The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-08-19
HoW q Nevada Stage.Driver Protected
the Cssh.Box.

the Cash.Bsx.
"'Taint no use trying ordinarily to
save anything but your lives when 2
gang Of road agents as knows their busi-
ness tackles stage-coach, ," remarked
Long Bill to CAronicle reporter. A
party of men standing on the ground,
with everything ready, no horses to
tend to and nothing to do but sight their
shooting-irons and pleasantly suggest to
che driver to hand down the cash-box,
has big edge in the game. The driver
and guards, or Shotgun messengers as
we call them in the mountains, can't
help being taken more or less by sur
prise; and may remark right here that
until you have been suddenly called up
on to look down the opening OF
double barreled shotgun, which has .
road agent with his hand on the trigger
at the other end, you can have no idea
how surprised you are capable of being.
| have been thar. / have had q seven
shooter pulled ON me across a faro table;
have proved that the hilt of dirk
can't 60 between my ribs; have seen
four aces beaten by royal flush; but I
was never really surprised until 1 looked
down the muzzle Of double-barreled
shotgun in the hands of q road agent.
Why, my friend, the mouth Of the Sutro
tunnel is like nail-hole in the Pacific
Hotel compared to shotgun, from .
certain point of view. But this is all .
misdeal. was going to tell you about
the time I did see couple of road agents
left. In '63 there was q plucky little
stage-driver running out of Aurora who
had been stopped three times on the
road, but still driving, though after .
man is stopped twice the company gen.
orally let's him do something else for a
living, without intimating that he is any
friend of the robbers.
"Well, this driver 1 speak of-Dutch
Jake, We called him-had worked for the
company for long time, and they
knew him to be q dead square man.
Jake felt dreadful bad about having been
stopped three times and cleaned out
each time, and swore the shotgun messen-
gers he took along for guards were . lot
of cOwardly bl0whards. 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 bull
lion was just the kind the road agents
liked. 1t was run in small bars, and so
rich in gold that it had the yellow color,
not like the heavy white bricks you see
on the Comstock now. Jake declared
sOlemnly he had scheme to fool dose
roat agents. so the stage manager
agreed not to send any guards with him.
When the time came TO hitch up for the
trip to Wellington's, on the Carson road,
Jake went down to the stable and insist
ed upon having the ugliest pair of mules
that ever winked death with hind leg
put in as lead team. sI'll chow how .
mule vas more smart rs q guard said
Jake, confidently, as he whipped up out
of town, with myself as the only outside
passenger. IF we gets call tonight,
Phil, shust you drop down in te boot,
cause me ant dose mules vas goin' to
hat some fun I noticed that Jake had
a shotgun, cooked and pointed straight
ahead, and told him if he was stopped
and attempted to raise the gun he would
get shot, sure. He said he did not pro-
pose to make such fool of himself, and
when asked him if he thought the rob-
beers would carefully place themselves in
line of the gun, which appeared to DO
pointed at the lead mules ears, he said:
"'Nefer you mind, Phil; knows
dose mules. If we get call, you drop
into de boot; dots ALL Well, sure
enough, we got call. We were jog
cling along over an easy bit of road,
when, about nine 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 as he got
opposite the hind legs of the lead team
Jake's shotgun went off 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 Quoted
down. At the pop OF Jake's gun the
mules and horses had started off on Q
mad run, and we must have been bump
ed, 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 mule"
"But what became of the two rob-
bers?" asked the reporter, as Long Bill
stopped in his story.
"The robbers? Well, really don't
know. The company would have bu-
ried them. l suppose, if enough of them
could have been scraped off the chap
paral to put in coffin. Those mules
were always considered high kickers."
San Francisco Chronicle.
Cheap Living Abroad.
Before the era of railroads it was pos