Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 10).djvu/182

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
182
THE CUMBERLAND ROAD

sounded the knell of the rugged race of horses which once did service in the Central West.

As one scans the old files of newspapers, or reads old-time letters and memoirs of the age of the Cumberland Road, he is impressed with the interest taken in the coming and going of the more renowned guests of the old road. The passage of a president-elect over the Cumberland Road was a triumphant procession. The stage companies made special stages, or selected the best of their stock, in which to bear him. The best horses were fed and groomed for the proud task. The most noted drivers were appointed to the honorable station of Charioteer-to-the-President. The thousands of homes along his route were decked in his honor, and welcoming heralds rode out from the larger towns to escort their noted guests to celebrations for which preparations had been making for days in advance. The slow-moving presidential pageant through Ohio and Pennsylvania was an educational and patriotic ceremony, of not infrequent occurrence in the old coaching days—a worthy exhibition which hardly has its counterpart in these