The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-12-04
Prom the st. Louis Democrat, Nov. IT.


first is that the present Overland Mail trips
cilities, and impossible to he kept up for any
length of time over the present Southern
route.
What was petitioned for by Missouri and
California, when memorials from those two
gress to the subject, was great through
mail that should transmit the correspond
ence and news Of the world across the CEN
ter of this Continent, anu not BY the preca-
rious and monopoly lsthmus routes. twas
and Atlantic by its interchange, that should
pioneer the path of railways that should pre-
cede the tides Of migration flowing from the
East to the West. The compensation was
to be in great part the donated sections of
government lands for settlement, which was
expected to congregate around the stations
and along the valleys, making it self-pro-
tective and soon selfsupporting. But ill.,
stoad of this what have we gotten? Along
a far Southern trail, removed from the &C ars.
es Of immigration. exposed to host 20 attack,
both Indian and Mexican, >. line of semi
weekly wagons is run. lat carries virtually
no mail, and th'... could not transmit in a
year the ugh mails of a week between
ne" i'.k and San Francisco. We do not
A".ow certainly what the contract between
Messrs Wells, Fargo, 4 Co., and the Post
Office Department is in this respect, nor do
we wish to attach any blame to their enter
prise. They will DOVE are persuaded, what
ever they have undertaken to do, and it is
no part of our wish to involve them in this
inquest. If we are rightly informed, how
ever, no newspaper mail is agreed to be
transported by this route-itis on y letter
mail, and to get letter sent it must be en-
dorsed "Overland.'' The package carried
therefore amounts to few slips or exchang-
es for the press, few letters that are spe-
cially sent, and perhaps a memorandum of
the trip, in all ten or twenty pounds as the
interchange of intelligence across the CONT
nent. Such, if we except passenger transit,
are the fruits Of our Overland Mail, simply
a skeleton, deluding the nation with the idea
of great postal route, and degenerating on
close inspection into a carpet-bag mail,
worthy of country cross-road. If the
Government officials see tit to deny this state
ment they will certainly be able to specify
the mails and their contents, which have
been delivered at either terminus. In the
meanwhile we can assure the public Of the
literal truth of what we have alleged: the
Overland Mail between California and the
Mississippi Valley, at this juncturs, does not
equal in size the mail that crosses over the
Great Dismal Swamp, or that supplies the
remotest village in Egypt. We do not quar-
rel with the advantages that it does render
but we wish to eughten the public mind in
regard to its real performance. Surely this
is not what we were entitled to expect from
the act of Congress, and the memorials Of
two great States, and the petitions Of Il hun
| dred thousand men, women and children on
the Pacific coast ! Nor is this what we Shul'd
| have had, but for the unwarrantable inter-
ference of the Postmaster General. The de-
fcency of carriage may well arise from An
increase of near five hundred miles in dis
tance-and from the in,erposition of deserts
without water, and plains without heritage,
and stations without wood. Nor can the
present slender thread of communication be
maintained throughout the year upon con-
tract time even with no mails to carry, and
Il newly stocked line to run the stretches
from post to post. 1t is perhaps not gener-
ally known that this is a better route in win
ter than in summer. At the present time,
across the Stakcl Plains. there is hard
smooth road bed, no heat to make thirst in
tOlerable, and little difficulty experienced
from the sands in the tornado del Muerto.
But with the coming of the summer. what
is now firm will be us unstable as mush.--
This is emphatically the case with the Mus
quite Flats, which, composed of sand and
yellow loan resting upon n bed Of limestone
rock, become in Ju Y and August immense
! beds Of mortar, impossible until the water
which has fallen during the rainy season is
taken up by evaporation. The table of dis
tanccs too, as furnished by the mpmoran-
dun Of a late trip, show the fatigues to be
endured. A privation scarcely bcarable
with patience now, will be more than draught
! animals can then live through. Thus, from
Indian Wells. ( without water, 80 miles !;
/ from Alamo (without water % miles from
Sencca Spring without Natcr.) 80 miles !;
from San Pedro (wthout water.) 35 miles j;
, from Apache Pass without water, 40 miles :;
| from Stems Peak (without water. AZ miles ::
from Soldiers Farewell without water A.
miles from Pechaco (without watcr.) 50
miles from Pinerv (without water,) So
miles from the head of ConchO { without
watrr,) 70 miles. Whatever, therefore. may
be the energy Of the contractors, and how
ever successful Ncssrs. Wells. Fargo & Co.,
may be in making trips within twenty FIVE
days for the present. and perhaps some
months to come. we submit it, that the DIFF
/ icutirs pointed ont will preclude them from
/ travelling this as n summer route. Not only
will they fall behind contract timc-behind
! Isthmus steamer time-behind the Salt Lake
mail ime-but it Will be out Of their power
, to cross at n, without making another i'm
mcnsc dctour, still further South-pcrhaps
! into Mexico. 1t is no injustice then. to say,
that the present Overland Mail trips offer no
guarantee of being kept up efficiently in the
.snture. We believe they cannot, and that
the allure will occur not from default on
the mart e the men in charge of the under
taking. but fem the nature of the county
through which it l." made to 90 in violation
Of the direct in;eres, r. three-fourths of the
population of the United States, as well as
in violation of the act Of Con '"ress; OF the
demands of the postal service AID OF the
rights both of Missouri and California.
Extra Session, Gold Mines and Pacific Raid