Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1882-10-11


pocket, and put II Ia his oyereosi
pocket,
The cigar wagon was set high, and
was drawn by a span Of horses, As Il
passed the men, one Of them said,-
Good evening, friend, This is rather
a .cary piece Of road along here, they
say
so I've heard, said Carr
They talked Of the robbery as they
walked up the hill, and so easily and
famillarly that Carr was somewhat re'
assured, aud thrown of his guard
Suddenly tho fellow walking by his
forward wheel threw a handful OF the
cayenne pepper plump In bis face and
eyes. The other man seized the horses
by tho head,
Carr tried to got his revolver, but
before he could draw and cock II, his
assailant pulled him from his seat
The two then pounced upon him, and
in q twinkling threw him down and
had secured his pistol. They searched
his pockets, taking his watch and
pocket.book, One Of them broke open
the wagon and helped himself to a box
of choice cigars. They then hurried
away.
So blinded was Carr, and in such
pain, that il was with difficulty that he
drove on to tho next house, where he
stopped and washed the pepper out oi
his inaamcd eyes. Besides his watch
and pistol, ono hundred and seventy
dollars had been token from him, and
ho would have lost more, had he not
previously hidden three hundred dol
lars in q secret recess Of his cart.
Carr, or rather the firm he Travelled
for, offered two hundred dollars for
the capture of the robbers
The very next night, n hardware
drummer named Clark, coming out
from R, rather late, with a horse
and buggy, hired that morning at the
livery stable at M, was stopped
on tho road by q man who stepped out
of tho bushes and caught the horse by
the bits. II was horse which had
previously run away several times
one kept on purpose to let to drum
mers
The animal SHE'D and sprang for
ward so violently as to make the mar
lose his hold of the bit. Clark gave
the horse q sharp blow with the whiI
at the same instant. The animal rar
for a mile or more-leaving the rogues
in the lurch, for once, and most unex
pectedly bafled their purpose.
Clark was quite sure that he had Q
glimpse of a second man attempting t'
Jump in at the back of the buggy jus
as the horse sprang. The only thing
he lost was heavy valise of samples
in cutlery, etc., which was thrown ou
in the road when the horse jumped
That, the robbers probably appropri
ated.
The people Of the towns OF h
and NJ were now thoroughly
aroused. Each town offered hundred
dollars for the capture of the highway
men, but made the offer privately to
number of officers, who, without max
ing any stir, were on the watch TO
suspicious persons.
One officer even went back and fortf
hidden in the stage, thinking the ras
Gals might try to rob the mail. The.
however, had wholesome fear o
stopping Uncle Sans wagon, ant
thereby getting Gevernmant detective
on their track. Ike stage driver saw
nothing of them. ~
1t was evident that the men robbe'
were persons whom the robbers il
some way knew as men who wer
likely to have considerable money witt
them. That looked as if they wer
either we'll acquainted in the county
or else had confederates who were.-
Several days passed, and the robber
had not been arrested.
1 The writer, then a young man
nineteen, was attending school at tn
l. Academy, three miles belov
R village. There was a class o
us there fitting for college, all younI
fallow from fifteen to twenty-One.
That week we talked of nothing bu
the robberies and it seemed to us, t
the writer particularly, that the officer
were proceeding in a very clumsy way
and that they stood little chance O
capturing the robbers. Here allow m
to remark that l then intended to TAX
college course, and study law ; bu
this affair led me to another pursuit.