After the war, business did not fall off materially, for the great Western migration was on, and every one who made it went armed. The pioneer and the traveler depended upon the Colt in an emergency, and the workmanship was so good that the revolver itself never failed. It played a great part again in the Civil War, for most of the Northern troops, in addition to their Springfield rifles, carried Colt revolvers. Thus the idea that a runaway boy evolved during his trip to India helped to win the Mexican War, to settle the West, and to decide the Civil War. THE FIRST EXPRESSMAN. A Great Industry Began When a Man Decided to Carry Parcels Between Boston and New York. William Frederick Harnden, when quite a young man, worn out by his sixteen hours a day work in the office of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, came to New York for a short rest. That was in 1839, and there were in the United States 2,818 miles of railroad, all built within the previous ten years, as against the 212,000 or more miles that exist at present. There was no express company in those days, so Harnden said to a friend, James W. Hale: "I'm sick of working in a railroad office. Do you know, I think that I could make a living doing errands between New York and Boston for people?" Hale took up the idea at once. He was employed in the Hudson Newsroom, at the corner of Wall and Water Streets, and one of his duties was to bring papers down to the Boston boat on its tri-weekly trips. Besides the papers, he also carried various consignments of money, or parcels from persons who could not get down to the boats themselves. These parcels were then turned over to some passenger who was willing to deliver them. On the stage line the drivers or the passengers were the parcel deliverers, and no one ever thought of asking money for his services. "Go ahead," Hale said to Harnden. "You can make money. I'll get you a lot of customers right here in New York." Carpetbags First Express Cars. Harnden bought a couple of extra large carpetbags, and announced that he was in the errand-running business, and would transport parcels between Boston and New York, or between intermediate points, at remarkably low prices. The idea took. It was now possible to send goods with some surety of their reaching the desired point in a reasonable time, instead of waiting until some good-natured traveler or stage-driver came along and agreed to make the delivery. Harnden prospered, for the railroads were reaching out in all directions. Instead of the stage lines that ran out of Boston there were now three railroads that did most of the business. New York's stage lines were also rapidly disappearing, their work being taken over by the railroads. All this enabled Harnden to systematize his work, and by hiring a couple of assistants, each carrying two carpetbags, to cover the New York and southern New England district with tolerable regularity.