New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-28
MARK TWAIN.
The Old-Time Pony Express of the Great
Plaius.

From Mark Twain's Forthcoming BookI
However, in little while, all interest
was taken up in stretching our necks and
| watching Tor the pony rider'-the fleet
messenger who sped across the continent
from st. Joe to Sacramento, carrying let
tiers nineteen hundred miles in eight days
| Think of that perishable horse and human
flesh and blood to do. The pony rider was
usually little bit of man brim full of spirit
and endurance. No matter what time of
day or night his watch came on, and no
matter whether it was winter or summer
raining, showing, hailing or sleeting, or
| whether his beat" was a level straight
road or crazy trail over mountain crags
and precipices, or whether it led through
| peaceful regions, or regions that swarmed
with hostile Indians, he must be always
ready to leap into the saddle and be off like
! the wind.
There was no idling time for pony rider
on duty. He rode forty miles without
stopping, by daylight, moonlight. starlight.
or through the blackness of darkness, lust
as it happened. He rode splendid horse,
that was born for a racer, and fed and
lodged like gentleman, kept him at his
utmost speed for ten 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 spectator could get hardly the ghost of
"A look. Both rider and horse went flying
light" The riders dress was thin and fitted
close; he wore a roundabout" and skull
cap, and tucked his pantaloons into his boot
tops, like race rider. He carried no arms.
he carried nothing that was not absolutely
necessary, for even his postage on his lit
erary freight was worth two dollars an
ounce. He got but little frivolous cor
respondence to carry, his bag had business
letters in it mostly. His horse was
stripped of all unnecessary weight
too. He wore a little wafer of racing
saddle, and no visible blanket He
wore light shoes, or none at all. The little
flat mail pockets, strapped under the riders
thighs, would each hold about the bulk of a
child's primer. They held many and many
an important business chapter ana news
paper letter But these were wrote on
paper as airy and thin as gold leaf nearly, |
and thus bulk and weight were economical |
The stage coach travelled about a hundred |
to hundred and twenty-five miles a 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 a long, scatter
ing procession from Missouri to California
forty flying eastw ard and forty toward the
west, and among them, making four hun
dred gallant horses earning a stirring live
Ihood, and see a deal of scenery every
single day in the year.
We had had a consuming desire from the
beginning to see pony rider, but somehow
or other all that passed us, and all that met
us, managed to streak by in the night, and
so we heard only a whiz and hail, and the
swift phantom of the desert was gone be-
fore we could get our heads out of the win
lows. But now we were expecting one
broad daylight. Presently the driver ex-
claims:
Here he cOmesr'
Every neck is stretched further. and
every eye strained wider Away across the
endless dead level of the prairie. black
'peck appears against the sky, and it is plain
hat 1t moves. Well, | should think so! In
second or two it becomes horse and rider,
Using and falling-sweeping toward us
nearer and nearer-grOwing more and more
haFply dlstlmct-more and more sharply |
and nearer and the tlutter
II the heofs come family to the ear-an-
'ther instant whoop and a hurrah from
ur upper deck, wave of the riders hand
'ut no reply, and man and horse burst past
9r excited faces, and go winging away like
DEBATED fragment of a storm
SO suddenly is it all, and so like a flash of
nreal fancy, that, but for the flake of white 9
Dam lett qulvering and perishing on a mail :
ack, after the vision had flashed bv and :
lsappeared, we might have doubted t
neither we had seen any actual horse and d
IAN at all, may be. a