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Fast News in the 1860s: Two Texts

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Fast News in the 1860s: Two Texts

Put together details from two texts about sending news west.

Read the two texts

Read both texts. They tell about the same time in history.

Text 1: Riders of the Pony Express

1In 1860, California was a long way from the big cities in the East. A letter sent by stagecoach or by ship could take weeks to arrive. People in California wanted news from the East to reach them faster. In April 1860, a new mail service called the Pony Express began.

2The Pony Express worked like a relay race. Its trail stretched from St. Joseph, Missouri, all the way to Sacramento, California. Along the trail were relay stations, small stops where fresh horses waited. A rider galloped to the next station, leaped onto a rested horse, and raced on. After many miles, he handed the mail to a new rider.

3Riders carried letters in a leather cover called a mochila. It fit over the saddle and had a pocket in each corner. Most riders were young and light, so their horses could run fast. They rode through deserts and mountains, in heat and in snow, by day and by night.

4With this system, a letter could cross the West in about ten days. That was much faster than before. However, sending a letter this way cost a lot of money. The Pony Express lasted only about a year and a half. In October 1861, it shut down for good.

Text 2: Messages on a Wire

1Before telephones were invented, people found a way to send messages over long distances very quickly. They used the telegraph. A telegraph is a machine that sends messages as pulses of electricity through metal wires.

2Telegraph operators used a code of short and long signals called dots and dashes. Each letter of the alphabet had its own pattern. The code was named Morse code after Samuel Morse, an inventor who helped create the telegraph. One operator tapped out a message on a key. Far away, another operator listened to the clicks and wrote down the words.

3By the 1850s, telegraph wires linked many cities in the eastern United States. But no line crossed the whole country, and people in California wanted faster news from the East. In 1861, workers began building a line to connect the East with California. They dug holes, raised tall wooden poles, and strung wire across plains and mountains. Crews worked from the east and from the west at the same time.

4In October 1861, the two ends of the line finally met. For the first time, a message could cross the country in just minutes.

Details from each text

Use the texts to answer each question.

1.
What topic do both texts tell about?
Question 1 options
2.
Match each word from the texts to its meaning.
3.
Which text gives each detail? Sort the details.
4.
Write the missing number and word. Use Text 1 for the first blank and Text 2 for the second blank.

By Pony Express, a letter could cross the West in about days. By telegraph, a message could cross the country in just .

Put the texts together

Use details from both texts to answer each question.

5.
Text 1 tells when the Pony Express shut down. Text 2 tells when the telegraph line across the country was finished. What do the two texts together suggest?
Question 5 options
6.
Mateo wrote these sentences for a report. Circle the one sentence that uses information from both texts.

7.
Which statement is true about both the Pony Express and the telegraph line?
Question 7 options
8.
Using both texts, which list puts these ways of sending news in order from slowest to fastest?
Question 8 options
9.
Imagine you are telling a friend how sending news to California changed between 1860 and 1861. Write 2 or 3 sentences. Use at least one detail from each text.