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heights of the mountain in a keen wind, to look down into a
valley full of light and softness; catching glimpses, through the
tree-tops, of scattered cabins; children running to the doors;
dogs bursting out to bark, whom we could see without hearing;
terrified pigs scampering homewards; families sitting out in
their rude gardens; cows gazing upward with a stupid
indifference; men in their shirt-sleeves looking on at their
unfinished houses, planning out tomorrow”s work; and we riding
onward, high abode them, like a whirl-wind
‘It was very pretty traveling thus, at a rapid pace along the
heights of the mountain in a keen wind, to look down into a
valley full of light and softness; catching glimpses, through the
tree-tops, of scattered cabins; children running to the doors;
dogs bursting out to bark, whom we could see without hearing;
terrified pigs scampering homewards; families sitting out in
their rude gardens; cows gazing upward with a stupid
indifference; men in their shirt-sleeves looking on at their
unfinished houses, planning out tomorrow”s work; and we riding
onward, high abode them, like a whirl-wind. It was amusing, too,
when we had dined, and rattled down a steep pass, having no other
motive power than the weight of the carriages themselves, to see
the engine released, long after us, come buzzing down alone, like
a great insect, its back of green and gold so shining in the sun,
that if it had spread a pair of wings and soared away, no one
would have had occasion, as I fancied, for the least surprise.
But it stopped short of us in a very business-like manner when we
reached the canal; and, before we left the wharf, went panting up
this hill again, with the passengers who had waited our arrival
for the means of traversing the road by which we had come.’*

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protest against the monopoly which the new venture created
The success of the Lancaster Turnpike was not achieved without a
protest against the monopoly which the new venture created. It is
true that in all the colonies the exercise of the right of
eminent domain had been conceded in a veiled way to officials to
whose care the laying out of roads had been delegated. As early
as 1639 the General Court of Massachusetts had ordered each town
to choose men who, cooperating with men from the adjoining town,
should ‘lay out highways where they may be most convenient,
notwithstanding any man”s property, or any corne ground, so as it
occasion not the pulling down of any man”s house, or laying open
any garden or orchard.’ But the open and extended exercise of
these rights led to vigorous opposition in the case of this
Pennsylvania road. A public meeting was held at the Prince of
Wales Tavern in Philadelphia in 1793 to protest in round terms
against the monopolistic character of the Lancaster Turnpike.
Blackstone and Edward III were hurled at the heads of the ‘venal’
legislators who had made this ‘monstrosity’ possible. The
opposition died down, however, in the face of the success which
the new road instantly achieved. The Turnpike was, indeed,
admirably situated. Converging at the quaint old ‘borough of
Lancaster,’ the various routes–northeast from Virginia, east
from the Carlisle and Chambersburg region and the Alleghanies,
and southeast from the upper Susquehanna country–poured upon the
Quaker City a trade that profited every merchant, landholder, and
laborer. The nine tollgates, on the average a little less than
seven miles apart, turned in a revenue that allowed the
‘President and Managers’ to declare dividends to stockholders
running, it is said, as high as fifteen per cent.

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Ludlow knew his audience and he saw his chance. Setting the words
to Risk”s tune, ‘Love Laughs’ at Locksmiths, donning the costume
of a Western riverman, and arming himself with a long ’squirrel’
rifle, he presented himself before the house. The rivermen who
filled the pit received him, it is related, with ‘a prolonged
whoop, or howl, such as Indians give when they are especially
pleased.’ And to these sturdy men the words of his song made a
strong appeal:

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