The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-12-05

Mrs. Geo. w. Bacon of Milwaukee is
the heroine of the day. Recently she
was travelling by rail in Italy with her
husband, when they were beset by two
brigands who had secured seats in the
compartment of the car occupied by
them. 1t was early in the evening and
Mr.. Bacon was DOING, when suddenly
he was confronted by one of the men
with pistol in his hand pointed direct
ly at the formers head. And then an
exciting time occurred, as Mr.. Bacon
himself relates in private letter to a
friend:
My wife screamed, Get out your pis-
tol," but, bless your soul, the fellow was
on me before could rise out of my seat.
l did say, "What do you want, SIR"
and he replied, "money" This all
took less time than it does to read it.
And, as said before, was a little
drowsy and it took an instant or two to
bring me to my senses, but a pistol al
most in my face brought me to realiz-
ing sense of the situation, and l "went
for him" without further delay, grab
bling his revolver with my left hand and
his throat with my right. He grabbed
my right side whisker with his left hand,
but l put my head down rs much as
possible, and had him over in
his corner and down on the seat
before he well knew what was the
matter. felt his grip of his revolver
lOosening, and would have had it away
from him in half a shake, but his COM
panion, to whom he had been calling in
Italian to "Shoot, Shoot" threw him.
self on me and broke my hold. Just
here my wife pitched in and took hold
of the long fellow. (My man was about
80, my height and rs heavy as ~ He
soon freed himself from her, threw her
on the floor and almost to the other side
of the car, but she was back and in the
fight again in an instant. While we
were altogether my man pulled off his
pistol just by my ear. Fortunately no.
body was hurt, though for an instant l
did not know whether my head was on
or not. Then the long chap threw my
wife off and down, and between them
forced me on the seat. Nell here APP
peared again and placed herself between
my knees, and the two fellows stood
over us, with their pistols at our heads,
swearing to have our money. Seeing
there was no assistance to be had from
the pusillanimous little chap, the other
passenger, who sat pale and trembling
with his hands clasped, calling on the
Virgin, and fearing some real harm
might come to Nell by further resist
ance, l decided to give up my little
leather wallet, which unfortunately was
quite full, having some six hundred
francs in gold in it. This l hoped
would satisfy them and that they would
clear out or leave us alone until they
could get off. But no! They had seen
my little sac de royage which had on
under my ulster and they wanted that
and to go through me generally. This
We decided to object to and to fight it
out. So the rough-and-tnmble fight
commenced again. Nell was thrown
down, but l made it so hot for them that
she had a chance to right herself quick
ly. Then We got somehow to our end
of the car, and Nell stood against my
left side where the sac was, and 1 held
her fast with my left arm, and with my
right and Nell's two hands, which the
plucky little woman used well, can tell
you we fought them off when they came
to close quarters. Finally they contented
themselves with threatening us and
keeping their pistols pointed at us, but
We had got used to looking at these pis-
tolls and came to the conclusion that
they dare not or did not care to shoot.
Here Nell bethought herself of the fe-
male prerogative of screaming. This
seemed to alarm them, and with many
threats they left the car and stood on the
step. Once my curiosity led me to look
out and see if they were still there, but
as | had a pistol stuck under my nose
withdrew.