Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-08-22
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ROBBING STAGES.
A Folty-Niner Who Did Not Go To
California to Dig Gold.
Robbiug the Overland STAGE Coach
Neatly captured by ~ woman
Thought She Was
''FOOIing."
lSan Francisco Cor. New York SUM

lSan Francisco Cor New York SUM
II is the proud boast of Jim Smith that he
has passed thirtN-;ilirn ChiistmasCs IN the
California ucnitrnl arv at san Quentin. He
is not perhaps, the only 'I9cr in state prison.
but he j. probably tine only ono who has been
in state prison for sunIr portion of every year
since - lie is the patriarch of the prison
He is the ,lli lc, philosopher and friend of the
Younger cuuvicts. he is II model prisoner
So far rs any body has teen able to discover,
ne has but one fault. He cannot leave stage
coaches alone. Once put lin in place where
no stages are to he foun,i AMI he is an cXem-
plary man.
Smith has not been prisoner at San
Quentin ,toa lily for thirty three years He
has been ont many times. but has returned
again SO speedily, convicted on the same old
charge. Having little extra liberty ON the
Fourth of July, smith found time and his
callers gave him the occasion to talk freely
of his past life. In the course of long CON
veieaton lie said
at is enough To make a 4|er's blood boil
to hear about the operations of these sneak
thieves who are now working these little
country roads. There amt one in fifty of
them that has the sand in him to hold up "A
thoroughbred I've pnched members of
congress, judges of the supreme court. cx-
governors argonauts and big men generally
more'n once but these fellows don't know
anything al ont men of that quality-only to
dodge them.
II remember once early i'm the sixties |
went out in Calaveras county with two part
ners to see about stage that was due Just
about then We all had good guns pistols
and knives, and we got them ready to use,
for in those days things of that kind were not
carried for ornaments. The overland didn't
show up early as We expectcd-sone acct
dent had happened to it i'll the mountains
and when it did come it took us IA little too
sudden We'd been fooing around for sew
eral days. and got a little careless | must adj
nit t,nr day it was warm and sunny, and
we all got scattered, though We had AN I'M
derstandng that. wherever we We're, we were
to keep an eye on the road all the time and
if any of lis discovered the stage, the one do
ing so was to fire shot or two as an alarm
signal. Along about the middle of the after
noon ! heard Il gun. and minute
later there came another report that
sounded like volley of ns't.
etry. 1t puzzled ne IA little, but |
grabbed my shooting irons and made Tor the
road | had Just got into IA good position
when | heard another shot little nearer.
and then another vulicy good deal louder
than the other Then came the CHATTER of
horses and fine roll of Wheels Won don't .ea
1.i,.i,,, mo tb.t ,bo-., dave, slo,,,.,,,, .,,
~, - ' 10 , WV
"h''i9 ii"i' 'ii' ''iii'' an" ""'''i 'n' ~ io".
enough 70 me ana the aust iited IA niue
could see the gun talicio a-stlckinS out OF
her Xix quilts on hedge hog The driver
"A hard man that / knew mighty well-had
tbe lines for his leadcr. il, his tauth and thn..
sa,. ,t, ,,h.,lo,., ha hal ,iol ., th,, L,.al.,
io' '''' Nv '' w. '''' "'""''
ana lie ma" u liS,oi III ea'h haiiu' never
saw Srander SIGHT III my Ire. wanted TO
stop that outfit nglehandrd, just for the
sake of seeing who was IN it, but she had got
nm a tremendous momentum nv the. tim, She
,,,,o oIr.a.t ,f r,,. and .s sh,, f,i,,ly .honL
~ 49,
VIC ear u" "ne" sue ape, p"'' ",civ was
hlolhS' just uuchei my 'l,a" ana
let her go. l knew by the way
she acted that there had been
trouble up the road and | didn't care to
mako ,rotte,s any worse inst then She Nus
en- -, ,1a,, onI thoy ali LaI ann. Whan
'-' - -. - | ' 49,, ~,
t4' dust ma" Setliea niue anu the NOISE uieu
out, 'rept to the roadway ana walked along
slowly for a mile and IA half, where l found
one OF my paI1 lIcrs with about pound OF
lend in h.n. \ little further on came upon
the other one He wasn't hurt. but ne was
.carel within an inch Of his life He'd navcr
'"''' "i'A'i an Nv Vi '' Nv" =.
been on mat ROAD pelore' ana lie Huid II that
was what caLed Stopping an overland ne
haa han enough. ne S',i! mere was no stop
TO thehi. ne iaol ehilS'eu 10 i'ghI man
oi-war with a double gun deck ana he wanted
me TO understand IT, wen, ne came pretty
near getting INTO trouble WIN me- Particu
larly when we cn!iie along 10 wnere tne 0thei
fellow was, but pacliied MN aiteT a"hiie ny
telling him 1t was all our fault we hadn't
ought to have separated IN those days
there were just AS tou1h men inside the coach
as any you could recruit Tor the outside, and
anybcdy VINO got away win thehi had To he
good one
Il came upon stage once that had
woman IN it-a big boned' red-laced woman
Inc other inmates showed hSht' ana II TOOK