184 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



bar. On all roads leading" to important towns and county seats the 

 travel was immense. It was indeed a sight to see as many as twenty 

 six-horse stages following- each other all from the same direction, arriv- 

 ing- on time; the hostlers rushing out, the grand dignified drivers 

 tossing- lines and whip to waiting boys, travellers pouring out to stretch 

 their legs, take a bitters and dinner. Inquiries were naturally made as 

 to the whereabouts of the mail coming from the opposite direction. On 

 some hill or house top were watchers, signals were given, " She is com- 

 ing'' ! and perhaps, if travel were brisk, a dozen or twenty stages came 

 rattling in, the horns of the guards playing in a lively "toot tooing" as 

 they thundered on. Dear delightful sounds still lingering- in memorys 

 ear. This is no exaggeration. And at some .great mail centre where 

 some half dozen roads crossed, leading to county seats in every direc- 

 tion, it was a wonderful and a glorious spectacle. Just think of as 

 many as fifty stages within a little time passing one point in all direc- 

 tions — every five miles a half way hotel — every ten a regular station on 

 the many mail routes among this centre. And now all this life has 

 utterly vanished. All that bustle, that crowding, human life and animal 

 life manifested by hundreds of horses, crowds of people, several hotels 

 and barns is now represented by a momentary roar and shriek, the ring 

 of a bell, the rush of half a dozen men to and from a station and all is 

 over in just about three minutes. 



I was reminded to write this because of a young man saying in my 

 hearing that he '' wondered how people got on in the days before the 

 telegraph and ra,ilway, and how lonely the country must have been." 

 I^ow I have traveled back over the very old stage routes and that old 

 national pike, so crowded with life in the days of 1810. Then you were 

 meeting people constantly and the open doors of noble country taverns 

 invited you in every few miles. Xow, " Look out for the locomotive," 

 you will probably not meet a soul all day, and every old public house 

 is closed up. Life has been drawn from the country to the city. 

 Everything is sadly changed. Had anyone taken you, forty years ago, 

 upon some high hill and shown you all the roads and ways of travel in 

 your region, crowded as they were with all the motions of life for bus- 

 iness or pleasure, and said "You will live to see the day when these 

 ways will be as much disused as though non-existent. They shall be- 

 come as dead and buried, and over them shall be erected private ways, 

 upon which none but the owner can carry vehicles, and all you want to 

 have carried and your own journeys shall be by their permission. 

 Another thing- will be. Much as you think is carried to-day there will 

 be more carried then ; much as we travel now we shall travel longer 



