Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-21

not push the animals very hard for the
first twenty-five miles. which distance we
had covered by s p m, This brought us
to Knngfisher creek. where we halted for
one hour-unsaddled, got something to eat.
let the horses roll and Craze. then groomed
their backs and legs, saddled and started
again at I d. m.
I'VE walked for thirty minutes, trotted
fifty minutes and then dismounted and
rested ten minutes: mounted and went at
the trot for fifty minutes, d~ismounted, and
walked ten minutes. This rotation of fifty
minute trotting periods and ten-minute
rests was kept UP until midnight. when
there was a twenty-minute halt, followed
By the same rotation until $50 a. m, when
there was a halt for one hours sleep. An
other grooming OF legs and backs followed
the sleep and then the grind was esumed. :"
The 1BO-Mtle Ride Completed.
And 50 1t went, until after thirty-one
hours, all told. the troopers reached Ar
kansas City. 10 miles from camp What
happened to the dishonest deserter does
not appear in the reoore
that time,' continued Captain Wood,
''our mounts were purchased in Missouri
n Kansas. The horse 1 rode was II years
old; the others were a little younger. All
the horses except one were in good condl-
ton on our return. That one had been
made unserviceable by bad riding. The
trooper who had him was not a very good
horseman and rode too heavily forward. /
tried to correct him, but It is impossible
to teach all the nicetles of horsemanship
on a trip like that II was the hardest
ride 1 ever had"
Some Of the famous rides by westerners
not In the army occurred In San Fran
cisco, where N. H Mowry. with relays Of
many horses, did 300 miles In fourteen
hours on a race track in 1855. Ten years
before that ]. Powers made $50 miles in
six hours and ~forty-three minutes, and
there IL a tradition that a rider named
Anderson covered 1904 miles in ninety
hours.
Among the pony express riders, F. X.
Aubrey undoubtedly held the record. On a
wager Of 1900 he undertook to ride from
sante Fe to Independence. Missouri, q dis
lance Of 300 miles. inside Of six days. He
did 1t in five days and nineteen hours. He
a a dozen fresh horses waiting for him
at different points along the line, and COW
cred most OF the distance at e gallop.
Jim Moore rode a mail route from Mid
way station to JulesburG, a distance of
10 miles 1t was his regular custom to
make the round trip of $50 miles once a
week. On one occasion the other rider on
that route was i'll. and to keep tn sche-
dule unimpaired. Moore not only did dou
BILE duty, but In less than half the time
he usually took for his weeks work. He
rode the $50 miles in twenty-five hours.
President Lincoln's first inaugural mes
sage wal carried from st. Joseph, Mo-, to
Sacramento, CAL, a distance Of 1880 miles,
In seven days and seventeen hours. The
news Of the firing on Fort Sumter was
carried from st. Joseph to Denver. about
e5 miles, in sixty-nine hours, the riders
riding night and day, stopping only to
change ponies, the time allowance for
which diversion was about two minutes.
That was in the days of the old pony
express" some OF the riders OF which
made records that still stand. Jack
Keetly. for instance. has a record Of $40
miles, without rest or sleep, in thirty-one
hours and Jim Moor has a record of $50
miles In fourteen hours and forty-six sec
onds. Bill James had a 6o-mile route and
made the round trip. 10 miles. in twelve
hours, and seldom came In more than a
few seconds off schedule time. The sche-
dule Of the old pony express called for
something like go miles every twenty hours
and the riders usually made Il.