ot upset by the ruts, if storm
or flood did not delay you at Springfield, where the road met the
Connecticut, or at Stratford, where it met the Housatonic, each of which
had to be crossed on clumsy flatboats, the stage would roll into New
York at the end of the sixth day.

%197. Two Days from New York to Philadelphia.%--And here a serious
delay was almost certain to occur, for even in the best of weather it
was no easy matter to cross the Hudson to New Jersey. When the wind was
high and the water rough, or the river full of ice, the boldest did not
dare to risk a crossing. Once over the river, you would again go on by
coach, and at the end of two more days would reach Philadelphia. In our
time one can travel in eight hours the entire distance between Boston
and Philadelphia, a distance which Washington could not have traversed
in less than eight days.

[Illustration: Stagecoach and inn[1]]

[Footnote 1: From a print of 1798.]

%198. The Roads and the Inns.%--The newspapers and the travelers of
those days complained bitterly of the roads and the inns. On the best
roads the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the passengers
were often forced to get out and help the driver pull the wheels out of
the mud. Breakdowns and upsets were of everyday occurrence. Yet bad as
the roads were, the travel was so considerable that very often the inns
and taverns even in the large cities could not lodge all who applied
unless they slept five or six in a room.

%199. A Steamboat on the Delaware.%--Rude as this means of travel
seems to us, the men of 1790 were quite satisfied with it, and
absolutely refused to make use of a better one. Had you been in
Philadelphia during the summer of 1790 and taken up a copy of _The
Pennsylvania Packet_, you could not have failed to notice this
advertisement of the first successful steamboat in the world:

%The Steam-Boat

Is now ready to take Passengers, and is intended to
set off from Arch Street Ferry in Philadelphia every
_Monday, Wednesday_ and _Friday_, for _Burlington,
Bristol, Bordentown_ and _Trenton_, to return on _Tuesdays,
Thursdays_ and _Saturdays_--Price for Passengers, 2/6 to
Burlington and Bristol, 3/9 to Bordentown, 5/. to
Trenton. June 14. tu.th ftf.%

This boat was the invention of John Fitch, and from June to September
ran up and down the Delaware; but so few people went on it that he could
not pay expenses, and the boat was