The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-08-25

or the roads could be travelled. His
stock could be renewed only twice a
wear. This was the manner in which
country traders with New York and
other large places were supplied, and it
will be realized how much was neces-
sarily added to the price of their goods
by so much increased expenditure of
time for travelling, and for cost of trans.
portation.
In merely domestic matters, our
friends in the country were often com.
PEELED to wait until some neighbor or
acquaintance was going to the city or
to the nearest large town, in order that
the new bonnet or dress, or some article
of better quality, or newer fashion than
was to be found at their country home,
could be obtained from other quarters.
This trouble was almost invariably
attended with great amount OF in
direct blessings from the traveller, whose
trunk would frequently be crowded
with goods not his own and as to band
boxes, where is the man who did not
always have horror Of them-or the
woman either, unless they were her
own?
The same difficulty was constantly
staring in the face of city folks, when
they wished to send some little matter
to their country friends, or few good
things from home to Johnny or Sarah
at school in some distant village. 1t
was a cause of universal perplexity in
town and country TO find the how and
when.
| do not vouch for its correctness,
but very worthy old gentleman
recently gave me what he said was the
organ of the classical expression, " to
put his foot into it," He states that an
old lady was travelling in a stage coach,
with her new bonnet in a bandbox,
nicely slowed away under her seat. a
passenger got out, and the handbook
having been shaken from its place, the
old lady exclaimed: "Oh, dear, he has
put his foot in it.
In the country, where there was a
stage running weekly, or oftener, the
usual mode of getting small articles be-
tween one place and another, was by
employing the ready services of the
local stage.driver. The good man or
woman would watch his coming, the
stage.man would stop and receive
his message, nine times in ten only
verbal, and frequently loud enough to
be heard over ten acre lot, and drivers
in those days must have had wonderful
memories. However, the stage joys
along and the passengers have another
pleasant opportunity of gossiping about
their neighbors' affairs.
On the return trip of the stage, the
looked-for bundle or package would be
pulled out from under the drivers seat
and handed to the person waiting at
the cate and if a package of goods had
been purchased with the drivers funds,
the bill would be tucked under the
string, and the next time the stage
came along, the amount of the bill
would be handed up, with an extra
quarter or halfdollar for his services.
Many of these old stage-drivers were
men of considerable wealth, and gener-
ally their social position was as good as
that of their customers. They were, as
a class very good-natured set of men
for none of them would have been an
noyed or displeased if occasionally
asked to keep the stage waiting a few
moments, to enable the good woman
who was tC be a passenger, TO take her
batch of bread from the oven, or gather
in her weeks washing from the clothes
line.
No one who remembers the old stage
coach days, but may recall many ludi-
crous and some unpleasant circumstan-
ces Of his own knowledge. Merely
recounting one incident, we will drive
on our route:
A lady of Boston was on a visit to
Baltimore, and few days before her
departure neighbor requested that she
would take small parcel TO her son,
then at school in Boston. OF course.
assent was given, and the lady's baggage
was already for the stage, when the
parcel was brought in, hastily thrust
into the trunk, and was not again seen
by the owner for week or so. Upon
opening the trunk she mildly re-
marked, being a clergyman's wife
"Well, | declare, | don't think it a
good place to put women's clothes and
Scotch herrings together" Perhaps
even now others may have the same
opinion.
After a lapse of some years, steam
boats began to ply upon our waters,
and then many of the most
important orders were entrusted
to the captains and clerks, while
many little errands in humble life were
done by the deck-han and firemen.
Then came the railroad car, and similar
services were performed by conductors
and other employees on the road.
And now, how all is changed To-
day, if the merchant of Cincinnati,
Buffalo, or Boston, requires certain mer-
chandise from New York or Philadel
phia, he can either come to the city in
few hours, purchase his goods, and
have them at his home within four or
five days, at any season of the year. or
he can send his orders by mail or tele-
graph, and receive them promptly by
express, without any interruption to
home duties. And if lady in Boston
or Philadelphia should this morning
have called at a store in either of those
cities, and desired to purchase an arti-
Gle which the shop.lleeper did not hap
pen to have on hand, he might say,
Madam, if you will call in tomorrow
morning, the goods you desire will be