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04 - Story of the Pony Express by Glenn D. Bradley · Story of the Pony Express

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Speaker 1: Chapter four of the Story of the Pony Express by
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Speaker 1: Glen D. Bradley. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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Speaker 1: domain recording by Roder Moline, Chapter four, Operation Equipment and Business.
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Speaker 1: On entering the service of the Central Overland, California and
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Speaker 1: Pike's Peak Express Company, employees of the Pony Express were
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Speaker 1: compelled to take an oath of fidelity, which ran as follows,
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Speaker 1: I so and so do hereby swear before the Great
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Speaker 1: and Living God, that during my engagement, and while I
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Speaker 1: am an employee of Russell Majors and Waddell, I will,
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Speaker 1: under no circumstances use profane language. That I will drink
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Speaker 1: no intoxicating liquors. That I will not quarrel or fight
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Speaker 1: with any other employee of the firm, And that in
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Speaker 1: every respect I will conduct myself honestly, to be faithful
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Speaker 1: to my duties, and so direct all my acts as
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Speaker 1: to win the confidence of my employers. So help me God.
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Speaker 1: Note this was the same pledge which the original firm
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Speaker 1: had required of its men. Both Russell Majors and Waddell
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Speaker 1: and the COC and PP Express Company which they incorporated,
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Speaker 1: adhered to a rigid observation of the Sabbath. They insisted
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Speaker 1: on their men doing as little work as possible on
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Speaker 1: that day, and had them desist from work whenever possible,
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Speaker 1: and they stuck faithfully to these policies. Probably no concern
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Speaker 1: ever won a higher and more deserved reputation for integrity
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Speaker 1: in the fulfillment of its contracts and for business reliability
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Speaker 1: than Russell, Majors and Waddell. It is not to be
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Speaker 1: supposed that all or any considerable number of the Pony
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Speaker 1: expressmen were saintly, nor that they all took their pledge
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Speaker 1: too seriously. Judged by present day standards, most of these
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Speaker 1: fellows were rough and unconventional. Some of them were bad.
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Speaker 1: Yet one thing is certain, in loyalty and blind devotion
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Speaker 1: to duty, no group of employees will ever surpass the
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Speaker 1: men who conducted the Pony Express. During the sixteen months
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Speaker 1: of its existence, the riders of this wonderful enterprise, nobly
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Speaker 1: assisted by the faithful station keepers, traveled six hundred and
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Speaker 1: fifty thousand miles, contending against the most desperate odds that
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Speaker 1: a lonely wilderness and savage nature could offer. With the
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Speaker 1: loss of only a single mail, and that mail happened
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Speaker 1: to be of relatively small importance. Only one rider was
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Speaker 1: ever killed outright while on duty. A few were mortally wounded,
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Speaker 1: and occasionally their horses were disabled. Yet with the one exception,
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Speaker 1: they stuck grimly to the saddle or trudged manfully ahead
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Speaker 1: without a horse until the next station was reached. With
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Speaker 1: these men, keeping the schedule came to be a sort
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Speaker 1: of religion, a performance that must be accomplished, even though
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Speaker 1: it forced them to play a desperate game, the stakes
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Speaker 1: of which were life and death. Many station men and
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Speaker 1: numbers of riders while off duty, were murdered by Indians.
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Speaker 1: They were martyrs to the cause of patriotism and a
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Speaker 1: newer and better civilization. Yet they were hirelings, working for
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Speaker 1: good wages and performing their duties in a simple, matter
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Speaker 1: of fact way. Their heroism was never a self conscious trait.
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Speaker 1: The riders were young men, seldom exceeding one hundred and
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Speaker 1: twenty five pounds in weight. Youthfulness, nerve, a wide experience
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Speaker 1: on the frontier, and general adaptability were the chief requisite
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Speaker 1: for the pony express business. Some of the greatest frontiersmen
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Speaker 1: of the latter sixties and the seventies were trained in
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Speaker 1: this service, either as pony riders or station men. The
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Speaker 1: latter had even a more dangerous task, since in their
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Speaker 1: isolated shacks they were often completely at the mercy of Indians.
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Speaker 1: That only one rider was ever taken by the savages
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Speaker 1: was due to the fact that the pony men rode
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Speaker 1: magnificent horses, which invariably outclassed the Indian ponies in speed
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Speaker 1: and endurance. The lone man captured while on duty was
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Speaker 1: completely surrounded by a large number of savages on the
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Speaker 1: Platte River in Nebraska. He was shot dead, and though
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Speaker 1: his body was not found for several days, his pony,
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Speaker 1: bridled and saddled, escaped safely with the mail, which was
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Speaker 1: duly forwarded to its destination. That far more riders were
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Speaker 1: killed or injured while off duty than when in the
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Speaker 1: saddle was due solely to the wise precaution of the
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Speaker 1: company in selecting such high grade riding stock, and it
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Speaker 1: took the best of horse flesh to make the schedule.
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Speaker 1: The riders dressed as they saw fit. The average costume
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Speaker 1: consisted of a buckskin shirt, ordinary trousers tucked into high
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Speaker 1: leather boots, and a slouch hat or cap. They always
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Speaker 1: went armed at first, a spencer carbine was carried strapped
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Speaker 1: to the rider's back. Besides a sheath knife at his side.
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Speaker 1: In the saddle holsters, he carried a pair of Colts revolvers.
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Speaker 1: After a time, the carbines were left off and only
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Speaker 1: side arms taken along. The carrying of larger guns meant
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Speaker 1: extra weight, and it was made a rule of the
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Speaker 1: company that a rider should never fight unless compelled to
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Speaker 1: do so. He was to depend wholly upon speed for safety.
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Speaker 1: The record of the service fully justified this policy. While
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Speaker 1: the horses were of the highest grade, they were of
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Speaker 1: mixed breed and were purchased over a wide range of territory.
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Speaker 1: Good results were obtained from blooded animals from the Missouri Valley,
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Speaker 1: but considerable preference was shown for the Western bred mustangs.
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Speaker 1: These animals were about fourteen hands high and averaged less
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Speaker 1: than nine hundred pounds in weight. A former blacksmith for
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Speaker 1: the company, who was at one time located at Seneca, Kansas,
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Speaker 1: recalls that one of these native ponies often had to
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Speaker 1: be thrown and staked down with a rope tied to
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Speaker 1: each foot before it could be shod. Then before the
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Speaker 1: smith could pare the hoofs and nail on the shoes.
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Speaker 1: It was necessary for one man to sit astride the
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Speaker 1: animal's head and another on its body while the beast
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Speaker 1: continued to struggle and squeal to shehe. One of these
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Speaker 1: animals often required a half day of strenuous work, as
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Speaker 1: might be expected. The horse, as well as rider, traveled
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Speaker 1: very light. The combined weight of the saddle, bridle and
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Speaker 1: saddle bags did not exceed thirteen pounds. The saddle bag
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Speaker 1: used by the pony rider for carrying mail was called
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Speaker 1: a mochilla. It had openings in the center so it
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Speaker 1: would fit snugly over the horn and tree of the saddle,
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Speaker 1: and yet be removable without delay. The mochilla had four pockets,
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Speaker 1: called cantenas, in each of its corners, one in front
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Speaker 1: and one behind each of the rider's legs. These cantenas
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Speaker 1: held the mail. All were kept carefully locked, and three
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Speaker 1: were opened en route only at military posts Fort Carney, Laramie, Bridger,
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Speaker 1: Churchill and at Salt Lake City. The fourth pocket was
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Speaker 1: for the local or away mail stations. Each local station
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Speaker 1: keeper had a key and could open it when necessary.
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Speaker 1: It held a time card on which a record of
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Speaker 1: the arrival and departure at the various stations where it
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Speaker 1: was opened was kept. Only one mochilla was used on
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Speaker 1: a trip. It was transferred by the rider from one
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Speaker 1: horse to another until the destination was reached. Letters were
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Speaker 1: wrapped in oil silk to protect them from moisture, either
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Speaker 1: from stormy weather, fording streams, or perspiring animals. While a
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Speaker 1: mail of twenty pounds might be carried, the average weight
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Speaker 1: did not exceed fifteen pounds. The postal charges were at
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Speaker 1: first five dollars for each half ounce letter, but this
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Speaker 1: rate was afterward reduced by the Post Office Department to
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Speaker 1: one dollar for each half ounce. At this figure it
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Speaker 1: remained as long as the line was in business. In
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Speaker 1: addition to this rate, a regulation government envelope costing ten
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Speaker 1: cents had to be purchased. Patrons generally made use of
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Speaker 1: a specially light tissue paper for their correspondents. The large
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Speaker 1: newspapers of New York, Boston, Chicago, Saint Louis, and San
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Speaker 1: Francisco were among the best customers of the service. Some
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Speaker 1: of the eastern dailies even kept special correspondents at Saint
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Speaker 1: Joseph to receive and telegraph to the Home office news
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Speaker 1: from the West as soon as it arrived. On account
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Speaker 1: of the enormous postage rates, these newspapers would print special
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Speaker 1: editions of civil war news on the thinnest of paper
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Speaker 1: to avoid all possible mailing bulk. Mister Frank A Root
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Speaker 1: of Topeka, Kansas, who was assistant Postmaster and chief clerk
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Speaker 1: in the post office at Atchison during the last two
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Speaker 1: months of the line's existence in eighteen sixty one, says
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Speaker 1: that during the period the Express, which was running semi weekly,
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Speaker 1: brought about three hundred and fifty letters each trip from California.
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Speaker 1: Note exact figures are not obtainable for the westbound mail,
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Speaker 1: but it was probably not so heavy. At this time
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Speaker 1: September eighteen sixty one, the telegraph had been extended from
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Speaker 1: the Missouri to Fort Carney, Nebraska, and letter pouches from
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Speaker 1: the Pony Express were sent by overland stage from Carney
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Speaker 1: to Atchison. Messages of grave concern were wired as soon
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Speaker 1: as the station was reached. Many of these communications were
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Speaker 1: from government and state officials in California and Oregon and
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Speaker 1: addressed to the federal authorities at Washington, particularly to senators
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Speaker 1: and representatives from these states, and to authorities of the
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Speaker 1: War Department. A few were addressed to Abraham Lincoln, President
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Speaker 1: of the United States. A large number of these letters
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Speaker 1: were from business and professional men in Poortland, San Francisco, Oakland,
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Speaker 1: and Sacramento, and mailed to firms in the large cities
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Speaker 1: of the East and Middle West, not to mention the
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Speaker 1: rendering of invaluable help to the government in retaining California.
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Speaker 1: At the beginning of the war, the pony Express was
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Speaker 1: of the greatest importance to the commercial interests of the West.
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Speaker 1: The line was frequently used by the British government in
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Speaker 1: forwarding its Asiatic correspondence to London. In eighteen sixty, a
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Speaker 1: report of the activities of the English fleet off the
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Speaker 1: coast of China was sent through from San Francisco eastward
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Speaker 1: over this route. For the transmission of these dispatches, that
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Speaker 1: government paid one hundred and thirty five dollars pony Express charges.
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Speaker 1: Nor did the commercial houses of the Pacific coast cities
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Speaker 1: appear to mind a little expense in forwarding their business letters.
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Speaker 1: Mister Root says there would often be twenty five one
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Speaker 1: dollar pony stamps and the same number of government stamps,
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Speaker 1: a total in postage of twenty seven dollars and fifty
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Speaker 1: cents on a single envelope. Not much frivolity passed through
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Speaker 1: these mails. Pony Express riders received an average salary of
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Speaker 1: from one hundred dollars to one hundred and twenty five
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Speaker 1: dollars a month. A few whose rides were particularly dangerous
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Speaker 1: or who had braved unusual dangers, received one hundred and
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Speaker 1: fifty dollars. Station men and their assistants were paid from
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Speaker 1: fifty to one hundred dollars monthly. Of the eighty riders
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Speaker 1: usually in the service, half were always riding in either
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Speaker 1: direction east and west. The average run was seventy five miles,
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Speaker 1: the men going and coming over their respective divisions on
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Speaker 1: each succeeding day. Yet they were or many exceptions to
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Speaker 1: this rule, as will be shown later at the outset.
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Speaker 1: Although facilities for shorter relays had been provided, it was
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Speaker 1: planned to run each horse twenty five miles, with an
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Speaker 1: average of three horses to the rider, But it was
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Speaker 1: soon found that a horse could rarely continue at a
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Speaker 1: maximum speed for so grate a distance. Consequently, it soon
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Speaker 1: became the practice to change mounts every ten or twelve miles,
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Speaker 1: or as nearly that as possible. The exact distance was
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Speaker 1: governed largely by the nature of the country. While this
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Speaker 1: shortening of the relay necessitated transferring the mochilla many more
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Speaker 1: times on each trip, it greatly facilitated the schedule, for
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Speaker 1: it was at once seen that the average horse or
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Speaker 1: pony in the express service could be crowded to the
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Speaker 1: limit of its speed over the reduced distance. One of
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Speaker 1: the station keeper's most important duties was to have a
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Speaker 1: fresh horse saddled and bridled a half hour before the
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Speaker 1: express was due. Only two minutes time was allowed for
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Speaker 1: changing mounts. The rider's approach was watched for with keen anxiety.
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Speaker 1: By daylight, he could generally be seen in a cloud
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Speaker 1: of dust if in the desert or prairie regions. If
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Speaker 1: in the mountains, the clear air made it possible for
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Speaker 1: the station men to detect his approach a long way off,
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Speaker 1: provided there were no obstructions to hide the view. At night,
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Speaker 1: the rider would make his presence known by a few
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Speaker 1: lusty whoops dashing up to the station. No time was wasted.
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Speaker 1: The courier would already have loosed his mochilla, which he
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Speaker 1: tossed ahead for the keeper to adjust on the fresh
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Speaker 1: horse before dismounting. A sudden raining up of his foam
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Speaker 1: covered steed and all's well along the road, hank to
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Speaker 1: the station boss, and he was again again mounted and gone,
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Speaker 1: usually fifteen seconds after his arrival, Nor was there any
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Speaker 1: longer delay when a fresh rider took up the run.
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Speaker 1: Situated at intervals of about two hundred miles were division
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Speaker 1: points in charge of locally important agents or superintendents. Note
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Speaker 1: these were executive divisions, and not to be confused with
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Speaker 1: the rider's divisions. The latter were merely the stations separating
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Speaker 1: each man's run. Here were kept extra men, animals, and
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Speaker 1: supplies as a precaution against the raids of Indians, desperadoes,
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Speaker 1: or any emergency likely to arise. Division agents had considerable authority.
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Speaker 1: Their pay was as good as that received by the
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Speaker 1: best riders. They were men of a heroic and even
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Speaker 1: in some instances, desperate character. In spite of their oath
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Speaker 1: of service. In certain localities much infested with horse thievery
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Speaker 1: and violence, it was necessary to have in charge men
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Speaker 1: of the fight the devil with fire type in order
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Speaker 1: to keep the business in operation. Noted among this class
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Speaker 1: of division agents, with headquarters at the Platte crossing near
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Speaker 1: Fort Carney was Jack Slade, who, though a good servant
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Speaker 1: of the company, turned out to be one of the
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Speaker 1: worst bad men in the history of the West. Note
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Speaker 1: Slade was afterward hanged by vigilantes in Virginia City, Montana.
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Speaker 1: The authentic story of his life surpasses in romance and
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Speaker 1: tragedy most of the pirate tales of fiction. He had
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Speaker 1: a record of twenty six killings to his credit, but
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Speaker 1: he kept his division thoroughly purged of horse thieves and
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Speaker 1: savage marauders, for he knew how to get his man
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Speaker 1: whenever there was trouble. The schedule was at first fixed
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Speaker 1: at ten days for eight months of the year and
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Speaker 1: twelve days during the winter season, but this was soon
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Speaker 1: lowered to eight and ten days, respectively. An average speed
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Speaker 1: of ten miles an hour, including stops, had to be
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Speaker 1: maintained on the summer schedule. In the winter, the run
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Speaker 1: was sustained at eight miles an hour. Deep snows made
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Speaker 1: the latter performance the more difficult of the two. The
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Speaker 1: best record made by the Pony Express was in getting
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Speaker 1: President Lincoln's inaugural speech across the continent in March eighteen
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Speaker 1: sixty one. This address, outlining as it did. The attitude
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Speaker 1: of the new chief executive toward the pending conflict was
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Speaker 1: anticipated with the deepest anxiety by the people on the
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Speaker 1: Pacific coast. Evidently inspired by the urgency of the situation,
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Speaker 1: the company determined to surpass all performances. Horses were led out,
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Speaker 1: in many cases two or three miles from the stations
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Speaker 1: in order to meet the incoming riders and to secure
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Speaker 1: the supreme limit of speed and endurance. On this momentous trip,
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Speaker 1: the document was carried through from Saint Joseph to Sacramento
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Speaker 1: one thousand, nine hundred and sixty six miles in just
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Speaker 1: seven days and seventeen hours, an average speed of ten
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Speaker 1: and six tenths miles an hour, and this by flesh
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Speaker 1: and blood pounding the dirt over the plains, mountains and deserts.
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Speaker 1: The best individual performance on this great run was by
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Speaker 1: pony Bob Haslam, who galloped the one hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: miles from Smith's Creek to Fort Churchill in eight hours
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Speaker 1: and ten minutes, an average of fourteen and seven tenths
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Speaker 1: miles per hour. On this record breaking trip, the message
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Speaker 1: was carried the six hundred and seventy five miles between
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Speaker 1: Saint Joseph and Denver in sixty nine hours, the last
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Speaker 1: ten miles of this leg of the journey being ridden
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Speaker 1: in thirty one minutes. Note the dispatch was taken from
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Speaker 1: the main line to the Colorado capital by special service. Denver,
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Speaker 1: it will be remembered, was not on the regular pony route,
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Speaker 1: which ran north of that city. There was then no
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Speaker 1: telegraph in operation west of the Missouri River in Kansas
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Speaker 1: or Nebraska. Today, but few overland express trains hauled by
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Speaker 1: giant locomotives over heavy steel rails on a rock ballasted roadbed,
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Speaker 1: averaged more than thirty miles per hour between the Missouri
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Speaker 1: and the Pacific coast. The news of the election of
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Speaker 1: Lincoln in November eighteen sixty and President Buchanan's last message
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Speaker 1: a month later were carried through in eight days late
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Speaker 1: in the winter and early in the spring of eight
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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, just prior to the beginning of the war.
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Speaker 1: Many good records were made with urgent government dispatches. News
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Speaker 1: of the firing upon Fort Sumter was taken through in
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Speaker 1: eight days and fourteen hours. From then on, while the
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Speaker 1: Pony Express Service continued, the businessmen and public officials of
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Speaker 1: California began giving prize money to the company to be
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Speaker 1: awarded those riders who made the best time carrying war news.
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Speaker 1: On one occasion, they raised a purse of three hundred
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Speaker 1: dollars for the Star rider when a pouch containing a
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Speaker 1: number of Chicago papers full of information from the South
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Speaker 1: arrived at Sacramento a day ahead of schedule. That these
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Speaker 1: splendid achievements could never have been attained without a wonderful
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Speaker 1: degree of enthusiasm and loyalty on the part of the
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Speaker 1: men scarcely needs asserting. The pony riders were highly respected
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Speaker 1: by the still age and freight employees, in fact, by
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Speaker 1: all respectable men throughout the West. Nor were they honored
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Speaker 1: merely for what they did. They were the sort of
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Speaker 1: men who command respect. To assist a rider in any
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Speaker 1: way was deemed a high honor. To do aught to
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Speaker 1: retard him was the limit of wrongdoing. A woeful offense.
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Speaker 1: On the first trip westbound, the rider between Folsom and
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Speaker 1: Sacramento was thrown, receiving a broken leg. Shortly after the accident,
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Speaker 1: a wells Fargo stage happened along and a special agent
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Speaker 1: of that company who chanced to be a passenger seeing
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Speaker 1: the predicament, volunteered to finish the run. This he did, successfully,
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Speaker 1: reaching Sacramento only ninety minutes late. Such instances are typical
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Speaker 1: of the manly cooperation that made the pony express the
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Speaker 1: true success that it was. Mark Twain, who made a
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Speaker 1: trip across the continent in eighteen sixty, has left this
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Speaker 1: glowing account of a pony and rider that he saw
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Speaker 1: while traveling overland in a stage coach. We had a
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Speaker 1: consuming desire from the beginning to see a pony rider.
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Speaker 1: But somehow or other, all that passed us and all
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Speaker 1: that met us, managed to streak by in the night,
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Speaker 1: and so we heard only a whiz and a hail,
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Speaker 1: and the swift phantom of the desert was gone before
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Speaker 1: we could get our heads out of the windows. But
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Speaker 1: now we were expecting one along every moment, and would
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Speaker 1: see him in broad daylight. Presently, the driver exclaims, here
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Speaker 1: he comes. Every neck is stretched further, and every eye
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Speaker 1: strained wider away. Across the endless dead level of the prairie,
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Speaker 1: a black speck appears against the sky, and it is
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Speaker 1: plain that it moves well, I should think so. In
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Speaker 1: a second it becomes a horse and rider, rising and falling,
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Speaker 1: rising and falling, sweeping toward us, nearer and nearer, growing
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Speaker 1: more and more distinct, more and more sharply defined, nearer
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Speaker 1: and still nearer. And the flutter of hoofs comes faintly
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Speaker 1: to the ear. Another instant, a whoop and a hurrah
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Speaker 1: from our upper deck, a wave of the rider's hands,
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Speaker 1: but no reply, And man and horse burst past our
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Speaker 1: excited faces and go winging away, like the belated fragment
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Speaker 1: of a storm. So sudden is it all, and so
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Speaker 1: like a flash of unreal fancy, that but for a
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Speaker 1: flake of white foam left quivering and perishing on a
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Speaker 1: mail sack after the vision had flashed by and disappeared,
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Speaker 1: we might have doubted whether we had seen any actual
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Speaker 1: horse and man at all. Maybe end of Chapter four
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Speaker 1: recording by Roger Moline sa