Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1888-05-30
Racing for 100000.

Beyond st. Joseph the stage coach,
OK teams and kindred methods OF
transportation were resorted to for
the purpose of maintaining communi.
cation with the Pacific slope. This
coast was by that time pretty well set
tied, and business men began to wish
for rapid mail service.
In the winter of 1860 Wall street
was at work in Washington endeav-
oring to get subsidy of S10,000,000
for carrying the mails overland one
year between New York and San
Francisco.
William Ii. Russell, backed up by
Secretary of War Floyd, looked up
on the scheme rs very extravigant
proposition and said that he could put
on mail line from San Francisco to
st. Joseph that would cover the dis
tance-1,95 miles-in ten days. So
confident was he that he professed
himself willing to wager 100000 on
the proposition.
The schemers for the big mail con-
tract felt bound to meet the bluff, and
took up the wager, the Sth day of
April, 1860, being fixed as the day of
starting. A. B. Miller, Russell's part
ner, was positive that pony ex-
press could be established which would
enable Russell to win his prodigious
wager. There was no time to be lost,
and Miller set about his task with en-
ergy. He purchased 800 of the feet
est horses that he could procure and
secured the services of 125 men.
Eighty of these men were selected as
postriders, and, Of course, were espe-
cially chosen for their light weight
the lighter the man the better for the
horse, as some parts of the route had
to be covered at the rate of twenty
five miles per hour. In establishing
the relays the distance in each in
stance was determined by the char
acter of the country.
AS a rule, the horses were station.
ed from ten to twenty miles apart
and each rider had to make sixty
miles. Two minutes were allowed foi
changing the animals and shifting the
mails. If the stage stations were not
at proper intervals tent was put up
sufficient to accommodate one man and
two horses. BY the day set for start
ing everything was in readiness, and
before the smoke cleared away from
the muzzle Of the signal gun on the
steamer Sacramento at the hour oi
noon, April Sth, 1860, Billy Baker
mounted on Border Ruffian, Miller:
famous saddle-horse, dashed away to
wards the Sierras, covering his TWEEN
ty-miles in forty-nine minutes.
Deep snow lay in the mountain
passes, and to Salt Lake Valley slow
time was made, so that from the val.
ley on it was necessary to make extra
fast speed to win the hugh wager.
All went well until the crossing at
Julesburg was reached. To his dis
may the courier found the Platt river
high up in its banks and a strong cur.
rent running. Fearlessly horse and
rider plunged into the turbid stream
but only the man reached the oppo.
site bank. His gallant steed mired
in the quicksands and was drowned.
The courier saved his precious mail
pouch and had to walk ten miles to
the next relay station.
Johnny Fry was one of the famous
men of his day on the border. Tough
and wiry, he was as light as a cat,
and as rider he never knew an equal.
To him fell the duty of riding the last
sixty miles of the long race. He had
six thoroughbred horses to do it with
When the courier arrived at the
sixty mile post out of St. Joseph, he
was one hour behind time. Johnny
had to make up that lost hour or the
wager was lost. Miller considered all
this when he selected Johnny Fry to
make the final dash.
As the hour drew near for Fry's
arrival at st. Joseph, thousands OF
people lined the river bank, gazing
with feverish expectency in the di
rection of the woods from which the
horse and rider should emerge into
the open country one mile from the
finish.
Forty-seven minutes more and the
wager would be lost, when suddenly
a bright-eyed youngster caught sigh,
of the anxiously looked-for courier
and the yell that went up from tn,
crowd reached the ears of the rider 8
mile away.
Horse and rider fairly few on th'
wings Of the wind. Feathery feck,
Of foam streaked the painting flank'
of the noble steed as she, with wide
distending nostrils, bore the courier
to his journeys end, covering the las
mile in one minute and fifty seconds
The little mare Sylpb had won tn,
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