under lock and key not to be opened until the next post office was reached. These stages were of two kinds, designed to be operated upon routes where the mail ordinarily comprised, respectively, a half and nearly a whole load. In the former, room was left for six passengers, in the latter, for three. Including newspapers with the regular mail, the later stages which ran westward over the Cumberland Road rarely carried passengers. Indeed there was little room for the guards who traveled with the driver to protect the government property. Many old drivers of the "Boston Night Mail," or the "New York Night Mail," or "Baltimore Mail," may yet be found along the old road, who describe the immense loads which they carried westward behind flying steeds. Such a factor in the mailstage business did the newspapers become, that many contractors refused to carry them by express mail, consigning them to the ordinary mails, thereby bringing down upon themselves the frequent savage maledictions of a host of local editors.[1]
- ↑ "The extreme irregularity which has attended the
