New Tabloid

Forty years ago James Whitcomb Riley and Bill Nye collaborated on and published a railroad guide. Said they: "What this country needs is a railway guide which will not be cursed with a plethora of facts or poisoned with information. In other railway guides pleasing fancy, poesy and literary beauty have been throttled. . . ."

This and more is the masthead of the Overland Mail, daily tabloid, born last fortnight on the Gold Coast Limited of the Union Pacific Railroad, somewhere between Chicago and the Pacific Ocean. The idea: to entertain patrons of the train, to tell them yarns about the scenery and the towns through which they pass.

On each of the three mornings on the train, passengers receive copies of the Overland Mail at the breakfast table. A box on the front page greets them with: "Good morning! How did you sleep?" No attempt is made to cover current news, the papers being printed before the train leaves Chicago (or Los Angeles). But many an oldtime miscellany is published. For example:

"Julesburg, Colo. ... It was named for Old Man Jules, who lost his life and a pair of ears when he inadvertently fired two barrels full of bird shot into Jack Slade, one of the Old West's pet desperadoes."

The editor of the Overland Mail is Alfred Pittman, no near relation of Senator Key Pittman of Nevada.