Connecticut western news., 1883-11-28
TALES OF A STAGE ROBBER.
HE RUDELY DISPELS SOME POPULAR
 WESTERN NOTIONS.


 WESTERN NOTIONS.
 Some of His Adventures with Tenderfeet in the Sierra Valley-LaughinR Over Them Recipe for Making Bold RObber.
 The popular belief that it takes 8 brave man to rob stage is rudely dis pelled by John Marshall, 8 highwayman now in jail in Reno. awaiting trial for stopping the Sierra Valley stage and compelling the passengers to give up their valuables. Marshall is not q formidable-looking man, but he has nevertheless @ reckless air about him that makes 9 man whom he threatens to 1 shoot feel that he is likely to keep his word. Since his arrest, being reason l ably certain that he will pass the next ten or twenty years in some prison, provided always that his career is not cut short by lynchers, he has devoted much of his time to "reminiscences of his adventures on the road. It is sus- pected, now that he is at bay, that he takes some delight in casting ridicule | upon his numerous victims, but the opinion also prevails that there is some ground for it. Every man who has had experience with stage or train robbers shows the effects of his fight for years afterward.
 s'Talking about brave men, Stage Robber Marshall said one night in jail, I.1~ nerve and daring to rob astage is a great mistake. I can take the softest tender foot you ever saw, and after fixing him up in the right style so the people in the stage will know his profession the minute they set their eyes on him, I'll bet can scare the life out of the best concord load you ever see. This notion that we hurt people or threaten to hurt them, and that we are rough and all that, is all nonsense. We just lay for the stage in lonely place, and when the leaders heave in sight we level our guns and maybe fire shot or two in the air to make the horses jump and rattle the driver little. Then when all hands are looking out of the windows, with their eyes popping out of their sockets, we yell, Hands upl Nine times out of ten that's all we have to say or do. The fellers in the coach get out of their own accord, and we just stand them up in 8 row, and while one of us holds pistol the others go through their pockets and take what few little keepsakes they hap pen to have handy"
 "Why, I've been in more'n a dozen hold-ups, and in only one case were there more'n two of us. When the things got into the papers, though, it wal alway said there were 8 dozen fierce highwaymen, all armed to the teeth, and that they shot the stage and the pas sengers' clothes all full of holes. Why
 year ago last winter my pard and wal
 walking along the mountain road, no
 thinking of anything in particular, whel
 along came couple of tenderfeet in
 carriage. Before we could catch ou
 breath, one of them threw up both hands
 knocking the others hat of, and hollered
 For Gods sake: don't shoot 7
 "Well, now, we hadn't any idea o shooting at all. and didn't know thos
 fellers were in those parts; but whel , they sort O reminded us of our bushes ; by commencing to unbuckle their watche and weasels, why, we just took them i ) charge, of course, and told the tenderfee never to let us catch them on that roa again for it was our'n. They thanke l us so warmly for sparing their lives tha = I felt little uneasy about it.
 l s'I and my pard had robbed the Sierr 9 valley stage three times now at the sam
 place. I'll tell yon how it was done
 Pard had Winchester and had pa
 of Colts in my belt, but the job was don
 every time with an old powder and ba E pistol that had no load in it, and wouldn
 have gone off if there had been one, fo
 I didn't have any caps. Pard would fir : his Winchester as close to the ears = the horses as he could without droppin Il them, and would swing the old blu1 derbuss in the air and holler. Ever 'i time it happened just the same. I'll l. chaps climbed out, begging that thel
 should be no bloodshed, and we would sa e there wouldn't be any if the yield WE good, but that we would have to Xxi e somebody if we didn't get enough to pa d for our trouble. Every mothers son , ). them would give up things that we l. never have thought of looking for or d. ct IS and I, but the passengers would thir e they could see some of our men behi1 J. every tree, and we'd holler once in whi l. some command to the boys in the woo( 1T te be sure and hit the right ones if the e fired.
 'e "Oh, Lord !'' Marshall said with pr !, digious laugh, Git breaks me up when 'i think of one feller who tainted dead aw, le once. We'd just got them in row goo III when this fellows knees commenced le knock together, and he kept getting O 's of line. f finally thought I'd scare hi LII and the rest of them little, so hollere II pretending to be giving orders to t y boys hidden behind rocks and trees: le Boys, bore 8 hole in this galo
 with the light overcoat on if he mov y an inch, or any of the rest of them.' ot "Just then big feller, the second O D. from the limber-legged chap, had a oh of like, and his teeth came together wi d, such noise that the other feller thoug to somebody was cooking 8 rife, and witt ps whoop he dropped in dead faint. T