Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1883 — THE PONY EXPRESS. [ARTICLE]

THE PONY EXPRESS.

How the Mails Were Carried Across the - Continent Before the Bailroads Were Built. I From the San Francisco Al'ta.J > A. B. Miller, the prime mover, the man who prepared the way and kept, it Tni -running order Trdm tlie Missouri the Pacific, is now a resident of this jcity, and his hair is only streaked with gray, so fast do things change in the West. In an early day the firm of Russell, Majors, Waddell & Co., were among the largest contractors in the United States, their business sometimes amounting t 056,000,000 annually. Mr. Miller was tlie “C 0 the youngest meniber of the Wriff, wndMnrTwgFeaF measure the. life of it. Mails were very irregular, the stage lines taking a weekly, which was sometimes lost, in fact was extremely fortunate to get through. This was conducted at a tremendons ■ Cost. ■ There was grea t rivalry between the stage and ocean lines, the latter strugglin'; for contracts for taking the mails tronr New York by steamer to the Isthmus, across this, and again by steamer up the Western coast. The mail which went overland went.by the Northern route through New Mexico and Arizona. The contracting firm above mentioned had controTxrf-the central route, by K eArney, Julesburg, Fort Laramie and Salt Lake. insisted that this route was impraeticable.andthe ideaof adaily mail over it was pooh-poohed most vigorously. Mr. Miller persuaded his more conservative partners that such a mail could be carried. From this ideagrew the pony express, the fame of which Was soon world wide. He was given two months, February and March, 1861, to equip the line with stock and stations, which he did at a cost of SBO,OOO. It was thought that the line would support itself, so the proprietors expected nos to be out more than the original investment. It cOnld hardly be said that it did pay, but it demonstrated what could be done, and encouraged the railroad and the. wire to follow in its wakfi. Previous to this time there had been limited express lines of this kind, but nothing on so gigantic a scale. Mr. Miller had been over the route enough to know what had been done. He said that Salt Lake could be reached from St. Joe in ten days, and the coast in five days more.

On April 3 the , ponies were started from’ each end of the line. By this time the confidence of Miller had proved- infectious * and Bussell was just as confident. The New York steamer company was confident, too, but not in the same way. So a bet was made. It was a pretty good-sized bet, being for $50,000 a side. The race began and was watched with breathless interest. Station after station was passed. The pony from the ocean and the pony froin flie~vallev panted toward each other, with the hundreds of miles between them melting away. At each station there was another horse saddled and rider ready spurred. —The —mail-bagwas tossed from one to the other, a-d on sped, like the wind, the fresh horse and rider. One boy on the ■ first trip was lost in a canon of snow. For four precious hours he wandered, Then he started on with desperate vigor. Another was lost in the Platte. The horse he rode was drowned. The rider swam out with his mail and footed it to the next station. Here his relief was in waiting, and the flight was taken up again. Would the riders and the horses, with their daring and energy, win? Would the accident and the strangeness of the trial make them lose? No one could tell. The days passed. The ponies neared each other. They passed. The riders gave a wild hurrah. On and on; whip and spur. Ten days are gone, and the ponies have kept up to the mark. Fifteen. At 4 o'clock the westward-bound must be in Sacramento. The noon has passed, and the minutes are being counted. Half-past 3. Will the brave rider be on hand? As yet there is no sign. With only thirty minutes to spare Bussell wants to double his bet. Then a speck of dust is seen. It grows to a cloud. •The rider waves his hat. The people shout. The pony express has crossed the great American desert. Victory ! There is still twenty minutes

grace. This_speed was always kept up just as if therewere $50,000 at -stake daily. It was the same for months. When the complications of the war turned everything upside dbwn, the riders went to do battle, the stations were abandoned, contracts went to other hands, and grass grew over the trail. But soon the stage used it and the telegraph line was not fax- behind,while those who have rushed across the plains by steam know what followed these innovations. The charges for carrying letters were $5 per oiihce or fraction thereof, This was afterward reduced to half that amount, and then a sort of paper known as -“pony express” was invented, its best point being that it weighed almost nothing. The contents of an eightpage paper could be written upon it and sent for $2.50. The income of the concern while running averaged SSOO. per day. Some very valuable documents were carried, and in every case arrived in good order. Englandwits at that time’having a lib tie argument with China. Reports from the English squadron in Chinese waters to the Home Government were carried by this route, it being the quickest and safest. One of these official papers weighed so much that the charges upon it were $135.