How Did The Stagecoach Get Its Name?

Stagecoach

Coaches that carried passengers became known as “stagecoaches” because they stopped to rest at stage stops along the way.

Until railroads appeared, early travelers in America made long-distance journeys either on horseback or in horse-drawn coaches, called “stagecoaches.”

Stops were made along the way at rest stations, or “stages,” for fresh horses and food for the passengers.  Thus the name of “stagecoach.”

Travel by stagecoach was often unsafe as well as uncomfortable.  The travelers faced the constant danger of robbery and Indian attack.  The stagecoaches bumped along the bumpy dirt roads day and night.

The passengers, grimy with dust in summer and shivering with cold in winter, tried to sleep on the hard seats.  A trip from Missouri to California took nearly three weeks.  Many of the finest stagecoaches were made at Concord, New Hampshire.  They were handmade and cost $1,500 each.

Concord coaches drawn by six horses bounced along at a brisk, 10 miles an hour. So well were the coaches built that many of the original coaches are still used in Western movies. – Dick Rogers

Let Your Little Light Shine (2 of 2)

The clues to our “accelerating universe” may just be in the thorough investigation of nearby galaxies, supernovas, and neutron stars down to the minute quark-gluon plasmas and neutrinos. As new technologies are developed to allow scientist to probe deeper into space, new challenges emerge. The new findings may contest the existing theories that have been the bulwark of the physical world and its many phenomena. But still, scientist build upon these little findings to search the skies for even more clues.

Life is like that—a continuing quest for illumination. We sometimes feel that we know so much. Other times, we feel that what we recently learned and discovered have actually unearthed another puzzle, an answer leading to another question. Even so, our little discoveries and experiments help enrich us to become a better person. We can actually use our “little lessons” to encourage others overcome their own challenges.

If travelers and explorers seek for the lighthouse nearby or the brightest stars to guide their path, the “little lessons” to encourage others overcome their own challenges.

If travelers and explorers seek for the lighthouse nearby or the brightest stars to guide their path, the little “lights” that researchers leave behind become the “guiding lights” for new explorations.

When others wallow in shadows, your “little light” may just be the flicker of hope that others need for them to prod on with life. Aren’t you going to let your little light shine and warm others?

And at times when life becomes gloomy, instead of bowing down in grief, try looking up—a beacon of light may just be shining somewhere. – Bato Balani