The Southern down in Dixie.-Express Operations South, The American and Others in Minnesota.-The Hardy Pion- At the Golden Gate.-Wells, Fargo & Co.-California the LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. No. 1. WM. F. HARNDEN, The Original Expressman. 2. ALVIN ADAMS, Founder of Adams & Co.'s Express. 6. H. B. PLANT, President Southern and Texas Express 7. LLOYD TEVIS, President Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express. 8. THOMAS C. PLATT, President United States Express Company. 9. Fac-simile of a one-horse Southern Express team in (6 Confederate times." 10. The California "Pony Express " crossing the Plains. 11. The California Overland Mail Stage Coach. INTRODUCTORY. GOD, in His infinite beneficence, has given this nation a domain of vast extent, and abounding in all of those natural features and internal resources necessary to its grandeur and requisite for its material prosperity. For its development and better utilization, He inspired the invention of the Railway, the Express, the Telegraph, the Steamship, the Ocean Cable, and the Telephone. Magnificent distances have been overcome, and natural obstacles, half a century ago regarded as insurmountable, are now passable; and communities, geographically remote from each other, are made neighbors. Of the divinely inspired means of this grand result, none is more practical and universal than the Express. No one, not entirely familiar with the constant growth and daily extending operations of the Express service, can have any adequate conception of their magnitude and importance. Nor is it extravagant to assert, that of the 50,000 employees daily manipulating express freight, or recording its transit and footings, not one in a hundred comprehends its vastness and the marvelous perfection of its system. Its life, as an institution, is identified with the growth and prosperity of every State and territory in our land. The author's earlier edition of Express history (1860), which had the approval of the founders of the business for many years, has been long out of print; and, during the last decade, it has been almost impossible to obtain a copy. Now (republishing that volume within the limits of this), the lapse of twenty years in the interregnum, with its many changes and noteworthy occurrences, has enabled him to make important additions. He doubles the amount of matter by including with it a comprehensive review of all the salient points and affairs pertinent to the subject, which have been prominent in the operation of the Express service, from 1860 to 1880. |