A Story Outline of Evolution 



ceding history. As a result of this, the entire country has 

 become one big neighborhood. With the Improved roads 

 and the automobile, time and space have been ehmlnated to 

 a degree undreamed of a generation ago. 



An overland journey that only two or three generations 

 ago would be planned for months In advance and would be 

 the occasion for making a will and the gathering of the 

 neighbors to bid farewell, may now be made In a few hours 

 with as little thought or concern as our forefathers had 

 oi making a trip to the mill. 



Following the stagecoach, but before the coming of the 

 Improved highways and the automobile, there came Into the 

 industrial life of mankind the first steam railways, which 

 did more to advance the commercial Interests of all coun- 

 tries than any other Invention has ever done. Before the 

 coming of the steam railroad, tramways with wooden rails 

 and with coaches drawn by horses were used to some extent 

 in England. The first steam propelled carriage that ran on 

 the public highways without the use of rails was constructed 

 in France In 1769 and used on the public highways near 

 Paris. Its average speed was two and a quarter miles per 

 hour, and It had only three wheels, the driving wheel of 

 which was guided In a similar manner to that of a bicycle. 

 The next year another steam carriage was made which was 

 used on the streets of Paris and when It overturned at a 

 street corner, both the machine and its Inventor were seized 

 by the police. 



The usual speed of travel In the early stagecoach days 

 was from two to four miles per hour. After the early road 

 building campaign was completed, a speed of ten miles per 



[84] 



