Page:History of Hudson County and of the Old Village of Bergen.djvu/49

Rh One of the First Steam Trains, 1831

Cooper himself in charge, was sadly defeated by a stubbornly unprogressive stage proprietor who raced it with a single horse hitched to the same kind of coach that was drawn by the locomotive. All the stage companies in the land spread the glad news. They also told with infinite joy how the foolish and heinously dangerous locomotives showered passengers with flaming wood embers so that they had to protect themselves with hoisted umbrellas which, alas! caught fire themselves. Therefore though optimists went on laying rails, the stage business continued to prosper so healthily that in 1832 at least twenty stage lines were crossing Bergen in all directions.

In that year the Paterson and Hudson Railroad completed its tracks and began operation with a rolling stock of "three splendid and commodious cars each capable of accommodating 30 passengers, drawn by fleet and gentle horses." Locomotives were introduced a little later, but with excellent caution the