Stage Coach

 

Photo by the author at Council Grove Kansas

The stage coach lines were the original mass transit lines, prior to and in support of railroads, that transported commerce, in the way of people and valuables around the country. The coaches were a point to point or connection to rail lines.

STAGE COACH ROBBERIES

 "organization of robbers extended to the stage lines, and a regular system of communication existed by which the allies advised each other when and where such and such a passenger was going, with such and such an amount of gold upon him. The holding up of the stage was something regularly expected, and the traveler who had any money or valuables drew a long breath when he reached a region where there was really a protecting law. Men were shot down in the streets on little or no provocation, and the murderer boasted of his crime and defied punishment. The dance-halls were run day and night. The drinking of whiskey, and, moreover, bad whiskey, was a thing universal. Vice was everywhere and virtue was not. Those few who had an aim and an ambition in life were long in the minority and, in the welter of a general license, they might not recognize each other and join hands. Murder and pillage ruled, until at length the spirit of law and order, born anew of necessity, grew and gained power as it did in most early communities of the West. How these things in time took place may best be seen by reference to the bloody biographies of some of the most reckless desperadoes ever seen in any land."

THE

STORY OF THE OUTLAW

A STUDY OF THE WESTERN DESPERADO

WITH HISTORICAL NARRATIVES OF FAMOUS OUTLAWS;

THE STORIES OF NOTED BORDER WARS;VIGILANTE MOVEMENTS AND ARMED

CONFLICTS ON THE FRONTIER

BY

EMERSON HOUGH

                                                               Public domain photo

Photo by the author