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Slack's Tavern (site)
Old Braddock Road
Washington Springs, PA 15445From Searight's The Old Pike (1894):
The tavern keepers on the 'old road,' as it is called, were as earnestly opposed to the building of the National Road, as those on the latter were to the building of the railroad, and for like reasons. The following anecdote serves as an illustration: John Slack kept a tavern for many years at the summit of Laurel Hill on the old road, in a house near the Washington Springs. Before the National Road was opened said Slack, in a complaining manner, 'Wagons coming up Laurel Hill would stick in the mud a mile or so below my house, when the drivers would unhitch, leave their wagons in the mud, and bring their teams to my house and stay with me all night. In the morning they would return to their stranded wagons, dig and haul them out, and get back to my house and stay with me another night. Thus counting the wagons going east and west, I got four night's bills from the same set of wagoners.' 'Now,' concluded Slack (since the completion of the National Road), with indignation, 'the wagoners whiff by without stopping.' Old wagoners were accustomed to say of Slack that he was 'Slack at night and tight in the morning,' meaning that he was clever and cheerful when they 'put up' with him in the evening, and close and exacting in the morning when bills were payable.
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Last updated: 2014-04-05 07:14:09 |
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