17 



Chapter 



THE CLIPPERS 



V^HE was a lady and no commoner; she was large yet tall 

 and graceful; she had an oppulent charm yet was swift and sure in 

 movement; she was expensively dressed and equipped from head to 

 heel; she was an exacting mistress rather than a faithful housewife; 

 it cost a fortune merely to keep her alive yet she had litde domestic 

 value; restless, she traveled far and fast, always on gallant and some- 

 times on dubious errands; everywhere she went she stirred men's 

 admiration; upon her they lavished their greatest talents and efforts; 

 sometimes she tossed a sudden fortune into a man's hand but quite 

 as often she broke his heart; she was jealously pursued by envious 

 rivals and she died young, but while she lived she was the toast of 

 the town, the poetry of an age — she was the Yankee Clipper. 



She came along to meet certain basic needs that the men of her 

 time were discovering. She was indeed created to meet them and the 

 needs were these: the need for speed; the need to cover enormous 

 distances in large ventures; the need for beauty and elegance. 



In the years between 1840 and 1850 people began to be conscious of 

 the value of time; they began to want things done in a hurry. This 

 feeling was most frequently expressed in the United States which had, 

 for a generation, been growing rapidly both in population and settled 

 area. There was a general expansion of industrial and mercantile 

 enterprise. 



In England, for instance, machine manufacturers had begun to 



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