The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-01-25
STAGE COACH DAYS.
How the Bedford Stage-DriVer Managed
the Judge.
FROM THE PEN OF JUDGE HALL.
A Thrilling Adventure Of Judge jeremiah
Black With Bedford Stage-DTiVer
Forty Years Ago.


over the courts of Fulton county
during the seventies. 1t was
first published in the Bedford
Inquirer about a dozen years ago.
Who remembers anything of
the stage-coach drivers of Nc
Connellsburg?-Editor.
"Modern methods oflocomotion
have worked great changes in
many respects. The old con-
cord stage-coach, with it's nine
passengers inside and two out
side, has almost entirely disap-
peared, and the professional
stage-driver of the last genera
ton, who was so marked a char
acter, has disappeared with it.
When he was mounted on his box,
with the lines drawn taut over
his four lively horses, glistening
in coats of well brushed hair,
with names and tails flowing free,
and the harness black and burn
ished, and bright rosettes at the
horses ears, with his little hick-
ory-handled whip and It's long
buckskin lash, he was the king of
the occasion. He was conductor,
brakesman engineer and fireman,
all in one. He could drive fast or
slow, as he pleased, and be sulky
and grabbed, and profane to pas
sengers as he wished. AS he
bowled along, from his high seat
he could look down on pedestri-
ans and slow moving wagons and
pass them by with a crack of
contempt. Passengers were
wont to propitiate his highness
with a cigar or invitation to drink,
and endeavored to win his favor
by pleasant remarks and a defer
ential manner. For the time be-
ing, he was man of consequence
and Importance, and felt it fully.
The forty years which have in
tervened since railroads have
superseded turnpikes have sent
nearly all of these old fellows on
the long journey from which no
traveller returns; but here and
there one remains, a tottering
old man, living in his recollections
of the past. | met one to-day.
He walks slowly with a cane but
his eye is bright and clear, and
his memory good, and as he
squirts his tobacco juice half a
rod or more with the precision of
a marksman proud of his skill he
delights to talk of times long
gone, and of the fine teams he
drew the ribbons on, of the Incl
dents of his early life. The old
man / introduce you to is Samuel
Bagley, of Bedford, Pa.
Born in 1910, he started as
stage-driver about 1923, and for
forty years drove stage IN and
out of Bedford. Many mem
Der of Congress from the West
and many Judge and merchant
travelled with him, and was glad
of the honor of a place beside
him on the drivers box on clear,
bright days, when the diversified
scenery of mountain and valley
made an noutside seat so enjoyable.
General Cass and Henry Clay
rode behind him, and Edwin For
rest, the actor, and "Tariff Andy"
Andy Stewart, and Chas. Ogle,
and many another man of note.
The old drivers all chewed to-
bacco and drank whiskey-"not
to excess" quoth my friend,
"four or five drinks a day, may
be, good, regular, methodical
steady drinking, that did no man
harm, according to the notions of
that time, but aided digestion and
made life rosy, to say nothing of
noses; and their conversation was
rendered pointed and emphatic
by oaths well laid in with capho-
nistic skill at proper intervals,
like the casual pauses in blank
verse, an oath for every ten or
twenty words-iust for rhythm,
AS he recalls the past, my am
Gent friend grows eloquent in his
praises Of the grand old time of
stage-coaching and the excellent
meals of fried chicken and waf-