St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-25
WOMAN STAGE DRIVER
A Remarkable "Reminiscences
Of Mrs. Langdon, Of the
SierraS.
Shipped to California When
o. a Child as an Express
y Package.
A Widow at Nineteen, With
j Three Stage Lines to
Manage.
She Threw Out the Little Box
to Road Agents More
Than Once.

New York Sun.
Nervy Mrs. Langdon holds place of
her own in the class of American women
who have risen superior to the limita
tons of sex. The woman stage driver
of the Sierras is known on every rail-
road and mail route of the Pacific coast.
from Arizona TO Oregon, and away up
on the trails of Idaho and Montana.
Quite as well known is she in the postal
department at Washington. Mr.. Wanna
maker, of Philadelphia, will probably be
able to recall her without difficulty. Hers
is no title of courtesy. She owns stage
lines that run for hundreds of miles
through the regions of California,
where mountains are steep and roads
are rough, regions where the railroads
have not penetrated and probably never
will: she can and does rein a plunging,
rearing fOur-hOrSe team around sharp
curves on her mountain roads, and she
can and does, when occasion requires,
perform that SOmew hat perilOus task of
breaking to harness the Wiry, cat
footed horses of the hills.
The road agent, with his gunny sack
shotgun, is no Newspaper myth to her,
for she has met him in business way,
and has heard the nervous spoken in
junction.: Halt throw out that little
box" and has shown her good judgment
by promptly obeying. Mrs. LangdOn,
you see. has been long enough on the
road to know that the men who go about
fevying tribute at the point of double
barreled shotgun have no tender regard
for women, and would just as readily
pour volley into her as anybody.
Yet there is not anywhere in this
country more womanly woman. Pluck
and mOdeSty, buSineSSlike ability and a
retiring disposition. are her inSeparable
characteristics. For years she has been
driving stages and carrying mails, and
yet this is the first time she has ever told
the story of her peculiarly eventful and
adventurous life for publication, and it
was not readily told at that. To appre
ciate it one must know something of the
heroine's personality. Above the me-
dunn height, slender, and of rather
graceful carriage, Mrs. Langdon is
typical American woman. Her hair is
black and abundant; her eyes are in
tensely black, and as she talks one notes
the keen, swift quality of her glance.
Usually she is CARRIED simply in black,
with no oStentaton of trimming, and
her taste in millinery is quite as plain.
She talks rapidly. fluentlY and well; her
voice has the Western ring at times,
but is not sharp. Her choice of words
proclaims her to be woman of more
than ordinary education and her accen
: is good. Altogether there is nothing in
her speech or manner to suggest the
Amazon, which, indeed, she is not.
Though she must be somewhere near
forty, Mrs. Langdon looks several years
younger.
81 think have always been connect
ed with the express and mail business"
said the woman stage-driver to the cor
respondent of the Sun. ''ln the fiftieS
| came to California, consigned as an
express package. / was wee bit of a
girl, and father and mother had gone
out before from Illinois, where | was
born. l was shipped by way of the
Isthmus. There was DO Panama
railroad then, and people had
to walk OF ride horseback from
Ccaan TO ocean. l was turned
over TO huge black negro, and perched
on his broad shoulders, my hands
clasped around his forehead, began
arated, and at last | gave vent to my
fear in a fit of weeping. The negro
quietly deposited me at the side of the
road and went on. Probably [ would
never have driven any stage If Gorhain
Blake, the express messenger. had not
been bringing up the rear. He put me
on his horse, and there my fear ended.
yankee Jim's, typical California
mining camp in Placer county, was our
home. There were few women and
fewer children. Every miner in the
place soon knew Ida ScOtt-tnat was my
name-and never had queen such faith
full attendants. Big-bearded men used
to catch me up in the streets and kiss
me because | was Just like the little
gal back home Mother always told
ME to kiss the miners if they wished, as
they might be led to think oftener of
their own little ones. Pat Fogarty,
rough, kindly man, was the driver, and
my experience began with him on trips
through the camp TO the postoffice.
Il was sent down to San Francisco to
attend school, but most of. My girlhood
was spent either among the mining
camps or in SonUma county. Clrcum-
stances rather than choice led Inc TO
adopt the life have since led. AT 10 L
was left widow with three stage lines
on nv hands and mail contracts with
the government to be carried out. Why
should l have hired man when L knew
how to run the business myself? There
was no reason, SO L turned stage
owner and driver. My roads were in
the Sonoma valley. and there was little
real work to be done, but here met my
first road agent. L sat on the box with
the driver on a run out of Santa Rosa
one evening. Suddenly the horses SHE'D
and we saw that there was a rope across
the road breast high. Before we could
move two men stepped out with the con-
yentionai linen busters and gunny sack
head coverings, with eye holes In them.
Throw out that little boXW was
their order.
Il whispered to 18th river to obey,
for there was only SIS in the box, and
that was not enough to fight for. The
rope was lowered and we drove on.
"Of course you remember Black
Bart. He selected one of my stages for
his first operation, but L was not On
board"
Mrs. Langdon's experience on a night
ride into the Sierras alone is worth re-
counting. She started at noon over a
road she had never travelled, with
strange horses, to take load OF mill
machines to station way up in the
clouds. There was forty miles of hard
climbing to be done, and 1t was job
that most men would have willingly
shirked. The neck yoke parted after
dark, but the woman stage driver knew
how to mend a harness, and there was
rope in plenty. AS the horses passed
over wild stretch of road they sud-
denly SHE'D and leaped to one side,
dragging the wagon out of the road and
up the bank so that to move another
step meant to capsiZe the outfit.
"Wondering what had startled the