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Show • • • 189? , July 22 THE PONY EXPRESS Riders ..L!\. bsurdly Pictured by Many Sensa t iohal Wr1ters How "Specials" were Rushed How Pr esidential, Election , War and Other News came Through on Reduced Time . (Letter No . 4) Articles and articles have been written upon this subject . Most of' them of that sensa t i onal character of which i r11a gination is the i nspiration . The po ny rider has been descrioed by many a s a rough , half civilized, dare devil , some thing approaching t he cowboy of blood and sulphur literature. We have seen him pictured lo :)king as if he had just es c;aped a vigilance committee and had stolen a sheep for chuck and the weariest orowbai·t in t :1e country to get away on. Some peri- ,J• odicals have had him mounted on a cob with docked tail, "human ff saddle, web girth and iron stirrups , the expres " ba gn depending horizont ally from the rider' s neck , remi nding one of "John Gilpin wa s a citi zen," etc. Others havang illustrated him as a full rigged buccaro with the addition of an arsenal of small arms . I have seen him pictured as mounted on a hunter in full ja cky ri g , apparently making ten miles an hour . He has been pictured ' beside an emaciated rat with sombrero and buckskin suit , a pair of revolvers in his holsters protruding from his belt , a bowie knife sticking out of each le ggin and a rifle across his saddle . This individual is descri bed as coming wit o a screech and yell , and the horse rider is seen in the distance with a pony ready saddled least he should be punctured for delay in changing ponies. And one gentleman that get $1 per hundred words , conceiving tha t he had caught him on the fly , pictured him as a mounted Hurn taking a bird ' s eye view of Roman B"ivilization. I was well acquainted with ma ny of those express riders , and they were mostly decent f ellov;s of respectable parer1t a ge , and some of' them were even "st-ore clerks" be f or e t hey nwent on the road." |
