The passenger is but fairly reseated in the first
stage, when an offer of two dollars tumbles him out
again, and an offer of one dollar sends him back.
But the opposition is not to be beaten in this way.
"Well, old fellow," he finally puts in, "sorry to make you so much trouble, but get back here and I will carry you for nothing, pay for your dinner, and give you all the whiskey you can drink on the wa}' I"
I will cite one instance showing the behavior of these knights of the whip, under trying circum- stances. Upon the box of the coach leaving Forest City for Nevada the 23d of July, 1855, were seated two men, members of the Jehu brotherhood, one of whom was driving;. Passino; under the limb of a tree which seemed in some way to have settled and dropped down since the last trip, the top of the stage was torn entirely off, and the driver thrown to the ground. Of the eleven passengers one was thrown upon the root and three jumped to the ground. The crash of the break ino; vehicle frio-htened the horses, which started off at full speed, dragging the driver some distance before they freed themselves from his grasp. The horses were now dashing along the road at a furious rate, wholly without control, and the in- mates of the stage apparently helpless. At this junc- ture the man who occupied the seat next the driver, deliberately got down upon the pole, walked to the end of it, gathered up the reins, returned safely to his seat, and finally succeeded in stopping the horses without further damage or loss of life.
It was when the lono; routes were established across the plains, however, that staging assumed its most gigantic proportions ; one by the way of Salt Lake and the other through New Mexico and Arizona — two thousand miles in twenty days and nights, stop- ping only to change horses and for meals. The road across the Sierra Nevada was fearfully picturesque, and going clown the mountain sides was anything but quieting to unsteady nerves. Lighting a cigar
