Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-15
BY STAGE COACH.
Routes in Ozarks Are Still Much
Used.

USED.
The cracks of the whip in the hands
of the expert stage driver is still
heard in the Ozarks on both sides of
the Missouri and Arkansas line. This
rollieking old-style vehicle of early
day travel still carries its daily load
of passengers and mail on a hundred
different trails through the hills. a
thousand little villages that appear as
fly specks on the postal map are
served in no other way.
The driver is the same old character
we knew so we'll in the early days of
the West, except that he is modern
lied to some extent. He is compla-
cent, loquacious, gossipy and genial in
fair weather; grouchy, swearing and
pessimistic in bad. Barring the road
agents and hostile Indians, the over
land trips by stage through the more
isolated sections of the Missouri and
Arkansas Ozarks hold all the roman
tic interest of the oldtime overland
trails of the West.
Each overland route holds its owr
interesting anecdotes, it's special brand
of scenery, its characteristics and in
dividuality. Each driver knows them
all by heart. Each time he talks
about them they are magnfied. There
is a romantic strangeness in the name
of every mountain, valley ridge and
hollow. The stage tolls slowly up
Pine Mountain dashes gaily around
the mouth of Coon Hollow on the Lit
tie Sugar Orchard and deseends into
Turkey Bottom.
Coon Hollow blends gracefully into
Possum Walk, way over to the west,
and the driver calls our attention t.
Buzzards Roost, a big white bluff on
the river that winds lazily away like
blue ribbon in the distance. The eye
never grows tired, the scene is ever
changing. From n1ountains to farm,
from farm to ridge, from ridge to val
ley, and always no matter where you
look a creek or river.
Stage travel in the Ozarks is slow.
but sure. 1t is wasted apprehension
to worry about getting to your des-
tination when you Chamber into one of
the numbering old vehicles They al
ways go through. The driver takes as
much pride in coming in on time as
the most punctual engineer on any of
the other fast trains of the West or
South. He has a reputation to main
tain as well as the skilled railroad en-
gineer and he is fain to tarnish 1t.
He also has a schedule, furnished b.
Uncle Sans postal deartment, thai
calls for report every time he is late
and the average stage driver isn't call
ed on to make but few. About the only
thing that will stop him at all is higl
water, and only then when the ferry
boat is washed away or sunk. Modern
times have modernized the stage driver
If they haven't his vehicle.
He does not drink any more anC
there is no hidden bottle in the boot L
is not because he does not want tc
drink in most instances, but because
Uncle Sam has put a taboo on it. The
taboo was pretty hard to swallow, bu
he did-because he liked his Job. NJ
driver can drink nor no liquor can bt
carried on any conveyance that carries
Uncle Sans mail now He has dis.
carded the broad brimmed felt hat fol
a SLOUGH. He has cut off his long mus
tache and discarded the high topped
boots.
He does not pack any long barrelet
guns. He is held up only by some weary
pilgrim who tries to work him for 6
free ride, for which he generally falls
II there is room. 1t is weather he wants
protection from and the gun has beer
replaced by the slicker That romantic
part of overland travel that used tC
center around the drivers costume is
no longer visible. All the rest is still in.
tact.
In the past so years all sizes and
kinds of horses and mules have beer
tiled on the stages of the hills as mo-
tive power. The medium horse has beer
the greatest and only success. He has
stuck and made good. Occasionally
some man breaks into the game with
large teams, but it isn't long before
they are limping bad, with tender feet
cut to pieces. The roads are rocky ano
their weight and gait make them I'M
desirable.
For this work this branch of the
Government service is probably the
poorest paid. All hack lines carry the
mail except in rare instances. The car
rying of the mail from point to point is
let on contract to the highest bidder
and in most localities the people have
bid them down until the unlucky man
who is unfortunate enough to land one
Of them lives pretty close to the rag
ged edge during that time. This work Is
harder on horses than any other work
in the hill country bill up the maxi
mum. The parcel post has helped the
contractor out little. 1t has increased
both his load and his pay.
The longest daily route that used to
be carried in the Ozarks was that route
from West Plains. Mo-. to Yellville,
Ark, a distance of rs miles. The route
was eliminated by the building of the
White River road. In the longest days
Of Summer it used to be made between