e, a
justice of the peace, or a sheriff. Notices of town-meetings, of
elections, of new laws and ordinances of administration were posted at
the tavern, just as legal notices are printed in the newspapers
nowadays. Bills of sales, of auctions, records of transfers were
naturally posted therein; the taverns were the original business
exchanges. No wonder all the men in the township flocked to the
tavern--they had to to know anything of town affairs, to say nothing of
local scandals. Distances were given in almanacs of the day, not from
town to town, but from tavern to tavern.

Of the good quality of New England inns many travellers testify.
Lafayette wrote to his wife in 1777: "Host and hostess sit at the table
with you and do the honors of a comfortable meal, and on going away you
pay your fare without higgling." Dr. Dwight said the best old-fashioned
New England inns were superior to any of the modern ones. Brissot said:
"You meet with neatness, dignity and decency, the chambers neat, the
beds good, the sheets clean, supper passable, cyder tea punch and all
for fourteen pence a head." Alackaday! the good old times.

Next in importance to the landlord came the stage-driver. He was so
popular and such a kindly fellow that he had to be prohibited by law
from carrying any parcels or letters for persons along the route, else
he were overburdened with troublesome and hindering business,
detrimental to the postal and carriage income of the government. He was
so importuned to drink at each stopping-place that he might have lain
drunk the whole year round. He was of so much consequence and so looked
up to, that little Jack Mendum, who drove the Salem mail-coach, hardly
exaggerated his position when he roared out angrily to a hungry
passenger who urged him to drive faster: "While I drive this coach I am
the whole United States of America." Stage-driving was an hereditary
gift; it went in families. Four Potters, three Ackermans, three Annables
drove in Salem. Patch and Peach. Tozzer and Blumpy, Canney and Camp,
were well-known stage-driving names.

The stage-agent also, that obsolete functionary, was a man of much local
consequence and of many affairs; he was established in many a tavern as
a necessary and almost immovable piece of bar-room furniture.

To show the importance of tavern, tavern-keeper, stage-agent, and
stage-driver in early Federal days, let me give a single instance.
Haverhill was the great staging centre of N