ds of our Western
states, and recalls the life of olden times. The story of spirited and
gay life still exists in the Wells Fargo Express. The usefulness of the
Concord coach is not limited to the western nor the northern portion of
our continent; in South America it flourishes, banishing all rivals.

Canal travel and transportation were proposed at the close of provincial
days, and a few short canals were built. Benjamin Franklin was early
awake to their practicability and value. Among the stock-owners of the
Dismal Swamp Canal was George Washington, and he was equally interested
in the Potomac Canal.

The Erie Canal, first proposed to the New York legislature in 1768, was
completed in 1825. There was considerable passenger travel on this canal
at "a cent and a half a mile, a mile and a half an hour." Horace Greeley
has given an excellent picture of this leisurely travel; it was asserted
by some that stage-coaches were doomed by the canal-boat, but they
continued to exist till they encountered a more formidable rival.

Until turnpike days all small carriages were two-wheeled; chaises,
chairs, and sulkies were those generally used. The chaise and harness
used by Jonathan Trumbull--"Brother Jonathan"--are here shown. With
regard to private conveyances, whether coaches, chaises, or chairs, the
colonies kept close step from earliest days with the mother-countries.
Randolph noted with envy the Boston coaches of the seventeenth century.
Parson Thatcher was accused and reprehended in 1675 for making visits
with a coach and four. Coaches were taxed both in England and America;
so we know exactly how plentiful they were. There were as many in
Massachusetts in 1750 in proportion to the number of inhabitants as
there were in England in 1830. Judge Sewall's diary often refers to
private coaches; and one of the most amusing scenes it depicts is his
continued and ingenious argument when wooing Madam Winthrop for his
third wife, when she stipulated that he should keep a coach, and his
frugal mind disposed him not to do it.

Coach-building prospered in the colonies; Lucas and Paddock in Boston,
Ross in New York, made beautiful and rich coaches. Materials were ample
and varied in the New World for carriage-building; horseflesh--not
over-choice, to be sure--became over-plentiful; it was said that no man
ever walked in America save a vagabond or a fool. A coach made for Madam
Angelica Campbell of Schenectady, New York, by coach-builde