New-York tribune., 1921-03-27
Big Thrills OF Overland Mail Service Still to Con
Ok Team, Pony Express and Steam
Tram Outdone by Airplane, Which
May Cut Time to Minutes

West while seeking either a home
for their ideals or the acquisition
of personal wealth; the story of
sudden ambuscade within the rug
ged Businesses Of the Western
mountains, when hostile Indians de-
scended with terror-striking rapid
ity upon the cavalcades with muir
derous intent; or the grewsorno
story of the prairie schooner grip
ped in the sand Of the Great Desert.
its occupants languishing to a lin
gering death, while one member
vainly struggled forward in the tor
rid atmosphere in search of life
giving water?
These were the terrors that beset
the early pioneers, yet left them
undeterred. Within the space of
four years 5000 of these famous
wagons were recorded passing Fort
Kearny in Nebraska, transporting
Mormons alone, and an equal num-
Der carried those in quest of gold
across the continent.
And so the curtain again descends,
this time upon the second act
wherein communication has been
measured in terms OF months.
NOW come we to the third act, the
most spectacular of the early
Western history-the period of the
pony express. 1t was the shortest
lived Of all and filed the gap be-
tween animal and mechanical trans
portation. 1t was developed by such
dashing characters as Buffalo Bill.
By its relay scheme it had the near
est approach to the most modern
means of communication. In itself
it was the dawn of postal transit in
the new born West. It's dashing
riders wrote adventure in large let
ters across the country of adventure
by their brilliant exploits over
mountain and valley, through the
thirst maddening desert, and Oft
times in face of overwhelming num-
bers Of hostile Indians.
Its course, with slight modifica-
tions, lay along the same famous
trails, but it entered them from the
freighting terminals of St. Joseph
and Leavenworth, after passing
along the valleys of the Big and
Little Blue rivers into that of the
River Platte.
1t was the first organized system
| of rapid transit for mail carrying.
Every twenty-five miles there were
stables where feet and sure-footed
ponies were kept ever in waiting.
Each of these dashing express riders
would cover seventy-fve miles each
day, or the territory across three
relays.
This service hourished from the
year 1860 to the latter part of 1861.
The rider dashing into relay sta
ton with his precious sack Of mail
would Jump from his mount, leap
s-stride the back of fresh pony,
and then proceed on his way without
delay. BY this means the time be-
tween the Middle West and the
Pacific Coast was reduced to eight
days. The cost of a letter so mailed
was $3.50 an ounce, as against the
two cents on each letter carried by
Jack Knight and lis comrades of the
air.
The dashing days of the Pony Ex-
press remained until the close of
1861, when the completion of the
Pacific telegraph put an end to its
usefulness. Thus ends the third act
of the drama, wherein the measure
ment of communication has been re-
duced to terms of weeks.
THERE now opens the fourth act,
and we get for the first time me-
chanical transport with the compile
tion of the transcontinental rail-
roads, the beginning Of the era that
put an end to the picturesqueness of
the West. Many, however, were the
thrilling adventures experienced
while these roads were being con-
|lstructed. In fact, the adventure was
such that it readily attracted the ad-
Hventurous spirits who had ridden in
the Pony Express, including Buffalo
Bill himself, who contracted with the
railroad officials to supply their
gangs with buffalo meat, thereby
earning his famous sobriquet.
The first of these great railroads
was completed in 1869, and with its
operation the fourth act closed by
bringing down the measurement OF
communication into terms of days.
=
EIFTY years later the curtain has
at last assembled again, this time