STAGE-COACH. 31 



or five miles and gives his horses an ad libitum 

 dose of water. Including the long delays in 

 changing horses, dining, breakfasting, &c. the 

 average speed does not exceed four miles an 

 hour. The coachees are paid by the proprie- 

 tors at the rate of twelve dollars per month 

 and receive no fee from passengers ; and this 

 latter is the rule also with all public servants 

 in the States, as in hotels, steam-boats, and 

 railways. 



My anticipations, it may be supposed, were 

 none of the most pleasurable, when in one of 

 the vehicles I have endeavoured to describe, 

 I found myself placed beside eight large men 

 and a child. For a time I submitted to 

 threatened suffocation added to the risk of dis- 

 located joints, but soon finding my position 

 no longer endurable I tried what effect the 

 offer of a fee would have in inducing the Ame- 

 rican coachee to favour me with a seat be- 

 side himself ; for outsiders, no doubt from a re- 

 gard for people's bones, are not here encouraged. 

 A fee had the same virtue with him as it has 

 in such quarters in other parts of the world, 



