508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 9 



steam railroad ever would solve their problem. On April 3, 1860, 

 west coast citizens witnessed the first fruits of their efforts when the 

 Pony Express set out on its maiden trip. This first overland mail 

 service between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., brought San 

 Francisco 10 days nearer to New York (pi. 11, fig. 2). The pony 

 rider covered about 250 miles a day of 24 hours, whereas the stage- 

 coach traveled only 100 tO' 125 miles in the same time. After racing 

 past Independence Rock, in Wyoming, for IG months, the Pony 

 Express was put out of business by the completion of the Pacific 

 telegraph line. During its comparatively short life the messages 

 carried by the daring riders on their wiry western ponies helped to 

 preserve the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War, 



With the flower of the manhood of the South and the North en- 

 gaged in a titanic economic struggle, the Federal Govermnent relaxed 

 its vigilance with respect to the Indians in the Far West. As a 

 result savage outbreaks began to threaten the lives and property of 

 emigrants and settlers over a wide range of territory. These red- 

 skinned marauders, however, were placed at a decided disadvantage 

 when the last spike was driven at the junction between the Union 

 Pacific and Central Pacific railways, at Promontory Point, Utah, 

 on May 10, 1869 (pi. 12, fig. 1). The new gleaming steel rails 

 captured the business of the 8-year old stagecoach lines that had 

 shifted, because of the War Between the States, from the southern 

 ox-bow route to the central road between the Mississippi River, 

 Denver, and the Pacific coast. The Concord stages were the acme 

 of perfection reached in the manufacture of that type of vehicle. 

 They were the equivalent of the Pullman railroad parlor cars in 

 use today. 



With the passing of the three-quarter mark of the nineteenth 

 century, the country began to bear the earmarks of the industrial 

 revolution brought about by the introduction of steam, machinery, 

 and electricity. The old-fashioned handicraft work in the home 

 was on the way out. The factory system now attracted large num- 

 bers of workers to industrial centers, where the raw materials were 

 brought to be processed by machines driven from central power 

 plants. There was a steady emigration of workers from the rural 

 districts, and farm work lost much of its appeal to the younger 

 generation now come to manhood. The country roads were now in 

 a most wretched state. Four million devotees of the "safety" bicycle 

 often in the nineties found crossroads signs puzzling, maps unintel- 

 ligible, and the farmers indifferent to their plight (pi. 12, fig. 2). 



The cyclists, organized into a League of American Wheelmen, made 

 vociferous demands for improved roads and bicycle paths radiating 

 from the towns and cities. The Good Roads Movement which they 



