Lorenzo Snow's Wild Ride

One of the books I am currently reading is a biography of Lorenzo Snow (1814 - 1901), the fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The book was written by his sister in 1884. Here is an excerpt from a passage I read this morning; the excerpt recounts an experience he had years before he became president of the LDS Church. From Lorenzo's journal: "We took stage at Salt Lake City, about the 1st of March, 1864, for San Francisco, California. Some interesting incidents occurred during our overland trip to California, that seemed to us at the time rather interesting or, at least, a little exciting . . . At another time, having stopped to exchange horses just as night was setting in, one of our company remarked that our new driver had quite the air and appearance of an intelligent gentleman, and we soon discovered that he possessed a wonderful musical talent, in the exercise of which he elicited our surprise and admiration . . . A sudden lurch of the coach, which was occasioned by a miss-step or awkward movement of the horses, wrought a sudden, marvelous change in our entertainer, and instantaneously closed our animating entertainment, while a volley of oaths and the most horrid blasphemies succeeded. As he poured forth his disgusting and heart-sickening profanity, he most furiously lashed the innocent horses. At this time we were just commencing the descent of a mountain some miles in length; it was quite dark, the road rough and rocky, and it may be readily imagined that our prospects were not the most inviting. Our coach swayed fearfully—the wheels ever and anon striking fire as they whirled over the rocks, with a double span of horses upon a keen run, tossing us up and down, giving us a few hard strokes of the head against the cover of the coach. At length Elder Benson, in a tremulous yet powerful voice, demanded of the driver to moderate his speed, which was responded to by an increased and more furious lashing of the foaming, panting steeds; thus, and more, with a drunken coachman (as we afterwards learned), we tore along down the mountain, every moment in jeopardy of being dashed to pieces. When at last reaching a station, we were happily relieved from this perilous adventure. On our return we learned that the inebriate had been discharged. Eliza R. Snow, Biography of Lorenzo Snow, pp. 273-275