. A history of the United States of America, its people, and its institutions. n in San Francisco in 1873. The firstelectric railv/ay was started in Richmond, Virginia, in many thousands of miles of electric trolley roads arein use, extending from the cities far into the country, andthe trolley system is beginning to supersede the steam loco-motive. Prom Bicycle to Aeroplane.—The bicycle, which cameinto use after 1870 and grew very popular, is now littleused. It has been succeeded by the automobile, or motorvehicle for common roads, moved by various sources ofpower, which is fast taki
. A history of the United States of America, its people, and its institutions. n in San Francisco in 1873. The firstelectric railv/ay was started in Richmond, Virginia, in many thousands of miles of electric trolley roads arein use, extending from the cities far into the country, andthe trolley system is beginning to supersede the steam loco-motive. Prom Bicycle to Aeroplane.—The bicycle, which cameinto use after 1870 and grew very popular, is now littleused. It has been succeeded by the automobile, or motorvehicle for common roads, moved by various sources ofpower, which is fast taking the place of the horse. Stillmore recent is the aeroplane, or flying machine, an Ameri-can invention, which is now widely used. Postal Progress.—The first regular mail route of whichwe know in this country was started in 1672 between NewYork and Boston, by way of Hartford. It made the roundtrip once a month. In 1729 the mail between Philadelphiaand New York was carried once a week in summer, once a 34 524 STAGES OF* PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES. 01 the regular ^t-j^-rc feo>.>.v. The Pony Express. fortnkht in winter. The mails were carried by men onhorseback, their saddle-bags sufficing for all the letterssent. In remote places a mail was sent out w^hen enoughletters had collected to pay the cost of carriage. The oldcarrier is said to have jogged slowly onward, knitting stock-ings to pass the time. Newspapers did not then make part In 1753, Benjamin Franklin was ap-pointed postmaster-gen-eral, and spent five weeksin making a tour of thecountry to perfect hisplans. The service wasmuch improved underhis management. Postal Service in1790. —In 1790 therewere seventy-five post-offices in the country, and five mails a week between NewYork and Philadelphia. It took two days for a letter togo this distance. The mail routes were then eighteenhundred and sever)ty-five miles in length, and about twomillion letters wero carried yearly. They are now overfour hundred th
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