3. TRAVEL ON THE OLD NATIONAL ROAD

BENJAMIN S. PARKER

Read this selection to get a picture of the means of travel in the United States seventy-five to one hundred years ago.

The National Turnpike, sometimes called the Cumberland Road, built from Cumberland, Maryland, reached the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1818. Later it was extended to Columbus, Ohio, and to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1834; and was "opened"-the trees removed but the road not built-to Vandalia in 1852. The railroads overtaking it at Terre Haute, stopped its further western extension. Mail coaches needed seventy-five days to travel from Washington, District of Columbia, to Vandalia, Illinois.

From morning to night on the Old National Road there was a continual rumble of wheels, as the tens of thousands of eastern citizens migrated toward the West in the early part of the last century. When the rush was greatest, there was never a minute that wagons were not in sight and, as a rule, one company of wagons was closely followed by another.

Many families occupied two or more of the big road wagons then in use, with household goods and their implements, while extra horses, colts, cattle, sheep, and sometimes hogs were led or driven behind. Thus, when five or ten families were moving in company, the procession of wagons, men, women, children, and stock was quite lengthy and imposing. The younger women often drove the teams while the men and boys walked by turns, to drive and look after the stock. Now and then there would be an old-fashioned carriage, set upon high wheels to go safely over stumps and through streams. The older women and little children occupying these carriages went bobbing up and down on the great leather springs which were the fashion ninety years ago.

Not everybody travelled in that way. Single families, occupying only a one or two-horse wagon or cart, frequently passed along, seeming as confident and hopeful as the others; while even the resolute family, the members of which carried their worldly

possessions upon their backs or pushed them forward in handwagons, was not an unfamiliar spectacle to the little boys who watched by the way.

The wagons, horses, and other belongings of the movers were fair indications, both of their wordly condition and intelligence, and of the sections from whence they came. The great Pennsylvania wagons, with their elaborately panelled beds, running up high in front and rear, were also used by the better-to-do Virginians and Carolinians. There was this difference: the Pennsylvania wagons were very large and often drawn by four or six fine horses, well-matched for size and color, while the Virginians and Carolinians seldom drove more than two horses.

A company of these well-to-do movers with their great wagons, large, well-groomed horses in heavy harness, glittering with brass-headed rivets, rings, and other ornaments, with bows of melodious bells fastened either above the points of the hames or upon the heavy backbands, and with great housings of bearskin covering the shoulders, and red plumes nodding from the headgear, was a sight that the small boy put down in his book of memory, never to be forgotten.

Very different from the Pennsylvania wagons were the small southern carts, drawn by the little, bony southern horses. The Carolina wagons and carts were wrought of young oak timber that grew upon the old fields of the south. The wood was so tough of fiber and the vehicles so well constructed by the rural wagon-makers, that they stood up through the journey over the mountains and along the roughest of roads without the aid of so much as an iron nail, and without tires or any kind of metal brace. The feet of the horses or mules that drew them were also unshod. Children in the villages and upon the farms were quick to discover the arrival of a new Carolina family by the tracks of the tireless wheels and shoeless horses.

With the tinkling of the bells, the rumbling of the wheels, the noise of the animals, and the chatter of the people as they went forward, the little boy who had gone to the National Turnpike in 1830 from his lonesome home in the woods was captivated and carried away into the great active world. The greatest wonder and delight of all was the stage coach, radiant in new

paint and drawn by four matched horses in their showy harness, and filled inside and on top with well-dressed people. I think yet that there has never been a more graceful or handsome turnout than one of these old stage coaches drawn by a splendid team of matched horses, and driven by such men as used to handle the reins between Richmond and Indianapolis. We could hear the driver playing his bugle as he approached the little town, and it all seemed too grand to be other than a dream.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. What evidence do you find that the account was told by one who actually saw the old road and the travel upon it?

2. Which of the vehicles described by Parker most closely resembles the coach in Dickens's narrative.

Explain.

3. What can you guess about the pioneers from Pennsylvania and the pioneers from Carolina by contrasting their teams and wagons.

4. Volunteer talks:

a. The motion-picture called “The Covered Wagon."

b. A company of gypsies that passed our town.

c. A cross-country automobile trip.

d. The strangest vehicle I ever saw.

5. Volunteer writing:

a. Write an imaginary story: "Upset in the Creek."

b. Write a true story: "The Accident We Just Missed Having."

c. Put in verse form an imaginary incident on the Old National Road. d. Write an inscription suitable for the site of an old tavern.

6. Volunteer reading: Find and read one of these or any other poem or story about a horseback ride. Report during the General Review

(p. 487).

1. "The Diverting History of John Gilpin," William Cowper.

2. "Tam o' Shanter," Robert Burns.

3. "How They Brought the Good News," Robert Browning.
4. "The Highwayman," Alfred Noyes.

5. "Lochinvar," Sir Walter Scott.

6. "Paul Revere's Ride," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

7. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Washington Irving.

8. "The Title of the Passage,” The Talisman, chaps. 1, 2, Sir Walter Scott.

9. "By the Waters of Babylon," Henry van Dyke.

10. "Sheridan's Ride," Thomas B. Read.

II. "The Legend of Bregenz," Adelaide Proctor.

4. HORACE GREELEY'S RIDE

ARTEMUS WARD

Horace Greeley was a New York editor widely known and honored throughout the United States; at one time he was a candidate for the Presidency. This story about Greeley is told by Artemus Ward, one of America's famous humorists. Note the effect of the unexpected; of the awkward situations; of the gradual change in Greeley, and in Monk, the two principal characters.

When Mr. Greeley was in California, receptions awaited him at every town. He had written powerful editorials in The Tribune in favor of the Pacific Railroad, which had greatly endeared him to the citizens of the Golden State; therefore they made much of him when he went to see them.

At one town the enthusiastic populace tore his celebrated white coat to pieces and carried the pieces home to remember him by.

The citizens of Placerville prepared to feast the great journalist, and an extra coach with extra relays of horses was chartered of the California Stage Company to carry him from Folsom to Placerville - distance, forty miles. The extra was in some way delayed, and did not leave Folsom until late in the afternoon. Since Mr. Greeley was to be fêted at seven o'clock that evening by the citizens of Placerville, it was necessary that he should be there by that time. So the Stage Company said to Henry Monk, the driver of the extra: "Henry, this great man must be there by seven to-night." And Henry answered: "The great man shall be there.”

The roads were in a terrible state, and during the first few miles out of Folsom slow progress was made.

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"Sir," said Mr. Greeley, are you aware that I must be in Placerville at seven o'clock to-night?"

"I've got my orders!" replied Henry Monk.

Still the coach dragged slowly forward.

"Sir," said Mr. Greeley, "this is not a trifling matter. I must be there at seven!"

Again came the answer: "I've got my orders!"

But the speed was not increased, and Mr. Greeley chafed

away another half-hour; when, as he was again about to remonstrate with the driver, the horses suddenly started into a furious run, and all sorts of encouraging yells filled the air from the throat of Henry Monk.

"That is right, my good fellow," said Mr. Greeley. "I'll give you ten dollars if we get to Placerville on time. Now we are going!"

They were indeed, and at a terrible speed.

Crack, crack! went the whip, and again that voice split the air. "Get up! Hi-yi! G'long! Yip-yip!"

And on they tore over stones and ruts, up hill and down, at a rate of speed never before achieved by stage-horses.

Mr. Greeley, who had been bouncing from one end of the stage to the other like an India-rubber ball, managed to get his head out of the window, when he said:

"Do-on't-on't-on't you-u-u think we-e-e-e shall get there by seven if we do-on't-on't go-so-fast?"

"I've got my orders!" That was all Henry Monk said. And on tore the coach.

The ride was becoming serious. Already the journalist was extremely sore from the terrible jolting and again his head "might have been seen from the window."

"Sir," he said, "I don't care-care-air if we don't get there at

seven.'

forward again, faster

"I've got my orders!" Fresh horses than before over rocks and stumps, on one of which the coach narrowly escaped turning a somersault.

"See here!" shrieked Mr. Greeley, "I don't care if we don't get there at all."

"I've got my orders! I work for the California Stage Company, I do. That's wot I work fer. They said: 'Get this man through by seving.' An' this man's goin' through, you bet! Gerlong! Whoo-ep!"

Another frightful jolt, and Mr. Greeley's bald head suddenly found its way through the roof of the coach, amidst the crash of small timbers and the ripping of strong canvas.

"Stop, you maniac!" he roared.

Again answered Henry Monk: