The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1885-01-21
STAGE ROBBING.
No Guns Required to Hold-up
a Stage.
stand-And-Deliver stories.


Talking about brave men" stage
robber Marshall said one night in Jail,
s'the idea that it takes man of great
nerve and daring to rob stage is a
great mistake. The trouble with the
people of this country is, they rather
like to be robbed, I guess. It's eastern
falling off log. Why, year ago last
winter my pard and was walking
along the mountain road, not thinking
of anything in particular. when along
came a couple of tenderfeet in a car
riage. Before we could catch our breath
one of them threw up both hands,
knocking the others hat of, and hol-
Tered, For Gods sake, don't shoot.
Well, now, we hadn't any idea of
shooting at all, and didn't know these
fellers were in those parts, but when
they sort of reminded us of our busi-
ness by commencing to unbuckle their
watches and weasels. why, we just
took them in charge of course, and told
the tenderfeet never to let rs catch
them on that road again, for it was
our'n. They thanked US so warmly
for sparing their lives that felt little
uneasy about it. In fact, l was half
tempted after we'd let them 90 to fol-
Ter them up and kill one or both of
them, for somehow, they gave me the
impression that l hadn't done my full
duty" He smiled grimly for a mo-
ment, and added: Now, what on
earth could do under such circum-
stances? didn't rob those fellers.
They made us presents of what they
had. Yet, when they got to Wads-
worth, they told the people that they
had an all-day fight with road agents.
II and my pard have robbed the
Sierra Valley stage three times now at
the same place. I'll tell you how it
was done. Pard had a Winchester and
| had pair of Colts in my belt; but
the job was done every time with an
old powder-and-bal pistol that had
no load in it, and wouldn't have gone
off if there had been one, for l didn't
have any caps. Pard would fire his
Winchester as close to the ears of the
horses as he could without dropping
them and would swing the old blund-
erbus in the air and holler. Every
time it happened just the same. There
was only just my pard and |, but the
passengers would think they could see
some of our men behind every tree.
Zone feller tainted dead away once.
We'd just got them in a row good when
this fellows knees commenced to
knock together, and he kept getting
out of line. finally thought I'd scare
him and the rest of them a little, so |
hollered, pretending to give orders to
the boys hidden behind the rocks and
trees:
"'Boys, bore hole in this gentle
man with the light oyercoat on if he
moves an inch, or any OF the rest of
them
"Just then big feller, the second
one from the limber-legged chap, had
a chill like, and his teeth came togeth-
er with such noise that the other fell
Ter thought somebody was cooking
rifle, and with a wild whoop he dropped
in dead faint. The rest of them
thought he had been shot dead. They
were too scared to notice that there had
been no report of gun.
Speaking about weapons. why, /
have robbed stages up in California
and over in Utah without any weapons
at all. You don't need any. I'll bet
a tenner that / can take an old-fash-
ioned tin candlestick and hold up the
best stage load that ever came over the
mountains. Rene Letter IN the San
Francisco Chronicle