er."
The coach-and-four, or more, with booted and belted man on the throne
of the swinging chariot, made every boy envious and created in him a
desire to become great some day too. Eagle and Dick, Tom and Rock,
Bolly and Bill understood the snap of the whip, or its more wicked
crack, as well as they did the tension of the line or the word of the
chief charioteer, who, with foot on the long brake-beam, regulated the
speed of the often crowded vehicle down the precipitous places which
to the novice looked very dangerous. But Jehu is no longer universal
king. A Pharaoh who knew him not has heartlessly and definitely
usurped some of his places.

In the boot of this old seaworthy craft was hauled many a load of
treasure, for the gold-hungry prospector without sextant and chain
surveyed the fastnesses of the hills as well as the illimitation of
the prairies, and a care-taking government made a way to his camp to
send him his mail. Express companies joined their traffic to that of
Uncle Sam, and he of the pick and shovel became the lodestone to
popular convenience. With many a load of treasure went a man known as
a messenger, who sat beside the driver, carrying a sawed-off gun under
his coat, ready to meet the gangster or holdup, who so often robbed
both stage and passenger.

In the hold of this old coach have ridden governors, statesmen of all
grades, men and women, good and better (some bad and worse); here were
bridal tours, funeral parties, commercial men and gamblers, miners and
prospectors, Chinamen and Indians, pleasure-seekers and labor-hunters,
officers and convicts.

Men of every station
In the eye of fame,
On a common level
Coming to the same--

is the way Saxe punningly puts it; but more of a leveler was this old
coach, for there was of necessity the forceful putting of people of
the most heterogeneous character together in the most homogeneous
manner as the omnibus (most literal word here), made up its hashy load
at the hand and command of the driver, whose word was unappealable law
as complete as that of another captain on the high seas. Prodigal,
profligate, and pure, maiden or Magdalene, millionaire or Lazarus, all
were crowded together as the needs of the hour and the size of the
passengers demanded, to sit elbow to elbow, side by side to the
journey's end.

Huddled thus, they traveled unchanged till the