Evening star., 1923-12-02

Upside down the vehicle landed
wheels level with the Washington
Frederick, Md, turnpike, from which
1t fell.
I'VE were like load of live hogs
In a country wagon. uttering a
squealing sound as the stage rolled
into the gully" Representative
Charles A. Wickliffe, Bardstown, Ky.
said feelingly, describing the upset
TO the House of Representatives
January IA, 1929. Nine other repre-.
sentatives, from Kentucky. Tennessee
and Ohio, who had limped away from
the wreck, nodded assent.
This spill, and the upset of Senator
Henry Clay of Kentucky and his
coach on pile of limestone in
tniontown, Pa, as we'll as the state
ment of Representative George Poin-
dexter Mississippi. that travelling
TO Washington is the most laborious
of congressmens duties," are re-
corded in early debates of Congress
and congressmen's writings.
They make entertaining contrasts
with the luxurious. speedy trans
portation enjoyed by senators and
representatives who have returned
TO Washington for the opening of
the Sixty-eighth Congress tomorrow.
Before the continent could be
crossed comfortably in ninety-four
hours there was century of
Journeys to Congress by horsebac
covered wagon roundabout ship
routes and slow locomotive.
Roads within a fifty-mile radius of
Wac hi
early congressman like the final effort
of the opposition party to keep them
from taking seats in the Capitol.
Senator Gouverneur Morris, New
York, in 1901. wrote that from An
napolis to Washington the road was
$50 deep in mud that the stage was
stalled and stuck fast. 1t took ten
hours to go twenty-five. miles"
THE road from Baltimore to
Washington is so exceedingly bad
that carriage sometimes sinks so
deep as to defy the utmost exertions
of the strongest horse to draw il for
ward. Bridges built across creeks are
perilous, being formed of u few loose
boards that totter while g. carriage
passes over them. For miles the
driver has to wind between great
stones, logs and stumps." another
traveller of the same time wrote.
Senator Jesse Franklin from Surry
county, North Carolina. had TO max e
his own paths to Congress. Crossing
western Cardinals mountains. he
came upon thickets which We're i'm
passable on horseback. Dismount-
ing, he cut passage and. leading
his horse, walked on toward Con-
gress.
Tennessee's early senators had ne
groes walk behind their stage
coaches, ready to remove obstacles
from the path.
x :: x =
OUCH handicaps made coach riding
~ to Washington about as slow
as walking. Twenty-Five miles in
twenty-four hours was the rate of
travel over Kentucky roads as late
as 1919. To go from Richmond. Va.
to Fredericksburg, Va, sixty-nine
miles, required two days in 1917.
From Buffalo, n. Y, to New York
city. 475 miles, took 100 hours of
actual travel, in 1916.
congressman felt all of the bumps
wretched roads gave, for few coaches
had springs and seats were of wood,
rarely covered. Thomas Moore. the
Irish poet, found still other obstacles
20 comfortable stage coach trip.
The coach from Baltimore to Wash
1ngton takes twelve passengers,
which generally consist OF squalling
children, sinking 1aborers and re-
publicans smoking cigars" he wrote
m 1904.
West of the Appalachian mountains
this companionship would have been
more welcome. There help often was
far away when a lone travellers
conveyance broke down or he suf-
fered other mishaps. =
David Crockett, representative from
Tennessee Gs27-1S31 and 1S33-1S35),
tells. in his autobiography, of a
journeying preacher who needed all
his resourcefulness to arouse aid:
'Hurrying to the river crossing, we
were struck all of a heap at behold
ing a man seated in a sulky in the
middle of the river, and playing on
a fiddle. The horse was up to his
middle in the water and it seemed
as if the fiimsy vehicle was ready
to be swept away by the current.
Still the fiddler fiddled.
"'You have missed the crossingr
shouted one Of my men.
"I know I have returned the
fiddler.
"Tf you go ten feet farther you
will be drowned
"T know SHALL" replied the fiddler.
"'Turn back cried my man.
"T can't. Come you and help me-
Several who understood the river
rode their horses up to the sulky
and after some difficulty brought the
parson safe to shore.
HE said he had been fiddling to
the fishes for full hour and had ex-
hausted all the tunes he could play
without notes.
I'VE asked him what induced him
to fiddle at time of such peril.
"He replied that there was noth->
culated to draw people together as
the sound of a fiddle. He knew he
might bawl until he was hoarse for
assistance and no one would stir
peg; but that they would no sooner
hear the scraping OF his fiddle string
than they would quit their business
and come to the spot In focks.'
X X y *
DAILROADS were being introduced
~ throughout the Atlantic coast
states when Crockett came to Con-
gress, but were yet only small links
in the nations transportation sys-
tenn To come to Washington from
his home, near Mills Point, Tenn,
Representative Crockett had to use
..a<ro oanch ,.i,rar. hoaf and train