Latest / Story of the Pony Express / 03 - Story of the Pony Express by Glenn D. Bradley
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Chapter three of the Story of the Pony Express by
- 0:04Speaker 1: Glen D. Bradley. This LibriVox recording is in the public
- 0:09Speaker 1: domain recording by Roger Moline, Chapter three, the First Trip
- 0:15Speaker 1: and Triumph. On March twenty sixth, eighteen sixty, there appeared
- 0:22Speaker 1: simultaneously in the Saint Louis Republic and the New York
- 0:25Speaker 1: Herald the following notice to San Francisco in eight days
- 0:31Speaker 1: by the Central Overland, California and Pike's Peak Express Company.
- 0:36Speaker 1: The first courier of the Pony Express will leave the
- 0:39Speaker 1: Missouri River on Tuesday, April third, at five o'clock PM
- 0:44Speaker 1: and will run regularly weekly hereafter, carrying a letter mail only.
- 0:50Speaker 1: The point of departure on the Missouri River will be
- 0:53Speaker 1: in telegraphic connection with the East and will be announced
- 0:57Speaker 1: in due time. Telegraphic messages from all parts of the
- 1:01Speaker 1: United States and Canada in connection with the point of
- 1:04Speaker 1: departure will be received up to five o'clock PM of
- 1:08Speaker 1: the day of leaving and transmitted over the Placerville and
- 1:12Speaker 1: Saint Joseph telegraph wire to San Francisco and intermediate points
- 1:17Speaker 1: by the Connecting Express in eight days. The letter mail
- 1:22Speaker 1: will be delivered in San Francisco in ten days from
- 1:25Speaker 1: the departure of the Express. The Express passes through Forts Carney, Laramie, Bridger,
- 1:32Speaker 1: Great Salt Lake City, Camp Floyd, Carson City, the Washoe
- 1:37Speaker 1: Silver Mines, Placerville, and Sacramento. Letters for Oregon, Washington Territory,
- 1:45Speaker 1: British Columbia, the Pacific, Mexican ports, Russian possessions, Sandwich Islands, China,
- 1:53Speaker 1: Japan and India will be mailed in San Francisco. Special
- 1:58Speaker 1: messengers bearers of let oas to connect with the Express
- 2:01Speaker 1: the third of April will receive communications for the courier
- 2:05Speaker 1: of that day at number four eighty one tenth Street,
- 2:09Speaker 1: Washington City up to two forty five pm on Friday,
- 2:13Speaker 1: March thirtieth, and in New York at the office of J. B. Simpson,
- 2:18Speaker 1: Room Number eight Continental Bank Building, Nassau Street up to
- 2:23Speaker 1: six thirty am of March thirty first. Full particulars can
- 2:28Speaker 1: be obtained on application at the above places and from
- 2:32Speaker 1: the agents of the company. This sudden announcement of the
- 2:36Speaker 1: long desired fast mail route aroused great enthusiasm in the West,
- 2:41Speaker 1: and especially in Saint Joseph, Missouri, Salt Lake City, and
- 2:45Speaker 1: the cities of California, where preparations to celebrate the opening
- 2:49Speaker 1: of the line were at once begun. Slowly, the time
- 2:54Speaker 1: passed until the afternoon of the eventful day, April third,
- 2:58Speaker 1: that was to mark the first step in annihilating distance
- 3:02Speaker 1: between the East and West. A great crowd had assembled
- 3:06Speaker 1: on the streets of Saint Joseph, Missouri. Flags were flying
- 3:11Speaker 1: and a brass band added to the jubilation. The Hannibal
- 3:15Speaker 1: and Saint Joseph Railroad had arranged to run a special
- 3:18Speaker 1: train into the city, bringing the through mail from connecting
- 3:21Speaker 1: points in the east. Everybody was anxious and excited. At last,
- 3:28Speaker 1: the shrill whistle of a locomotive was heard and the
- 3:31Speaker 1: train rumbled in on time. The pouches were rushed to
- 3:36Speaker 1: the post office, where the express mail was made ready.
- 3:39Speaker 1: The people now surge about the old Pike's Peak Livery
- 3:43Speaker 1: stables just south of Paddy Park. All are hushed with
- 3:48Speaker 1: subdued expectancy. As the moment of departure approaches, the doors
- 3:53Speaker 1: swung open and a spirited horse is led out. Nearby,
- 3:58Speaker 1: closely inspecting the use animal's equipment is a wiry little man,
- 4:02Speaker 1: scarcely twenty years old. Time to go. Everybody back. A
- 4:09Speaker 1: pause of seconds, and a cannon booms in the distance
- 4:13Speaker 1: the starting signal. The rider leaps to his saddle and starts.
- 4:19Speaker 1: In less than a minute, he is at the post office,
- 4:21Speaker 1: where the letter pouch, square in shape, with four padlocked pockets,
- 4:26Speaker 1: is awaiting him. Dismounting only long enough for this pouch
- 4:30Speaker 1: to be thrown over his saddle, he again springs to
- 4:33Speaker 1: his place and is gone. A short sprint and he
- 4:38Speaker 1: has reached the Missouri River wharf. A furry boat under
- 4:42Speaker 1: a full head of steam is waiting with scarcely checked speed.
- 4:47Speaker 1: The horse thunders onto the deck of the craft. A
- 4:51Speaker 1: rumbling of machinery, the jangle of a bell, the sharp
- 4:55Speaker 1: toot of a whistle, and the boat has swung clear
- 4:58Speaker 1: and is headed straight for the eye opposite shore. The
- 5:02Speaker 1: crowd behind breaks into tumultuous applause. Some screen themselves horse,
- 5:08Speaker 1: others are strangely silent, and some strong men are moved
- 5:13Speaker 1: to tears. The noise of the cheering multitude grows faint
- 5:18Speaker 1: as the Kansas shore draws near. The engines are reversed,
- 5:23Speaker 1: a swish of water, and the craft grates against the
- 5:26Speaker 1: dock scarcely has the gangplank been lowered than horse and
- 5:31Speaker 1: rider dash over it and are off at a furious gallop.
- 5:36Speaker 1: Away on the jet black steed, goes Johnny Fry, the
- 5:40Speaker 1: first rider with the mail that must be hurled by
- 5:43Speaker 1: flesh and blood over one thousand, nine hundred and sixty
- 5:47Speaker 1: six miles of desolate space, across the Plains, through northeastern
- 5:53Speaker 1: Kansas and into Nebraska, up the valley of the Platte,
- 5:57Speaker 1: across the Great Plateau, into the foothills, and over the
- 6:01Speaker 1: summit of the Rockies, into the arid Great Basin, over
- 6:06Speaker 1: the Wasatch Range, into the valley of Great Salt Lake,
- 6:10Speaker 1: through the terrible Alkali deserts of Nevada, through the parched
- 6:15Speaker 1: sink of the Carson River, over the snowy Sierras, and
- 6:19Speaker 1: into the Sacramento Valley. The mail must go without delay.
- 6:25Speaker 1: Neither storms, fatigue, darkness, rugged mountains, burning deserts, nor savage
- 6:32Speaker 1: Indians were to hinder this pouch of letters. The mail
- 6:36Speaker 1: must go, and its schedule, incredible as it seemed, must
- 6:41Speaker 1: be made. It was a sublime undertaking than which few
- 6:46Speaker 1: have ever put the fiber of Americans to a severer test.
- 6:51Speaker 1: The managers of the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak
- 6:55Speaker 1: Express Company had laid their plans. Well horses and riders
- 7:00Speaker 1: for fresh relays, together with station agents and helpers, were
- 7:05Speaker 1: ready and waiting at the appointed places ten or fifteen
- 7:08Speaker 1: miles apart. Over the entire course, there was no guesswork
- 7:13Speaker 1: or delay. After crossing the Missouri River out of Saint Joseph,
- 7:19Speaker 1: the official route of the westbound Pony Express ran at
- 7:23Speaker 1: first west and south through Kansas to Kennecuck, then northwest
- 7:28Speaker 1: across the Kickapoo Indian Reservation to Granada Log Chain, Seneca,
- 7:34Speaker 1: Ash Point, Guitards, Marysville, and Hollenburg. Here the valley of
- 7:41Speaker 1: the Little Blue River was followed. Still in a northwest direction,
- 7:46Speaker 1: the trail crossed into Nebraska near Rock Creek and pushed
- 7:50Speaker 1: on through Big Sandy and Liberty Farm to thirty two
- 7:53Speaker 1: Mile Creek. From thence it passed over the Prairie Divide
- 7:58Speaker 1: to the Platte River, the valley of which was followed
- 8:01Speaker 1: to Fort Carney. This route had already been made famous
- 8:06Speaker 1: by the Mormons when they journeyed to Utah in eighteen
- 8:09Speaker 1: forty seven. It had also been followed by many of
- 8:12Speaker 1: the California gold seekers in eighteen forty eight and forty nine,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and by General Albert Sidney Johnston and his army when
- 8:21Speaker 1: they marched west from Fort Leavenworth to suppress the Mormon
- 8:25Speaker 1: War of eighteen fifty seven and fifty eight. For about
- 8:29Speaker 1: three hundred miles out of Fort Carney, the trail followed
- 8:33Speaker 1: the prairies for two thirds of this distance. It clung
- 8:37Speaker 1: to the south bank of the Platte, passing through Plum Creek,
- 8:41Speaker 1: and midway at Cottonwood Springs, the junction of the north
- 8:46Speaker 1: and south branches of the Platte was reached. From here,
- 8:50Speaker 1: the course moved steadily westward through Fremont Springs, O'fallon's Bluffs, Alkali,
- 8:57Speaker 1: Beauvais Ranch, and Diamonds to Julesburg on the south fork
- 9:03Speaker 1: of the Platte. Here the stream was forded, and the
- 9:06Speaker 1: rider then followed the course of lodge Pole Creek in
- 9:10Speaker 1: a northwesterly direction to thirty Mile Ridge. Thence he journeyed
- 9:15Speaker 1: to Mud Springs, Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scott's Bluff
- 9:20Speaker 1: to Fort Laramie. From this point he passed through the
- 9:24Speaker 1: foothills to the base of the Rockies, then over the
- 9:28Speaker 1: mountains through South Pass and to Fort Bridger, then to
- 9:32Speaker 1: Salt Lake City, Camp Floyd, Ruby Valley Mountain Wells across
- 9:38Speaker 1: the Humboldt River in Nevada, to Bisbee's Carson City and
- 9:43Speaker 1: to Placerville, California, thence to Folsom and Sacramento. Here the
- 9:50Speaker 1: mail was taken by a fast steamer down the Sacramento
- 9:53Speaker 1: River to San Francisco. A large part of this route
- 9:58Speaker 1: traversed the wildest region of the continent. Along the entire course,
- 10:03Speaker 1: there were but four military posts, and they were strung
- 10:07Speaker 1: along at intervals of from two hundred fifty to three
- 10:10Speaker 1: hundred and fifty miles from each other. Over most of
- 10:14Speaker 1: the journey there were only small way stations to break
- 10:17Speaker 1: the awful monotony. Topographically, the trail covered nearly six hundred
- 10:23Speaker 1: miles of rolling prairie intersected here and there by streams
- 10:28Speaker 1: fringed with timber. The nature of the mountainous regions, the
- 10:33Speaker 1: deserts and Alkali plains as avenues of horseback travel is
- 10:38Speaker 1: well understood. Throughout these areas, the men and horses had
- 10:43Speaker 1: to endure such risks as rocky chasms, snow slides, and
- 10:47Speaker 1: treacherous streams, as well as storms of sand and snow.
- 10:53Speaker 1: The worst part of the journey lay between Salt Lake
- 10:56Speaker 1: City and Sacramento, where for several hundred miles the route
- 11:00Speaker 1: ran through a desert, much of it a bed of
- 11:03Speaker 1: alkali dust, where no living creature could long survive. It
- 11:09Speaker 1: was not merely these dangers of dire exposure and privation
- 11:12Speaker 1: that threatened, for wherever the country permitted of human life,
- 11:17Speaker 1: Indians abounded. From the Platte River Valley westward. The old
- 11:22Speaker 1: route sped over by the Pony Express, is today substantially
- 11:26Speaker 1: that of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. In California,
- 11:33Speaker 1: the region most benefited by the Express, the opening of
- 11:37Speaker 1: the line was likewise awaited with the keenest anticipation. Of course,
- 11:42Speaker 1: there had been at the outset a few dissenting opinions,
- 11:46Speaker 1: the gist of the opposing sentiment being that the Indians
- 11:49Speaker 1: would make the operation of the route impossible. One newspaper
- 11:53Speaker 1: went so far as to say that it was simply
- 11:56Speaker 1: inviting slaughter upon all the foolhardy young men who had
- 12:00Speaker 1: engaged as riders. But the California spirit would not down.
- 12:06Speaker 1: A vast majority of the people favored the enterprise and
- 12:09Speaker 1: clamored for it, and before the express had been long
- 12:13Speaker 1: in operation, all classes were united in the conviction that
- 12:17Speaker 1: they could not do without it. At San Francisco and Sacramento,
- 12:22Speaker 1: then the two most important towns in the far West,
- 12:26Speaker 1: great preparations were made to celebrate the first outgoing and
- 12:29Speaker 1: incoming mails. On April third, at the same hour the
- 12:34Speaker 1: express started from Saint Joseph. The eastbound mail was placed
- 12:38Speaker 1: on board a steamer at San Francisco and sent up
- 12:42Speaker 1: the river accompanied by an enthusiastic delegation of businessmen. On
- 12:47Speaker 1: the arrival of the pouch and its escort at Sacramento,
- 12:51Speaker 1: the capital city, they were greeted with the blare of bands,
- 12:55Speaker 1: the firing of guns, and the clanging of gongs. Flag
- 13:00Speaker 1: were unfurled, and floral decorations lined the streets. That night,
- 13:05Speaker 1: the first rider for the east, Harry Roth, left the
- 13:09Speaker 1: city on a white bronco. He rode the first twenty
- 13:13Speaker 1: miles in fifty nine minutes, changing mounts once. He next
- 13:19Speaker 1: took a fresh horse at Folsom and pushed on fifty
- 13:22Speaker 1: five miles farther to Placerville. Here he was relieved by Boston,
- 13:27Speaker 1: who carried the mail to Friday Station, crossing the Sierras
- 13:31Speaker 1: en route. Next came Sam Hamilton, who rode through Geneva,
- 13:36Speaker 1: Carson City, Dayton, and Reid Station to Fort Churchill, seventy
- 13:42Speaker 1: five miles. In all, this point, one hundred and eighty
- 13:46Speaker 1: five miles out of Sacramento had been reached in fifteen
- 13:50Speaker 1: hours and twenty minutes, in spite of the Sierra Divide,
- 13:54Speaker 1: where the snow drifts were thirty feet deep and where
- 13:57Speaker 1: the company had to keep a drove of pack mules
- 14:00Speaker 1: moving in order to keep the passageway clear. From Fort
- 14:05Speaker 1: Churchill into Ruby Valley went H. J. Faust. From Ruby
- 14:10Speaker 1: Valley to Shell Creek, the courier was Josh Perkins. Then
- 14:15Speaker 1: came Jim Gentry, who carried the mail to Deep Creek,
- 14:19Speaker 1: and he was followed by Lett Huntington, who pushed on
- 14:23Speaker 1: to Simpson Springs. From Simpsons to Camp Floyd rode John Fisher,
- 14:29Speaker 1: and from the latter place Major Egan carried the mail
- 14:32Speaker 1: into Salt Lake City, arriving April seventh at eleven forty
- 14:37Speaker 1: five pm. Note authorities differ somewhat as to the personnel
- 14:43Speaker 1: of the first trip. Also as to the number of
- 14:46Speaker 1: letters carried. The obstacles to fast travel had been numerous
- 14:52Speaker 1: because of snow in the mountains and stormy spring weather,
- 14:56Speaker 1: with its attendant discomfort and bad going. Yet the schedule
- 15:00Speaker 1: had been maintained and the last seventy five miles into
- 15:04Speaker 1: Salt Lake City had been ridden in five hours and
- 15:07Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. At that time, Placerville and Carson City were
- 15:13Speaker 1: the terminals of a local telegraph line. News had been
- 15:17Speaker 1: flashed back from Carson on April fourth that the rider
- 15:21Speaker 1: had passed that point safely. After that came an anxious
- 15:26Speaker 1: wait until April twelfth, when the arrival of the westbound
- 15:29Speaker 1: express announced that all was well. The first trip of
- 15:34Speaker 1: the Pony Express westbound from Saint Joseph to Sacramento was
- 15:38Speaker 1: made in nine days and twenty three hours. Eastbound, the
- 15:43Speaker 1: run was covered in eleven days and twelve hours. The
- 15:48Speaker 1: average time of these two performances was barely half that
- 15:52Speaker 1: required by the Butterfield Stage over the southern route. The
- 15:56Speaker 1: Pony had clipped ten full days from the schedule of
- 15:59Speaker 1: its assessor and shown that it could keep its schedule,
- 16:03Speaker 1: which was as follows from Saint Joseph to Salt Lake City,
- 16:09Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty four hours from Salt Lake City
- 16:13Speaker 1: to Carson City, two hundred and eighteen hours from starting point,
- 16:19Speaker 1: from Carson City to Sacramento, two hundred and thirty two
- 16:22Speaker 1: hours from starting point from Sacramento to San Francisco, two
- 16:28Speaker 1: hundred and forty hours from starting point. From the very
- 16:33Speaker 1: first trip, expressions of genuine appreciation of the new service
- 16:38Speaker 1: were shown all along the line. The first express, which
- 16:42Speaker 1: reached Salt Lake City eastbound on the night of April seventh,
- 16:46Speaker 1: led the Desiree News, the leading paper of that town,
- 16:50Speaker 1: to say that, although a telegraph is very desirable, we
- 16:55Speaker 1: feel well satisfied with this achievement for the present. Two
- 17:00Speaker 1: days later, the first westbound express bound from Saint Joseph,
- 17:04Speaker 1: reached the Mormon capital. Oddly enough, this rider carried news
- 17:09Speaker 1: of an act to amend a bill just proposed in
- 17:12Speaker 1: the United States Senate providing that Utah be organized into
- 17:16Speaker 1: Nevada Territory under the name and leadership of the latter note.
- 17:22Speaker 1: On account of the Mormon outbreak and the troubles of
- 17:25Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven and fifty eight, there was at this
- 17:29Speaker 1: time much ill feeling in Congress against Utah matters were
- 17:34Speaker 1: finally smoothed out, and the bill in question was, of
- 17:37Speaker 1: course dropped. Utah was loyal to the Union throughout the
- 17:41Speaker 1: Civil War. Many of the Mormons, like numerous persons in California,
- 17:48Speaker 1: had at first believed the Pony Express an impossibility, But
- 17:52Speaker 1: now that it had been demonstrated wholly feasible, they were
- 17:55Speaker 1: delighted with its success, whether it brought them good news
- 17:59Speaker 1: or bad, For it had brought Utah within six days
- 18:03Speaker 1: of the Missouri River and within seven days of Washington City.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Prior to this, under the old stagecoach regime, the people
- 18:12Speaker 1: of that territory had been accustomed to receive their news
- 18:15Speaker 1: of the world from six weeks to three months old.
- 18:21Speaker 1: Probably no greater demonstrations were ever held in California cities
- 18:25Speaker 1: than when the first incoming express arrived, its schedule having
- 18:30Speaker 1: been announced in the daily papers a week ahead. The
- 18:33Speaker 1: people were ready with their welcome at Sacramento, as when
- 18:38Speaker 1: the Pony Mail had first come up from San Francisco.
- 18:41Speaker 1: Practically the whole town turned out. Stores were closed, and
- 18:46Speaker 1: business everywhere suspended. State officials and other citizens of prominence
- 18:52Speaker 1: addressed great crowds in commemoration of the wonderful achievement. Patriotic
- 18:58Speaker 1: airs were played and sung, and no attempt was made
- 19:02Speaker 1: to check the merry making of the populace. After a
- 19:06Speaker 1: hurried stop to deliver local mail, the pouch was rushed
- 19:10Speaker 1: aboard the fast sailing steamer Antelope, and the trip down
- 19:14Speaker 1: the stream begun. Although San Francisco was not reached until
- 19:18Speaker 1: the dead of night, the arrival of the express mail
- 19:22Speaker 1: was the signal for a hilarious reception. Whistles were blown,
- 19:27Speaker 1: bells jangled, and the California Band turned out. The city
- 19:32Speaker 1: fire department, suddenly aroused by the uproar, rushed into the
- 19:37Speaker 1: street expecting to find a conflagration, but on recalling the
- 19:41Speaker 1: true state of affairs, the fireman joined in with spirit.
- 19:47Speaker 1: The express courier was then formally escorted by a huge
- 19:50Speaker 1: procession from the steamship dock to the office of the
- 19:54Speaker 1: Alta Telegraph, the official Western terminal, and the momentous trip
- 19:59Speaker 1: had ended. The first pony express from Saint Joseph brought
- 20:04Speaker 1: a message of congratulation from President Buchanan to Governor Downey
- 20:09Speaker 1: of California, which was first telegraphed to the Missouri River town.
- 20:15Speaker 1: It also brought one or two official government communications, some
- 20:19Speaker 1: New York, Chicago and Saint Louis newspapers, a few bank drafts,
- 20:24Speaker 1: and some business letters addressed to banks and commercial houses
- 20:28Speaker 1: in San Francisco, about eighty five pieces of mail in all.
- 20:36Speaker 1: Note eastbound, the first writer carried about seventy letters, and
- 20:42Speaker 1: it had brought news from the east only nine days
- 20:45Speaker 1: on the road. At the outset, the Express reduced the
- 20:49Speaker 1: time for letters from New York to the coast from
- 20:52Speaker 1: twenty three days to about ten days. Before the line
- 20:57Speaker 1: had been placed in operation, a time telegraph wire, allusion
- 21:01Speaker 1: to which has been made had been strung two hundred
- 21:04Speaker 1: and fifty miles eastward from San Francisco through Sacramento to
- 21:09Speaker 1: Carson City, Nevada. Important official business from Washington was therefore
- 21:15Speaker 1: wired to Saint Joseph, then forwarded by pony rider to
- 21:19Speaker 1: Carson City, where it was again telegraphed to Sacramento or
- 21:24Speaker 1: San Francisco, as the case required, thus saving twelve or
- 21:28Speaker 1: fifteen hours in transmission on the last lap of the journey.
- 21:33Speaker 1: The usual schedule for getting dispatches from the Missouri River
- 21:37Speaker 1: to the coast was eight days, and for letters ten days.
- 21:43Speaker 1: After the triumphant first trip. When it was fully evident
- 21:46Speaker 1: that the Pony Express was a really established enterprise, the
- 21:51Speaker 1: Saint Joseph Free Democrat broke into the following panegyric. Take
- 21:57Speaker 1: down your map and trace the footprints of our drew
- 22:00Speaker 1: pedantic animal from Saint Joseph on the Missouri to San
- 22:03Speaker 1: Francisco on the Golden Horn, two thousand miles, more than
- 22:08Speaker 1: half the distance across our boundless continent, through Kansas, through
- 22:13Speaker 1: Nebraska by Fort Carney, along the Platte, by Fort Laramie,
- 22:18Speaker 1: past the Buttes, over the rocky Mountains, through the narrow passes,
- 22:23Speaker 1: and along the steep defiles Utah, Fort Bridger, Salt Lake City.
- 22:29Speaker 1: He witches Brigham with his swift pony ship through the valleys,
- 22:34Speaker 1: along the grassy slopes, into the snow into sand, faster
- 22:40Speaker 1: than Thor's thialfi Away they go, rider and horse. Did
- 22:45Speaker 1: you see them? They are in California, leaping over its
- 22:49Speaker 1: golden sands, treading its busy streets. The Courser has enrolled
- 22:54Speaker 1: to us the Great American Panorama, allowed us to glance
- 22:58Speaker 1: at the homes of one million people, and has put
- 23:01Speaker 1: a girdle around the earth. In forty minutes. Verily, the
- 23:06Speaker 1: riding is like the riding of Yehu, the son of Nimshi,
- 23:10Speaker 1: for he rideth furiously. Take out your watch. We are
- 23:15Speaker 1: eight days from New York, eighteen from London. The race
- 23:20Speaker 1: is to the swift. Note the idea of a pony
- 23:25Speaker 1: express was not a new one. In eighteen fifty nine,
- 23:29Speaker 1: Marco Polo relates that genkhis Khan, ruler of Chinese Tartary,
- 23:34Speaker 1: had such a courier service about one thousand years ago.
- 23:39Speaker 1: This ambitious monarch, it is said, had relay stations twenty
- 23:43Speaker 1: five miles apart, and his riders sometimes covered three hundred
- 23:48Speaker 1: miles in twenty four hours. About one hundred years back,
- 23:52Speaker 1: such a system was in vogue in various countries of Europe.
- 23:57Speaker 1: Early in the nineteenth century, before the teleg was invented,
- 24:01Speaker 1: a New York newspaperman named David Hale used a pony
- 24:05Speaker 1: express system to collect state news. A little later, in
- 24:10Speaker 1: eighteen thirty, a rival publisher, Richard Houghton, political editor of
- 24:15Speaker 1: the New York Journal of Commerce, borrowed the same idea.
- 24:20Speaker 1: He afterward founded the Boston Atlas, and by making relays
- 24:24Speaker 1: of fast horses and taking advantage of the services offered
- 24:28Speaker 1: by a few short lines of railroad then operating in Massachusetts,
- 24:33Speaker 1: he was enabled to print election returns by nine o'clock
- 24:37Speaker 1: on the morning after election. This idea was improved by
- 24:42Speaker 1: James W. Webb, editor of the New York Courier and Inquirer,
- 24:46Speaker 1: a big daily of that time. In eighteen thirty two,
- 24:51Speaker 1: Webb organised an express rider line between New York and Washington.
- 24:56Speaker 1: This undertaking gave his paper much valuable prestige. In eighteen
- 25:02Speaker 1: thirty three, Hale and Hallock of the Journal of Commerce
- 25:06Speaker 1: started a rival line that enabled them to publish Washington
- 25:10Speaker 1: News within forty eight hours, thus giving their paper a
- 25:13Speaker 1: big scoop over all competitors. Papers in Norfolk, Virginia, two
- 25:19Speaker 1: hundred and twenty nine miles southeast of Washington, actually got
- 25:23Speaker 1: the news from the capital out of the New York
- 25:26Speaker 1: Journal of Commerce, received by the Ocean route, sooner than
- 25:30Speaker 1: news printed in Washington could be sent to Norfolk by
- 25:33Speaker 1: boat directly down the Potomac River. The California Pony Express
- 25:39Speaker 1: of historic fame was imitated on a small scale in
- 25:43Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one by the Rocky Mountain News of Denver,
- 25:47Speaker 1: then as now one of the great newspapers of the
- 25:50Speaker 1: West at that time. This enterprising daily owned and published
- 25:56Speaker 1: a paper called The Miners Record at Tarryall, a mining
- 26:00Speaker 1: community some distance out of Denver. The news also had
- 26:04Speaker 1: a branch office at Central City, forty five miles up
- 26:08Speaker 1: in the mountains. As soon as information from the war
- 26:12Speaker 1: arrived over the California Pony Express and by stage out
- 26:16Speaker 1: of Old Jewlesburg from the Missouri River. Denver was not
- 26:21Speaker 1: on the Pony Express route. It was hurried to these
- 26:24Speaker 1: outlying points by fast horsemen. Thanks to this enterprise, the
- 26:29Speaker 1: miners in the heart of the Rockies could get their
- 26:32Speaker 1: war news only four days late route and Connolly. The
- 26:39Speaker 1: Pony Express had been tried at the Tribunal of Popular
- 26:43Speaker 1: Opinion and given a hearty endorsement, it had yet to
- 26:47Speaker 1: win the approval of shrewd statesmanship. End of chapter three
- 26:55Speaker 1: recording by Roger Molin four