must we lose sight of the time consumed by making a trip by coach,"
he went on. "Business in those days was not such a rushing matter as it
is now, of course; yet even when issues of importance were at stake, or
crises of life and death were to be met, there was no hurrying things
beyond a certain point. Physical impossibility prohibited it. Horses
driven at their liveliest pace could cover only a comparatively small
number of miles an hour; and at the points where the relays were
changed, or the horses fed and rested; the mails deposited or taken
aboard; and passengers left or picked up, there were unavoidable delays.
In fact, the strongest argument against the stagecoach, and the one that
influenced public opinion the most, was this so-called fast-mail
service; for in order to make connections with other mail coaches along
the route and not forfeit the money paid for doing so, horses were often
driven at such a merciless rate of speed that the poor creatures became
total wrecks within a very short time. Many a horse fell in its tracks
in the inn yards, having been lashed along to make the necessary ten
miles an hour and reach a specified town on schedule. Other horses were
maimed for life. It is tragic to consider that in England before the
advent of the railroad about thirty thousand horses were annually either
killed outright or injured so badly that they were of little use
afterward."

"Great Scott, Dad!" ejaculated Stephen.

"And England was no more guilty in this respect than was America, for in
the early days of our own country when people were demanding quicker
transportation and swifter mail service thousands of noble beasts
offered up their last breath in making the required rate of speed."

"I suppose nobody thought about the horses," murmured the boy. "I am
sure I didn't."

"If the public thought at all it was too selfish to care, I am afraid,
until threatened by the possibility of the total extermination of these
creatures," was his father's reply. "This danger, blended with a humane
impulse which rose from the gentler-minded portion of the populace, was
the decisive factor in urging men to seek out some other method of
travel. Then, too, the world was waking up commercially and it was
becoming imperative to find better ways for transporting the ever
increasing supplies of merchandise. The quick moving of troops from one
point to another was also an issue. Although the canals of England
enabled the go