The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-09-11
STAGING DAYS.
A Veteran Drivers Interesting Chat About
the Days Preceding Railroads.


The men who drove stages in Canada
before the days of railways are be-
coming fewer as the time passes away.
There are several who live in or near
Toronto, and about the most ex-
perienced of them is a man who began
driving in 1881 and is now sixty-six
years of age. He was born in South
Carolina March %, 1920, and was
brought to Upper Canada by his parents
when he was ten years of ace. He is
best known in this city by the some
what suggestive name of Whisky Bill.
1t was not on account of his fondness
for liquor that he received this title.
for sober men were always selected as
stage-drivers, but through little in
cident which occurred at Posts Hotel,
on the Kingston road, twenty-five miles
from Toronto, early in his driving
career. At this then famous hostelry
some waggish fellows agreed one night
to ''put up a job on Bill. Whisky
was cheap, and so they all Clipped in
and bought forty-two gallons at
eighteen cents per gallon. They
fastened the barrel containing the
liquor overhead in the bar room, and
when Bill came in on his next trip they
tilted the cask and drenched him with
its contents. Ever since then he has
been known far and near as "Whisky
Bill"
Bill recently recounted some inter
esting "reminiscences of the old staging
days. Staging was done in the
winter" said Bill, lin common lumber
wagons with wooden springs, which
went inside the box and canvas covers.
In summer thorough brace coaches,
as they were called, were used. They
had leather springs, and were covered
as hacks are now. They were built to
carry twelve inside passengers and
two outside comfortably. tell you a
man could ride like a leech on one of
them. We could make seventeen miles
in two and one-half hours quite easily.
Each driver used to have IA run of
seventeen miles, and he always re-
manned with his horses whenever they
stopped. In the spring it was very
hard to get along. [ have seen Yonge
street so heavy that four horses could
not drag coach to Bloor street
under two hours. They would con-
stantly be in danger of getting mired.
drove on Yonge street to Richmond
Hill for two years, and then went on
the route from Haysvlle to Stratford
and from Preston to Haysville. also
drove between Gait and Guelph. After
left the West used to run on different
sections of the road between Toronto
and Bowmanville, and | continued
there for eighteen years. | have been
sixteen hours going from the Rogue to
Oshawa, a distance of fifteen miles.
The Rogue is the name of a creek
when the roads were bad passengers
have had to get out and walk most Of
the way with rails over their shoulders
to pry the coach out of the mud. In
winter the snow-banks were terror.
remmembcr once in 1851 we lost a
mailbag on the Roseburg hills. between
old Bill Marsh's and Newtonville, and
it was never found until spring, when
the snow had thawed away.
ave used to get S12 month and
board. In those days things were
cheap. You could get eight drinks for
York shilling. and quarter always
treated the whole bar. Whisky was
only worth 20 to % cents gallon, and
some as low as Scents. That was the
stuff that man could get drunk on
and not have head on him in the
morning. No one scarcely had the d.
I. S in those days, and there was no
such thing as finding your stomach
loaded with drugs in the morning.
Meals commonly were % cents, and
very tony hotels charged as high as SO
cents. Beds were York shilling
wherever meals were Is cents.
ain staging days accidents some
times happened, and | have often
known people to get their arms and
legs broken. Passengers often got
damages, too, for injuries sustained.
One time driver upset coach be-
tween Newcastle and Newtonville, and
a man had an arm broken and three
ribs as well. He got $4,000 damages.
| have known three or four drivers to
get frozen to death on the box | re-
member once meeting driver near
the English church at the Highland
creek. / was going east and he was
coming toward Toronto. He only had
two miles to 60 before he reached
Gates. | said: This is a tough 'un,'
for it was a terribly cold day. He
answered me and said: You'd better
believe it. Well, when the coach got
to Gates he did not come down, and
they went to pull him off the box in
fun, and asked him to come and have
| drink. They found then that he was
frozen stiff, with his eyes open and the
reins in his hand. The secret of driv-
ing is to keep moving. The hands and
feet should never be still for moment.
! came near freezing to death myself
on the Goderich road. between Doom
Mills and Aberdeen. I'd a good deal
sooner have the old times than the
new. Who wouldn't, with flour at 81
a barrel, pork SIS hundred, as fast rs
you had mind to buy it; potatoes 124
cents a bushel; butter cents pound;
fircwood, 81 so a cord, and decent
house to live in, with three or four
rooms, for 81 month. Tea was 81 a
pound, and sugar was dear, but almost
every thing else was cheap. l tell you
there was nothing like ge-driving
for lots or fun. "-TOroftto Globe