Proceeding westward from Hagan's old tavern, the next point is the village of Middletown, which hoped to become a city, and might have succeeded, had not the steam railway eclipsed the glory of the old pike. At Middletown the stages had relays of horses. One of the stage houses at this point was kept by ---- Titlow, a relative of F. B. Titlow, of Uniontown. Here also there was a wagon stand, kept by Samuel Riddlemoser. This was in 1840. In the spring of 1841 Riddlemoser moved to the Widow McGruder house, one mile west of Middletown. The McGruder house was well conducted, and enjoyed a large patronage. South Mountain comes next, and here a tavern was kept by one Miller. It was a wagon stand, a stone building, on the north side of the road. The battle of South Mountain was fought here, but the roar of the cannon failed to awaken the departed glories of the old Miller tavern. One mile west of South Mountain, Petter Zettle, a German, kept a tavern. It was a wagon stand, and a popular one. The house was of brick, and stood on the south side of the road. The old landlord was accustomed to join in the merry-making of the old wagoners, and as the jokes went around in the old bar room, the German spice was plainly discernible as well as agreeable, in unison with the familiar notes of the native pike boys. One mile west of Zettle's, Robert Fowler kept a wagon stand. Fowler quit in 1839, and was succeeded by Emanuel Harr, who conducted the house for many years. Joe Garver, a noted blacksmith, had a shop at this point. Garver, it is said, could cut and replace as many as a dozen wagon tires in a single night. It was not an uncommon thing for the old blacksmiths of the road to work all night at shoeing horses and repairing wagons. CHAPTER XXVII. _Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers continued--Boonsboro to Cumberland--Funkstown, Antietam, Hagerstown, Dirty Spigot, Shady Bower, Clear Spring, North Mountain, Indian Spring, Hancock--The House of Nicodemus--Accident on Sideling Hill, the Longest Hill on the Road--Snib Hollow--Town Hill--Green Ridge--Pratt's Hollow--A Fugitive Slave--Polish Mountain--Flintstone--Martin's Mountain._ "It stands all alone like a goblin in gray, The old-fashioned inn of a pioneer day, In a land so forlorn and forgotten, it seems Like a wraith of the past rising into our dreams; Its glories have vanished, and only the ghost Of a sign-board now creaks on its desolate post, Recalling a time when all hearts were akin As they rested at night in that welcoming inn." JAMES NEWTON MATTHEWS.