The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-06-22
From Mark Twain's Forthcoming Book
MARK TWAIN.

tIdE RON1 EAPhESS Of IhE GfSE1AA 1AAA-'S'
However, in a.little while, all interest was
taken up in stretching our necks and watching
for the .pony rider the fleet messenger
who sped across the continent from ST. Joe TO
Sacramento, carrying letters nineteen hundred
miles in eight days. Think of that for perish
able horse and human flesh to do! The pony
rider was usually little bit of a man brlln
full of spirit and long endurance. No matter
what time of day or night his watch came on,
/ aud no matter whether it was winter or sum-
mer, raining, showing, hailing or seetng, or
whether his beat" was level straight road or
crazy trail over mountain crags ana precl-
pices, or whether it led through peaceful re-
gions or regions that swarmed with hostile In
| dians he must be always ready to leap into
the saddle and be off like the wind. There
was no idle time for pony rider on duty. He
rode forty miles without stopping, by daylight,
moonlight, starlight, or through the blackness
of darkness, just as it happened. He rode a
splendid horse, that was born for racer, and
fed and lodged like gentleman, kept him at
his utmost speed for tea miles, and then, as he
came crashing up to the station where stood
two men holding fresh impatient steed, the
transfer of rider and mailbag was made in the
twinkling of an eye. and away flew the eager
pair, and were out of sight before the specta-
tors could get hardly ghost of look. Both
rider and horse went flying light" The
riders dress was thin and fitted close; he wore
roundabout" and "skul cap" and stuffed
his pantaloons into his boot tops, like race
rider He carried no arms-he carried moth
ing that was not absolutely necessary, for even
his postage on his literary freight was worth
two dollars an ounce. He got but little frivol-
Gus correspondence to carry; his bag had bust
ness letters in it mostly. His horse was stripped
of all unnecessary weight, too lie wore a
little wafer of racing saddle, and no visible
blanket. He Wore light shoes, or none at all.
The little fat mail pockets, strapped under the
riders thighs, would each hold about the bulk
of child's primer. They held many and
many an important business chapter aud news
paper letter. But these were written on pa
per as airy and thin as gold leaf nearly, and
thus bulk and weight were economical. The
stage coach travelled about q hundred to Il
hundred and twenty-five miles day (twenty-
four hours); the pony rider about two hundred
and fifty. There were about eighty pony
riders in saddle all the time. night and day, |
stretching in n long, scattering procession from
Missouri to California-torty flying eastward
and forty toward the west, and, among them,
making four hundred gallant horses earn n
stirring livelihood, and see q deal of scenery |
every single day in the year.
We had had consuming desire from the
beginning to see pony.rider, but somehow or
other ali that passed us, and all that met us
TO streak by in the night, and so we
heard only whiz and hail, and the swift
phantom of the desert was gone. before we
could get our heads out of the windows. But
now we were expecting one along every mo-
nent, and would see him ia broad daylight.
Presently the driver exclaims:
Here he comes"
Every neck is stretched further, and every
Eye strained wider. Away across the endless
lead level of the prairie black speck appears
against the sky, and it is plain that it moves.
Well, | should think SO, In n second or two
t becomes horse and rider. rising and falling
toward tvs nearer ard nearer
growing more and more sharply defined
nearer and nearer, and the tlutter OF the hoots
ZONE family 10 the ear-another instant n
vhoop and hurrah from our upper deck,
wave of the riders hand, but no reply. and
nan and horse burst past our excited faces,
md go winging away like bclated fragment
II 4 storm!
So sudden is it all, and so like fash of un.
cal fancy. that, but for the flake of white
Dam left quivering aud pcrishing on mail
ack, after the vision had flashed by and disap.
cared, We might have doubted whether we had
cen any actual horse and man at ALL