ournal of Commerce started a rival
line that enabled them to publish Washington news within forty-eight
hours, thus giving their paper a big "scoop" over all competitors.
Papers in Norfolk, Va., two hundred and twenty-nine miles south-east of
Washington actually got the news from the capitol out of the New York
Journal of Commerce received by the ocean route, sooner than news
printed in Washington could be sent to Norfolk by boat directly down the
Potomac River.

The California Pony Express of historic fame was imitated on a small
scale in 1861 by the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, then, as now, one of
the great newspapers of the West. At that time, this enterprising daily
owned and published a paper called the Miner's Record at Tarryall, a
mining community some distance out of Denver. The News also had a branch
office at Central City, forty-five miles up in the mountains. As soon as
information from the War arrived over the California Pony Express and by
stage out of old Julesburg from the Missouri River--Denver was not on
the Pony Express route--it was hurried to these outlying points by fast
horsemen. Thanks to this enterprise, the miners in the heart of the
Rockies could get their War news only four days late.--Root and
Connelley.

Chapter IV

Operation, Equipment, and Business

On entering the service of the Central Overland California and Pike's
Peak Express Company, employees of the Pony Express were compelled to
take an oath of fidelity which ran as follows:

"I, ----, do hereby swear, before the Great and Living God, that during
my engagement, and while I am an employe of Russell, Majors & Waddell, I
will, under no circumstances, use profane language; that I will drink no
intoxicating liquors; that I will not quarrel or fight with any other
employe of the firm, and that in every respect I will conduct myself
honestly, be faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts as to win
the confidence of my employers. So help me God."[9]

It is not to be supposed that all, nor any considerable number of the
Pony Express men were saintly, nor that they all took their pledge too
seriously. Judged by present-day standards, most of these fellows were
rough and unconventional; some of them were bad. Yet one thing is
certain: in loyalty and blind devotion to duty, no group of employees
will ever surpass the men who conducted the Pony Express. During the
sixteen months of its existence, the riders of this wonde