spent the time deeply engrossed in her knitting as she made periodic five- mile journeys by cart to Mount Stewart. Such tranquility became impos- sible with the introduction of the automobile in 1917. On August 10th of that year, one of the Examiner’s correspondents complained that the Island had, all at once, become “motor mad” to the point that he was in danger every time he went on the road with his horse. For a time, only certain roads were open to automobiles; however, the restrictions were quickly lifted. Thus, on August 6, 1917, the roads from French Village to Savage Harbour and from Mount Stewart to Cherry Hill were thrown open to auto traffic on all days of the week. Automobiles became so num- erous that, by 1928, there were ten filling stations along Mount Stewart’s

main street.

An interesting story relating to the early days of the automobile occurred in May of 1926. At that time, Dr. A. .B. Martin had recently purchased a new Ford Runabout, and Mr. Roy Jay, the local Ford dealer, decided to drive it from Charlottetown rather than have it shipped. Every- thing went well for the first few miles, but, on reaching the top of Wright’s Hill, Mr. Jay, who had neglected to bring chains, was stopped by a combination of snow banks and deep mud. With the aid of borrowed chains, the journey continued, though the mud reached the vehicle’s axels, until Gibson’s Hill, about six miles from Charlottetown, had been reached. Here the snow was up to five feet deep, so deep that travellers had to circumvent it by driving through Mr. Gibson’s field. Nothing daunted, Mr. Jay kept on, through mud, slush and snow, until he had reached home and delivered the car to its owner. He had the honour of being the first to travel the St. Peter’s Road in a car that spring.

During the year following Mr. Jay’s celebrated journey, commenc- ing at What is now the Shell Service Station corner, a new road to Pisquid was built across the lower fields of Stewart MacEachern’s farm. This replaced an older road which, beginning at the same place, had proceeded to the site of Harry Crane’s former mill and thence in a south-easterly direction almost to Elmer Jay’s home, where a right-angle turn had set it in the direction of Pisquid. The road, considered to be a vast improve- ment over the old, was first travelled by Percy Affleck, mail carrier, closely followed by Fred Leard in his new Dodge car.

A transportation service long used by the people of Mount Stewart has been the bus line connecting Souris and Charlottetown, originally oper- ated by James Lewis and Ernest Fardy. Island Motor Transport bought the franchise in 1937 and have held it up to the present time. In 1953, Canadian National Railways requested permission to set up a service in competition with I.M.T.; however, considering that available passenger traffic would not be sufficient to permit two competing bus services, the authorities rejected the application. At the time of writing, due to a con- tinued decline in the volume of business, I.M.T. reports it will discontinue operations on this line on June 14, 1975.

Railroads

“We hear a blast of a mighty Whistle as the locomotive with a white curl of steam comes pounding down the shining path through the fields. . . The train stops with a long hissing breath: ‘so tired, so tired’ it pants. The engineer gets down and pokes around it with his oil can; the con- ductor jokes and calls the men by their first names, for the train has carried him back and forth for many years . . . Baggage is unloaded and

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