Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-10-23
The Couriers of the Czar.

The Couriers of the Czar.
The Russian couriers or pony express-
men, or mail carriers, as you may choose to
call them, travel neither on foot nor on
horseback You will find that in this matter,
as in almost every custom and habit ofevery
people, nature compels man to alter his ar
rangements to suit her conditions. En-
Tartary they have fine horses, great wide
deserts, and splendid roads, and, natural
ly, the couriers there are mounted in Eng
land, where the roads are bad, running
through bogs and marshes, the old couriers
were footmen; in Russia, where snow lies
on the ground nearly the whole year,
sleighs are used by the couriers. The
"Couriers ofthe Gar as the mail-carriers
are called, travel with great rapidlty.-
Fresh horses and drivers are ready at sta
tions every twenty miles apart; but the.
couriers themselves sleep In the sleighs,
and travel from one end OF mail route to-
the other. Special messengers OF the Gar,
on public business, travel by these same.
routes, and even with greater rapldlty than
the mail-carriers. During the Crimean war
there occurred an incident illustrating the
severity OF this service. The Russian gen
eral, Prince Mentchikoff, who defended
Sebastopool, had occasion, during the
siege of that city, to send an important
message to the Gar at st. Petersburg; and
ordered a faithful officer to be his messen-
ger. giving him directions not to halt or
delay until he stood before the Gar, and
above all, not to lose sight OF the precious,
message which he bore. Away went the
officer in sleigh belonging to the Cars
couriers. At the end of each twenty
L 4 L
these were quickly harnessed to his sleigh,
in place of the weary animals, and the scr
wants and stable-men would cry out:
"Your Excellency, the horses are ready,
eAway then!n the officer would say to-.
the driver; and off he would go again. It
the most rapid pace of which the horses,
were capable. Riding in this way for sew
eral days and nights, suffering with colds.
and pursued by wolves in the forests, the.
officer, weary with watching his dispatch
es day and night, at length reached the
palace of the Car, and was. immediately
ushered into his presence. He had no
sooner handed the Emperor the letter of
the general than the messenger sank into 1
chair and fell fast asleep in the royal
presence, IAN offence which, in some ages
would have been punishable with instant
ut&tu. w utli Uc ud(t uulSlico lhO
dispatch, the Car wished to ask the offi-
Ger question, but found he could not
awaken him. The attendants called to :
him, touched and shook him, all in vains
and at last one declared the poor fellow
was dead. The Czar was much grieved
theI eat, and went to the officer and exam
ined his pulse, put his ear down. to his
Sde, and declared he could hear his heart
u, nj h<.
c>...1.l- -ts~@ Ala exhausted officer could
not be reused by the III, zassssszzssessz
length the Gear, STOPPING uown, cried M
his ears:
"Your Excellency, the horses are ready"
At the sound of these words, which he
had heard every twenty miles Of his jour
ney, and the only one which he had list
ened to for days, the faithful officer sprang
to his feet and cried:
AWAY Them
Instead of driver and horses, he found
the Car before him, laughing heartily at
his confusion and dismay. You may be
sure his offence was forgotten; instead of
being punished for sleeping when his work
was done, the officer was rewarded for his
faithfulness.
An amusing story is told in Scrsl
ner's Magazine of a verdant youth who
went to buy the practice of a country doc
tor. The doctor said his patients were so
numerous he could not remember them all,
but his horse knew them and always
stopped at their doors. The next day the
country doctor drove his customer through
the town, and, as he said, the horse stop
ped at nearly every door. The bargain
was concluded and the money Daid The
purchaser remained in town, and for sew
eral days wondered why no patients came.
He ceased to wonder, however, when he
found his predecessor had borrowed his
milkmans horse in showing him around.