Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 311, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1913 — STILL TRAVEL by STAGE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STILL TRAVEL by STAGE

THE crack of the whip in the hands of the expert stage driver is still heard in the Ozarks on both sides of the Missouri and Arkansas line. This rollicking old style vehicle of early day travel still carries its jdaily load of passengers and mail dn a hum dred different trails through the hills. A thousand little villages that appear as fly specksjton the postal map are served in no other way. The driver is the same old character we knew so well in the early days of the west, except that he is modernized to some extent. He is complacent, loquacious, gossipy and genial in fair grouchy, swearing and pessimistic in bad. Barring the road agents and hostile Indians, the overland trips by stage through the more isolated sections of the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks hold all the romantic interest of the old time trails of the west, says the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Each Route Has Its Interests. Each overland route holds its own interesting anecdotes, its special brand of scenery, its chacteristlcs and Individuality. Each driver knows them all by heart. Each time he talks about them they are magnified. There is a romantic strangeness in the name of every mountain, valley, ridge and hollow. The stage toils slowly up Pine mountain, dashes' gaily around the mouth of Coon Hollow or the Little Sugar Orchard and descends into Turkey Bottom. Coon Hollow blends gracefully into Possum walk, way over to the west, and the driver calls our attention to Buzzards’ Roost, a big white bluff on the river that wind* lazily away like a blue ribbon in the distance. The eye never grows tired, the scene is ever changing. From mountain to farm, from farm to ildge, from ridge to valley, and always no matter where you look a creek or river. Stage travel in the Ozarks Is slow, but sure. It is wasted apprehension to worry about getting to your destination when you clamper into one of the lumbering old vehicles. They; always go through. The driver takes as much pride in coming in on time as the most punctual engineer on any of Hie other fast trains of the west He has a reputation to maintain as well as the skilled railroad engineer and he is fain to tarnish it. * He also has a schedule, furnished by Uncle Sam’s postal department, that calls for a report every time he Is late, and the average stage driver Isn’t called on to make but few. About the only thing that will stop him at all is high water, and only then when the ferry boat is washed away or sunk. Modern times have modernized .the stage driver if they haven’t his vehicle. He does not drink any more and there is no hidden bottle in the boot. It is not because he does not want to drink in most instances, hut because Uncle Sam has put a taboo on it. The taboo was pretty hard to swallow, hut he did —because he liked his job. No driver can drink and no liquor can be carried on any conveyance that carries Uncle Sam’s mail now. He has discarded the broad brimmed felt hat for slouch. He has cut off his long mustache and discarded the high topped boots. ' ’ He does not pack any long barreled guns. He is held up only by some weary pilgrim who tries to worfchlm ,for a free ride, for which he generally falls if there is room. It is weather he wants protected from and the gun has been replaced by* a slicker. That romantic part of overland travel that used to center around the driver’s costume is no longer visible. All the rest is still intact. In the last fifty years all sizes and kinds of horseß and mules have been tried on the stages of the hills as motive power. The medium sized horse has been the greatest and only success. He has stuck and made good. Occasionally some man breaks Into the game with large teams, but it isn’t long before they are limping badly, with tender feet cut to pieces. The roads are rocky and their weight and gait make, them undesirable. «■ With mules the same foot trouble has occurred, and besides this, after a Hw trips they become so slow they

cannot make the schedule A The average time made by the stage lines in’ the Ozarks today is between three and four miles an hour. On down hill and over level stretches of road this time requires a jogging trot, allowing them to walk uphill. For this work this branch of the government service is probably the poorest paid. All hack lines carry the mail except in rare instances. The carrying of the mail from point to point is let on contract to the highest bidder and in most localities the-peo-ple have bid them down until the unlucky man who is unfortunate enough to land one of them lives pretty close to the ragged edge during that time. This work is harder on horses than any other work in the hill country andthe rough roads bring the blacksmith bill up to the maximum. The parcel post has helped the contractor out a little. *lt has Increased both his load and his pay. .Route of Seventy-Five Miles. The longest daily route that used to be carried in the Ozarks was that route from West Plains, Mo., to Yellville, Ark., a distance of seventy-five miles. The route was eliminated by the building of the White river roadIn the longest days of summer it used to be made between daylight and dark. In winter one started in the dark and got to thd destination soibe time between dark that night and the next morning. This route was a favorv ite one for mining men who came into this section in the ’9os before the railroad was constructed; and the memory of the trip has never fadqd from the mind of the pioneer of this section nor from the minds of the men who came and went. Owing* to the distance the whole trip was made at a spanking gait. Relays were stationed every fifteen miles and some twenty horses were used in making the trip; The big stages then used carried four seats that would hold three to the seat. Those passengers who sat on the outside had to hold to the standards and the middleman had to wedge. The longest route now is from West Plains, Mo., to Gainsville, in Ozark county. Gainsville is the county seat snuggled down on the banks of Lick creek in the shadow of the Three Brother mountains. Next in length is the route from Zinc, Ark., to Protem, Mo., a distance of twenty-five miles, through one of the most picturesque sections of the Write river country of the Ozarks. From Yellville to Rush in Marion county, Arkansas, Is a favorite trip with a. great many. Rush is located at the mouth of the Rush creek on Buffalo river and is famous as s>; zinc mining center. It is located between two rocky bluffs God made some million years ago, and it takes the stage some full two hours to get out of the hole and on top of the hill, with scenery of the wildest, ruggedest kind every foot of the way.

GOING AT FULL SPEED