tail, the rider mounted, the ferryboat whistled, and the Express was on its way to California. It had been arranged for the pony to start from San Francisco simultaneously, and, as it had been given out that the trip would be made in ten days, there was much anxiety until the 13th, the day the Express was due from the west. Weekly trips were to be made, and another pony was dispatched on the 10th. On the 13th of April, promptly at 4 o'clock, the ferryboat landed the pony at St. Joseph, exactly ten days from San Francisco. It was a success! A success? The Pony made the time promised for it, and carried letters and news, but the projectors were never compensated in money for their outlay. As an undertaking it was a success, but financially it was a failure. Only a small percentage of the investment was ever returned, although at this day of cheap transportation and service the charge will be considered excessive. For letters, $5 per half ounce weight, in addition to the regular Government postage, was charged. But there was not enough business at that time between the eastern cities and California to justify the sending of many letters, and the cost of establishing and maintaining the Pony Express was enormous. Relays of horses were kept at each station, and the feed had to be hauled, in some cases hundreds of miles, all at heavy expense; and riders—thin, wiry, hardy fellows-employed at every third station. In addition to the wages paid the riders, their board had to be provided, and, as the country produced nothing then, provisions were hauled by wagons from the Missouri river, Utah and California. The principal newspapers in New York and San Francisco patronized the Pony Express extensively, having their issues printed on tissue paper for this service. The California press depended for eastern news entirely upon the Pony Express after it was established until the completion of the telegraph, in 1862. Western news was telegraphed east from St. Jo. upon the arrival of the Pony. Read what an enthusiastic writer in the St. Joseph Free Democrat said in 1860: "Take down your map and trace the footprints of our quadrupedantic animal. From St. Joseph, on the Missouri, to San Francisco, on the Golden Horn-from the last locomotive to the first steamship, two thousand miles-more than half the distance across our boundless continent. Through Kansas, through Nebraska, by Fort Kearney, along the Platte, by Fort Laramie, past the Buttes, over the Rocky Mountains, through the narrow passes, and along the steep defiles-Utah, Fort Bridger, Salt Lake City, he witches Brigham with his swift ponyship-through the valleys, along the grassy slopes, into the snow, into sand, faster than Thor's Thialfi-away they go, rider and horse-did you see them? they are in California, leaping over its golden sands, treading its busy streets. The courser has unrolled to us the great American Panorama, allowed us to glance at the future home of a hundred millions people, and has "put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes." Verily, the riding is like the riding of Jehu, the son of Nimshi; for he rideth furiously. Take out your watch! we are eight days from New York; eighteen days from London. The race is to the swift." Eastern papers sent representatives to St. Joseph and to Denver to collect news, and the Pony was of valuable service to them. The writer remembers Henry Villard, correspondent of the New York Tribune, stationed at St. Jo.; Albert D. Richardson, of the Tribune, at Denver, and Thos. W. Knox, of Boston papers, at Denver. Villard is now (1880) the leading spirit in the Oregon Railroad and Steamship Companies; Richardson was murdered in New York; Knox lives, and is a successful writer. There were many other correspondents who availed themselves of the services of the Pony Express. The letters were securely wrapped in oil silk for protection against the weather, and placed in the pockets of the mochillas. Even this precaution did not always protect the mail, for often streams were swollen, and the pony must not wait, so the riders swam their horses across. Occasionally hostile Indians chased the pony, but only one instance is remembered when he was caught; the rider was scalped; and the horse, with fright, escaped with the mochillas; months afterwards, the letters were recovered and forwarded to destination. The Express carrying news of Abraham Lincoln's election went through from St. Joseph to Denver, 665 miles, in two days and twenty one hours, the last ten miles being accomplished in thirty one minutes. At first the stations were about 25 miles apart, but afterwards more were established, at shorter intervals. Horses were changed at each station. The riders went, usually, 75 miles, but an instance is remembered where one rode nearly 300 miles, those who should have relieved him being, for some reason or other, disabled or indisposed. At the end of his ride, which had been made on schedule time, he had to be lifted from the saddle, and could not walk for many days afterwards. In the summer of 1860, the construction of the Overland Telegraph was began from St. Joseph, on the east, and from Sacramento on the west. As it progressed, their outposts were made the starting points of the Pony Express, and in 1862, the telegraph being completed, the Pony-no longer useful-was abandoned. Wm. H. Russell and B. F. Ficklin, original projectors of the Pony Express, are dead. Jones and Waddell, also, are dead. Alexander Majors survives, and lives in Salt Lake City. In the "History of Wells, Fargo & Company" will be found an interesting account of the changes in ownership of the companies operating the Pony Express. In "Roughing It," Mark Twain thus describes the Pony: "In a little while all interest was taken up in stretching our necks and watching for the 'pony-rider'-the fleet messenger who sped across the continent from St. Jo. to Sacramento, carrying letters nineteen hundred miles in eight days! Think of that for perishable horse and human flesh and blood to do! The pony-rider was usually a little bit of a man, brim-full of spirits and endurance. No matter what time of the day or night his watch came on, and no matter whether it was winter or summer, raining, snowing, hailing, or sleeting, or whether his 'beat' was a level, straight road, or a crazy trail over mountain crags and precipices, or whether it led through peaceful regions or regions that swarmed with hostile Indians, he must be always ready to leap into the saddle and be off like the wind! There was no idling-time for a pony-rider on duty. He rode fifty miles without stopping, by daylight, moonlight, starlight, or through the bleakness of darkness-just as it happened. He rode a splendid horse, that was born for a racer and fed and lodged like a gentleman; kept him at his utmost speed for ten miles; and then, as he came crashing up to the station, where stood two men holding fast a fresh, impatient steed, the transfer of rider and mail-bag was made in the twinkling of an eye, and away flew the eager pair, and were out of sight before the spectator could get hardly the ghost of a look. Both rider and horse went flying light. The rider's dress was thin, and fitted close; he wore a 'roundabout' and a skull cap, and tucked his pantaloons into his boot-tops like a race-rider. He carried no arms; he carried nothing that was not absolutely necessary, for even the postage on his literary freight was worth five dollars a letter. He got but little frivolous correspondence to carry-his bag had business letters in it, mostly. His horse was stripped of all unnecessary weight, too. wore a little wafer of a racing-saddle, and no visible blanket. He wore light shoes, or none at all. The little, flat mail-pockets strapped under the rider's thighs would each hold about the bulk of a child's primer. They held many and many an important business chapter and newspaper letter, but these were written on paper as airy and thin as gold-leaf, nearly, and their bulk and weight were economized. The stage-coach traveled about a hundred and twenty-five miles a day (twenty-four hours), the pony-rider about two hundred and fifty. There were about eighty pony-riders in the saddle all the time, night and day, stretching in a long, scattering procession from Missouri to California, forty flying eastward and forty toward the west, and among them making four hundred gallant horses earn a stirring livelihood and see a deal of scenery every day in the year. "We had had a consuming desire, from the beginning, to see a pony-rider, but, somehow or other, all had passed us, and all that met us managed to streak by in the night, and so we heard only a whiz and a hail, and the swift phantom of the desert was gone before we could get our heads out of the windows. But now we were expecting one along every moment, and would see him in broad daylight. Presently the driver exclaims: 'HERE HE COMES!' Every neck is stretched further, and every eye strained wider. Away across the endless dead level of the prairie a black speck appears against the sky, and it is plain that it moves. Well, I should think so! In a second or two it becomes a horse and rider, rising and falling, rising and falling-sweeping toward us nearer and nearer -growing more and more distinct, more and more sharply defined -nearer and still nearer, and the flutter of the hoofs comes faintly to the ear-another instant a whoop and a hurrah from our upper deck, a wave of the rider's hand, but no reply, and man and horse burst past our excited faces, and go winging away like the belated fragment of a storm." CHAPTER XX.. CALIFORNIA EXPRESS. AT THE GOLDEN GATE.-CALIFORNIA, THE OF THE As a suitable supplement to what has been said in our earlier account of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express enterprise on the Pacific coast prior to 1860, the following "corrected proofs " will be found interesting: 1849 was the initial year of California's auriferous development. So promising a field did not long remain unimproved. The first Express firm to take advantage of it, I think, was Livingston, Wells & Co.; but the really effective pioneer Express was that of Adams & Co., who, early as the spring of 1850, had established agencies throughout the mining camps of California, with headquarters at San Francisco, and freight and treasure found a ready conveyance through their facilities. In connection with their Express, Adams & Co. also inaugurated a banking business, which was soon recognized as one of the financial necessities of California. In 1854 the copartnership in Adams & Co.'s California Express and Banking House was dissolved, and the eastern partners relinquished their interests in the banking and interior California Express business to D. Hale Haskell, their former partner, resident in San Francisco. Subsequently they withdrew altogether from the California Express, disposing of the business to John M. Freeman, Josiah Hedden and John K. Stimson, who, under the style of Freeman & Co., continued it successfully two or three years, and finally sold out to Wells, Fargo & Co., the present California Express Co. As has already been described in our history of that great enterprise, a new company was originated by Henry Wells, W. G. Fargo, D. N. Barney, and others, and was organized in 1852, under the general incorporation laws of New York, with |