he put foot on the soil of our State, he was welcomed by the committee appointed to receive him, and in a splendid barouche, drawn by six dark creamcolored horses, he was conveyed to the City of Philadelphia, the First City Troop having the honor of escorting him on the way. He stopped over night at Bristol, and the next day entered our city. Here there was a great procession that accompanied him to his hotel. The streets were crowded with enthusiastic people, who grew hoarse in their cheers of welcome. In the language of Poulson's "Advertiser," "Lafayette beat in every grateful heart; Lafayette hung on every lip; Lafayette burst from every tongue; Lafayette glowed on every cheek; Lafayette glistened in every swimming eye; Lafayette swelled on every gale." Every available spot was occupied. Arches had been erected in all parts of the city, and in many instances were most elaborately adorned and resplendent with the colors of France and the United States. Portraits of Washington and Lafayette were to be seen on all sides, and the sloop-of-war "John Adams," in the river, fired a salute at intervals during the day.

When the procession reached the neighborhood of Eleventh street near Chestnut, Mrs. Robert Morris, surrounded by a group of friends, sat at a window waiting to give him welcome. When opposite the house, Lafayette rose in his barouche, with all his dignity and grace and amidst the applause of the people, took off his hat and bowed profoundly to pay special and marked respect to that woman whose husband had done so much for the Republic in the days of its trial. The obeisance was so well timed that the people appreciated the sentiment that induced it and with a sympathy that was heartfelt, cheered to the echo. It was the same spirit of chivalry that he displayed when at Versailles on the morning of October sixth, 1789, in the presence of an infuriated mob, he stooped and kissed the hand of Marie Antoinette.

In passing the United States Bank, the veterans of the Revolution stood upon the steps under the blood soiled and bullet rent standards of '76, and gave him a glorious welcome, and his tender recognition as he turned to greet them, with his eyes suffused with tears, was one of the heart touching incidents of the day.

The State House was at last reached, and Lafayette left his carriage to pass into the room where had sat the Fathers of the Republic when they adopted the Declaration of Independence. On behalf of the city, Mayor Watson, delivered an address of welcome, and General Lafayette replied in the following touching and eloquent words: "My entrance through this fair and great city, amidst the most solemn and affectionate recollections, and under all the circumstances of a welcome which no expression could adequately acknowledge, has excited emotions in my heart in which are mingled the feelings of nearly fifty years.

"Here within these sacred walls, by a Council of wise and devoted patriots and in a style worthy of the deed itself, was boldly declared the independence of these vast United States, which while it anticipated the independenceand I hope the Republican independence of the whole American hemispherehas begun in the civilized world the era of a new and of the only true social order, founded on the inalienable rights of man, the practicability and advantages of which are every day admirably demonstrated by the happiness and prosperity of your populous city. Here, sir, was planned the formation of our

14

virtuous brave Revolutionary Army, and the Providential inspiration received that gave the command of it to our beloved, matchless Washington. But these and many other remembrances are mingled with a deep regret for the numerous contemporaries in the great and good men whose loss we have remained to mourn. It is to their services, sir, to your regard for their memory, to your knowledge of the friendships I have enjoyed that I refer the greater part of the honors here and elsewhere received-much surpassing my individual merit. "It is also under the auspices of their venerated names as well as under the impulse of my own sentiments that I beg you, Mr. Mayor, you, gentlemen of both Councils, and all the citizens of Philadelphia, to accept the tribute of my affectionate respect and profound gratitude."

Passing out of the State House at the south door and walking through the square to Walnut street, he was escorted to his barouche, which having entered, guarded by the First City Troop, he rode to his lodgings at the Mansion House on Third street, which had been specially prepared for his reception. Crowds every hour of the day and night gathered about the doors of the inn, and whenever he appeared at a window he was greeted with applause. Every comfort was provided for him, and every attention possible tendered him. The houses and all the public buildings were illuminated at night, and Paul Beck's Shot Tower on the Schuylkill loomed up out of the darkness like a pillar of light. All the distinguished citizens vied with one another in entertaining and banqueting him. He dined with Judge Peters at Belmont, with the Masons in their Temple, as well as with his resident countrymen in Washington Hall and with the City Corporation at the Mansion House. With a man of his advanced years, the entertainments must have been a drain upon his strength, but he seems to have stood the ordeal without any ill-results, although upon one occasion he stood uncovered for nearly three hours while the ceremonies were in progress. Every institution, learned, scientific and religious, strove to do him. honor, and at last a ball was given at the Chestnut Street Theatre on the evening of October fourth. The managers were John R. Ingersoll, Samuel Breck, James M. Barker, Benjamin Tilghman, George M. Dallas, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, General Robert Patterson, Louis Clapier, Andrew M. Prevost, John K. Kane, Nicholas Biddle and Joseph McIlvain. After a week's visit he left the city on the afternoon of Tuesday, October fifth, and was accompanied by Governor Shulze, and proceeded down the river to Chester. The wharves and shores were crowded with people, bidding him an affectionate farewell and it was not until he reached the Delaware line that Pennsylvania ceased her rever

ence.

He made a second visit, reaching the city on the evening of July sixteenth of the following year. He was dined and feted, but was not kept so actively employed as upon the prior occasion. On July twenty-fifth, he made a visit to the battle ground of Brandywine and then proceeded on his way to Washington where he boarded the Frigate Brandywine which, under the command of Captain Charles Morris, conveyed him to his native shores.

It has been a favorite saying in the mouths of many that Republics are ungrateful, but Lafayette was so honored by the people whose independence he had helped to secure that in this instance must be given contradiction to the

statement.

INTRODUCTION OF RAILROADS.

WE

STEPHEN GIRARD.

CHAPTER XX.

PASSING OF THE STAGE COACH. DEATH OF GIRARD COLLEGE. WILLS' HOSPITAL.

E have now reached that period when, in the history of the world, there is to be a great change in the matter of travel and transportation. The stage coach, the pack horse and the Conestoga wagon are to be supplanted by the steam engine and railroads, and schedules are to be cut down to hours and days where they have hitherto covered weeks and months.

As a sample of the condition of the roads, prior to the Revolution and for many years subsequent thereto, the following is a good illustration: In 1766, Mr. Clarkson, who was a merchant of Philadelphia, and had served as Mayor of the city, set out on horseback, accompanied by a servant, on the sixth day of August, to make a journey to Pittsburgh. In giving his experience, he states that "on the first day he met wagons loaded with skins coming from the West, and overtook others loaded with pork, going for the King's use to Fort Pitt," the name of the settlement which the French called Duquesne, but which was afterwards changed to Pittsburgh. At nightfall of the first day he lodged at a tavern called "The Ship," thirty-five miles distant from Philadelphia, and the following day he reached Lancaster in the evening, putting up at "The Duke of Cumberland." On the eighth, he pressed on as rapidly as conditions would allow, and arrived at York that day, and on the ninth at Carlisle, where, to recover from the effects of the hard traveling, he remained until the twelfth, and then resumed his journey, finding the road nothing but hills, mountains and stones. Thus he got through in ten days, without counting stoppages, a journey which to-day we make in a night, sleeping on a couch as comfortably as in a bed at home.

The conditions at the beginning of the second quarter of the Nineteenth Century were as they had been even before the Revolution. Roads, to be sure, had been somewhat improved, but the methods of conveyance were the same, and it was no easy task to undertake a journey of a hundred miles in any direction. The stage coach was not a comfortable conveyance. It had no springs, but was swung on heavy straps and every rut in the road resulted in a bump or a jolt to the passengers. The windows had no sashes that could be lowered or raised but were closed by letting down a leathern shade or apron. This, in the summer season, kept out the rays of the sun, but only increased the temperature in the coach. It was some protection, however, at times against the rain. In dry weather the dust was raised in clouds; in wet weather the roads were transformed into ditches and the wheels of the wagons sank to their hubs in mud. The coach contained three seats running crosswise; each seat would accommodate three persons, and only those in the rear had a support for their backs. Accidents on the road were of frequent occurrence, and at

times greatly delayed the progress, passengers often being compelled to alight and give a hand in pulling the wheels out of a ditch.

Even as late as 1832, Miss Fanny Kemble, in describing the stage coaches, said, "they were shaped something like boats." The one in which she rode from New York to Philadelphia, she described as "a nefarious black hole on wheels The horses trotted with their front and galloped with their hind legs, and away we went after them, bumping, thumping, jumping, jolting, shaking, tossing and tumbling, over the wickedest road, I do think the cruelest, hard-heartedest road that ever wheel rumbled over." She further said that the ruts were "absolute abysses."

Before the introduction of railroads, steam, as a method of propulsion had made great progress in travel by water. Quoting again from Miss Fanny Kemble she states that the steamboats were better than the stage coaches. She found them "large and commodious." They were three stories in height, the roof unprotected by any covering, but the middle deck had chairs and benches, which the passengers could use without fear of being crowded, and where they could enjoy the breezes and view the landscape on both sides of the river. So much progress had there been made in improvements in the construction of steam vessels, that in 1819 the American steamship "Savannah" made the first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

All this time internal improvements in the way of construction of turnpikes and canals, were uniting the different sections of the country, but the use of steam as a power of locomotion on land, did not develop nor reach a practical solution until nearly twenty years after the "Clermont" had made her memorable voyage up the Hudson against wind and current. Oliver Evans and other ingenious American mechanics were experimenting with steam wagons, but it remained for George Stevenson of England to solve practically the question by the construction of a locomotive which would draw a train of cars on a track at the rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour.

The first railroad constructed in England was in 1826, and ran from Stockton to Darlington, a distance of twelve miles, the run being made in twelve hours. The building of railroads, however, called forth much opposition from certain quarters. Old fogies came out in force and contended that the air would be poisoned with gases, that barns, houses, stacks of hay and straw, and even crops of standing grain would be set on fire from sparks issuing out of the smoke stacks, that boilers would burst and spread destruction in all directions, that horses on the highways would be frightened by the noise of the steam monster, that crossing the railroads at grade would be fraught with peril, and the peace and quiet of the community disturbed by the whistle of the engine and the rumbling of the train. In fact, so strong was the opposition in Parliament, that a bill providing for the construction of a railroad from Liverpool to Manchester was defeated in the committee, and it required the greatest effort and the expenditure, subsequently, of a large sum of money to secure its passage.

In this country, the innkeepers, who were an influential body of men, and who saw that their occupation would be gone if turnpike travel was discontinued, used every effort to defeat the granting of charters and the building of

railroads; one veteran Boniface declaring that "no railroad could carry the freight that the old Conestogas do nor at so cheap a figure."

In 1828 the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, the only person living who had signed the Declaration of Independence, broke ground for the construction of a railroad from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, and after throwing up the first spadeful of dirt, he exclaimed, "I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing of the Declaration of Independence, if second even to that."

In 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company sent over its tracks for the distance of fourteen miles, the first locomotive ever used in this country. The locomotive was built in Baltimore by the celebrated Peter Cooper. It was a rude affair as compared with the locomotive of modern times and drew a train of cars which in appearance resembled in every particular the stage coaches of that day. It was some time before the modern passenger car was introduced. The distance was covered in little less than an hour and the story goes that on the return the engine had a race with a spirited gray horse belonging to one of the Baltimore stage coach lines. The race for a short distance was neck and neck, but the little engine putting forth all her strength, at length passed her competitor, the whistle blew and the passengers cheered and from that little incident may be dated the passing of the stage coach. Short tracks were now laid in every section of the country, and the system proved so much superior to the prior methods of transportation that all opposition faded away.

Movements were early set on foot to build a line extending from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and on March thirty-first, 1823, the Legislature of this State granted a charter to the "President, Directors and Company of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company." Among the incorporators were named Horace Binney and Stephen Girard. Subscriptions to the stock came in slowly, because the projectors were not able to show that the enterprise would make sufficient returns to pay a dividend upon the capital invested.

The building of a railroad, so long as it was at grade, was comparatively an easy proposition, but when it came to the crossing of rivers, the construction. of bridges, or the tunneling of mountains, that was a different question and required the skill of trained and experienced engineers, but these difficulties were soon overcome by time.

The Lancaster, Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad Company was chartered in 1826, but its building proceeded very slowly, every step being met with opposition and it was not until April, 1834, that one track was ready for use. The company owned but one locomotive called the "Black Hawk," named after the well known Indian chief. After leaving Lancaster, Philadelphia was reached in eight and one half hours. This included all the stops to take on water for the engine, and, as the report states, to refresh the passengers. At last, however, the road succeeded in securing an entrance to the city, having the right of way over Pennsylvania avenue to Broad street and Callowhill in Spring Garden. It then proceeded south on Broad street to Vine street, where it touched the northern limits of the city, and from this point lines were continued on Broad street as far as South, and a branch on Market street ran to the ware