"PRESENTLY the driver exclaims, `Here he comes!'
"Every neck is stretched and every eye strained. Away across the endless
dead level of the prairie a black speck appears against the sky. In a
second or two it becomes a horse and rider, rising and falling, rising
and falling sweeping towards us nearer and nearer--growing more and more
distinct, more and more sharply defined--nearer and still nearer, and
the flutter of the hoofs comes faintly to the ear--another instant a
whoop and a hurrah from our upper deck [of the stagecoach], a wave of
the rider's hand, but no reply, and man and horse burst past our excited
faces, and go swinging away like a belated fragment of a storm."--Mark
Twain, _Roughing It_.
A word cannot be defined in its own terms; nor can a region, or a
feature of that region. Analogy and perspective are necessary for
comprehension. The sense of horseback motion has never been better
realized than by Kipling in "The Ballad of East and West." See "Horses."
BRADLEY, GLENN D._ The Story of the Pony Express_, Chicago, 1913.
Nothing extra. OP.
BREWERTON, G. D. _Overland with Kit Carson_, New York, 1930.
Bibliography on West in general.
CHAPMAN, ARTHUR. _The Pony Express_, Putnam's, New York, 1932. Good
reading and bibliography.
DOBIE, J. FRANK. Chapter on "Rides and Riders," in _On the Open Range_,
published in 1931; reprinted by Banks Up shaw, Dallas. Chapter on "Under
the Saddle" in _The Mustangs_.
HAPEN, LEROY. _The Overland Mail_, Cleveland, 1926. Factual,
bibliography. OP.
ROOT, FRANK A., and CONNELLEY, W. E. _The Overland Stage to California_,
Topeka, Kansas, 1901. Reprinted by Long's College Book Co., Columbus,
Ohio. Basic work.
VISSCHER, FRANK J. _A Thrilling and Truthful History of the Pony
Express_, Chicago, 1908. OP. Not excessively "thrilling."