THE NEW TRANSPORTATION. 119 



assist each other in pulling through. There was a regular 

 stage route running from Elkton, Maryland, to the Susque- 

 hanna ferry, which was in a chronic state of bad condition. 

 It was noted for its steep grades, its deep gullies, its stones, 

 its ruts, its general irregularities, and its sideling slopes, so 

 that the coach seemed always in a state of unstable equilib- 

 rium. It is believed that catastrophes would have been much 

 more common occurrences than they were but for instructions 

 which the driver was wont to utter to his passengers to lean 

 out of the lumbering carryall upon this side or that, as the 

 nature of the road demanded : "Now, gentlemen, to the right. 

 Now, gentlemen, to the left." 



As late as the middle of the century just past, the most com- 

 fortable means of making the journey throughout the length 

 of^Ohio was by stage coach. Charles Dickens had occasion 

 to -test this mode of travel over the route in 1842. His de- 

 scription gives us a good idea of the condition of many of the 

 roads of the day. "At one time," he writes, "we were flung 

 together in a heap at the bottom of the coach, and at another 

 we were crushing our heads against the roof. -The drivers 

 on these roads, who certainly get over the ground in a man- 

 ner which is quite miraculous, twist and turn the teams about, 

 forcing a passage, corkscrew fashion, through the swamps 

 and bogs. A great portion of the way was over what is 

 called a corduroy road, which is made by throwing trunks 

 of trees into a marsh and leaving them to settle there. The 

 very slightest of the jolts with which the ponderous carriage 

 fell from log to log was enough, it seemed, to have dislocated 

 all the bones in the human body." 



There were, however, in various parts of the country some 

 roads which were better than the corduroy. About the mid- 



