of which find their way in to you. The coach has three seats, to receive nine passengers; those on the middle seat leaning back on a strong and broad leather brace, which runs across. This is very disagreeable, as the center passengers, when the panels are closed, deprive the others of the light and air from the windows. But the most disagreeable feeling arises from the body of the coach not being upon springs, but hung upon leather braces running under it and supporting it on each side; and when the roads are bad, or you ascend or rapidly descend the pitches (as they term short hills), the motion is very similar to that of being tossed in a blanket, often throwing you up to the top of the coach, so as to flatten your hat-if not your head. The drivers are very skillful, although they are generally young men — indeed often mere boys for they soon betVery often they -- ter themselves as they advance in life. drive six in hand; and, if you are upset, it is generally more the fault of the road than the driver. I was upset twice in one half-hour when I was travelling in the winter time; but the snow was very deep at the time, and no one thinks anything of an upset in America. More serious accidents do, however, sometimes happen. When I was in New Hampshire, a neglected bridge broke down, and precipitated coach, horses, and passengers into a torrent which flowed into the Connecticut river. Some of the passengers were drowned. Those who were saved sued the township and recovered damages; but these mischances must be expected in a new country. The great annoyance of these public conveyances is, that neither the proprietor nor driver consider themselves the servants of the public; a stage-coach is a speculation by which as much money is to be made as possible by the proprietors; and as the driver never expects or demands a fee from the passengers, they or their comforts are no concern of his. The proprietors do not consider that they are bound to keep faith with the public, nor do they care about any complaints. The stages which run from Cincinnati to the eastward are very much interfered with when the Ohio river is full of water, as the travellers prefer the steam-boats; but the very moment that the water is so low on the Ohio that the steam-boats cannot ascend the river up to Wheeling, double the price is demanded by the proprietors of the coaches. They are quite regardless as to the opinion or good-will of the public; they do not care for either, all they want is their money, and they are perfectly indifferent whether you break your neck or not. The great evil arising from this state of hostility, as you may almost call it, is the disregard of life which renders travelling so dangerous in America. You are completely at the mercy of the drivers, who are, generally speaking, very good-tempered, but sometimes quite the contrary; and I have often been amused with the scenes which have taken place between them and the passengers. As for myself, when the weather permitted it, I invariably went outside, which the Americans seldom do, and was always very good friends with the drivers. They are full of local information, and often very amusing. There is, however, a great difference in the behavior of the drivers of the mails, and coaches which are timed by the post-office, and others which are not. If beyond his time, the driver is mulcted by the proprietors; and when dollars are in the question, there is an end to all urbanity and civility. . . . In making my observations upon the rail-road and steamboat travelling in the United States, I shall point out some facts with which the reader must be made acquainted. The Americans are a restless, locomotive people; whether for business or pleasure, they are ever on the move in their own country, and they move in masses. There is but one conveyance, it may be said, for every class of people, the coach, rail-road, or steam-boat, as well as most of the hotels, being open to all; the consequence is that the society is very much mixed-the millionaire, the well-educated woman of the highest rank, the senator, the member of Congress, the farmer, the emigrant, the swindler, and the pick-pocket, are all liable to meet together in the same vehicle of conveyance. Some conventional rules were therefore necessary, and those rules have been made by public opinion a power to which all must submit in America. The one most important, and without which it would be impossible to travel in such a gregarious way, is an universal deference and civility shown to the women, who may in consequence travel without protection all over the United States without the least chance of annoyance or insult. This deference paid to the sex is highly creditable to the Americans; it exists from one end of the Union to the other; indeed, in the Southern and more lawless States, it is even more chivalric than in the more settled. . . . The railroads in America are not so well made as in England, and are therefore more dangerous. . . . One great cause of disasters is, that the railroads are not fenced on the sides, so as to keep the cattle off them, and it appears as if the cattle who range the woods are very partial to take their naps on the roads, probably from their being dryer than the other portions of the soil. It is impossible to say how many cows have been cut into atoms by the trains in America, but the frequent accidents arising from. these causes have occasioned the Americans to invent a sort of shovel, attached to the front of the locomotive, which takes up a cow, tossing her off right or left. At every fifteen miles of the railroads there are refreshment rooms; the cars stop, all the doors are thrown open, and out rush the passengers like boys out of school, and crowd round the tables to solace themselves with pies, patties, cakes, hard-boiled eggs, ham, custards, and a variety of railroad luxuries, too numerous to mention. The bell rings for departure, in they all hurry with their hands and mouths full, and off they go again, until the next stopping place induces them to relieve the monotony of the journey by masticating without being hungry. . The American innkeeper . . . is still looked upon in the light of your host; he and his wife sit at the head of the table d'hôte at meal times; when you arrive he greets you with a welcome, shaking your hand; if you arrive in company with those who know him, you are introduced to him; he is considered on a level with you; you meet him in the most respectable companies, and it is but justice to say that, in most instances, they are a very respectable portion of society. . . . The respect shown to the master of a hotel induces people of the highest character to embark in the profession; the continual stream of travellers which pours through the country gives sufficient support by moderate profits, to enable the innkeeper to abstain from excessive charges; the price of everything is known by all, and no more is charged to the President of the United States than to other people. Everyone knows his expenses; there is no surcharge, and fees to waiters are voluntary, and never asked for. At first I used to examine the bill when presented, but latterly I looked only at the sum total at the bottom and paid it at once, reserving the examination of it for my leisure, and I never in one instance found that I had been imposed upon. Capt. Marryat: Second Series of a Diary in America, PP. 3-5, 7-8, 9-10, 32-33. Collins, Philadelphia, 1840. QUESTIONS Describe the American stage-coach. How did it differ from the English? What complaints are made of the drivers and proprietors of stage-coaches? What American conventionalities made it safe for women to travel unescorted? How did the safety of travel on American railroads compare with that on English? What reason does Marryat assign for this? Do you know what the comparative degree of safety in travel is to-day? What position did Marryat find the inn keeper holding in American society as compared with European? XXIX THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ON WESTERN RIVERS Michel Chevalier (1806-1879) was a French economist and expert on questions of transportation. He was one of the earliest advocates of a transisthmian canal. The book from which the following extract is taken is a translation of a work written by Chevalier while he was on a mission of investigation for France in this country (1834-1836). . . All the commerce of the West was carried on by the Ohio and the Mississippi, which is, indeed, still, and probably always will be, the most economical route for bulky objects. The western boatmen descended the rivers with their corn and salt-meat in flat-boats, like the Seine coalboats; the goods of Europe and the produce of the Antilles, were slowly transported up the rivers by the aid of the oar and the sail, the voyage consuming at least one hundred days, and sometimes two hundred. . . . The commerce of the West, was, therefore, necessarily very limited and the inhabitants, separated from the rest of the world, had all the rudeness of the forest. It was in this period and this state of manners, that the popular saying, which describes the Kentuckian as half horse, half alligator, had its origin. The number of boats, which made the voyage up and down once a year, did not exceed ten, measuring on an average |