Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1883-03-06
4 TgIECTE TO HANK MONK
4 Good Description OF His Char
acterj>tics by Charley
(sONEM win

. We felt pretty certain tina
t Judge Goodwin OF the Salt LAX
E Tribune would have some goo
things to say about Hank Monk
and here they a1e:
The famous stage driver
} dead. He has been on the dow
grade for long time. On Wed
nesday his foot lost its final holt
on the brake and his coach coult
not be stopped until, battered
and fbrOxen on a sharp turn, j
went over into that canyon, blact
and deep, which we call death
In his way Hank Monk was 8
character. In the old days, be.
fore the feathers und.r the cuaci
We're so soaked with alcohol
there was no better balanced
head than his. There WAS al
air about him which his closest
friends could not quite under
stand. There was something
which seemed to say that stage
driving was not his Intended
work that if he pleased, there
were other things. even more
difficult that handling six wild
| horses, which he could do quite
well. Generally, he was re-
served of speech, sententiouS in
his ways. bat often, while bat
Ting with a high-strung team,
! would pronounce an epig-an
/ worthy OF IngersoIl OF Emerson.
! After his episode with Greeley,
distinguished men passing over
the Sierras, where Monk drove,
would plan TO ride outside with
him. Many one has ridden
twenty miles, trying in vain to
call him out, and at last has set
tied back with the belief that he
was but 4 stolid idiot, when half
q dozen words from Monk,
spoken with his peculiar draWl,
showed that when he drove
Greeley's coach over the noun
tairs there was, perhaps, as big
a man outside as there was in
side the vehicle. As he was not
like any other man, so he Was
not like any other stage driver.
In his prime he would turn a
siX-horse coach in the street
with the team at fun run, and
and with every rein apparently
loose. But The coach would al
ways bring up in exactly the
spot that the most carefGl driver
would have tried to bring it,
His eye never deceived him,
and his estimation OF distances
was absolute; the result which
must be when the leaders,
swings and Wheelers all were
playing their roles, was with
him an exact science. His driV-
ing was such a perfection Of art
that it did not seem art at all,
and many an envious whip,
watching him, has turned away
saying, abe is the iuckiest man
that ever climbed on top of Il
box" 1t was not luck at all, it
was simply an intuitive, exact
calculation from cause to effect,
and his whole duty ended when
he fixed the cause. The effect
had to be. He has often driven
from the summit of the Sierra
down into the valley, ten miles,
in forty-tive minutes. Other
drivers have done as well, the
only difference being with the
others it was a constant strain
upon eye and hand and arm and
foot with Monk it was a mat |
ter Of course. He was to stage |
driving what the German papers
say Edwin Booth WAS in Ham
let: lit was not played, but |
lived" Of course we speak of |
him as of old, when the railroad |
was yet beyond the ~ierral, and |
when staging over the Sierras !
was finer than staging ever was !
before, Or ever viii be again. OF |
late years Monk has been but
ghost Of himself. His physical
strength has been so wasted that
no wild herses have been given
him the grades up the noun
tain have not been sprinkled
the locomotive took away the
glory of staging, and bad whisky
the finer springs of the
old drivers life. 4 year ago,
for the first time, a coach cap
sized under him, and while the
accident was trivial in itself, it
was a notice TO him that his
hand had lost it cunning, that
his lamps were going out, that a
dark canyon was before him,
and there was no moon to rise.
When this Winter closed down
he went into his little den Of a
l.