236 POST-OFFICE STATISTICS. gon; and only seventy-five post-offices. The mail was often a week between New England and Philadelphia; a fortnight between Boston and Savannah; and in the winter almost as long in going between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. In 1800 the the post-office business of the whole United States did not exceed that of the State of New York at the POST-OFFICE STATISTICS. 237 present time. As late as 1810 there but 2,300 post-offices, or only a tithe of the number there is at present; while the receipts were but little over $500,000, against $6,000,000 now. In fact fifty per cent. more postage is paid at the present time on newspapers and magazines, than was paid on letters, newspapers, and every description of mailable matter in 1810. The great impulse has been given since 1830. At that period there were only 115,000 miles of post-routes, whereas now there are nearly twice that quantity. there were less than 9,000 post-offices; now there are over 23,000. The last five-and-twenty years have, therefore, exhibited a progress, in this department of civilization, that is in advance even of the growth of the population, rapid as that has been. Then The whole number of mail-routes now existing in the United States, is 6,692 ; aggregate length 217,743 miles; annual transportation 61,892,542 miles; of which there are on rail-roads 12,986,705 miles; on steamboats 6,685,065 miles; in coaches 21,330,326 miles; and in modes not specified, 20,890,446 miles. And yet notwithstanding these statistics, which show a progress within a century almost exceeding belief, the American postal system is the worst managed department of the government, inferior to the systems of England or France, and a disgrace to the nation. When William Hutton, in the middle of last century, started from Nottingham (where he earned a scanty living as a bookbinder) and walked to London and back for the purpose of buying tools, he was nine days from home, six of which were spent in going and returning. He traveled on foot, dreading robbers, and still more dreading the cost of food and lodging at public houses. His whole expenses during this toilsome expedition were only ten shillings and eight pence; but he contented himself with the barest necessaries, keeping the money for his tools sewed up his shirt 238 INTRODUCTION OF STAGE-COACHES. collar. If William Hutton had lived in these days, he would, upon sheer principles of economy, have gone to London by the rail-road train at a cost of twenty shillings for his transit, in one forenoon, and returned in another. The twenty shillings would have been sacrificed for his conveyance, but he would have had a week's labor free to go to work with his new tools; he need not have sewed his money in his shirt-collar for fear of thieves; and his shoes would not have been worn out and his feet blistered in his toilsome march of two hundred and fifty miles. In consequence of the inattention of the people of England and the continent of Europe to roads, and the wretched state in which these were usually kept, it was long before the use of coaches of any kind came into fashion. Although wheeled vehicles of various kinds were in use among the ancients, the close carriage, or coach, is of modern invention. Charles I. was the first English sovereign who had a state coach, and a Scotch writer of 1617 speaks of coaches as recently introduced and still rare in Scotland. It is a very curious fact that the same sort of complaints which have been made in England and the United States, within the past thirty years, respecting the introduction of rail-way communication, were also made when coaches were first introduced. In a pamphlet called the " Great Concern of England Explained," published in 1673, the writer very gravely attempts to make out that the introduction of coaches was ruining the trade of England. The following is an example of his method of reasoning: "Before coaches were set up, travelers rode on horseback, and men had boots, spurs, saddles, bridles, saddle-cloths, and good ridingsuits, coats and cloaks, stockings and hats, whereby the wood and leather of the kingdom was consumed. Besides, most gentlemen, when they traveled on horseback, used to INTRODUCTION OF STAGE-COACHES. 239 ride with swords, belts, pistols, holsters, portmanteaus and hat-cases, for which in these coaches they have little or no occasion. For when they rode on horseback, they rode in one suit, and carried another to wear when they came to their journey's end; but in coaches they ride in a silk suit, silk stockings, beaver hats, etc., and carry no other with them. This is because they escape the wet and dirt, which upon horseback they can not avoid; whereas, in two or three journeys on horseback, these clothes and hats were wont to be spoiled; which done they were forced to have new very often, and that increased the consumption of manufactures." Further on the same writer puts the following query: "Is it for a man's health or business to be laid fast in four ways; to ride all day with strangers, oftentimes sick, diseased, ancient persons, or young children crying; all whose humors he is obliged to put up with, and is often poisoned by their nasty scents, and crippled with their boxes and bundles ?" As an additional objection against the introduction of coaches, the writer urges that they will discourage the breeding, and lessen the value of horses, an argument which, it is amusing to observe, was used in Massachusetts a few years since, when it was proposed to construct the rail-road from Boston to Albany. Arguments of a similar absurd nature are now used in reference to almost every proposed amelioration of our social condition, and will, doubtless, a century hence, be quoted as evidence of the short-sightedness of the present generation, although they now receive countenance and support from a large proportion of the community. Notwithstanding the introduction of stage-coaches into England, the popular mode of transportation, up to the commencement of the present century, was by means of large cumbersome wagons, drawn by six or eight horses, and devoted chiefly to the carriage of merchandise. The 240 RESULTS OF IMPROVED LOCOMOTION. space only part of the vehicle which afforded accommodation to passengers was the tail of the wagon, as it was called--a reserved at the hind end-and here, seated upon straw, the passengers were slowly conveyed upon their journey. The incidents of travel in these vehicles are graphically described by Smollet, in his story of Roderick Random. Wagons of a similar character are still in use in Virginia, for the transportation of goods and plantation produce. They are provided with huge broad wheels, covered with canvas sustained upon hoops, and usually drawn by six horses or mules, the driver riding upon one of them. They are extremely unwieldy in form and structure, and are usually drawn with a needless expenditure of power. A very few years ago it was not uncommon to hear men say that the wonderful results of improved locomotion, the greatest triumphs of modern skill, were not a blessing; for the machinery had put somebody out of employ. Baron |