Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-11-12
Hovv Nevada stage Drfver Pro
tccted the Cash-Box.
san Francisco Chronicle.

HGxv a NevudR stage Drfyer Pro-
tected the Cash-Box.
San Francisco Chronicle
" faint no use trying ordinarily
to save anything but your lives
when gang OF road agents as
knows their business tackles a
stage-coach, remarked Long Bill
to q Chronicle reporter. "a party
IF ngn 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 the driver to hand down
the cash box, has a big edge in the
game. The driver and guards, or
Shotgun messengers as we call
them i'm 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 upon toIOok down the opening
of a double barreled shotgun, which
has a road agent with his hand on
the trigger at the other end, you
can have no idea how surprised you
are capable of being. l have been
thar. l have had a seven shooter
pulled on me across faro table L
have proved that the hilt Of dirk
can't go between my ribs; L have
seen four aces beaten by royal
flush but was never really sur
prised until / looked down the muz-
zIe of a double-barreled shotgun III
the hands of road agent. Why my
friend. the mouth of the Sutro tun-
neI is like a nail hole in the Pacific
Hotel compared to shotgun, from
a certain point of view. But this Is
all a misdeal. / was going to tell
YOU about the time did see q
couple of road agents left. In ,63
there was a plucky little stage driv-
er running out of Aurora who had
been stopped three times on the
road, but still driving, though aIter
man is stopped twice the company
generally lets him do something
else for a living, without intlmatlng
that he is any friend to the robbers.
"Well, this driver speak Of
Dutch Jake, we called him-had
worked for the company for a
long time, and they knew him to
be a dead 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 a lot of cowardly blowhards.
The next time Jake had a conslgn-
ment of bullion in his box he beg
ged hard not to have to take along
anv messengers with him. AT that
time YOU could almost count on an
attempt being made to rob every
stage with bullion on board. Inc
Aurora bullion was just the klnd
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 de-
clared 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
WeHington's on the Carson road,
Jake went down TO the stable and
insisted upon having the ugllest
pair of mules that ever winged at
death with hind leg, put in as
lead team. tI'll zhow how a mule
vas smart as a guard, said jake,
confidentially, as he whipped up
out of town, with myselfas the only
outside passenger. If we gers a
call tonight, Phil, shust you drop
down in te boot, cause me ant dose
mules vas going to have some 1un.'
/ noticed that Jake had 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
propose to make such a fool OF him.
self. and when I asked him II ne
thought the robbers would carefully
place themselves in line of the gun,
which appeared to be pointed at
the lead mules ear, he said: NET
er YOU mind, Phil; knows dose
mules. If we get a call, you drop
into de boot; dots ALL Well,
sure enough, we got a call. we
were jogging along over an easy Dlt
of road, when, about nine O'Clock, a
couple of road agents sprang. out
from some chaparral. 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 thelead team Jake's
shotgun went off and we both drop
ped In the boot. 1 thoughtevery bone
| in my body would be splintered be-
fore Jake crawled out, gathered up
the reins, and finally got the teams
quieted down. Atthe pop ofJake's
gun the mules and horses had star
ted off on mad run, and we must
have been bumped, ratified and
dragged over ten miles of road be-
fore 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 do
not know. The company would
have buried them, / suppose, il
enough OF them could have been
scraped off the chapparal to put in a
coffin. Those mules were always
considered high kickers." ;"