Talk:Pony Express

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An event in this article is a April 3 selected anniversary (may be in HTML comment).

---

Contents 1 Rapid Transit 2 Bias 3 Fees 4 Renaming the article 5 Book about Pony Express 6 Relay stations 7 San Diego route 8 Image placement 9 Weapons

[edit] Rapid Transit

"The Pony Express was the first rapid transit"

This isn't really my area but I don't see what the Pony Express has to do with rapid transit. Cjrother 17:43, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

• I've removed that (since no one seemed to mind). Cjrother 19:34, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

How can you not see how it is related to rapid transit??? That is what the pony express was about, being rapid transit of messages/packages!! Mathmo

• I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but to me, and the nice people at wikipedia, rapid transit relates to the transportation of people. Cjrother 01:02, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Must be another one of these american usages of words, guess if I'd remembered more carefully my americanisms I'd have realised they had a rather narrow definition of this phrase. Sorry, from the american slant it now makes more sense to remove that phrase for the sake of other americans.

[edit] Bias

I have attempted to remove the more biased statements in this article. I also added two sentences on how the PE has entered American myth, though its skewed treatment in American history classes should be elaborated on. -Acjelen 17:48, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think you went overboard - an assessment of significance is only "biased" if there is considerable disagreement, and if there is disagreement, then you should be able to cite who disagrees. Also, the "orphans preferred" thing is a recently-disproved myth (somebody actually went through all the contemporary newspapers); it was reported recently in my newspaper, saved it somewhere around here... Stan 23:02, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I had particular problem with the following statements (1) "Yet it was of the greatest importance in binding the East and West together" as the Pony Express operated for such a limited time period and (2) "The Pony Express marked the highest development in overland travel prior ..." as lone riders delivering the mail can hardly match the thousands of men, women, children, and families who crossed the American West prior to and after the Pony Express. -Acjelen 00:36, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I suppose "greatest" and "highest" are undesirable because it's unclear what quality measure we're using that makes them valid superlatives. For "greatest" I would suggest "considerable" and perhaps amplify that it was more important as a suggestion of what was possible than for length of service, and for "highest" we want to say "fastest" but that adjective doesn't quite fit. The pioneers aren't quite comparable because in the perception of many folks back home, they were on a one-way trip and as good as dead. The Pony Express was the "most regular and predictable service using overland travel" - a mouthful that the word "highest" attempts to summarize. Stan 05:35, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Fees

New International Encyclopedia contains some figures about the fees and the salaries earned by the riders.

At first the fee was five dollars for a half-ounce (15.55 gm) letter. Later, the charge was reduced to two dollars and fifty cents.

Riders were paid from one-hundred dollars to one-hundred and twenty-five dollars per month.

Superslum 00:48, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming the article

Shouldn't we rename the article so it won't cause confusion with New Jersey Transit's Pony Express? I Am Ri¢h 15:54, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Are you referrring to the Atlantic City Line? While humorous, "Pony Express" is only its nickname. -Acjelen 18:31, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

No, the North Jersey Coast Line runs a special train from September to May from Hoboken to Monmouth Park called the Pony Express. I Am Ri¢h 06:14, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Book about Pony Express

http://www.umbc.edu/corbett/ This looks interesting. The "Orphans preferred" ad line would be cool in the article. Phr 07:43, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Relay stations

I noticed the "citation needed" tag about the relay stations every 10 miles. On this website it says:

Relay stations were placed 10 miles apart. Every third station was a home station, where extra ponies, firearms, men, and provisions were kept. Here, the mail would be handed over to a new rider.

So it confirms the 10 mile thing, but suggests that ponies were changed only every 30 miles. I say "suggests" because it seems ambiguous to me--if "extra ponies" were only kept at the home stations, then it would seem like that's where you would change them, but if you changed riders and ponies at the home stations, why wouldn't you say so? What do you do at the regular stations if not change ponies? Maybe there's one pony at the relay station and not "extra ponies"?

Anyway, seems worth clarifying. Nareek 11:30, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

If ponies were not changed every 10 miles, what would be the point of a relay station? You wouldn't be relaying anything. I would interpret that paragraph as meaning that every 10 miles, the rider swapped to a new pony, then every 30 miles, the rider and pony were changed. Also, all that extra stuff was permanently stored at these "home stations" - the "home base" for the ponies was at the "home stations", but during the day they were walked out to these relay stations to await the mail? Stevage 11:40, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, if all the horses at the home stations were changed and part of the relay, they would hardly be "extra". Perhaps the author meant to include the extra horses with the firearms, provisions, and men: useful things to have in case of emergency. -Acjelen 13:20, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] San Diego route

I took out this sentence:

(There were routes that ran from the official Pony Express route to San Diego, California and points north and south along the route).

If that claim is (which I doubt) in needs some citations and deserves its own section. The Pony Express had major infrastructure requirements (e.g., the frequent stations/horses/riders, etc.). It's hard to believe their could be "feeder" routes just arbitrarily spinning off. Even if it is true this article is about the St. Joseph-Sacramento route. Americasroof 02:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image placement

In Firefox, the image in the Route section appears above a portion of the text. In MS Internet Explorer, the label edit appears above an image on the margin (Post Office running logo). I did not manage to fix this using wiki tools, and I would rather avoid resorting to html. Can someone please help me? Thanks. Cema 03:10, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Update - And in Firefox, it is worse. Several edit buttons of the bottom four or five sections are hidden below the strip of images on the right. This badly needs fixing. Thank you! Cema 03:16, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Weapons

The article is inconsistent on whether a weapon was carried. The earlier entry says they were paid well because they were subject to attack (which I think was an unsubstantiated POV addition). A recent edit today says they carried either a rifle or revolver. I knocked off the earlier comment but applied a fact template on the weapon. Americasroof 21:16, 17 March 2007 (UTC)