Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-03-13
The United States After the Rev
OlutlonarY War.

March Atlantic: AT the time OF our
revolution the difficulties of
travelling formed an important
social obstacle to the union
OF tho states. In our time. the persons
who pass in a single day between New
York and Boston by six or seven dis
tinct lines of railroad or steamboat
are numbered by thousands. In 1888
two stage-coaches were enough for all
the travellers, and nearly all thefreight
besides, that went between these two
cities. The journey began at three
o'clock in the morning. Horses were
changed every twenty miles. and if the
roads were in good condition some
forty miles would be made by ton
o'clock in the evening. In bad
weather, when the passengers had to
get down and lift the clumsy wheels
out of deep ruts, the progress was
much slower. The loss Of life from
accident, in proportion to the Number
OF travellers, was much greater than it
has wei been on the railway. Broad
rivers like the Connecticut and HOusa-
tonic had no bridges. To drive across
them in winter, when they were solidly
frozen over, was easy; and in pleasant
summer weather to cross in a row-boat
was not a dangerous undertaking. But
squalls ut some seasons and floating
ice at others were things to be feared.
More than one instance is recorded
where boats were crushed and !passen-
gers drowned, or saved only by scram-
bling upon i~ce-floes. After a week or
ten days of discomfort and danger the
iolted and jaded traveller reached New
York. Such vas "A lOurI ey in the most
highly civilized part OF the United
States. The casa was still worse in
the south, and it was not so very much
better in England and France. In one
respect the traveller in the United
States Jared better than the traveller in
Europe: the danger from highwaymen
was bat slight.
Such being the difficulty of travel
ing. people never made long journeys
save for very important a Ex-
cept in the case of the soldiers, most
people lived and died without ever
having seen any state but their own.
And as the mails were irregular and
uncertain, and the rates Of postage
very high, people heard from one an
| other very seldom. Commercial deal
ings between the different states were
inconsiderable. The occupation of
the people was chiefly agriculture.
Cities were few and small, and
each little district for the most part
supported itself. Under such clrcum-
stances the different parts of the coun-
try knew very little about each other.
and local pr~ejudices were intense. Ii
was not simply free Massachusetts and
slave.holding South Carolina. or Eng
! fish Connecticut and Dutch New York,
that misunderstood and ridiculed each
! tho other; but even between such
neighboring states as Connecticut and
Massachusetts, both of them thorough
ly English and Puritan, and in all
their social conditions almost exactly
alike, it used often to be said that
there was no love lost. These UNI
speakably stupid and contemplate To-
cal ant!pathies are inherited by civil
lied men from that far-Otf time
when the clan system prevailed
over the face of the earth, and
the hand of every clan was
raised against its neighbors. They
are pale and evanescent survivsls from
the universal primitive warfare. and
the sooner they die out from human
society tho better for every one. They
should be stigmatized and frowned
down upon every fit occasion, just as
we frown upon swearing as a symbol
Gf anger and contention. But the only
thing which can finally destroy them
is the widespread and unrestrained in
cou of different groups of people
in peaceful, social, and commercial re-
~lations. The rapidity with which this
process is now going on is tho mos
encouraging of all the symptoms o.
our modern civilization. Bus a century
ago the progress made in this direc
ton had been relatively small, and i
was a very critical moment for thu
American people.