The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-02-15

- him for to SO after those gals and
leave nice old laIy like you al alone
was just a little too roughs
Hank vert siouching out of that
vaiting room and. eiambering on 10
Benton's stsEe, drawled oUt. All
aboard for Carson
Generally. Monk was reserved Of
speech, septeutious il his ways. bat
often. While battling with q high
strung team, would pronounce an epi-
gram worthy of Ingersol or Emerson.
After his episode with Greeley. distin-
gulshed men passing over the Sierra,
where Monk drove. would plan to ride
outside vita him. Many a one has rid
cen twenty miles. trying in vain to
call hun out, aud at last has settled
back with the belief that he was Sut
a stOlid idiot. when half a dozen words
from Monk. spoken with his peculiar
crawl, showed that when he drove
GTeeleys coach over the mountains
Their was perhaps, as big a man out
side the vehicle as there was Inside.
As he was not like any other man. so
he was not like any other stage driver
In his prime Monk would turn q six
kCTse coach in the street with the team
at fun speed. and with every rein APP
parently loose. But the coach would
always bring Up in exactly the spot
that the most careful driver would have
tried to bring it. His eye never de-
ceived him. and his estimation Of dis
tances was absolute; the result which
must be when the leaders. swing and
+ wheelers all were playing their roles,
was with him an exact science. His
driving was such a perfection of art
that it did not seem art at oil, and
many an envious whip. watching him,
I has turned away saying. He is the
Z luckiest man that ever climbed on tcp
( of a box" 1t was not luck at all, I
was simply an intuitive, exact calcula-
ton from cause TO effect. and his whole
/ duty ended when he fixed the cause.
The effect had to be. He has often
criven from the summit of the Sierra
down into the valley, ten miles, in
forty-five minutes. other drivers have
Gone as well. the OILY difference being
with the others it was a constant strain
UFon eye and hand and arm and foot;
with Monk 1t was a matter OF course.
He was to staGe driving what the Ger
man papers said of Edwin Booths
Hamlet. at was not played, but lived
[ Of course, we speak Of him as or old,
when the railroad WAS yet east OF the
Sierra, and when staging over the
Sierra was finer than ever staging vas
I before, or ever viii be again. In later
years Monk was but ghost OF himself
/ His physical strength had been so
wasted that no wild horses were given
him: the grades Up the mountains were
no longer sprinkIed; the locomotive took
away the glory Of staging, and bad
i whisky Slapped the finer springs OF the
old drivers life.
A year before his death a coach cap
sized under him. for the first time, and
I frsfV p
self. il was a notice to him that his
hand had lost its cunning, that his
lamps were going out, that dark can
yOn was before him. and there was no
moon to rise He died simply dlssi-
pated old stage driver; bur II in the
long ago when life was bright and hope
was exultant, his heart did not receive
a wound which changed his whole Ilfe
and all it's purposes, then mans race
and acts, and moods, and modes Oh
thought. are no indications Of what he
has done and suffered.
The old stage coach in which Gree
lev took the famous ride VIII be taken
TO st. Louis and will be used as the
coach of state by the Nevada officials.
When distinguished guests reach -
Louis the old coach, with driver OF
the pioneer day in typical costume viii
De dL Culou SshttVl ~ ~ - -
the official Nevada home at the World 5
fair grounds. Them every day the OLD
coach will be seen dashing down the
steep hill from the plateau OF states
to the mining gulch, where VIII be con-
structed a typical California mining
camp Of the '49 days. This trip viii
be made just as it was many years ago
when the gold dust was daily taken
from the mines to a place of safe.y.
IT, its obituary Of Monk a Carson
pzper said:
His friend Horace ought to do the
fair thing by him and be on hand az
the pearIy gates with blazing chariot
and q spanking team Of angels, and
send Hank spinning over the golden
pavements at a speed that would re-
mind the old Jehu Of other days