The Paths of Inland Commerce; A Chronicle of Trail, Road, and Waterway — John Shaqi
The Paths of Inland Commerce; A Chronicle of Trail, Road, and WaterwayHulbert, Archer Butler
History
The Paths of Inland Commerce; A Chronicle of Trail, Road, and Waterway
Hulbert, Archer Butler
Transportation -- United States -- History
From Norfolk Baily passed northward to Baltimore, paying a fare of ten
dollars, and from there he went on to Philadelphia, paying six dollars
more. On the way his stagecoach stuck fast in a bog and the passengers
were compelled to leave it until the next morning. This sixty-mile road
out of Baltimore was evidently one of the worst in the East. Ten years
prior to this date, Brissot, a keen French journalist, mentions the
great ruts in its heavy clay soil, the overturned trees which blocked
the way, and the unexampled skilfulness of the stage drivers. All
travelers in America, though differing on almost every other subject,
invariably praise the ability of these sturdy, weather-beaten American
drivers, their kindness to their horses, and their attention to their
passengers. Harriet Martineau stated that, in her experience, American
drivers as a class were marked by the merciful temper which accompanies
genius, and their perfection in their art, their fertility of resource,
and the gentleness with which they treated female fears and fretfulness,
were exemplary.
In the City of Brotherly Love Baily notes the geniality of the people,
who by many travelers are called aristocratic, and comments on Quaker
opposition to the theater and the inconsequence of the Peale Museum,
which travelers a generation later highly praise. Proceeding to New York
at a cost of six dollars, he is struck by the uncouthness of the public
buildings, churches excepted, the widespread passion for music, dancing,
and the theater, the craze for sleighing, and the promise which the
harbor gave of becoming the finest in America. Not a few travelers in
this early period gave expression to their belief in the future
greatness of New York City. These prophecies, taken in connection with
the investment of eight millions of dollars which New Yorkers made in
toll-roads in the first seven years of this new century, incline one to
believe that the influence of the Erie Canal as a factor in the
development of the city may have been unduly emphasized, great though it
was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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