The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-11-18

ure vanished. Years ago the reports to Congress from the postmaster gem eral frequently conveyed information ! of the captures of coaches and the mas sacres of drivers and passengers on the overland route by the Sioux, Comanch- es, Arapahoes, and other tribes of h. dians. On more than one occasion the service for the whole Pacific Coast and the Territories was obliged to be sus- pended, and it became necessary to I send the mails by sea from New York. In the long series of the postmaster generals report filed among the arc hives of the department rather brief | mention was made of the disturbances. Usually the stages were guarded by small contingent of soldiers, who gen. orally drove the red rascals away, and frequently drivers, always faithful, fearless, and energetic, and passengers | as well, joined in lively sKirmishes with | their assailants. These were more apt | to be detailed in War Department re- ports.
 Two-thirds of the grand and peculiar ! stories that have entertained so many | folks and particularly the youthful ele- | ment, of attacks upon stage coaches by I bandits or Indians have little or no part | in the official records of the department.
 In many cases they are figments of the
 brain, though there have been case where there has been suf-
 ficient quantity of adventure to make
 magnificent yarns of the dime
 novel order It is delightful to
 read them, but when one goes into the
 official libraries for confirmation Of
 them the quantity of chaff far exceeds
 that of the genuine grain in the un-
 official stories. Indians were oftener
 inclined to attack the well-equipped
 emigrant wagons than they were the
 mail coaches in the service of the Gov
 ernment. For all this, however, driv-
 CTS had to possess nerve in superla-
 tive degree, and passengers also were
 nervy. This was particularly so on the old California trail. reaching from
 Leavensworth, Kan, to Sacramento, a stretch of two thousand miles. At
 tacks on the coaches were frequently
 made, and at one period of the service
 on this stretch of country before the completion of the Pacific Railroad, as
 saults were common, reaching a fre- l quency of one a week. Usually, as rec ords show, the raiders were eompara- 1 lively few, and the soldiers accom- | panying the mail nearly always drove | the marauders off. These, as it is shown by official data, 1essened as the | operation of the Postoffice Department | became more rapid and extensive, and that condition became very prevalent | in the early fifties. California was I tISh4, l,,,t | New Mexico, and Nebraska were in the list of Territories
 | The many stories that from time to I time are recorded among the annals of stage robberies in wild regions have
 more reference to the pafe-faced pirates of the plains, whose motives differ all | together from those of the savages, than they have to Indians, The sava- ges sought slaughter as well as plumber, | The average bandit sought only plum | der. With him the mail bag is sec ondary consideration. Treasure boxes are his special demands and why their enterprises have been more successful
 in the long run than the redskins is due to the fact that his prey--the stage
 coach-is not guarded by soldiers as in | times of great peril the mail coaches all most invariable have been.
 | Nearly every one can remember the great overland trip once made by | Schuyler Colfax who was speaker of
 the house and afterward vice-presi-
 dent of the United States. It was a
 great trip, and. has become part of
 the history of the distinguished Indiana | statesman. It was just at the point I r, sJ 41 fal
 CT what might not inaptly be called the
 eastern section of it temporarily ter
 minated, and that long stretch across
 the plains until they met the Western
 section of it building eastward, that
 had to be made by coach the coach that carried the mail-until they caught up with the projecting arm of the Califor-
 mia railways at Placerville. Before the
 party embarked on the four-wheeled
 prairie schooner, the news reached
 them that only the day before the In- dians had attacked the overland stage
 coming easterlya The party was well balanced with pluck, however, and de- termined to make the journey, which
 they did in saftey.
 l Few if any of the drivers of these
 primaeval carries of the mails have any place on the records of the department here, and outside of annals of the coun- | try in which they lived and moved and
 had their being, are little known. Their perils at various times have been re-
 counted, but not in the official books.
 Almost every one in any part of the
 country will remember that the late
 Senator McDougall of California, at one time handled the ribbons over four
 or six fiery mules in the days when to
 be the driver of mail coach required
 men of the highest character of nerve
 and stage-driving skill.
 An incident in the history of Hank"
 Monk, one of the best-known stage
 drivers of the Western region, though
 often told, will always bear repeating.
 Hank" was one of the best drivers
 that ever sat on a box, and at one
 time, many years ago, Horace Greeley,
 the great journalist, who was travelling
 on the Pacific Coast, had an engage
 ment to lecture somewhere in Califor-
 mia, and started for his destination on the stage under the management of
 Hank" Monk. Greeley in addition to
 being great stickler for fresh air,
 had also a desire to get view of the
 magnificent scenery of the wild lapds | through which the route lay, and took | a place on the box with the driver. All