Arrival at Pittsburg--Its Trade and Prospects--Temperance--Newspapers
--Trip up the Monongahela to Brownsville--Staging by Night across the
Alleghany Mountains--Arrival at Cumberland--The Railway Carriages of
America.
Arriving at Pittsburg in the middle of the night of the 10th of March,
we remained on board till morning. As we had been accustomed on this
"Clipper No. 2" to breakfast at half-past 7, I thought they surely
would not send us empty away. But no! we had to turn out at that early
hour of a morning piercingly cold, and get a breakfast where we could,
or remain without. This was "clipping" us rather too closely, after we
had paid seven dollars each for our passage and provisions.
Pittsburg is in the State of Pennsylvania. Its progress has been rapid,
and its prospects are bright. Seventy years ago the ground on which it
stands was a wilderness, the abode of wild beasts and the hunting
ground of Indians. Its manufactures are chiefly those of glass, iron,
and cotton. It is the Birmingham of America. Indeed one part of it,
across the river, is called "Birmingham," and bids fair to rival its
old namesake. Its advantages and resources are unparalleled. It
occupies in reference to the United States, north and south, east and
west, a perfectly central position. It is surrounded with, solid
mountains of coal, which--dug out, as I have intimated, with the
greatest ease--is conveyed with equal ease down inclined planes to the
very furnace mouths of the foundries and factories! This great workshop
communicates directly, by means of the Ohio, the Mississippi, Red
River, &c., with immense countries, extending to Texas, to Mexico, and
to the Gulph. Its population, already 70,000, is (I believe)
incomparably more intelligent, more temperate, more religious, and more
steady than that of any manufacturing town in England. In fact, England
has not much chance of competing successfully with America, unless her
artizans copy more extensively the example of the American people in
the entire abandonment of intoxicating liquors. In travelling leisurely
from New Orleans to Boston (the whole length of the United States), and
sitting down at all sorts of tables, on land and on water, private and
public, I have never once seen even wine brought to the table. Nothing
but water was universally used!
At Pittsburg I bought three good-sized newspapers for 5 cents, or
twopence-halfpenny. One of them, _The Daily Morning Post_, was a large
sheet, measuring 3 feet by 2, and well filled on both sides with close
letter-press, for 2 cents, or one penny. The absence of duty on paper
and of newspaper stamps is no doubt one great cause of the advanced
intelligence of the mass of the American people. What an absurd policy
is that of the British Government, first to impose taxes upon
_knowledge_, and then to use the money in promoting _education_!
At Pittsburg the Ohio ends, or rather begins, by the confluence of the
Alleghany and the Monongahela rivers. We ascended the latter to
Brownsville, about 56 miles. Having booked ourselves at an office, we
had to get into a smaller steamer on the other side of the bridge which
spans the river. The entire charge to Philadelphia was 12 dollars each.
We went by the "Consul," at half-past 8 A.M. of the 11th of March. The
water was very high, as had been the case in the Ohio all the way from
Cincinnati. We had not proceeded far when I found the passengers
a-stir, as if they had got to their journey's end. What was the matter?
Why, we had come to falls, which it was very doubtful whether the
steamer could get over. The passengers were soon landed, and the
steamer, with the crew, left to attempt the ascent. There were locks at
hand by which, under ordinary circumstances, boats evaded the
difficulty; but the flood was now so great that they could not be used.
Our steamer, therefore, stirred up her fires, raised her steam, brought
all her powers to bear, faced the difficulty, dashed into it, cut
along, and set at defiance the fury of the flood. "There she
goes!"--"No!"--"Yes!"--"No!"--"She's at a stand,"--the next moment she
was gliding back with the torrent: she had failed! But _nil
desperandum_. "Try--try--try again!" An immense volume of smoke issued
from her chimney, and soon she seemed again to be fully inflated with
her vapoury aliment. I expected every moment an explosion, and, while
rejoicing in our own safety on _terra firma_, felt tremblingly anxious
for the lives of those on board. Having had sufficient time to "recover
strength," she made for the foaming surge once more. "There she
goes!"--"No!"--"Yes!"--she paused--but it was only for the twinkling of
an eye,--the next moment she was over, and the bank's of the
Monongahela resounded with the joyful shouts of the gazing passengers.
We now breathed more freely, and were soon on board again; but we had
not advanced very far before we had to get out once more, in
consequence of other falls, which were stemmed with the same
inconvenience, the same anxiety, and the same success as in the
preceding instance.
But ere long an obstacle more formidable than the falls presented
itself--a bridge across the river. This bridge the boats were
accustomed to pass under, but the water was now so high that it could
not be done; and we had to wait till another boat belonging to the same
company, above the bridge, came down from Brownsville, and enabled us
to effect an exchange of passengers; for neither of the boats could get
under the bridge. The down boat soon made its appearance; and a scene
of confusion ensued which I know not how to describe. Imagine two sets
of passengers, about 150 persons in each set, exchanging boats! Three
hundred travellers jostling against each other, with "plunder"
amounting to some thousands of packages, to be removed a distance of
300 or 400 yards, at the risk and responsibility of the owners, without
any care or concern on the part of the officers of the boats! Trunks
seemed to run on wheels, carpet-bags to have wings, and portmanteaus to
jump about like grasshoppers. If you had put down one article while
looking for the rest, in an instant it would be gone. In this amusing
scuffle were involved several members of Congress, returning in the
"down" boat from their legislative duties. The celebrated Judge M'Lean
was among them. But the safety of some box or parcel was just then--to
most of us--of more importance than all the great men in the world. The
baggage storm being over, and the great division and trans-shipment
effected, we moved forward in peace. By-and-by, however, each one was
called upon to show his baggage, that it might be set apart for the
particular coach to which it would have to be consigned. This was a
most troublesome affair. At half-past 6 in the evening we arrived at
Brownsville, having been ten hours in getting over the 56 miles from
Pittsburg.
And now for the stage-coaches; for, _nolens volens_, "a-head" we must
go that very night. About seven or eight coaches were filled by those
of our fellow-passengers who, like ourselves, were going to cross the
mountains. Some of the vehicles set off immediately; but three waited
to let their passengers get tea or supper, meals which in America are
identical. About 8 P.M. we started on our cold and dreary journey of 73
miles across the Alleghany Mountains. A stage-coach in America is a
very different thing from the beautiful machine that used to pass by
that name in England.
It has no outside accommodation, except for one person on the box along
with the driver. The inside, in addition to the fore seat and the hind
seat, has also a middle seat across the vehicle. Each of these three
seats holds three persons, making nine in all. In our stage we had ten
persons; but the ten, in a pecuniary point of view, were only eight and
a half. The night was fearfully dark, and the roads were altogether
unworthy of the name. Yet there is an immense traffic on this route,
which is the highway from East to West. The Americans, with all their
"smartness," have not the knack of making either good roads or good
streets. About 11 P.M. we arrived at Uniontown, 12 miles from
Brownsville. There the horses were to be changed, an operation which
took about an hour to accomplish. Three coaches were there together.
The passengers rushed out of the inn, where we had been warming
ourselves, and jumped into the coaches. Crack went the whips, off went
the horses, and round went the wheels. But, alas! while we could hear
the rattling of the other coaches, our own moved not at all! "Driver,
why don't you be off?" No answer. "Driver, push on." No reply. "Go
a-head, driver,--don't keep us here all night." No notice taken. We
began to thump and stamp. No response. At last I put my head out
through the window. There _was_ no driver; and, worse still, there were
no horses! How was this? There was no "team," we were told, for our
coach! I jumped out, and began to make diligent inquiry: one told me
one thing, and another another. At length I learned that there was a
"team" in the stable, but there was no driver disposed to go. The one
who should have taken us was cursing and swearing in bed, and would not
get up. This was provoking enough. "Where is the agent of the
stage-coach company?"--"He lives about 47 miles off." "Where is the
landlord of this house?"--"He is in bed." There we were helpless and
deserted on the highroad, between 12 and 1 o'clock, in an extremely
cold night, without any redress or any opportunity of appeal! It was
nobody's business to care for us. I groped my way, however, to some
outbuilding, where about half-a-dozen drivers were snoring in their
beds, and, with the promise of making it "worth his while," succeeded
in inducing one of them to get up and take us to the next place for
changing horses. But before we could get off it was 2 o'clock in the
morning. We reached the next station, a distance of 10 miles, at 5
P.M., and paid our driver two dollars. In America drivers are not
accustomed to receive gratuities from passengers, but ours was a
peculiar case. After a most wearisome day of travel, being tossed about
in the coach like balls, expecting every moment to be upset, and
feeling bruised all over, we reached Cumberland at 9 P.M., having been
25 hours in getting over 73 miles, at the amazing rate of 3 miles an
hour! In Cumberland we had to stay all night.
At 8 A.M. the next day we set off by railway, or (as the Americans
would say) "by the cars," to Baltimore. In committing my trunk to the
luggage-van, I was struck with the simplicity and suitableness of the
check system there adopted. A piece of tin, with a certain number upon
it, was fastened by a strap to each article of baggage, and a duplicate
piece given to the passenger. I also remarked the size, shape, and
fittings-up of the cars. They are from 30 to 50 feet long, having an
aisle right through the middle from end to end, and on each side of
that aisle rows of seats, each of sufficient length to accommodate two
persons. The arrangement reminded me of a little country meeting-house,
the congregation amounting to from 50 to 100 persons. Each carriage
contained a stove,--at that season a most important article of
furniture. The seats, which were very nicely cushioned, had their hacks
so arranged as that the passengers could easily turn them as they
pleased, and sit with either their faces or their backs "towards the
horses" as they might feel disposed. This part of the arrangement is
indispensable, as these long carriages can never be turned. The hind
part in coming is the fore part in going, and _vice versa_. The
distinctions of first, second, and third class carriages are unknown.
That would be too aristocratic. But the "niggers" must go into the
luggage-van. These republican carriages are very neatly fitted up,
being mostly of mahogany with crimson velvet linings; but you often
feel annoyed that such dirty people should get in.