berths, and at the
dinner and supper the captain of the boat occupied the head of the
table, having seated near him any distinguished passengers.
Occasionally there was an opposition line with sharp rivalries,
and at one time a then rising New Yorker, Cornelius Vanderbilt,
carried passengers from New York to Boston for one dollar.

On arriving at New York, the passengers had to look out for their
luggage, and either engage hacks or hand-cartmen, who for twenty-
five cents would carry a trunk to any part of the city. The city
then, be it remembered, did not reach up Manhattan Island above
the vicinity of Broome or Spring Streets, although there were beyond
that the villages of Greenwich, Bloomingdale, Yorkville, and Harlem.
The City Hotel, on Broadway, just above Trinity Churchyard, Bunker's
Hotel, lower down, and the Washington Hotel, which occupied the
site of the Stewart building above the Park, were the principal
public houses. The Boston stages stopped at Hall's North American
Hotel, at the corner of Bayard Street and the Bowery, and there
were many boarding-houses where transient guests were accommodated.

From New York, travelers southward went by steamboat to Elizabethport,
where they were transferred to stages, and crossed New Jersey to
Bordentown on the Delaware River, where a steamer was in waiting
to transport them to Philadelphia. This was a long and fatiguing
day's journey, and a majority of travelers remained over a day in
Philadelphia, where the hotels were excellent and there were many
objects of attraction.

Leaving Philadelphia in a steamboat, passengers went down the
Delaware to New Castle, whence they crossed in stages to Frenchtown
on the Elk River, and there re-embarked on steamers, which took
them down and around to Baltimore, another long and fatiguing day's
trip. At each change from boat to stage, or from stage to boat,
passengers had to see that their luggage was transferred, and it
was generally necessary to give a quarter to the porter. Baggage
checks and the checking of baggage were then unknown.

Between Baltimore and Washington there were opposition lines of
stages and a good turnpike road. There had been, when I first went
over the road, some daring robberies by "road agents," and the mail
coaches were protected by a guard, who occupied a perch on the roof
over the boot and was armed with a blunderbuss. This weapon had
a funnel-shaped barrel, a flint lock, took about half a p