Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-19

IN Plttsburg's history. 1t was known as
The Kings Inn" for long time. A. B.
earn, who keeps a cigar store in part of the
building now, showed me the inside
chimney. 1t is long enough and wide
enough to hold double bed within. This
structure is about 12O years old
But of I'll the historical landmarks 1 saw
in Bedford that which interested me most
was the celebrated Pittsburg and Philadel-
phis pike. In Pittsburg your old-timers
call it the Greensburg pike. Here it is best
known as the Pittsburg and Chambersburg
turnpike.
WeIl-Known Old Road.
was anxious to see and ride upon it for
the purpose of forming comparisons with
the other public roads we have been .ravers-
ing. 1t is stoned highway. In the first
week of THE DISPATCH expedition the
other great stoned pike in this State-the
National road-was tested. Since then our
wagon has passed over hundreds OF miles
of dirt roads, and the experience has
opened nv eyes to many things l knew
nothing about at that time. In the light of
this practical knowledge, ACQUIRED by
driving on all sorts of roads, a second and
longer ride over macadamlzed or semi
macadamizei highway could not help but
be more valuable in my experimental study
of road building.
In addition to that, there was something
grand to me in the thought that would
hnd something that survives the wrecks of
time.
Work That Endures.
When the Pennsylvania canal commenced
ra 4ho&
boat engineered BY one man and his
little son and pulled by one horse would
carry as much freight as 80 Conesto-
ga wagons drawn by 130 horses and driven
by 80 men. The glory of the turnpike
waned. The tow-path became the shin
ing track of commerce. Yet, to-day
there is left in all Pennsylvania scarcely a
single mile ofthat canal. 1t cost S14, 600, 600,
but its decay was as complete as if it had
never existed. Even its iron-railed portage
over the Allegheny Mountains is entirely
wrecked, as showed in previous article
The ancient turnpike, though, still stands,
a monument to pioneer enterprise. Nothing
has closed it up, and its course across the
State was SO practicable, SO straight that
later engineering genius could do nothing
better than parallel ii on the north with the
Pennsylvania Railroad ard on the south by
the proposed South Penn Railroad.
Besides all that, drive on the Pittshurg
and Philadelphia pike, better than ANYTHING
else, will make tie heart of a Pennsylvan-
ian well up with pride for Pittsburg push
and grit.
Freight Transportation 100 Years Ago.
In 1890 there were only six freight wagons
hauling goods to Pittsburg from over the
mountains. With the exception of these
SIX, Philadelphia wagons only ventured as
far west in the State as Chambersburg, and
the goods were sent on pack-mules over the
Alleghenies. Think of thatl Only
six freight wagons en- route in 1901 EI-
actly 100 years later The DIsPATCH's
wagon wheels touches the same stones in
these mountains which those six Jersey
wagons ratified over; follows precisely the
same route and road through which the six
wagons opened way with musket and az;
aye, and has put I'D in at least
two taverns where The same wag-
oners slept in that year of1790, and to what
do we find the freight of six wagons grown
to in 1880? Why, the Pennsylvania Rail-
road alone moves more freight than the
whole foreign commerce of the United States
amounts to. More than 200. 900 loaded
3reght cars enter and over 100000 depart
every day from Pittsburg, while about ITO
passenger trains enter and leave that city.
Along the JunIatn.
Enthusiastic with these thoughts, have
felt like mailing the American flag to
one side of every swinging sign we
see at the old stage taverns
and tacking the address OF the Randall
Club to the top of the mast. Seriously, how
ever, there was a good, substantial reason
in wanting to reach some solid roadway like
the Pittsburg and Philadelphia turnpike.
Mud roads had cost me hat. FREQUENT
references have been made in these letters to
q stiff hat, sunken in the crown from oft-re-
curing contacts with the roof of the wagon.
One contact was too much. II was the last
contact, and the hat was abandoned for