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Show W-W-------------. I HISTORICAL I I DEPARTMENT, f ;--"-- -"--- ----! THE OLD PONY EXPRESS. Bronchos Carried Lincoln's Inaugural Address 2,000 Miles in 7 Days. (New York Sun.) The men were talking of the cross-continent cross-continent record made by the Australian Austra-lian mail. The old Indian fighter twisted his mustache thoughtfully. "There's something very fine about a race like that," he said. "I never get used to our fast trains. They are awe-j awe-j some things. I take off my hat to them. But when you want exciting stories of Pacific mail you must get hold of someone who knew the pony express. There was a mail service for you. "Don't know much about it? Well I suppose not. It didn't last very long, and down east here you forget everything every-thing except your family pedigrees. "The Indian troubles never seemed real to New Yorkers. .They couldn't believe in an Indian massacre later than the French and Indian war. They heard about the Indian fighting out west, but they didn't take it seriously. We did. Good Lord, it was serious enough!" The old man lapsed into silence and sat staring into the past, with a deep furrow between his brows. "But about that pony express?" someone asked. "Oh. yes; the pony express. You men aren't so young, but I dare say ' you were too young to know anything about those days, save what you read. "1 wasn't very old myself in 1859, but I remember I was in the midst of things. That makes a difference. I've picked up pony messengers where they fell with wounds; all over them and their scalps missing. "I've seen messenger stations after the Indians had visited them and gone on. One doesn't forget that sort of thing. I knew Aubrey. There was a man for you!" There was another long silence. No one liked to ask questions. The old fighter objects to being prodded. He will tell his story in his own way, if he tells it a.t all. If he 'doesn't care to talk, no amount of questioning, will stir him to reminiscence. So the other men waited, and finally the major went on: S A "The overland stage had carried the mail and express. Everybody knows a good deal about the Overland's history. his-tory. It ran from St. Joe to Sacramento Sacra-mento and covered the 2,000 miles in twenty-five days. "Taking everything into consideration, considera-tion, that was pretty ' fast traveling. At first the stage ran twice a month. Later it ran daily. "I've made the trip and I got more for my money -than I did when I came on from San Francisco last winter on the fast mail. The stations were from five to ten miles apart, according to the ground, and we drove like Jehu day and night. "The driver didn't even leave his seat ' at the stations. Horses were ready, the change was made like lightning and on we went. There were whippers or outriders, heavily armed, who helped guard the coach and lashed the horsi? on top speed. "It took steady nerves to enjoy that traveling. There was danger at every turn hostile Indians, desperado road agents, bad roads, swollen streams, blizzards. I've seen all that was left of a stage: and its load after the Indians In-dians had swooped down on it. To this day the very sight of an Injun makes me see red. The road agents robbed the coach, and perhaps the driver and guard were killed in the mix-up, but they usually left the passengers unharmed. un-harmed. "The stage drivers "had enough to try their nerves, but the pony messengers messen-gers had even a harder proposition. There was need of faster mail and express service. The Overland was too slow. , r "So the pony express was organized for the carrying of valuable light express, ex-press, money and special letters, and it lowered the time record to eight days, in place of the Overland's twenty-five days. "One pony express carrying Lincoln's inaugural address was put through in seven days and seventeen hours. When you think that that means 2,000 miles 1 or" horseback riding over the worst sort i'of -country with -obstacles of every kind to bar the way, it looks a good j deal like a miracle, even from this distance. "There were 200 stations on the j route, and 100 riders in the service; 500 other men were employed at the stations. The horses used were , bronchos, and every rider had to be a broncho buster of the finest sort; but broncho busting was the least of the strains upon his nerve. "The broncho was led into the yard, blindfolded. A big Mexican sad- die, made extra light and fitted with pockets for the mail and express, was , strapped on him. Onfy twenty-five ; pounds of matter was carried and the ' I rates were high $15 for every letter I weighing half an- ounce. J i "When the mail was in the pockets the rider sprang into the saddle, the bandage was jertfed off the horse's eyes, and for a few minutes there was a lively bucking scene. Then the broncho started off on a dead run, and he kept that up until he reached the first station, where the rider sprang on a fresh horse and tore along. "The runs were only about ten or twelve miles, but a horse always reached the station dead heat and exhausted. ex-hausted. The riders knew what a horse could stand and ran each one to his limit, husbanding his strength to make j him last the distance. "Each man rode fifty or sixty miles on a stretch and it was wild riding. The messenger was absolutely alone, following a perilous trail, at top-speed. day and night, through, the wildest of country'- "Any rock or tree might hide an en-j en-j emy. Any ravine might shelter a band of Indians. The rotting, wheels and bleaching bones scattered along the road told stories that were not reassuring. reas-suring. "There were streams almost impossible impos-sible to swim. There was the desert heat and drouth and mirage madness , in summer, and the blizzard in winter; I "Snow fell steadily, hour after hour, hiding all traces of the trail, and the messenger plunged along through the storm, trusting to the instinct of his I pony and his own craft. There wasn't any going back or sheltering, " The mail was to go through on schedule time. g $ $ "It was a common enough thing for messenger and pony to ride oft n precipice prec-ipice in the blinding storm. Sometimes they fell on soft snow, piled in the ravine ra-vine below and were not hurt. There were scores of escapes fairly miraculous. miracu-lous. Sometimes no one knew what had become of the messenger until the searchers found him and his pony buried in the snow. . "Several times the pony in his plunging after the fall broke the rid- er's arms or legs. One man rode into a station after such an experience with his hip dislocated and one arm broken, but with the mail safe. "The Indians got a number of the boys, but the latter died game, and a ; good many of the messengers led the j Indians wild chases and came out all right after hairbreadth escapes. You see, a messenger .would leave the trail ' to avoid Indians, and then he had the devil's own time hiding among the mountains, starving, desperate, expect- 1 ing at any moment to see a painted face peering at him, or get an arrow in the back and feel a scalping knife run round his head. "Did I ever tell you about Brjdger?" Oh, well, he wasn't a pony messenger, and I never knew him myself, but he was a great old fellow. I'd like to write a story of the scouts. Nobody has ever done them justice. ,s "But coming back to the express business, there was Aubrey. He was what nowadays you'd call the real thing. He started out with the mail one night, and when he reached the end of his ride, found the man who was f tike his place had been killed by Indians and the country ahead was s n arming with Indians on the warpath. war-path. "He was pretty well used up' after his sixty-mile run, but he shifted the mail to a fresh horse, mounted and went ahead, leading an extra horse. He knew there was little or no chance of his striking the few stations, for he couldn't keep the road, and then the probabilities were that the Indians had already wiped out the stations. "He hadn't any food. He didn't sleep. He faced death hour after hour, but he covered 800 miles in five days and thirteen hours, and rode into th? station with his mail and express intact. in-tact. They had to lift him from the saddle. It was months before he could walk. "That was just one story. There are plenty more. Many a time a man rode until he was so exhausted that he hadn't strength enough to dismount, yet found that the man who was to relieve re-lieve him was laid off by death or accident, ac-cident, and that he must go on. Often the messenger was too weak to dismount dis-mount and mount again. "The station men lifted saddle, rider, bags and all bodily and set them on a fresh 'horse. The messenger who couldn't have stood on his feet for a moment swallowed the liquor poured down his throat, set his teeth, gripped the saddle with his knees and turned his fresh broncho loose. Death and worse than death might be lying in wait, but the mail must go on if there was a change of getting it through. "Fifteen dollars a half .ounce wasn't too big a price for that sort of mail carrying. Even at those rates the pony express didn't pay. It was discontinued, dis-continued, and afterward the first telegraph tele-graph line followed the pony route. S v "You know the Indians cut the first wires down and made trinkets of them; but luckily, a smallpox epidemic broke out, and the tribes thought the wire ornaments brought it on, so they didn't fool with the next wires. "Then when part of the line was up, two bands of Indians .were induced to use it,' and '"arranged a rendezvous. They trotted 'off skeptically to the place of meeting, and' When they met their friends there and found the 'long talk' was a square deal, they developed a tremendous respect for the telegraph line. "He could drive a stage wherever there was ground under its wheels, and he squeezed out of more tight holes than any other man in the service. "A lot of the old messengers came to grief in the 1864 massacre, when the hostile tribes were allied against the Overland. That was the only time in history when the Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Utes, Snakes the whole outfit got together. "They made simultaneous attacks all along the stage line from St. Louis to Salt Lake, raided the stations, held up the stages, massacred travelers,' drivers, driv-ers, guards. ' It was in August, and travel was heavy. "The Injuns had a royal time, and carried off great bunches of scalps and millions of dollars' worth of booty. They were so well satisfied that they kept quiet for a long time after that; but the overland service was paralyzed for months, and even the government mails couldn't be carried for awhile. "I've often thought that a story of the' brave deeds that have been done all over the world in order that letters let-ters and dispatches might be delivered safely, would be the most exciting reading imaginable. Our own army messengers in Indian days furnished enough stories for a book; but if I were doing the writing, I'd put the poor express messenger in a place of honor." |