being a grievance or a monopoly, that by this means, and no other, a trade has been carried on between Philadelphia, Burlington, Amboy and New York, which was never known before, and in all probability never would have been." The monopoly lasted for only a few years, and the twice-a-month wagon between the two cities can hardly be called the introduction of the element of regularity into land transportation. In truth the roads did not yet permit of the establishment of travel facilities as a business enterprise. During a considerable part of the year they were little else than mud-holes of a length equal to the distance between the two points they connected, and from ten to twenty feet wide. No important bridges had yet been built in the colonies, and few of any sort. No stream more than a few yards in width had been spanned by such a structure and the 1 The governor was short-sighted. To-day he could make five or six round trips between the two cities in twenty-four hours, using only regular public conveyances. One of the factors that no doubt contributed to the establishment of regular trips for stage wagons (the first periodic travel vehicles in America) was the ear y postal service, which did attain at times a slight semblance of regularity. The carriers travelled on horses. A summary of the development of the primitive post is here given: 1673.-First land conveyance of letters between New York and Boston. Time, three weeks. 1692.-Attempt to establish postal service in Virginia. Result a failure. Cause, "the dispersed condition of the inhabitants." 1717.-Mails carried from Boston to Virginia in one month during the summer; in winter the time was two months. 1720. Regular mail from Philadelphia to New York once a week. Time of trip three days. 1729. Regular mail each way between the same cities; once a week in the summer and twice a month in winter. Time of trip, two and a half days. 1754. Franklin made Colonial Postmaster. He reduced the trip between New York and Philadelphia to about thirty-six hours and sent mails three times every week, except in winter, when two mails a week were despatched. 1755.-Franklin established a weekly mail between Philadelphia and Boston and announced with some pride that a letter might be sent from one city to the other, and an answer received, in three weeks. The time for such service was thus cut exactly in half. 1764.-Mails between Philadelphia and New York carried in twenty-four hours, by relay, and letters sent every other day. 1790.-Regular mails between Boston and New York. Time, five days. Sent three times a week. The times given fairly indicate the swiftest travel between the towns ramed. The law passed by Pennsylvania colony in 1683 is an example of early bridge and highway legislation. In part it read as follows: "Bridges shall be built over all small creeks and rivers that are difficult, or apt to he high by sudden Rain, in the King's highway, which bridges shall be ten feet broad and a rail on each side; and that all trees stubbs, and stumps of trees, that lie in, and cross the said highway, and all passages [meaning fords] in and out of creeks and branches may be made safe and easy both for herse and cart, at the charge of the respective counties. And such overseers shall summon in all their inhabitants of the respective limits, to come in and work at the making of all highways and bridges therein, upon penalty of five pounds traveller had to cross every river worthy of the name in a ferry boat or encamp on the bank until the subsidence of a freshet permitted him, in a few days, to proceed. None of the early laws relating to the establishment of ferries and the rates of toll exacted for their use make 47.-A stage wagon such as was used in the East from about 1780 until 1800. It followed the Flying Machine variety of conveyance, and was an intermediate link between the canvas-covered wagon and the later stage-coach. Similar to the colored engraving reproduced as the frontispiece to Volume I. mention of wheeled vehicles of any sort. The Pennsylvania ferry acts of 1683, 1690 and 1693 refer to packhorses, and to hogs, sheep and other farm animals, and fix a rate of "two pence a head for carrying over every 1 The first ferries were single canoes, or two or more such craft lashed together. The second type was a wide, flat-bottomed plank boat moved by pole or oars. The third sort was a similar flatboat pulled across the stream by a rope or propelled by sails. person, and with a horse, four pence." The New Jersey ferry legislation of 17161 only named toll rates for a "single person" or for "horse and man." Then came a first inkling of what the future held in store. Road vehicles appeared and multiplied. The primitive two-wheeled cart and heavy, slow moving wagon, in neither of which could rivers be crossed or long journeys made, blossomed into land craft designed exclusively for travel purposes. The change took place during the years between 1716 and 1723, and, as might be expected, on the road between Philadelphia and New York. Pennsylvania colony established the ferry across the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia and the eastern shore of that stream in 1723, and in the law then enacted is to be found a recognition of the new conditions which had arisen. The ferry charges were: "For a coach or chariot, one shilling. For a chaise of four wheels, six pence. For a chaise of two wheels, four pence. For a cart or wagon, with their loading, one shilling; and without loading, six pence. For a sled, loaded or unloaded, one penny." Soon the highway between the two towns became busy with various types of equipages, more taverns sprang up along the route for the accommodation of wayfarers and the road itself, under the pressure of necessity, was made fit for the first stage wagons and the establishment of public conveyances as a distinct and separate commercial enterprise. Periodicity and regularity as elements of travel in America seem to have appeared -so far as the records 1 Dealing with the ferry over the Raritan, at New Brunswick, which had been established in 1696. A four-wheeled vehicle with the body entirely enclosed, and used exclusively for travel purposes. The two The chaise has been mentioned. It was a "chair" with a covered top. wheeled chaise somewhat resembled a modern sulky with a leather rain shelter. 1 show in the year 17321 and the men who first introduced those features into the transportation system of the continent were Solomon Smith and James Moore, of Burlington, New Jersey. The Philadelphia Mercury, in March of that year, contained the following an nouncement: "This is to give notice unto gentlemen, merchants, tradesmen, travellers and others, that Solomon Smith and James Moore, of Burlington, keepeth two stage wagons intending to go from Burlington to Amboy, and back from Amboy to Burlington again, once every week or oftener if that business presents. They have also a very good storehouse, very commodious for the storing of any sort of merchants' goods free from any charges, where good care will be taken of all sorts of goods." From that advertisement and the little business whose establishment it proclaims have grown all the schedules, time tables, railway stations, freight depots and the whole complex system of movement which has become the chief and indispensable feature of modern American life. Small thought did its originators give to the nature of the enterprise whose seed they planted. Yet the principle of organizing and selling periodic transportation was destined to creep unheeded over the land by such slow and imperceptible degrees, and with so many alterations in its outward appearance and its relations to the public need, that it had become the master of all men and the arbiter of their affairs before the people awoke to an understanding of its relation to them and the country. At last they have realized what it means. Had they appreciated at an early day the potencies which lay concealed within that principle there is little doubt that the history of the last few generations would have been differently written. The legacy bequeathed by Solomon 1 The event may have occurred a little earlier without any prominent contemporary record of it. If so, the first regular transportation of travellers no doubt took place in the neighborhood of Boston. |