The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1881-09-02

"'Taint no use trying ordinarily to save
anything but your lives when a gang of road
agents as knows their business tackles a
stage COACH" remarked Long Bill TO a
Chronicle reporter. "A party Of men stand
ing on the ground with everything ready, no
horses to tend to, and nothing to do but
sight their shooting-irons and pleasantly
suggest 10 the driver TO hand down the cash
box, has big edge in the game. The driver
and guards, or shotgun messengers rs we
call them in the mountains, can't help being
taken more or less by surprise and may
remark right here that until you have been
suddenly called upon TO look down the open
ing Of double-barreled shotgun which has
a road agent with his hand on the trigger at
the other end, you have no idea how sur
prised YOU are capable of being. / have
been thar l have had a seven-shooter
pulled on Inc across the faro table. l have
proved that the hilt of dirk can't 60 be.
tween my ribs. have seen four aces beaten
by a royal flush; but was never really sur
prised until looked down the muzzle of a
double berreled shot gun In the hands Of
road agent. Why, my friend, the mouth of
the Sutro Tunnel Is like nail hole In the
Pacific Hotel compared to shotgun from a
certain point Of view. But this is all mis-
deal. was going to tell you about the time
did see couple Of road agents left. In '63
there was plucky little stage driver running
out of Aurora who had been stopped three
times on the road, but still driving: though
after q man Is stopped twice the company
GENERALLY lets him do something else for
living, without intimating that he is friend
20 the robbers.
"Well, this driver / speak of-Dutch
Jake we called him-had worked for the
company for long time, and they knew him
to be good square man. Jake felt dreadful
bad about having been stopped three times,
and cleaned out each time, and swore the
shotgun messengers he took along for
guards were q lot Of cowardly blowhards.
The next time Jake had q consignment of
bullion In his box he begged hard not to have
to take along any messengers with him. At
that time you could almost count on an at
tempt being made to rob every stage with
bullion on board. The Aurora bullion
was Just the kind the road agents
liked. II was run in small bars, and SO rich
In gold that IL had the yellow color, not like
the heavy white brick you see on the Com
stock now. Jake declared solemnly he had
a scheme to fool dose dam road agents. so
the stage manager agreed not to send any
guards with him. When the time came TO
hitch up for the trip to Wellingtop's on tbs
Carson road, Jake went down to tho stable
and insisted OH having the ugliest pair of
mules that ever winked death with hind
leg put In as lead team. 'Tll chow how a
mule vas more smart as a guard said Jake
confidently, n he whipped out Of town, with
myself rs the only outside passenger. IF
we get a call tonight, Phil, shust yon drop
down In te boot, cause me and dose mules
vas goin' to hat some fun noticed that
Jake had q shotgun cooked and pointed
straight ahead, and told him IL he was
stopped and attempted to raise the gun he
would get shot sure. He said he did not
propose TO make such fool Of himself, aud
when asked him If he thought the robbers
would carefully place themselves in line OF
the gun, which appeared to be pointed 1t the
! lead mules ears, he said:
aNefer you mind, Phil; knows dose
mules. II we gets call, you drop into de
boot; dots all! Well, sure enough, we got
call. We were jogging along over an easy
bit Of road, when, about O'Clock, . couple
Of road agents sprang out from some chap
arral. One grabbed the bits of the lead
mules and the other walked toward the
coach with his gun leveled, and said, Throw
out that box just Is he got opposite
the hind legs Of the lead team Jakes
shotgun went of, and we both dropped
into the boot. / thought every bone
In my body would be splintered before Jake
crawled out, gathered up the reins, and
finally got the teams quieted down. At the
pop Of Jske's gun the mules and horses
had started of on Q mad run, and we must
have bumped, ratified and dragged over ten
miles Of road before Jake took the reins
again. The only damage was to the mules.
Jake had shot away the inside ear Of each
muleln
/" But what became Of the two robbers p"
asked the reporter, - Long Bill stopped In
his story.
"The robbers? Well, / really don't
know. The company would have buried
them, suppose, II enough Of them could
have been scraped OF the chaparral to put In
: CONN. Those mules always were con-
sidered high kickeir." N