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express was ten days, about half this time is now occupied by the cars in passing between these points.

There were one hundred riders, the distance between stations was fifteen miles, each rider was to change horses five times and go seventy-five miles in five hours. They were armed with revolvers, (though MARK TWAIN says they carried no weapons whatever), were prohibited from stopping on the route, talking to any one, or taking any messages from outside parties. California horses were used. They are medium sized, tough as India rubber, and sometimes as ugly as any creature of the horse kind could be, and live. The riders were noted for daring and endurance. They were lithe as panthers, cunning as Indians, and afraid of nothing.

In 1861, he left this service, and joined the Union army as a Scout, serving under Generals BLUNT and MCNIEL, and then with A. J. SMITH in Mississippi. He afterwards returned to Missouri to operate against General PRICE and other raiders, where he remained during the war. He returned to his former headquarters at Leavenworth in 1865, and was married in St. Louis in 1866.

About this time they commenced the construction of the Kansas and Pacific Railway, and SHOEMAKER, MILLER & CO., contractors, employed 1,200 men to do the grading. When they reached Ellsworth, the Buffalo country, they employed CODY to kill buffalo to feed the men. He served 18 months, until the road was completed to Sheridan, Kansas, and it was at this time he received the name of "Buffalo Bill."

During this campaign he killed 4,280 buffaloes, with one gun. This famous firearm, which he calls the Lucretia Borgia, is an improved Springfield rifle. The calibre is reduced from 61 to 50, and loads at the breech. It is well known on the plains, and is so worn that is retired from service. It is now carefully preserved at Rochester, N. Y., "with the rest of the family,"- a wife and three children,- the only boy being named KIT CARSON CODY. Only the hind quarters, the tongue and tenderloin of the buffalos were taken; princely living, such as railway laborers seldom have.

In 1867, Bill moved with his wife to Hays City, Kansas, and hunted buffalo and antelope. He was the first man who made a business of shipping this game east, and some of it was sent to Europe.

In the spring of 1868, the last Indian war broke out and he was employed by,