, 1884-08-06
ROBBING STAGES.
A Forty-Niner Who Did Not Go To
California to Dig Gold.
ROBbtnx n Overland stage Coach
Neatly Captured By n woman
Thought h was
s.FoolIng.1

LAAAAA ~ (4As = AoAA olAAsI -
II is the proud boast of Jim Smith hat he
has passed thirty-three Christmases in the
California p~enitentiary at San Quentin He
Is not. perhaps, the only '49er in state prison,
but he Is probably the only one who has been
In state prison for some portion Of every year
since 40. He is the patriarch OF tho prison.
He Is the guide, philosopher and friend OF the
younger convicts. He Is a model prisoner.
50 far as anybody has been able to discover,
be has but one fault He CANNOT leave stage
coaches alone Once put him In n place where
no stages are to be found and he is an exem-
plary man
Smith has not been a prisoner at San
Quentin steadily for thirty-thnee years. lie
has been out many times, but has returned
again 50 speedily, convicted on the same old
charge. Having 4 little extra liberty on the
Fourth-o of July, Smith found time, and his
callers gave him the occasion, TO talk freely
Of his past life. In the course of a long CON
vsrsation he said:
1T Is. enough to make u '4qer's blood boil
to hear about tho 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 pinohed members Of
congress, judges of the supreme court, ex-
governors, a~rgonauts, and bdg men generally
AuOAt Outt. Oul Nutot lelONh uDu hIAOM
anything about men of that ~quality-only to
dodge them. . Nl-
Il remember once early In the sixties 1
went out Ia Calaveras county with two part
ners TO sec about q 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 as early as We expected-some acct
dent had happened to 1t in the mountains
and when It did come it took us a little too
sudden. We'd been fooling around for SOW
eral days, and got n little careless, l must adj
init One day it was warm and sunny, and
we all got scattered, though we had an un-
dsrstanding that, wherever we were, we were
to keep an eye on the road all the time, and
II any Of US discovered the stage, the one do
ing 70 was to fire a shot or two as an alarm
signal. Along about the middle Of the after
noon | heard u gun, and u minute
later there came another report that
sounded like Il volley Of musk
etry. It puzzled me u little, but l
grabbed my shooting irons and made for the
road. l had just got into a good position
when I heard another shot "a little nearer,
and then another volley a good deal louder
than the other. Then came the chatter OF
horses and the roll Of wheels. You don't see
driving like that these days. She was on two
wheels half the time, and when she got near
enough to me and the dust lifted a little l
could see the gun barrels a+sticking out of
her like quilts on a hedge hog. The driver
"a hard man that Hknew mighty well-had
the lines for his leaders In his teeth and those
for the wheelers\ he had tied to the brake,
and he had a pistol in each hand. / never
saw a grander sight in my life. | wanted to
stop that outfit single-handed, just for the
sake Of seeing who was in il, but she had got
up u tremendous momentum by the time she
eame abreast OF me, and as she fairly shook
this earth when she ripped past where l was
hiding, | just ducked my head and
let her 20. L knew by the way
she acted that there had been
trouble up the road, and l didn't care to
MAKE matters any worse just then. She was
full OF men, and they all had guns. When
the dust had settled a little and the noise died
out, Iorept to the roadway and walked along
slowly for Il mile and a hall, where l found
one OF my partners with about a pound of
lead in him. A little further on | came upon
the other one. He wasn't hurt, but he was
scared within an inch OF his life. He'd never
been on that road core, and he said IL that
was what called stopping an overland he
had had enough. He said there was no stop
TO them. He hadn't enlisted to light a man
of-war with "a double gun deck. and he wanted
me to understand IL. Well, he came pretty
near getting into trouble with me, particu-
larly when we came along to where the other
fellow was, but l pacihed him after awhile by
telling him it was all our fault. We hadn't
ought to ave separated. In those days
there were just as tough men inside the coach
As any you could recruit for the outside, and
anybody who got away with them had TO be
agood one.
woman in tia big-boned, red-faced woman.
The other inmates showed fight, and it took a
shot or two from my party TO keep them
quiet. We had got just about all there was
to be had, and had ordered the driver TO go
ahead, when the woman threw herself out Of
the vehicle, yelling Pm one OF you No
YOU don't says J.. why notf says she.
'Bscause,' says l. Il dont know you, and
may be you amt what you SEEM She then
went on to tell me all about herself. and In
half an hour she made me believe that she
was a born robher. who had been wishing all
her life for Il chance to go into the highway
business. l. rather liked her style, and in a
day or two / had come TO the conclusion that
she might be made useful in over
hauling stages She and l were
alone on the road one day. my
two partners having fallen behind us a little
when she got to chatting me about shooting
at a mark She said she could shoot better
than l could. Just for fun l pinned a piece
OF paper on d tree and let her take one OF my
pistols. She fired at the mark, but didn't hit
II. Then 1 fired, and / missed. Then l
loaded her pistol again, and handed it to her,
and was Just going to load mine, when
she says, Look here She was pointing the
weapon at me. Says ], Don't do that; 1t
might 60 off, Il know it, says she, and
maybe Twill want it to go Off. Stop loading
that pistol, or this one will go off, and 1 know
it, / thought she was fooling for awhile,
but when sho gave me the order TO march 1
knew I'd been nabbed. That there woman
run me into Frisco and. ! did three years
time on her nccounL.