The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-10-17
PONY EXPRESS RIDING.
A Veteran of the Pioneer Mail Service Of
the Plains Tells About 1t.
(From the Denver Republican. }

| TUlu Uu6 OGUF6E
tThere has been great deal Of
| glamor and romance thrown around the
pony express business in the days before
| the advent of the railroads." said L. r.
Miller, one Of the corps of riders who
carried the mail across the plains in
| 1868, shut the fact is there was little
romance about 1t, and very little else
| but hard work.
~ commenced to ride for the express
company in 1858, when the route was
| laid out and the company organized,
and continued to ride until Butterield
came up and took the contract, and the
| telegraph line was built. My route was
from Egan Canon to Antelope Springs,
New The 1ide1s had to ride from sixty
| to eighty miles. On my section 1 had
| two relays, and used to make the trip In
from six to eight hours. There was al
ways more OF less danger from the In
dams, but when We met them we either
| ran away from them, erawled around
them, OF fought. The danger has been
greatly magnifed. The country WAS SO
| big and the number of Indians so COM
paratively small that We had to run into
bandsbefore there was any serious dan
ger, and then one white man was as good
as ten of them.
"Our stations were not fortified at all,
| They were log cabins or sod houess, with
| thres or four men in each, and though
they were burned over and over again,
shey were rebuilt Immediately and no
serious loss or Inconvenience to the SER
vice was ocGasonied.
ave knew just when to expect the
rider from the next station, and the
we had to do was to change the mail
from one horse to another, and We were
off. 1t was the same at the relay Sta
| tions. The horses were always ready,
| and the only delay was in taking a drink
Of water OF cup of coffee, and the mail
| was on Its way.
sit was simply hard riding a cool
head, and keen eye that was required.
Once in while the men were caught.
have scar or two myself to remem Der
the Indians by, but on tie whole tho
| danger was not excessive, and as for ro-
nance. there was nothing of it. In 1861
| the Indians were specially troublesome,
| and some hard fights resulted; but az
| they never remained long in the same
place they could not do a great deal of
harm.
The first trial of the pony express
was she delivery of Buohanan's message
in the spring of 1867. Our company,
which had the route from St. Joe, via
Salt Lake City, was the one which was
afterward operated by Ben Holiday.
Butterheld's route was through Arizona
We had the common mountain ponies,
and Butterfeld had high bred horses.
We took the message right through, and
when Butterfield arrived at Moiave he
found the message coming back from
San Francisco. Butterfe1d ran the
southern route until 1860, when he pulled
off and established line of coaches from
st. Jos to San Francisco via salt Lake.
In 1861 they commenced to build the
telegraph lines.
saw statement recently that there
are only tive survivors of the pony ex-
press riders. That il a mistake. There
are q number of Others. Besides myself
Ehow o. Frank Low, now in Cripple
Ofeek Erastus Egan, son of Major Egan
OF hgan canon; James White, John
Fisher and Sam allison, the discoVerer of
bhe peas of asphalt in Utah.
Ahere was always excitement enough
ID GU work and nearly all Of us had
narrow escapes of one kind or another.
ne haa to make time, TO look out for
1nalahs and sometimes to race with
storms which were likely to bar our
prog ress, but all these things soon be-
our ponies and pounded away until we
reached our stations and then lay down
anu waited until our Tins came next.
10 Was bard work sometimes and pleas
a IN az others, very much the saFl1e as the
osnef occupations Of huEaet existence. ="