Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1884 — THE STAGE-DRIVER’S STORY. [ARTICLE]

THE STAGE-DRIVER’S STORY.

How General Scott's Life Was Saved and How His Driver Twice Escaped Death. The traveler of the present day, as he Is hurried along by the lightning express, in its buffet cars and palace sleepers, teldom reverts in thought to the time when the stage coach and packet were the only means of communication between distant points. It is rare that one of the real old-time ftagedrivers is met with now-a-days, and when the writer recently rap across Fayette Haskell, of Lockport, N. Y." he felt like a bibliographer over the discovery of some rare volume of “forgotten lore.” Mr. Haskel), al thou,-h one of the pioneers in stage driving (he formerly ran from I ewiston to Niagara Falls.and Buffalo, is hale and hearty, and bidsiw'rto live for many years. The strange stories of h's early adventures would nil a volume, one time when going down a mMntaiu near Lewiston with no le s a personage than General Scott as a passenger, the brakes gave way and the coach came on the heels of the wheel horses. The only remedy was to whip the leaders to a gallop. Gaining additional momentum with each revolution of the wheels, the coach swayed and pitched down the mountain side and into the streets of Lewiston. Straight ahead at the foot of the steep hill Bowed the Niagara River, towards which the four horses dashed, apparently to certain death. Yet the Arm hand never relaxed its hold, nor the clear brain its conception of what must be done in the emergency. On dashed the horses until the narrow dock was reached on the river bank, when by a mtsterly exhibition of nerve and daring, the coach was turned in scarce its own length, and the horses brought to a standstill before the pale lookers on could realize what had occurred. A purse was raised by General Scott and presented to Mr. Haskell with high compliments for his skill and bravery. Notwithstanding all his strength and his robust constitution, the strain of continuous work and exposure proved too much for Mr. Haskell’s constitution. The constant jolting of the coach and the necessarily cramped position in which he was obliged to sit contributed to this end, and at times he was obliged to abandon driving altogether. Speaking of this period he said: “I found it almost impossible to sleep at night; rny appetite left me entirely, and I had a tired feeling which I never knew before and could not account for. 1 ’ “Did you give -up driving entirely?" “No. I tried to keep up, but it was only with the greatest effort. This state of things continued for nearly twenty years until last October, when I went all to pieces.” “In what way?” “Oh, 1 doubled all up; could not walk without a cane, and was incapable of any effort or exertion. I had a constant desire to urinate both day and night, and, although I felt like passing a gallon every ten minutes, only a few drops could escape and they thick with sediment. Finally it ceased to Bow entirely, and I thought death was very near.” •■What did you do then?” “What I should have done long before: listen to my wife. Under her advice I began a new treatment.” “And with what result?” “Wonderful. It unstopped the closed passages, and, what was still more wonderful. regulated the flow. The sediment vanished, my appetite returne 1, and I am now welt, and good for twenty more years, wholly through the aid of Warner’s Safe Cure. that, has done wonders for me as well as for so many others.” Mr. Haskell’s experience is repeated every day in the lives of thousands of American men and women. An unknown evil is undermining the existence of an innumerable number, who do not rt alize the danger they are in until healtn has entirely departed, and death, perhaps, stares them in the face. To neglect such important matters is like drifting in the current of Niagara above the Falls.