The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-07

far less costly system of construe- ton was adopted. The road from Cumberland to Wheeling had cost s6,- 900 mile, without counting the cost of the bridges From the Ohio forward into the west about s3,000 a mile-and much less as the road adyanced-suf-
 feed. On the eastern division the road was paved six inches deep in broken stone; every little brook was bridged by stone cnivert and every mile of the road was drained by two deep ditches, one on each side of 1t. West of the Ohio the only work done was to clear away the timber, grub up the stumps and l dig ditches. There was no thought of a stone coating to the roadway and no thought of anything else except to open a track over which wagons might be hauled through the mud Here and there in creek bottom lands the road was corduroyed. That Is to say, tim
 bers were laid upon its surface to keep the wagons from sinking hope lessly into the soil.
 In this way. year by year the nation Il iOttu hQo CAlClQCQ hSNlN GU ut slllNA as it was extended, the travel over it increased From Wheeling in Virginia, 1t stretched in very nearly straight light westward through Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana, to Vandalia, then the capi- tai of Illinois. But by the time that the great national thoroughfarc had reached Vandalia many difficulties had arisen. For one thing the authority of the national government to build any road at all was sharply challeng- ed in Congress by the "strict construc- 1 tionists" of the constitution. For an- swer. it was urged that the federal government was specifically empower ed to set up post roads, and that this was primarily post road From 1921, when this question of governmental authority was first seriously raised, the advocates of the great national high way prevailed for many years, The appropriations for the road grew every year larger, and the road itself contin- ued to push it's way westward.
 In the meantime, however conditions had radically changed in other ways, Especially important was the fact that about 1S11 steamboats in considerable numbers began to navigate the Ohio river. This fact tended in a double way to divert traffic from the national road west of Wheeling. It made it easier and safer for the emigrant
 who wished to settle in the West to go 1 down the river and settle somewhere | upon or near its banks than to go by wagon into the wilderness. That con- sideration counted for much. but there was the still more important fact that | the emigrant who settled near the riv- CT could ship his surplus farm products tp Cincinnati by steamboat or to New l Orleans by f1atboat, while the farmer in the interior had no market whatever | for the things he and his family did not need. He must live off the produce of his farm, but if there was surplus he co4ld not sell it anywhere, but must let it go to waste.
 As a result, the farmer whose settled | in the interior must be content to go without money and without the things l that money buys. He must drink sas- safras tea Instead of coffee, he must manufacture such cloth as he needed for the clothing of his family, and in hundred other ways he must suffer inconvenience. On the other hand lands iii the interior were much cheaper than lands alog the river, where a horde of Kentuekians had hurried across the stream and taken up all the best farm ing sites,
 Thus, in spite of the steamboats and flatboats, there continued to be a vast stream of emigrants traversing the na- tional road, and the business of pro- viding for their wants grew into great proportions. Very early in the history of the road there were stage-coach lines set up, and taverns to accommo- date the passengers. These taverns were usually double log cabins There was in most of them one large room, with a great cavernous fireplace, and with little furniture of any kind. In this room the male passengers slept upon pallets spread upon the floor. For house and barns and furnishes power with perhaps trifie more of atten- tion to comfort.
 Upon rising in the morning the guests were expected to go out into the tavern yard to perform their ablutions. There was the well; there were tin basins to serve as wash bowls, and there were towels-a very few which were expected to serve the entire com pany. If fastdious passenger wanted clean towel, he had to get up early and do his washing while the common towel was still in it's virgin freshness.
 The food at these taverns was abun- dant, but simple. Pork, potatoes and corn bread constituted it in the main When meal was ready, there was a rush for the table, because those who got there first had their choice of things, while the belated ones had to be thankful for the leavings. Men were accustomed to the simple life in those days, and even so distinguished a statesman as Henry Clay often trav- eled over the national road, sleeping with the rest on a pallet, washing him self out in the yard, using the common jack-towel and struggling on equal terms with the others for an early place at table.
 The stage-coaches were at first run by individuals. After while compa- nies were formed, and after another period the big companies swallowed the little ones, and great through con meeting lines were formed monopoliz- ing the traffic and managing it. In their rivalry these companies gradual ly increased speed till it became ten miles an hour, and way-bil is still in existence on which is written as an instruction to the stage-drlver, ''It you