The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-20
HANK MoNK.
Anecdotes of the Most Famous of all West
ern Stage Drivers.

AucCQODSB Oh Gne los II aunOu y All vest
ern Stage Drivers.
Joaquin Miller.
Long before Horace Greeley had made him fa-
nous, this man Monk was a hero among the
heroes of the Pacific coast He was perhaps the
first man to use the short double-uarreled shot
gun which Wells-Fargo's messengers made
famous in their bloody battles with
stage-robbers. The fact was. Hank
Monk was such a reckless driver that,
while everyone was proud of the honor of having
once crossed the Sierras with him, no treasure
messenger was willing to make a regular thing
of it For it was universally conceded that it
was only a question of time when Hank Monk
and his now famous ITALY Ho" stage, along
with his six horses. would be tumbled from the
heights into one of the innumePable gorges that
lay yawning under his narrow span of road
around the mountain peaks. And so the daring
driver had to sit on his box alone, save when the
member of Congress or Judge of his circuit, in
order to show his valor and win votes, took
possession of the perilous post. 1t was the in
genuity OF Monk that introduced the short
double-barreled shotgun. But he did not carry
it under his cloak with cock lifted and finger on
trigger. Nothing of the sort; his hands were too
full of the ten or a dozen reins for that He sim
ply had the gun pointed down on the side of his
leg with the muzzie just peeping through the
sole of his heavy boots. And no one was per-
mitted to know of this arm at ALL 1t was known
that he carried his bowie-knife down the back of
his neck so as to be in easy reach when he
pushed back his broad hat to get a good look at
ALo OAOhSy Jul Ji0 now ldIuOuS SHOb-Suu 10 Ou6
knew anything about; no. not even after he had
twice been attacked and had thrice beaten off
the robbers.
| am told that the first time he used this
weapon he stopped the stage and was slowly
handing down the treasure-box to the leader,
when, getting his leg in range, he emptied a load
of buckshot into the robbers heart. A second
shot into the crowd of surprised robbers, and he
dashed away with all his desperate speed down
the mountain. And even then no one knew who
fired the shots. TIL robbers believed it was all
the work of the passengers inside the stage. A
repetition of this same feat drew some suspicion
on Monk, and his life was now in great peril.
Once he handed in a bill for a new hat, saying
the one he had was so full of bullet-holes that it
wouldn't hold shucks." The amount of gold
that this man carried out of the mines mounted
far up into the millions, and never a dollar in all
his years of service was lost. Counting the
peril, the peculiar opportunities he had to betray
his trust and escape suspicion by collision with
the robbers, and so on, the name of Hank Monk,
particularly at this time, ought to rank high.
Reckless and hard driving with him was a pas
sion. And yet there was nothing reckless about
it at all; and he was the kindest of masters to
his horses. He loved them and they loved him,
aud knew his every tone and touch of the rein.
His team was literally a part Of himself.
Once some timid passengers complained to
Ben Holiday and told him that as the stage
whirled at railroad speed around a PERCEPTIONS
point every last wheel was for a moment over
the ledge. Monk twisted his broad hat about
in his two hands as he stood with uncovered
head before the great stage king, and at last
said slowly, with a twinkle in his fine eyes:
Governor. they lie; only two of the wheels was
over"
There is no doubt. however, that he was never
quite SO happy as when he could hang his stage
full OF passengers over some deep p~recipice, as he
dashed down the Sierras, around some curve,
and stretched his six horses out under the crack
ing of silk at full gallop And yet. was he
really reckless? | think not; for | think | see
something of an explanation of it in the wifi
motion of bicycles through the air. The man
merely understood the properties of the air
better than others, and knew we'll. from long
practice, that so long as he could keep his stage
in swift motion it could not upset, even if 'tall
the wheels were over the preeipice.n
Never but once did he upset" and that was
on level ground and in his old age, as he slowly
turned about in the yard to take in passengers.
He handed in his whip after that, and would
drive no more except on rare occasions. General
Albert Pike, VIII rode withhfm in the last year
of his life, and who knew him well, speaks of
him as a man with a we'll balanced head and
great good sense. There was one little romance
in his life, I am told, which ought to make a
drama. A young orphan girl who admired the
old hero became his wife. and ne settled down,
witt his WORKOUT Tally Ho, the first of the
famous stages of the Sierras. and with his favor
lite horses gathered about him. hoping to end
his days in peace. Only a partition divided his
horses from his own little cabin home, and they
often put their heads in and ate bread from his
hand as he sat at table with his h~ostler, a long,
lank Dutchman, and his pretty little wife.
But trouble came to the happy home all too
soon. The old hero of the road was poor, and
still had to be away at his work. A handsome
gambler, the professed friend of the c~onfiding
man, made all the trouble. The temptation to
drink was a sort of necessity in his perilous
journeys through snow and storm, then the muir
der Of a low gambler lowering about the camp,
the accusation of the woman, the assumption of
the crime by Hank Monk to save the woman
that was the end, and, all well, it is hard to tell
here where fact leaves off and romance begins,
for the old miners of the Sierras are not without
imaginations, and are fond of a~scribing great
things to this man they all admired, and SO /
draw the line here. But, looking out on this
Atlantic sea, white with ships, the long, level
reaches of land pointing out, like many fingers,
far away, the happy homes dotted here and
there, the laden orchards, the happy content that
is here, the rest, the long and continuous Sun
day, my heart goes out to those old heroes who
looked down through many storms and perils
to the unpeopled Pacific, and | must beg your
pardon for this depression.
IN SAN