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  • A job offer from the 1860s

    From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Sun Oct 22 19:59:28 2023
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F89uDKhXMAAhZwo.jpg

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  • From Michael Trew@21:1/5 to JAB on Wed Oct 25 00:00:25 2023
    On 10/22/2023 8:59 PM, JAB wrote:
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F89uDKhXMAAhZwo.jpg

    "Orphans preferred" LOL that's just awful

    Close to $1K/wk in today's money. A good paying job, but it sounds like
    the risk was not worth it. At the time, I imagine it wasn't easy to
    find a better paying job.

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  • From rdh@21:1/5 to Michael Trew on Wed Oct 25 08:45:01 2023
    On 10/24/23 23:00, Michael Trew wrote:
    On 10/22/2023 8:59 PM, JAB wrote:
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F89uDKhXMAAhZwo.jpg

    "Orphans preferred"  LOL that's just awful

    Close to $1K/wk in today's money.  A good paying job, but it sounds like
    the risk was not worth it.  At the time, I imagine it wasn't easy to
    find a better paying job.

    It was probably impossible, especially as an orphan with no family to
    get you in somewhere.

    I wonder if they wanted orphans because it was so dangerous, or because
    they wanted someone who could be away from ``home'' for weeks at a time?
    I wonder what they all did when the Pony Express folded.

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to rdh on Wed Oct 25 12:19:57 2023
    On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 08:45:01 -0500, rdh <rdh@tilde.institute> wrote:

    I wonder if they wanted orphans because it was so dangerous, or because
    they wanted someone who could be away from ``home'' for weeks at a time?

    Riders on the Pony Express had to meet certain requirements. Most
    riders were under one hundred pounds and were similar in size to horse
    jockeys today. The lighter the rider, the faster the horse could go.
    The company preferred to hire orphans so families would not complain
    if their sons died trying to deliver mail.

    https://heathervoight.com/2012/03/21/life-as-a-rider-on-the-pony-express/

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