ELDORADO 269 



mountain grades, with only a narrow margin into the 

 abyss a thousand feet below, would sometimes make 

 one's "hair stand on end." A traveler has only to 

 round "Cape Horn" on the Central Pacific railroad to 

 realize the sensation of rounding that point in a stage 

 coach with broncos at full speed. 



Staging- over the mountains in the '50's was "pleas- 

 antly" illustrated in the trip to California of Horace 

 Greeley and Schuyler Colfax. While at Reese's Sta- 

 tion in Carson valley Mr. Greeley expressed some 

 doubt of reaching Hangtown in time to deliver a pre- 

 viously advertised lecture at that place. "Hank Monk" 

 was the driver. The distance was one hundred miles. 

 After leaving the station at the snow line near the 

 backbone of the high Sierras on the down grade,. 

 Hank, with his long whip, would urge his six fleet- 

 footed broncos along the stretches and around the 

 curves, causing the coach— as Mr. Greeley expressed 

 it — to "sway and rock like a ship in a storm." Finally, 

 believing his own life and that of all those with him to 

 be in imminent danger Air. Greeley requested the 

 driver to slow up, or he would lea^'e the stage and go 

 on foot. The only reply he received was, "Keep your 

 shirt on, Mr. Greeley, I will get you there on time," 

 followed by a crack of the whip. He got him there 

 all right. 



Poor Hank Monk, generous, jovial and true, was 

 everybody's friend. His last words on his dying bed 

 were, "I am on the down grade and I can't get my foot 

 on the break." 



We visited Illinois town in Placer county (now Col- 

 fax, named after the Vice-President), then a small 

 mining camp on the old emigrant and stage route over 



