The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-02
a. YEARS A STAGE DRIVER.
During That Time David Berry Has
covered 100000 Miles,

Half a million miles on the box of
stage coach! A. greater distance by
$500 miles than a trip to the moon
and back again. This distance has been
actually travelled and on the outside
of a stage coach at that; out there,
where there is no protection from the
binding storms of winter or the sum-
mer's dust and heat Half a million
miles, with no certain hour for sleep, no
regularity of meals, no rest no Sabbath
nor holiday. Half a million miles and
every mile with it's strain on anxiety
and tension and nerves. Half a million
miles, with every minute giving to the
task of danger. The stumbling of
horse on q steep grade or the breaking
of a strap, or the swapping of a bolt, or
the fright of the team leach a most
common Occurrence) is liable at any
minute to terminate the career of a
stage driver, and yet here is a man who
for 43 long years has given every day
of his life to that hazardous vocation.
Half a million miles is his record.
It was in SO that he made his first
mile, and it came about in this way:
In the winter of that year, on a night
of unusual gloom within and buster
without, company of men sat around
the stove in the barroom of the old
Twelve Mile house, which to this day
stands as a landmark on the highway
from Sacramento to the southern
mines. Among those who tilted their
chairs back from the stove rail and
with unerring accuracy fulfilled the
purpose suggested by a well-saturated
box of sawdust, was a young man of
striking features and physique. He was
not of the locality, nor did he look it
having come down from the mines
for a change of climate and a months
rest, a portion of which time he was
now putting in with an old friend who
was then proprietor Of, this famous old
hosiery. The rather dun monotony of
the evening had long worn on when the
scene was suddenly changed to one Of
activity and hustle. This had been &C.
casioned by a blear-eyed old hostler.
who stuck his head in at the door and
shouted 'Stage.'
"Old Brandy" was the driver, and as
he wound his lines around the brake
and threw the way bill' on the porch,
he said to the proprietor: Help me
down, Sam I don't see how I ever got
here!" To the establishment of the pas
sengers and all, the poor old stage driv-
err staggered like drunken man and
on reaching the inside of the house he
completely collapsed. Already there
had been some delay. and every one of
the IA messengers declared it matter
of life and death that they should reach
Sacramento in time to catch the steam
er for San Franc SEQ. There was no
one on the stage who would dare to at
tempt the drive, so they all turned to
the barroom door.
A careful scrutiny on the part of the
proprietor had caused him to shake his
head, but he finally turned to the
young man from the mines" and said
Dave, you must tackle it." There was
no alternative. SO Dave. after a long
hesitancy, a whispered protest to the
proprietor and with mind full of
doubt and a heart full of misgiving.
climbed to the seat upon the coach,
gathered up the lines. braced himself
against the brake and said Let em
co.
That was 43 years ago. and though
Dave Berry had. up to that time. never
driven six horses in his life, he has new
err done anything else since. and Is the
man who has made half million miles
on the box of stage coach. He lives
at Valley Springs. in Calaveras county,
and is still driving stage."-Sacra-
mento Bee.