New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1890-06-11
PONY EXPRESS. DAYS.
Fast Mail Across ths Plains in Ante
Bellum Times
Old Colonel Majors Recalls One of the Promi-
nent Features of the West When Railroads
and Telegraphs We're Practically Unknown
Famous Trips.

A peculiar charm attaches itself to
anything which relates to the west in
ante-bellum times. It was not the
same west as now; the sun is just as
bright, may be, and the grass and trees
as green, and the waters as clear, but
when the iron wheel Of progress swept
over her sandy plains and scaled her
mountain tops there was a change. 1t
is indefnable, for all that, but still
one likes to read OF the stirring times
Of the days Of border hardships and
excitements, and of the gradual giving
away Of nature to the hand of human
ity. A man of middle age may look
back within his memory and see ohe
heavy, slow freighters measuring their
squeazy way across the plains; the
Santa Fe trail winds, serpent-like, from
the banks. Of the Missouri to the lonely
Spanish settlement in New Mexico.
One by one he sees the relics of earlier
days slip out Of existence toward the
setting of the sun, the railroad and the
telegraph pushing their way fro m the
east, and the pioneer glories Of the
great west are over.
One Of the last and at the same time
the most prominent Of these features
of the west before the railroads came,
was the pony express, by whose means
messages were carried from Mis- souri,
river to the Pacific coast in less than
ten days. How remarkable it all seems
now? Ten days from the Missouri
to the Golden Gate on pony back.
But it is remarkable after all. Now
it is ten seconds, but for ponies, over
mountains, plains, through stor ms and
sun, the work was wonderful. One of
the founders of the pony express sys-
tenn lives in Kansas City at ripe but
active old age, prominent in business
and as bright as in the days of his
youth Colonel Alexander Majors is
seventy.
It was in 1853 Senator Gwyn, of CAL
ifornia conceived the idea of trans
hitting the mails across the plains on
swiftly running ponies. He was
laughed at by his colleagues, no W
ever, but nothing daunted, sought
Colonel Russell OF Leavenworth, who
spent a great deal Of his time in
Washington, and the two worked out
a plan for the express. Assistance
from the government was secured, and
in 1859 the ponies started.
s.They ran across the country for
nine months" said Colonel Majors a
few days ago, s:never missing sched-
ule time at either of the terminal
points. The given time from St.
Joseph to Sacramento was ten days,
and through sunshine and storm,
snow, mud, sand and rocks, tn hardy
racers pushed on to the west, or back
to the easJ with the speed of a rail
road train. II the ponies lost tt me
through bad weather over one part of
the route they picked itup on another.
On journey of 1000 miles some Of
the weather was bound to be good.
The most noteworthy piece Of work
performed by the ponies" continued
Colonel Majors, "was in the deliver
ing OF one of President Buchanan's
messages in few hours over eight
days. The pony was off like the wind.
Nearly two hundred Of the little fellows
were required to do the work. and it
fo ~ 70
The pony express company Employed
about six hundred of the hardy little
animals indigenous to the west. Post
houses were maintained every ten
miles, at which several OF the ponies
were always kept The run for each
animal was ten miles without a rest,
and it was run, too. Not a step of the
way was walked or trotted. For ten
miles the rider urged his carrier and
his horse fairly flew over the familiar
ground, whether it was mountain or
prairie, plain or desert Each rider
rode three horses without resting, and
there was one fellow, loose, easy
going, daredevil, who always rode
sixty miles at that breakneck speed
without resting. At the post house
the man in charge stood in front of the
door holding the pony that was to
carry the approaching rider. With a
rush the expressman came. There
was a cloud of dust a jump, an in
Simultaneous change of the small, light
saddle-bags carried, and in ten seconds
from the moment of his arrival tho
rider was on the rearing little animal
that was so anxious to be off. Away
they went with a plunge and a shout to
be lost moment later in cloud of
flying dust. The ponies entered into
the spirit of their work quite as fully
as the men bestride them. They never
faltered, whether the night was dark
or the road uncertain. It was always
a plunge ahead as if on ride where
life and death were concerned. In his
.Roughing It." Mark Twain tells of
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