The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-02-18
THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY.
A Young Lady Relates Her Experience
Win the RurEIarN.

/
Miss Matte C. White, of this city.
who was visiting in the family of Mr..
| John Whittlesy, the cashier of the North
ampton bank, writes to her brother, Mr..
E. L. White, an account of her ex-
perience with the burglars. She says:
About twelve O'clock, or a little
after, five burglars entered our peaceful
home with all the violence that we have
often pictured to us through the papers,
| and such as is hard to believe, and can
only be realized through experience,
such as we have now had The first in
timation Laura had of what was going
on was that a man was entering their
room, over the sitting room, and he had
a dark lantern in his hand, and immedi-
ately sprang to their bed, while both
screamed. They were then held by
their throats, two men then being there,
and at once handcuffed and held down.
az had net been asleep over ten min
utes, for | heard the town clock strike
twelve, and at -balfpast twelve we were
all under their entire .subjection, there
being a man or two men in my chamber
at once The first l knew man entered
my room, and the dark lantern wakened
me, / suppose. / screamed, thinking it
was John, and that the house was on fire. !
and sprang out of bed. He put me back |
and choked me, and then told me he !
would treat me kindly if i would keep !
perfectly quiet. He said | was caught |
You are all caught, and you may as !
well give up He then told me must |
get up. l begged him to let me lie |
there, but he said no. and pulled me |
up and led me into the hall and then
me. He then took me into
Laura's rOom-no, not quiet yet. After
getting me into the hall he said l would
take cold without more clothing, and j
told him would take my death of cold
that way, and he led me back into my
room, when / obtained more clothes, and
he took me with them. Very shortly
after Maria, Aunt Matte and her hus-
band walked in the same room, and the
girl was brought in with us. After they
had got us all in that room they made
us all get up separately and dress.
"Of course we were rugged in each
others clothing, and some were half
dressed. They kept hurrying us up,
and we were all wonderfully possessed.
[ was very calm, and acted accordingly.
They opened LIS bureau drawer, and
took out her handsome violet cloak and
handed it to her, saying, / guess that is
what you want She put that Onwith her
skirt, and then was fixed up,
md they fell short of handouts.
Then Laura and | were joined by
me handcuff, and they took Us off into
he front room and put Us in the bed
md tied our hands and feet with leather
straps, buckled as tight as possible !
Then they took heavy ropes and slipped
through these, and brought the rope
lnder the bed, and fastened it with
Extra ropes besides. They served us all
his way They treated John cruelty
llsO Aunt Hattie. The last operation
vas to gag us with rubber gags. John
vas blindfolded and tied in another posi-
ion. They then dragged him in the
over bedroom, and he was almost dead
when found.
Laura and | extracted ourselves first
Dy the greatest effort, and We dragged
ourselves, bed and all, to the window
about seven o'clock in the morning, and
with one free hand opened the window
and alarmed the neighborhood. We had
10 have our handouts filed apart, and
It was about nine O'clock WREN Laura
md I were separated. We are alive and
we'll, only that we ale scratched and
bruised, and Johns chest is black and
blue. They held a pistol at his head
after they got him in the bedroom,
where they demanded the keys and com
Dination. They did not touch the silver,
out took Johns watch and chain. l..
grabbed hers and flung it under the
bureau. and they missed it, Williams
1Ort Pd.) Gazette.