The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-06-13
R0BBING STAGES OUT WEST.
A ROAD AGENT TELLS HOW EASILY
IT Is DONE.
Not n Fit of Danger TO n Scientific
RObber--Thc Passcyg gers too Badly
Scared In Murmmr.

Scared TO Murmur.
A MADEIRA Cali letter to the New
York San says: Two stage robbers in
Jail here for operations in the Yosemite
Valley have been visited by many people
and questioned as to their career on the
road. Both men are fully identified as
the individuals who stopped a coach last
fall and relieved the passengers of their
valuables. Both claim that this is The
only robbery of the kind they ever par
ticipated in, but under the influence of
free cigars they confessed that they had
certain friends and acquaintance who
had had some very queer experiences as
road agents, some of them on the Yose
mite trail.
''For man who wants real good bust
ness and an easy sort of life," said Toll
man Terhune, one of the prisoners, 81
would advise him to go to work on the
lively cheap and good in that vicinity,
and stages are just plenty enough-not
too plenty, but just enough. You don't
want to tackle every stage that comes
along, for that would spoil the whole
thing. People would not ride and after
a while there would be no stage at all
You must let the recollection of one
hold up kinder fade out of mind before
you spring another on them. When
hold up hasn't occurred in two or three
months drivers get kinder careless and
passengers take greater risks.
"My observations have convinced me
that there isn't anything in this world
that the majority of people fear more
than a road agent. It's all moonshine,
but it is a fact. nevertheless, and the
boys in the business have to be very
careful, or they will stampede all the
game.
'Now there is no danger in stopping a
coach. Did you ever hear of stage
robber being killed. 1 never did, and l
have been on the coast for thirty years.
Nobody kills road agent. In the first
place the passengers are too scared, and
in the next they are so almighty anxious
to have the thing over with that they
do not think of anything else but com
plying with the demands made upon
them. 1t is as safe a business as preach
ing, and safer than preaching in some
towns that know Of l have heard an
acquaintance of mine, who operated in
the northern part of Oregon. say time
and again that some of the gentlemen
whom he invited to shell out made him
feel ashamed of himself by giving up
things that he would never have thought
OF asking for. One man, | remember, he
told me about in particular He was
standing in the row with his hands up
and his teeth chattering, and when my
friend came up to him and pulled out
of his vest pocket a little wad of money,
not over So, the fellow, evidently fearing
that some dire punishment would be in
flcted upon him in case he did not pan
out as well as the others, told the robber
that he had more money in his trunk,
which was strapped on behind. Well,
Of course my friend had to get that money,
and that took time, but he found it right
where the fellow told him it was. He
would good deal rather have gone off
without overhauling the trunk, but since
the man had told him that there was
money in it, he would never have rested
easy after that if he had not got it.
II know dozens Of just such expert
ences. had a cousin operating on the
Yosemite road, over near where | was
rounded up, who took more pleasure in
the business than any man | ever heard
of. He enjoyed the fun of the thing, and
he often use to say to me that, as between
robbing a stage and going to a minstrel
show, he would take the former every
time. Now. that, you see, was because
there was absolutely no danger in it. lie
was an experienced man, and knew that
the thing was safe. | honestly believe
that if, when he was going through a
stage load, somebody had fired off a gun
he would have tainted away, not so much
from fright as from surprise.
"My cousin was considered a very good
man in his day. He had an air of au-
thority about him, and a voice that could
be heard a mile in the mountain ar
When he said Hands upn hands went
up, and no driver ever dared move peg
when ne heard him demonstrating. Yet
he was downed once, and by woman
too. He stopped stage load of people
from New England, and there was a
schoolma'am in the crowd who wore
spectacles and was a good deal more
angular than any of the women they
raise out here. When he ordered hands
up he didn't notice that she refused to
obey, because she was down at the foot
of the line, and he didn't pay much at
tention to her anyway. AS he pro-
ceeded along the line, working the dlf-
ferent victims as he went along, he no.
ticed that her arms were behind her, and
that she was slender old girl. So he
said nothing until he came to her. Then
throwing all his power into his lungs he
yelled, Hands upp Well, she put her
hands up. She had one of those Cape
Cod umbrellas, with whalebone ribs as
big as your finger, and when she raised
her hands she clutched that umbrella
with the grip of death, and down it
came on my cousins head. He told me
he saw double for week after that, and
for the time being he was nearly knocked
out.
1t was a mighty ticklish moment. AS
have said, you work coach load easily
by terrifying them and getting away be.
fore they recover their lf-posscssion.
Now. here was woman who had not
| lost hers at all, and if the men at the