The daily gazette., 1878-02-13
SECOND EDITION
MAILS BY COACH AND RAIL.
THE OLD AND THE NEW IN THE
FT US. POST OFFICE. IS.

II .. ~ Col or ~ T.. ...Is 4
COL. RESIDE, extra BILLY" SMITH,
TOM EWING, DANIEL WEBSTER, AND
COLONEL TOM sCoTT's FATHER.
PETER cooPER's LOCOMOTIVE.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.-Col. John +.
Reside, son of James Reside, the first
Of the heavy mail contractors in the Uni
ted States, says that from 1927 to 1886 he
carried passengers and the mails between
Philadelphia and Baltimore, during the
season of navigation as follows From
Philadelphia to New Castle, Del, by
steamboat. From New Castle in coaches
across the Peninsula, sixteen miles, to
Frenchtown, and then to Baltimore by
steamboat.
In the winter, when navigation was
closed, two stage lines were run from
Philadelphia to Baltimore. The time be-
tween Philadelphia aud Baltimore by
the Wilmington line was usually twenty
four hours, but when the roads were very
bad sixty hours were frequently con-
sumed. BY the river route the usual
time was eleven hours. About 1929 or
1880 the New Castle and Frenchtown
Railroad was built. The cars used on
this line were simply the Troy coach
bodies swung on strap ps and elipticsprings
! and placed on trucks and drawn by horses
driven tandem. This was one of the first
railroads in the United States on which
steam was used. The road was torn up
in 1850, after the completion of the Phila-
delphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore
Railroad.
In 1923, Col Reside began to carry the
mails between Philadelphia and Pitts
burgh. There were two lines owned by
Reside, Slaymaker & Co.; one carrying
| the letter mail, called 1.-THE Good Intent"
the other carrying the newspaper mail,
was known as "The Telegraph" "The
Good Intent" ran by the way Of Harris
burg, Chambersburg, Somerset, and Mt.
Pleasant, to Pittsburgh; "The Telegraph"
by the way of Columbia, York, Gettys-
burg, Chambersburg, Bedford, and
Greensburg, to Pittsburgh. "The Good
Intent" made the run from Philadelphia
to Pittsburg in 80 hours, while "The Tele-
graph" consumed ~ hours. In 1884 the
speed Of the Telegraph line was brought
| up to that of the Good Intent, for which
additional pay amounting to $4,000 a
year was given by the Department. This
increased pay caused the celebrated con-
troversy over "extra allowances" and
the whole subject was investigated by a
committee of which Tom Ewing, then
United States Senator from Ohio, was
Chairman. At the same time the speed
of the Southern mails was increased and
ex-Gov. William Smith, of Virginia, then
i a mail contractor, managing the principal
lines South, received extra allowances
also. 1t was in this way that he obtained
the soubriquet of Extra Billy" by which
he is known to the present generation;
The allowance made for expediting the
service between Pittsburg and Philadel-
phia of 81 900 a month was then consid-
cred gross extravaganza, and 1t was
argued that the people west of the noun
tains could afford to wait twenty hours
longer for their Eastern newspapers.
, Nowadays, the Post Office Department
thinks nothing of spending 100000 a
. year to give a few struggling settlements
in Arizona and New Mexico their mails
six hours earlier. The line from Mesilia
to San Diego, which was let four years
ago for S55,000 per annum, at rate OF
lspeed which did not require the single
horse that carried the mail to travel out
of a slow walk, has since been increased
to $333, 900 year and still the speed can
scarcely be called a fast walk.
Tom Ewing. who started the investi-
cations in 1884. was violent opponent
of General Jackson, and was as great an
advocate of the United States Bank as
his son Tom, now member of Congress,
is bitter in his opposition to the national
banks. In one of his speeches Ewing,
Senior, In speaking of the ruin and mis-
cry brought upon the country by Gen
Jackson's order removing the deposits
from the United States Bank and its
branches, said thai the turnpikes in Ohio
were growing up with grass, and that
the canal was a solitude He was ever
afterward known as 1om Solitude Ew-
ing. One day Dan Webster, who had
been out drinking with party OF
frienns, entered the old Senate chamber,
/ cif
very glum, stepped in front of him and
quoted the following lines from Cow
pers poem on Alexander Selkrk:
Oh, Solitude where are the charms
Which sages have seen In thy face?
The roads between Philadelphia and
Pittsburg-the old Pennsylvania pike
and the Glade road-over which the
Good Intent and Telegraph lines ran,
were long famous for the excellent road
side inns at which the travellers took
their meals. Old-time travellers over these
lroads will recall with pleasure the names
of Reamer's at Siding Hill Denison's, at
the crossing of the Juniati MendelPs,
at Ligonier and Hawkes., at Greenburg.
The little village of Loudon, fourteen
miles west of Chambsrsburg, at the foot
of Cove mountain, was in those days a
famous stopping place for wagons. The
best Conestoga wagons were made there
by man named Burkholder. There
also were made the best butt chains, the
iron used being manufactured from ores
dug out of Cove mountain. The long
black snake whip, which every wagoneI
carried, was also made at Loudon, and
to this day in Western Pennsylvania this
sort of whip is called the Loudon whip.
A man named Scott kept the wagon
stand, or tavern, at Loudon. he was the
father of Thomas A. Scott, the President
of the Pennsylvania Railroad.