The express was dispatched weekly from each side with not more than ten pounds of matter. The riders chosen were selected from plains-men, trappers, and scouts, famil

bodily endurance. In consideration of the danger to which they were exposed, their salary was fixed at the enviable amount of $1200 a month each. The ponies were swift and strong, a cross in breed between the American horse and the Indian pony. Messengers and steeds were run sixty miles, and then awaited the arrival of the express from the opposite direction.

ifornia under the name of the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express, a title fit to arrest the attention of the world. The president and the originator, we believe, was Mr. William H. Russell, and the stock-iar with the Indians, and capable of great holders were mostly Californians. It was an andacious speculation, but it offered as many advantages to the mercantile community as the Atlantic cable, and was hailed with as much satisfaction. No telegraph had linked the two oceans, and the stage-coach or the steamer was the only vehicle by which a message or letter could be sent. The new service consisted of a pony express, with stations sixty miles apart, across the continent. A large capital was necessary, and the risks assumed were sufficient to frighten away all but the daring Western speculators. The rate fixed was five dollars in gold per quarter ounce, which, of course, limited the matter carried to business letters. The eastern terminus of the route was St. Joseph, Missouri, and the western terminus Sacramento. From the latter town to San Francisco the messengers traveled by steamboat, and from St. Joseph to New York by railroad. The time occupied between ocean and ocean was fourteen days, and between St. Joseph and San Francisco ten days, as per the following time-table:

Such was the plan of the Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company; and on a memorable day, the 3d of April, 1860, the first messenger was to start from St. Joseph. The Daily Gazette of that town issued a "Pony Express Extra" in honor of the occasion. It was a small single sheet, printed on one side only, and the first two columns were devoted to a heavily leaded account of the new enterprise, with this greeting to the press of California:

"Through the politeness of the express company we are permitted to forward by the first pony express the first and only newspaper which goes out, and which will be the first newspaper ever transmitted to California in eight days. The first pony will start at precisely five o'clock this afternoon, and letters will be received from all points up to 4.30. A special train will be run over the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad for the purpose of bringing the through messenger from New York. The nature of the conveyance necessarily precludes our making up an edition of any considerable weight. It, however, contains a summary of the latest news received here by telegraph for some days past from all parts of the Union. We send in it greeting to our brethren of the press in California."

the whole space allotted to this article. We have before us, for instance, a curious pamphlet setting forth the claims of Benjamin Holladay on the United States government for loss suffered through the raids of Indians during the time he was employed as a transcontinental mail carrier. It contains fiftynine large pages of terse affidavits, each describing an encounter with the savages, and the best we can do, by the way of illustration, is to briefly quote from three of them. In the first the affiant is Richard Murray, a driver in the Territory of Utah:

In a cloud of dust, and amidst the loud overland mail-coaches would more than fill cheers of the population, the messenger galloped through the straggling streets on to the broad prairies reaching beyond the horizon. The route chosen was somewhat north of the present track of the Pacific Railroad. It lay, as the time-table shows, from St. Joseph to Laramie, thence up the Sweet Water to Salt Lake, and down the Humboldt to Sacramento. Night and day the express went forward at the greatest speed attainable with ordinary horseflesh. As soon as a station was reached, one messenger, without waiting to dismount, tossed his bag to another already mounted, who in a few minutes was out of sight in the direction of the next relay. So for eight days, A.D. 1862, in company with eight other men, all of the with fresh horses and messengers every six-mail party; that they were attacked by a band of Inty miles, the ride was continued through dians numbering thirty or more, who commenced a the awful cañons of the mother range, up furious fire upon them with rifles and bows and arthe bowlder-strewn foot-hills, between for- rows; that resistance was made by said mail party for hours, when the Indians retreated. Affiant further ests of hemlock, pine, and fir, through hot states that six men out of the nine who composed little mining towns, until Sacramento was said party were wounded, one with arrows and five reached, scarcely a minute behind the pre- with guns." scribed time.

The pony express fulfilled its promises for two years. The messengers were often followed by hostile Indians, and several were killed. In addition to their letter-bag they only carried one revolver and a bowie-knife. They ran and fought at the same time, and many a red-skin kissed the dust in atonement for those messengers who were slaughtered.

At the end of two years, in 1862, the telegraph line across the continent had been completed, and there was no longer any use for the pony express. The company was dissolved, having lost $200,000 in its courageous enterprise.

The Central Overland was the only important pony express that maintained itself in America. Goods and passengers had been sent to California by stage-coaches, in the free use of which Wells, Fargo, and Co. extended their reputation, although they forwarded the bulk of the matter by steamer via the Isthmus. The Overland Mail Company was started in 1858, and contracted with the United States government to carry a monthly mail from San Francisco to the Missouri River in consideration of $650,000 paid annually. John Butterfield was president, associated with William G. Fargo, William B. Dinsmore, and others. The route chosen was known as the Ox Bow, and came East by the way of Santa Fé; but in 1860 the Indians were so troublesome that the route of the pony express was adopted. Opposition lines were started, and the mail was afterward sent daily, in consideration of $1,000,000 annually. Ultimately, however, the firm of Wells, Fargo, and Co. bought out the entire business, and was changed into a corporation, with a capital of $15,000,000.

A mere summary of the adventures of the

"Affiant states that he was passing from Split Rock Station west to Three Crossings of Sweet Water with the United States mails on the said 17th day of April,

The second affiant from whom we shall quote is Lemuel Flowers, a district agent:

"Affiant says that on the 17th of the same month [April, 1862] the Indians attacked a party of nine men running two coaches, and commenced a furious fire upon them, wounding six men, including this afflant, whose body was penetrated by two rifle-balls; that after a resistance of four hours the Indians captured nine head of mules, nine sets of harness, and partially destroyed two coaches."

The third affiant, who has the worst tale to tell, is George H. Carlyle :

"On the 9th of August, 1864, I left Alkali Station for Fort Kearney. On reaching Cottonwood Springs I learned by telegraph that the Indians had attacked a train of eleven wagons at Plum Creek, killed eleven men, captured one woman, and run off with the stock. Upon hearing this I started down the road, and when a few hundred yards off Gillman's Station I saw the bodies of three men lying on the ground, fearfully mutilated and full of arrows. At Plum Creek I saw had murdered, and I helped to bury them. I also saw the fragments of the wagons still burning, and the dead body of another man, who was killed by the Indians at Smith's Ranch, and the ruins of the ranch,

the bodies of the eleven other men whom the Indians

which had been burned."

The language of the affidavits is not dramatic, and the reader must use his imagination a little in order to realize the sufferings and heroism of those who traveled across the plains twelve years ago.

When the line via the Isthmus of Panama was started, the express matter was forwarded by through messengers from New York to San Francisco. The route was from the metropolis to Aspinwall, thence up the Chagres River, and by portage to the Pacific. Immense wealth was intrusted to the messengers, among whom there were many picturesque characters-picturesque both in person and manners. They usually wore loose blue shirts, trowsers tucked into capacious boots, slouch hats, and numerous weapons of defense. They guarded their treasure

with the utmost vigilance, and we believe never lost a single ounce of the tons of golddust which were at one time intrusted to them.

the transfer of money than all the private bankers put together. The dividends paid on the capital stock are enormous, and have made millionaires out of men who started with the express in the capacity of office boys and messengers. Scarcely forty years ago John Hoey was engaged by Alvin Adams as a small boy in general, and his duties consisted of running errands, pasting labels on merchandise, and so forth. The same boy is now one of the wealthy men of the metropolis, and until recently was an active superintendent of the concern. We might mention at least fifty similar instances. Mr. Adams remains at the head of the Boston office, giving the service his constant attention, assisted by his sons Waldo and Edwin.

The two great companies employ nearly eight thousand men, one thousand five hundred horses, twelve hundred wagons, and three thousand iron safes. They travel over a hundred thousand miles daily, or over thirty-two million miles yearly! Scarcely a railway train runs on any road that has not a special car attached devoted to the business of the express, and no inhabited part of the country has been left unpenetrated. Wherever there is a station and a few dozen people, there is also an express office which is in communication with a thousand others spread throughout the Union. The system extends as far north as Oregon, as far west as California, as far south as Texas, and as far east as Canada. It is the most important agent of communication between the producer and the consumer, and they could no more dispense with it than with the Post-office or the banks.

In all our streets, on all our wharves, the strong and handsome wagons of our express companies, drawn by powerful horses, are seen loaded high with merchandise on every working day. In order to understand the extent to which they are patronized, we have only to look at the large cards exhibited outside the warehouse doors, bearing on them the names of the different expresses

In 1852 another use was found for the express in the transfer of the baggage of travelers from the railroads and steamboats to their residences. Warren Studley started the system in New York, with an office in Manhattan Alley. It abated the hackneycoach nuisance, and also proved to be very successful from a pecuniary point of view. Similar expresses were soon afterward established in all other large cities, and Studley's was absorbed by Mr. Dodd, who has made it one of the famous institutions of New York. Hiram Studley, a brother of Warren, was the first man to carry a passenger across the city in a transfer coach-it another improvement and extension of the express system-and for several days he was in danger of assassination by the irate "cabbies," who foresaw the injury it would do their business.

the United States, National, American, or Adams. Each wagon has a district which perambulates three times a day for the purpose of collecting goods to be forwarded, and the card indicates which express is wanted. The bulkiest and the most delicate articles, jewelry and watches, mowing machines and steam-plows, are alike intrust

We have now only to glance at the pres-ed to the same vehicle and pass through the ent "carpet-bag" of the Adams and Amer- same careful hands. The extreme care beican Express companies. A credible au- stowed upon all things is one of the chief thority informs us that it is an ordinary reasons why the express is so popular. Someoccurrence for the Adams Express Compa- times there is occasion for fault-finding, to ny to carry merchandise and "valuables" worth twenty million dollars in a single day. The United States Treasury intrusts to it the carriage of all bank-notes and specie; and with the American it transacts a greater exchange and banking business by

be sure, but considering the immense quantity of merchandise transported, it is surprising how little is damaged in transit. An accident which occurred to a valuable article in charge of an expressman is said to have given rise to one of our most classical

expressions. A bonnet was forwarded from one of our city milliners to a lady in the country, and when the box was delivered, it was evident that some one had been attempting to walk through it. The expressman stammered an apology as he presented it to the lady. "Oh yes, I understand," the fair dame exclaimed; "you've put your foot into it, and that's what's the matter!"

fray expenses. No package is allowed to be opened or examined until it has been purchased, and a spirit of speculation is thus excited in those who assemble. Small carefully sealed packages bring the highest prices, on the supposition that they may contain jewelry. An avaricious old customer once paid ten dollars for a neat little brown paper parcel sealed with evident care at both ends. It contained a hundred or more "rejected addresses" from a swain to "the fair sun of all her sex." Another similar parcel was knocked down to a bidder for eight dollars, and was found to contain a set of false teeth. Patent medicines, whisky (a still more patent medicine), toys, old clothes, surgical instruments, disinfectants, preserved animals, old magazines, false One of the most stirring occasions in the hair, and many stranger things are usually routine of express duties is the sale by auc- found among the "old hoss" packages. It tion of the "old hoss," or unclaimed freight may be assumed that most of them are of which accumulates from time to time. When small value, as we have said, inasmuch as every possible method to find the owners either the sender or the consignee of valhas been tried and has failed, an auctioneer uables would take care to have a thorough is called in and the articles are sold to de- search made for any valuable property.

The C. O. D. system of the express is one of the greatest conveniences ever conferred on the mercantile community, but it has been largely used by swindlers, who have found in it a ready means of alluring the foolish. The imitation-greenback-sawdust rascals have caught not a few verdant countrymen by the pretense of honesty in dealing which the C. O. D. plan affords.

ANCIENT PUEBLOS OF NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA.