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Signed and inscribed by the editor, Lyle H. Wright. Octavo, brown cloth (hardcover), map illustrated endpapers, xv, 179 pp. Near Fine. From Introduction: Contemporary accounts of travel on the Overland Mail Company's stage line during the years 1858 to 1861, when it was operating between St. Louis and Memphis, the two eastern terminals, and San Francisco, are all too few. The best narrative consists of a series of eight articles by Waterman L. Ornsby, published in six numbers of the New York Herald at intervals from September 26 to November 19, 1858. Ormsby, a special correspondent of the Herald, was othe only through passenger on the first westbound stage. His articles, here reprinted, supply a graphic picture of the country through which he passed from St. Louis ot San Francisco. They furnish a full and accurate account of the controversy that raged over the various proposed transcontinental routes for a mail-and-passenger stage line, which had been authorized by an act of Congress in March, 1857. They also give the Postmaster-General's reasons for selecting the "thirty-second parallel route," with an eastern bifurcation, and awarding the contract to John Butterfield and his associates. Ormsby says in his first article that, "in view of the importance of this enterprise at this time, and the bearing which it has upon the future destinies of this country, I propose to give you a condensed account of the origin and history of the contract and the claims of the competing routes." From the information presented concerning the different routes, it is evident that, before his departure from New York, he had made an exhaustive study of the overland project. The fact that he traveled a considerable distance on the stage with John Butterfield, president of the Overland Mail Company, lends authority to his statements about the company. The articles covering the trip, written for the most part en route, furnish a narrative of stagecoach travel as told by an acute observer, who appreciated the dangers of such a journey without dramatizing them. The series as a whole makes an important contribution to the annals of transportation in the United States. Western Americana, American West, Travel, U. S. History, United States History, American History, Americana, U.S.-iana bxsli.
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