The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1880-10-30
"REMINISCENCES OF PONY Ex-
PRESS RIDING.
Lyon County Times.l

/
ED. TINES: While reading the returns
from Ohio and Indiana on the day fol-
lowing the election, l have been forcibly
reminded OF another election that occur
req many years ago. l refer to the ever
memorable campaign of 1860, when we
We're without railroad, telegraph, or even
stage communication with the East
Then Nevada and California relied entire.
ly upon the "little horse" known as the
Pony express" for the latest news, and
the reliance was not misplaced. Some
OF your readers of to-day may have never
heard and others may have forgotten the
little pioneer of stage, telegraph and
railroad that made his regular trips from
St. 10, Missouri, to Sacramento, Califor
mia, in the schedule time of ten days in
winter and eight in summer, unless de-
TERED by the treacherous Indians on the
plains. Your older readers will remem-
ber that Nevada, east Of Virginia, was an
unexIplored country, and that the red
devils OF go were little different from
the tame and uninteresting Indians of to.
day, and riding the pony across the
trackless desert was not sinecure that
was hankered after by many. The boys
had many rough race for life with the
red riders Of the plains; sometimes thew
won and sometimes lost, as the many lit
tile mounds that dot the wayside from
Nevada to Missouri will show.
1t was of the first election of the mar
tyred Lincoln that l started in to tell the
reader. Then there was telegraph
from Carson City to Sacramento, known
as "Bee's Grape Vine Line" though it
was not ''bee line" by any means.
Across the mountains the wire was
stretched from tree to tree, and the
zephyrs of the Sierras were won't to shake
those trees fearfully at times and stretch
the wires so that often in the calmer
moods of the storm demons they would
slack and lie mong the leaves upon the
ground, and were sometimes used by
teamsters to mend their broken wagons
and harness. The writer remembers
having once seen teamster filing off
piece wire to fasten the tire on his wagon
and when demonstrated with, he inno-
Gently said he thought it was hung along
the road for the convenience of those who
paid their toll. He had left Missouri be-
fore telegraphs had become frequent on
the frontier, and thought this one a great
convenience. Another depression I keep
In consequence of the mis-
placement of the wires messages had to
be repeated at Strawberry Valley, and in
case the pony rider had anything of i'm.
portance slip would be left at the tele-
graph office at Carson, and then we
would beat it to Sacramento with the
pony. We did so on the occasion of
Lincoln's first election and of his first
message. On the latter occasion we
made our quickest trip from St. 10 to
Carson City, viz. five days and eighteen
hours. We had double relays; i. e. a
fresh horse midway between stations, and
did nor spare them. All what differ
ence between now and then. The pony
express made rough times for the riders
times that if they did not ''try our
souls" certainly did our seats. Perhaps
the writer has done as many things of
which he has no reason to boast as most |
people, but he has never been and never
will be ashamed of his connection with
The famous little horse by which he gain
I'd the pseudonym that has followed him
.or 20 years, and which the readers of
'he TIMES will recognize as
"THE Pony"