"PRESENTLY the driver exclaims, `Here he comes!'
"Every neck is stretched and every eye strained. Away across the endless dead level of the prairie a black speck appears against the sky. In a second or two it becomes a horse and rider, rising and falling, rising and falling sweeping towards 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 a whoop and a hurrah from our upper deck [of the stagecoach], a wave of the rider's hand, but no reply, and man and horse burst past our excited faces, and go swinging away like a belated fragment of a storm."—Mark Twain, Roughing It.
A word cannot be defined in its own terms; nor can a region, or a feature of that region. Analogy and perspective are necessary for comprehension. The sense of horseback motion has never been better realized than by Kipling in "The Ballad of East and West." See "Horses."
BRADLEY, GLENN D. The Story of the Pony Express, Chicago, 1913. Nothing extra. OP.
BREWERTON, G. D. Overland with Kit Carson, New York, 1930. Bibliography on West in general.
CHAPMAN, ARTHUR. The Pony Express, Putnam's, New York, 1932. Good reading and bibliography.
DOBIE, J. FRANK. Chapter on "Rides and Riders," in On the Open Range, published in 1931; reprinted by Banks Up shaw, Dallas. Chapter on "Under the Saddle" in The Mustangs.
HAPEN, LEROY. The Overland Mail, Cleveland, 1926. Factual, bibliography. OP.
ROOT, FRANK A., and CONNELLEY, W. E. The Overland Stage to California, Topeka, Kansas, 1901. Reprinted by Long's College Book Co., Columbus, Ohio. Basic work.
VISSCHER, FRANK J. A Thrilling and Truthful History of the Pony Express, Chicago, 1908. OP. Not excessively "thrilling."