CO A CH-PROPRIE TORS 2 1 7 



We are not told how iiiueli liorne and his 

 friends lost in this onslaught upon Sherman's 

 preserves, hut it must have heen a very consider- 

 ahle sum. Home ran in opposition to many 

 jH'oprietors, and was powerful enough to Avear 

 down any competitors except the three or four 

 men whose husinesses ranked \\\i\\ his own for 

 size. Those proprietors who agreed to Avork 

 Avitli rather than against him, Avcre therefore 

 the hotter advised. When putting a new coach 

 on a route, his practice was to oifer a share in 

 the husiness to others accustomed to work along 

 it. If they refused^ and elected to oppose him, 

 he hccame dangerous. He never alloAvcd compe- 

 tition ; and as he had the longer jmrse, generally 

 heat his rivals. A strictly husinesslike proprietor 

 would accordingly always Avclcomc Home as a 

 partner ; hut it generally hapj)ened that men who 

 had for years past run coaches on certain roads 

 fell unconsciously into the hahit of thinking and 

 acting as though they held a j)rescriptive right 

 to the Avhole of the traffic along them, and not 

 only refused to ally themselves Avith any one 

 providing additional coaches, hut endeaA^oured to 

 shut him out altogether. Thus Home, although 

 ready to Avork Avith any proprietor, Avas in hitter 

 oj)position on many roads. 



His Avas the Liverpool " Umpire," a day 

 coach; and his, too, the "Bedford Times," so 

 far as horsing it out of London Avas concerned. 

 It Avas started ahout 183G, hy Whithread, the 

 hrcAver, as a hohhy, and ran from the " George 



