ABSTRACT
The proprietors of steamboats, railroads, and stagecoaches, not unfrequently carry the spirit of competition to a ruinous and ridiculous ex tent. A few years ago, we went to Albany and were “found” for half a dollar! and it is within the recollection of everybody that Gibbons, for a long period, run his boats from New-York to New-Brunswick for twelve-and-a-half cents! More recently, Mr. Vanderbilt, a large capital ist, and doubtless an enterprising man, with a view of breaking down what was denominated the “odious eastern monopoly,” placed several swift and commodious steamers on the Boston line, and you would take a trip from New-York to Providence for the trifling consideration of half a dollar, lawful currency! Whether the public-the misused, flattered, cajoled, long-suffering and indulgent public-is ultimately benefited by these reductions of the fare to an inadequate price, or otherwise, is not for us to determine; and we, therefore, leave the in vestigation of the subject, now and for ever, to those more skilled and curious in such matters. Yet we have a right to an opinion; and, as this is certainly a free country, we presume no one will quarrel with us-if we keep it entirely to ourselves. In a crowded steamer, however, whose deck and cabin are thronged with what the great bard calls “all sorts of people,” there is but little comfort. Still we would not be under stood as raising our feeble voice in defence of any monopoly under the sun; but more especially that of steamboats. Far be it from us. We are patriots; but, what is a greater evidence of our honesty and disin terestedness, we have no stock in them whatever; and, as we are nothing but a “waif upon the world’s wide common,” we never expect
to have any; unless we should draw a prize in the lottery, or some un known or unheard-of rich relation should die, and unexpectedly shower his bounties upon us; or any other unimaginable, improbable, and impossible thing should occur, of which we have not the remotest conception at the present moment. We therefore, of course, prefer a spirited and liberally-managed opposition in all cases, whenever the number of travellers will warrant such an arrangement, and when mere angry feelings, jealousy, hatred, and all uncharitableness, are not the governing motive and groundwork of the competition. But we have often noted, that the great contending parties have generally some concealed motive, some private end in view, and, that, while they are endeavouring, like the Hibernian cats, to eat each other up-“all up!”— they profess the most profound respect and regard for that public, which, in the main, they are constantly striving to overreach. The public, however, like a re-public, is proverbially ungrateful; and, seeing the pains that people take to impose upon each other, it does not hesitate, in its turn, to impose upon everybody. Our reminiscences furnish us with a case in point.
