A Thrilling And Truthful History Of The Pony Express: or, Blazing The Westward Way

Full title is, A Thrilling And Truthful History Of The Pony Express: or, Blazing The Westward Way with Other Sketches And Incidents Of Those Stirring Times. Published in Chicago in 1908 by William Lightfoot Visscher. (106 pages)

This book is copiously Illustrated and the illustrations are included at the end of the book.

The Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text.

Contents:

Chapter 1. "The Great American Desert" ---- Chapter 2. The Gold Fever ---- Chapter 3. Winning the West ---- Chapter 4. The Pony Express Succeeds ---- Chapter 5. Off Both Ways ---- Chapter 6. Famous Rides and Riders ---- Chapter 7. "Pony Bob"—Robert Haslam ---- Chapter 8. "Buffalo Bill"—Col. W. F. Cody ---- Chapter 9. A Little Pawnee ---- Chapter 10. The Telegraph ---- Chapter 11. An Incident that Changed a Railroad Terminus ---- Chapter 12. "The Iron Trail" ---- Chapter 13. General Sheridan's Way ---- Chapter 14. The Beginning of the End

Excerpts:

.....The first overland mail route west of the Missouri was a monthly stage line from Independence to Salt Lake, 1,200 miles. Its first trip began July I, 1850, and its continuance was four years. In 1854, the Government paid $80,000 per annum for a monthly mail-stage from Missouri, via Albuquerque, to Stockton, California. It was one of the failures of the period—during the nine months it ran, its receipts were $1,255. Thus early, as well as later, there were many serious interruptions in the service. The eastern mails for November, 1850, reached California in March, 1851; and the news of the creation of Utah Territory by Congress in September, 1850, arrived at Salt Lake the following January, having gone via Panama by steamer to San Francisco, and thence east by private messenger.
.....The quickest time ever made across the continent, before the Pony Express, was twenty-one days by the Butterfield stage line, its schedule for mail from New York to San Francisco being twenty-three days, The Pony Express more than cut this in half. Not only did it never once fail to span the transcontinental desert in ten days; it more than once surpassed any other courier record in history. Buchanan's last message was carried by it from St. Joe to Sacramento, 2,000 miles, in seven days and nineteen hours; and the news of Lincoln's election to Denver (665 miles) in 2 days, twenty-one hours. It whisked Lincoln's inaugural across the 2,000 mile gap in the Nation's continuity in seven days and seventeen hours. This latter is still the world's record for dispatch by means of men and horses. There have been times when a railroad train could not reliably cross the continent as swiftly as did the best of the Centaur-Mercuries, organized by that typical frontiersman, Alex Majors, who died about the year 1900, the Kentucky Christian who never drank, never swore, and made his employees sign a contract not to drink, nor gamble, nor swear, under penalty of being "fired" without the pay that was coming.
.....Majors, Russell and Waddell established and maintained for a number of years a fourteen-day mail schedule by rail and pony express between New York and San Francisco, making the trip of the running ponies from St. Joseph to Sacramento as exactly upon the schedule time as do our mails Today. By using the telegraph to St. Joe and the pony express beyond, news was carried from ocean to ocean in ten days. .
.....At the stations the rider must be ever ready for emergencies; frequently double duty was assigned him. Perhaps he whom he was to relieve had been murdered by the Indians, or so badly wounded that it was impossible for him to take his tour; then the already tired expressman must take his place and be off like a shot, although he had been in the saddle for hours.
.....The ponies employed in the service were splendid specimens of speed and endurance; they were fed and housed with the greatest care, for their mettle must never fail the test to which it was put. Ten miles distance at the limit of the animal's pace was exacted from him, and he came dashing into the station flecked with foam, nostrils dilated, and every hair reeking with perspiration, while his flanks thumped at every breath.
.....Nearly two thousand miles in eight days must be made; there was no idling for man or beast. When the express rode up to the station, both rider and pony were always ready. The only delay was a second or two as the saddle pouch with its precious burden was thrown on and the rider leaped into his place, then away they rushed down the trail, and in a moment were out of sight.
.....Two hundred and fifty miles a day was the distance traveled by the Pony Express, and it may be assured the rider carried no surplus weight. Neither he nor his pony were handicapped with anything that was not.....