The semi-weekly messenger., 1904-08-12
OLD TINE STAGE COACHING
How Our Fathers Travelled
Long DistanceS-The Stage
to Raleigh and Warsaw.
For The Messenger.

For The Messenger.
The man who swings himself aboard
a mail and express train at the Fay
etteviile passenger station for a Jour-
ney. perha1s never in his life thought,
about how his father or his grand
father, in the forties and fifties. got
over the same distance. He Is whiried
from point to point by the power os
steam. with the warning blow OF its
whistle: they were conveyed over hill
and down dale. at a compartive crawl.
behind q team OF horses. 10 the crack
OF the drivers whip.
I am not 50 much in love with the
good old times that I am about TO
indulge in a eulogy over stage coach
travel fifty and more years ago. Take
II altogether, ii was a very unsatis-
factory mode OF docomotion: in bad
weather. after heavy rains-eSpecially
on the line between Fayetteville and
Raleigh, when the hilly country was
reached-it was Very irksome A trav-
eler had sometimes to walk part OF the
way, and work his passage with his
shoulder to the wheel. where the ascen-
was very steep and the mud very deep.
In his wonderful Tale of Two Cities"
Dickens discusses graphically this
travellers experience, where ne tells
how Mr.. Lorry, of Telson's Bank. Lon
don, when he made part Of the human
freight in the mail to Dover:
There was a steaming mist in all the
hollows and dt had roamed in it's for
lornness UP the hill, like an evil spirit,
seeking rest and finding none. A clam
my and intensely cold mist, II mada
it's slow way through the air in ripples
that visibly followed and over spread
one another as the waves of an un-
wholesome sea might do. Mr.. Lorry
walked uphill in the mire by the side
OF the mail. as the rest Of the passen-
gers did; not because they had the
least relish for walking exercise, but
because the hill, and the harness, and
the mud. and the mail, Were all so
heavy that the horses had already
three times come to a stop"
But 1t was not always bad weather,
and heavy roads, and overworked hors-
es, and distracted drivers. Very often
the stage coach traveller in this Part of
North Carolina was spinning across
the country, drinking deep Of the pure
air, in the placid enjoyment of the
quiet beauties of nature as spread be-
fore him in fertile field and cozy farm,
and green forest, and rushing stream
the while, as the journey heightened.
the sun dipped lower and lower: and
went down behind the hills, and the
moon came gallantly UP to the rescue
OF the darkened earth. Now cheerful
Tights glimmer in the distant farm
houses and the stars glitter and spar
kle through the fantastic lace-work Of
foliage overhead, as the stage makes
its way over a corduroy marsh AMI
lowland-and then ring out the CHEEKY,
si<aa1 Of ho oh . t,ax
as a relay stable for fresh horses is
approached.
There Were for many years before
the civil war two main stage lines lead
out from Fayeteville-to Raleigh, sixty
miles, and to Warsaw, forty-nine
plankroad was built, to Salem, one
hundred and twenty miles. The stage
office, from which the conveyances
started, was in the old Fayetteville
hotel. corner of Hay and Donaldson
streets. The stage contractors of my
twenty years. There were Messrs.
Barbee. who lived at or near Raleigh,
and whom i do not personally remem-
ber. There was Mr.. Murdoch McKin-
non, of Red Springs. a merchant of
Person street, and an alderman of the
city. After him, / think, was Mr.. Dun
can G. MacRae, of one of the leading
families of the upper Cape Fear. chair
man of the old county court, and for
many years a magistrate. Later on,
there were Messrs. Clemens and Pow
ers, running the line to Salem, and the
former having contracts elsewhere
in the state, if 1 mistake not.
The stage was very heavy vehicle,
built to ACCOMMODATE six passengers in
side and one outside with the driver.
It was convex at the bottom, resting
on very strong leather bands or springs,
which gave it swaying motion, like
the rocking of boat, and which some
travellers found unpleasant. The boot
in front was very capacious, holding
the coachman's belongings, with pack
ages, valiSes, ETC., and in the rear was
a strong wooden rest for the trunks,
protected from the weather by can
vas covering. Two things were insep-
arabic from the driver-his long whip.
the lash Of which could reach the off
leader, and his horn, which he sounded
when he neared a relay stable OF the
supper house, and from which he eX-
| tracted melody for his amusement, X
he were an expert Performer.
/ am free to confess that my rAcol-
| lections Of the coach, it's team and its
driver fails to convey any of tie pic
| turesqueness which has made 50 charm
| ing the pictures woven by the magic
| Of Dickens, portraying the old English
mail The driver was an uncouth, jg-
norant fellow, whose tastes seemed ID
| lie mostly in the dissection of tobacco
| and corn whiskey; the horses had IN
be good stock, or they never could
have done the work cut out for them,
but they were of rawboned, ugly breed,
and many OF them, 1t seemed To me.
had in their makeup enough devil
ment for a whole circus. There was.
OF course, more socfability about travel
by coach than by rail; half a dozen
people could hardly sit side by side for
ten or twelve hours without making
acquaintance. This transient contact
was sometimes the beginning OF life
long friendship; then again, alas, for
human nature, the passengers would be
mutually 50 disagreeable that they
would avoid one another forever after.