hundred gallant horses earn a stirring livelihood and see a deal of scenery every single day in the year. [Illustration: _The Pony Express Rider._ Photo by Courtesy of American Telephone & Telegraph Company ] We had had a consuming desire, from the beginning, to see a pony rider, but somehow or other all that passed us and all that we met managed to streak by in the night, and so we heard only a whiz and a hail, and the swift phantom of the desert was gone before we could get our heads out of the windows. But now we were expecting one along every moment, and would see him in broad daylight. Presently the driver exclaims: "HERE HE COMES!" Every neck is stretched further, and every eye strained wider. Away across the endless dead level of the prairie a black speck appears against the sky, and it is plain that it moves. Well, I should think so. In a second or two it becomes a horse and rider, rising and falling, rising and falling--sweeping toward 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 and a whoop and a hurrah from our upper deck, a wave of the rider's hand, but no reply, and man and horse burst past our excited faces, and go winging away like a belated fragment of a storm! So sudden is it all, and so like a flash of unreal fancy, that but for the flake of white foam left quivering and perishing on a mail-sack after the vision had flashed by and disappeared, we might have doubted whether we had seen anything at all, maybe. _Mail Transportation To-day_ Mails are now carried over about 235,000 miles of railroads. Service on the railroads is authorized and paid for under a space basis system authorized by Congress and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission.