Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-09-26
Tne % urIers Of :he Car.

The Russian cOurlers, or pony ex-
pressmen, or mail carriers, as you
may choose to call them, travel nei-
ther on foot nor on horseback. You
will find that in This matter, as in al
most every custom and habit of eY-
cry people, nature compels man to
alter his arrangements to suit her
conditions. In Tartary they have
fine horses, great wide deserts and
splendid roads, and, naturally, the
couriers there are mounted; in En-.
gland, where the roads are bad, run
ming through bogs and marshes, the
old couriers were footmen; In Rus
sia, where snow lies on the ground
nearly the whole year, sleighs are
used by the couriers. The "Couriers
of the Gar" as the mail carriers are
called, travel with great rapidity.
Fresh horses and drivers are ready
at stations every twenty miles apart;
but the couriers themselves sleep in
the sleighs, and travel from one end
of a mail route to the other. Spe-
cial messengers of the Gar on pub
lie business travel by these same
routes, and with greater rapidity
than the mail carriers. During the
Crimean war there occurred an Incl
dent illustrating the severity of this
service. SO The Russian General,
Prince Mentehikoff, who defended
Sebastopol, had occasion, during the
siege of that city, to send an impor-
tant message to the Gar at St. Pc
tersburg, and ordered a faithful Of
ficer to be his messenger, 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 a sleigh belonging to
the Cars couriers. At the end of
each twenty miles he found fresh
horses awaiting him; these were
quickly harnessed tos his sleigh, in
place of the weary animals, and the
servants and stable men would cry.
out: t-..--.-. -,-, :. ~ 5agots at
@YOur Excellency, the horses are
ready.
"Away thenI' the officer would
say to the driver; and off he would
go again at the most rapid pace of
which the horses were capable. Ri
ding in this way for several days
and nights, suffering with cold, and
pursued by wolves in the forests, the
officer, weary with watching his dis
patches day and night, at length
reached the palace of the Gar, and
was at once ushered into his pres
ence. He had no sooner handed the
Emperor the letter of the General
than the messenger sank into chair
and fell fast asleep in the royal pres
enee,-an offence which, in some
ages would have been punished with
instant death. When he had finish
ed reading the dispatch, the Gar
wished to ask the officer question,
but found he could not awaken him.
The attendants called to him, touch
ed and shook him, all in vain; and
one declared the poor fellow was
dead. The Czar was much grieVed
thereat, and went to the officer and
his pulse, put his ear down
to his side, and declared that he
could hear his heart humping. He
was only asleep. But he soon found
that the exhausted. officer could not
be reused by the usual means. At
length the Gear, STOPPING down, cried
in his ears /,
.as ~ our Excellency, the horses are
ready" .5a
At the sound of these words, which
he had heard every twenty miles of
his journey, and the only ones which
he had listened to for days, the
faithful officer sprang to his feet and
cried:
8 "Away theny"
Instead of drivers and horses, he
found the Csar before him, laughing
heartily at his confusion and dismay.
You may be sure his offense was for
gotten; instead. of being punished
for sleeping when his work was done,
the officer was rewarded for his
faithfulness. 81. Nicholas.
A gentleman at Lake George after
waving his handkerchief for half an
hour or more at an unknown lady,
whom he discovered at a distant
point on the shore, was encouraged
by warm response to his signals
to approach his charmer. Imagine
his feelings when, on drawing near
er, he saw that it was his own dear
wife whom he had left at the hotel |
but short time before. "Why |
how remarkable we should have rec
ognized each other at such a dis
tance," exclaimed both in the same
breath; and then they changed the
sUbjeOt