The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-12-02

was a great old fellow. I'd like to
write a story of the scouts. Nobody
has ever done them justice.
81 @ o
But coming back to the express
business, there was Aubrey. He was
/ what nowadays you'd call the real
| thing. He started out with the mail
/ one night, and when ne reached the
/ end of his ride, found the man who was
/ 70 take his place had been killed by
Indians and the country ahead was
swarming with Indians on the war
path.
He was pretty well used up after
his sixty-mile run, but he shifted the
mail to fresh horse, mounted and
/ went ahead, leading an extra horse.
He knew there was little or no chance
of his striking the few stations, for
he couldn't keep the road, and then
the probabilities were that the Indians
had already wiped out the stations.
He hadn't any food. He didn't
sleep. He faced death hour after hour,
but he covered 500 miles in five days
and thirteen hours, and rode into the
station with his mail and express in
tact. They had to lift him from the
saddle. It was months before he could
walk.
THAT was just one story. There are
plenty more. Many time a man rode
until he was so exhausted that he
hadn't strength enough to dismount,
yet found that the man who was to re-
lieve him was laid off by death or ac-
cident, and that he must go on. Often
the messenger was too weak to dis
mount and mount again.
The station men lifted saddle, rider
bags and all bodily and set them on a
fresh horse. The messenger who
couldn't have stood on his feet for
moment swallowed the liquor poured
down his throat, set his teeth. gripped
the saddle with his knees and turned
his fresh brOnchO loose. Death and
worse than death might be lying in
wait, but the mail must go on if there
was change Of getting it through
Fifteen dollars a half ounce wasn't
too big a price for that sort Of mail
carrying. Even at those rates the
pony express didn't pay. 1t was dis
continued, and afterward the first tele-
graph line followed the pony route.
g . q
You know the Indians cut the first
wires down and made trinkets Of them;
but luckily. a smallpox epidemic broke
out, and the tribes thought the wire
ornaments brought it on, so they didn't
fool with the next wires
Then when part Of the line was UP,
two bands of Indians were induced to
use it, and arranged a rendezvous.
They trotted off skeptically to the place
of meeting, and when they met their
friends there and found the long talk
was a square deal, they developed a
tremendous respect for the telegraph
line.
He could drive a stage wherever
there was ground under it's wheels, and |
he squeezed out Of more tight holes !
than any other man in the service.
a lot of the old messengers came to /
grief in the 1864 massacre, when the 1
hostile tribes were allied against the /
Overland. That was the only time in /
history when the Sioux, Arapahoes, /
Cheyennes, Utes. Snakes-the whole /
outfit-got together.
They made simultaneous attacks all /
along the stage line from st. Louis to 4
Salt Lake, raided the stations, held up /
the stages, massacred travellers, driv- 1
ers, guards. It was in August, and /
travel was heavy.
THE Injuns had a royal time, and /
carried off great punches Of scalps and /
millions of dollars worth of booty. /
They we're so well satisfied that they /
kept quiet for a long time after that,
but the overland service was paralyzed I
for months, and even the government /
mails couldn't be carried for awhile.
I've often thought that a story Of /
the brave deeds that have been done 1
all over the world in order that let
tiers and dispatches might be delivered 4
safely, would be the most exciting /
reading aginable. Our own army
in Indian days furnished
enough stories for a book; but If I [
were doing the writing, I'd put the
poor express messenger in a place of