Closer in Minutes

Saddles and Spurs: The Pony Express Saga, by Raymond W. Settle and Mary Lamb Settle. 217 pp. Harrisburg, Pa.: The Stackpole Co. $3.75

If time is money, space is time. A particular place is only as far away as the number of days or hours it takes to get there. And if Americans are the most speed-conscious people in the world, this is not because they are more superficial, or novelty-hungry, or nerve-wracked than any other nationality, but because from their beginnings they have had to deal with so much horizontal space. The clipper ship, the Stanley Steamer, the telephone, the telegraph, the airplane and even TV were all developed by Americans for the ungratuitous expedient of getting a little closer to each other in minutes, if not miles.

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Roger Becket

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Saddles and Spurs: The Pony Express Saga, by Raymond W. Settle and Mary Lamb Settle. 217 pp. Harrisburg, Pa.: The Stackpole Co. $3.75

If time is money, space is time. A particular place is only as far away as the number of days or hours it takes to get there. And if Americans are the most speed-conscious people in the world, this is not because they are more superficial, or novelty-hungry, or nerve-wracked than any other nationality, but because from their beginnings they have had to deal with so much horizontal space. The clipper ship, the Stanley Steamer, the telephone, the telegraph, the airplane and even TV were all developed by Americans for the ungratuitous expedient of getting a little closer to each other in minutes, if not miles.