230
��Fj'oin the White Horse to Little RJiody.
��[April,
��his affection for the old Granite State, and nothing dehghts liim more, when possible to do so, than to put behind him the whirl and distraction of the city for the quiet enjoyment of the fresh, exhilarating air, unpretentious, wholesome life, and substantial ways that await him among his dear native hills. In glancing over the " Portraits for Posterity," the writer notes the con- spicuous absence of. naval representa- tion among the " counterfeit present- ments " that adorn the walls of the
��Capitol at Concord and the halls of Dartmouth, and ventures to suggest to Governor Prescott, the distinguished and indefatigable collector of most of the pictures, that portraits of Thornton of the Kearsarge, and Perkins of the Cayuga and Chickasaw, might fittingly be given place among those who, in the varied walks of life, have lent distinction and added lustre to the Province and State of New Hampshire from Colonial times to this. Let not the men of the sea be forgotten !
��FROM THE WHITE HORSE TO LITTLE RHODY.
By Charles M. Barrows.
��Were other means lacking, the prog- ress of the human race might be pretty accurately gauged by its modes of locomotion. On such a basis of classi- fication there might be a pedestrian period, a pilgrim period, a saddle period, a road-wain period, a stage- coach period, and a railway period.
Relatively considered, each mode of travel thus indicated would be an index of the necessities and activity of the times. The nomadic peoples dwelt in a leisurely world, and were content to go a-foot ; their wants were simple, their aspirations temperate ; subsist- ence for themselves and their flocks was their great care, and only when the grass withered and the stream dried up did they set forth in quest of fresh pasturage. At length, however, the duU-thoughted tribular chieftain be- came curious to know what lay beyond the narrow horizon of his wilderness, and men bound on the sandal, girded up their loins, grasped staff, and beat paths up and down the valleys, trudging behind an ass or a pack-horse that
��carried their impedimenta. Another advance, and the man who drove his beast before him found that the creature was able to carry both his pack and himself; and training soon enabled the animal to mend his pace and transport his master rapidly across long stretches of waste country. Another period elapsed, and ambitious man discovered that, by clearing a passage for wheels, the load could be shifted from the back of the beast to a wagon drawn behind him ; thus carriages came into use, and the race went bowling along the great highway of progress at a wonderful rate. Then vehicles began to be improved, and the restless brain of the inventor contrived a stage-coach for the convenience of those who had no private carriages or did not care to use them ; though rude at first, it soon came to be luxurious, with thorough- braces, upholstery, and glass windows. But even this noisy vehicle, that abridged distance and brought {ax cities near together, outgrew its useful- ness and gave way to its rival, the
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