Smyrna times., 1873-04-16
Travelling Sixty Years Ago.

The comfortable New York citizen of to-day
thinks it an intoerahle hardship, or worse,
that you suggest to him as possible duty that
he should go to Albany as a member of the
Legislature. But let him think OF his father
going to Albany sixty and seventy years ago |
To-day the traveller proceeds in a comfortable |
carriage or a horse Car to the most magnificent |
railway station in the cOuntry-and if so, why |
not i'll the world ? His luggage is carefully |
checked, and having bought his ticket, and the
newspapers of the day and week. and the
monthly magazines, he awaits in the most
spacious hall the opening of the door to the
platform. A bell strikes, and he passes out
and enters car, which is a comfortable draw.
ing room, prettily furnished and pleasantly
warmed. Seated in an easy chair by the
window, he opens his paper or his book while
he rolls quietly through the finest winter land
scape, which he enjoys as in the soft English
June he might enjoy the Turner vigncttes of
the mid Alps hung in the Sheepshanks
! Gallery. The winter is mere picture to him
''as he sails, as he sails He may carry his
own lunch-basket and eat at his pleasure, or he
may take hot oyster or bite Of cold chicken,
with cup of coffee or glass of ale, at
Pnughkeepsie Then, after five hours of de
Ightful travel, although the mercury has
lowered about zero all day, he arrives in
Albany before the sun sets, and is presently
housed
So luxurious is the travel of to-day 1t
deties Jack Frost, and he has but two revenges
He may snap the rail- or he may build a
barrlcade OF snow. Yet in the event of serious
accident or obstruction the remedy on a we'll
ordered road is so simple that the respected
ancestor who travelled in 1910, if he could only
know 1t, would be full of admiration, and pos
sbly regret his premature translation Thus
( IN the great January thaw and rain of this veal
t the smoothly continuous train, which stops
D ORly halt dozen times between Rochester and
D New \ YOrk, had nearly reached the Stockport
S bridge, little above the city Of Hudson, upol
D the Hudson River, when it stopped quietly
e One of the passengers, who was reading wher
Y the train stopped looked out and saw where i
!. was, and remembering other winters when thu
Il bridge had been swept away by the driftinl
u ice, knew at once the probable difficulty
e was as he suppOsed-the bridge was gone
q Fancy that travelling ancestor in 1910 stoppe
in his journey to Albany by the Joss of bridg
d when the thaw had made the ice too weak t.
d bear! Imagine the infinite delays doubts, cor
" sultatiOns, expedients inexpressibe discoM
Te forts! But his comfortable descendant satuuietl
}. reading until the difficulty should disappea
lg The conductor telegraphed for orders to Albany
le He received directions to return, and the trai
$, rolled steadily back again until it stood again
O the Albany station, upon the architectural gl
lp ries and the comforts of which, indeed, that a
Is. cestor might indulge in some dry criticism. B
en- scarcely was the train stopped, when, befo
ee there could be that disturbing wonder, "Wh
nv next?" with the simultaneous disappearan
lie of every one who could answer the questio
res the door opened, and proclamation was ma
en- that the train, including that very car, wou
if proceed by the way of Chatham Four Cone
n to New York.
mp Then the bewildered ancestor would ha
ely seen his descendants Fastening to little W
Lch dow to say to their wives and mothers, hu
dred and fifty miles away, that they would I
MS arrive until later hour; and some mode
the wag would have told them that now a,d;
ties a man could not easily travel more than
ice hour or two S speaking distance from hou
.rn- Now, then, times up. Would the revere
end ancestor take drop of-tea before startiu
to Aud at the hour the train rolled off aga
IDLY moving gently toward Chatham, out of tin
nth gently back again to Hudson, below the bro
s bridge, having made violent acute angle;
ven then steadily and smoothly it wound along
had edge of the frozen river, in the moonlight,
and reached New York in the early morning
With is the way in which to-day we go to and Fl
opts Albany, in the most rigorous season. Cont
rigi- it with the journeys of our grandfatl
tion tbitherl And with what unimaginable C
lade fort and rapidity will our grandchildr
ople great grandchildren make the same journe.
and Hdrper's Magazine for April.