The stage company had everything in their charge under the most rigid discipline, and the system was as nearly perfect as possible.

The enterprise, financially, was a losing one for the great firm which organized and operated it, the entire expense exceeding the receipts by many hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Messrs. Russell, Majors, & Waddell, however, continued its operation until March, 1862, when the whole concern was transferred to Ben Holliday.[38]

When Holliday took charge, the United States mail was given to it and immediately the line became a paying institution.  The government expended, in quarterly payments, eight hundred thousand dollars a year for transporting the mails from the Missouri River to San Francisco.

It was very fortunate for the government and the people generally that the stage-line was organized at the time it was, and kept in such perfect condition on the Middle Route, as it was called, when the Civil War commenced, for it would have been impossible to transport mails on the Southern Route, previously patronized by the government.  This route ran from San Francisco via Los Angeles, El Paso, and Fort Smith to St. Louis, and the Confederate government would not have allowed it to run through that portion of their country during the war.

During the war there was a vast amount of business, both in mail, express, and passengers, as it was the only practicable line between California and the great states east of the Missouri River.

Under the indefatigable Ben Holliday his stage-coaches penetrated every considerable mining camp in the mountains, and as the government would not, or could not, establish post-offices at these remote points, the stage company became their own postmasters.  They conveyed letters in their own official envelopes, first placing thereon a United States stamp.  Twenty-five cents was charged for every letter, consequently the revenue from this source was enormous.

Occasionally on the remote plains, or in the fastnesses of the mountains, the proprietor of a little store, where he kept a heterogeneous assortment of such goods as were required by the hardy miners, would constitute himself the postmaster.  Of course he charged exorbitant rates for the transmission of the mail to the nearest regular station.  It is recorded of one of these self-appointed officials that, although he transported the mail but once a month, he still charged twenty-five cents for each letter.  He used an empty barrel for the reception of mail.  He cut a hole in the top, and posted above it the following suggestive warning, to all who sent letters from his place:  “This is the Post-Office.  Shove a quarter through the hole with your letter.  We have no use for stamps as I carry the mail.”

The business of the old line coach increased with startling rapidity.  It aggregated an enormous sum every year.  For carrying the mails alone over the whole route, the government paid twelve hundred and fifty thousand dollars.