Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-12-17

Police, and Finally NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Fight in a Justice Court-other Atroci-
ties.
NEW ORLEANS, La, Dec 1T.-A special
from Grenada, Miss, to The Picayune says
that two white men stopped passenger tram
No on the Illinois Central railroad, near
Duck Hill, Miss, about 10 o'clock Saturday
night. robbed the express car of $1,000 and
shot and killed Charles Hughes, of jackson,
Tenn, passenger, who had attacked the
robbers with rife
When the train was leaving Duck Hill two
men boarded the engine and commanded
Engineer A. ]. Law to run fast and not to
stop until told to. Tue engineer and fire.
man, George Evans were covered by navy
revolvers and had to obey. When a mile
north of the station the men ordered the
train stopped The engineer and fireman
were made to dismount, and were marched
TO the express car door and Messenger Hill,
opened it. Three shots were fred at Hill
and the men entered the car and took all the
money there was-s3.0,0
Conductor P. B. Wilkinson, who rushed
out on hearing the firing and TO see why the
train stopped, was fired on, and being un-
armed he returned to the train Charles
Hughes, of jackson, Tenn, passenger, then
ran out with Winchester rifle As he
stepped to the ground he was shot at. One
bali struck his left arm. Another went
through his stomach, inficting a fatal
wound The death of the young man was
very sad as he was the only support of his
widowed mother. He went to Lexington,
Miss, Saturday to meet his sisters family
and younger brother, all of whom were
on the train and were greatly distressed at
his untimeiy death.
The following description of the robbers is
furnished by Engineer Law: Both were
white men. One was tall and slender and
the other was of ordinary size. Both were
poorly dressed, and showed themselves to be
hard characters. The tall one wore sandy
chin whiskers, and Law is in doubt whether
he had a moustache.
Express Messenger Hill gives the following
description of the rohber who entered the
car: He was tall man and wore a white
SLOUGH had He had no beard on the side of
his face The mask covered his face below
the nose. He had large nickel plated pis-
tol, which looked unusually long. The bore
was very large and the barrel was round,
apparently for cap and ball.
The man had dark hair, cut
very short 1t looked as if it had been
cut by a country barber, He wore a gray
suit of very ordinary clothes. He put the
stolen money in sack larger than the one
usek on the express car, but of the same ma
terial. Both the robbers We're masked, 1t
is believed that neither was hit by the shots
fred at them
| The place where the robbery occurred is
an open low marsh, fifty yards from woods
| The men fed eastward into the swamp. A
posse is being organized at Grenada to join
| in the chase after them. Bloodhounds will
| be put on the trace The description of the
tall man with sandy whiskers would answer
| for that of the man who recently robbed a
| train on the Northeastern railroad.
| When the shots fred by the robbers in the
express car attracted the attention of Conduc-
| tor Wilkinson he ran from the ladies' car
through the smoker and sprang upon the
| ground just in front Of the robbers A sec.
ond latter he was flying back into the
smoker, followed by an ounce ball from one
of the robbers pistols. He appeared in the
| doorway of the smoker two seconds after he
had left it and yelled to the passengers, of
whom the car was full: "Come out, gentle
| man duu neip US lue Irdln FOuDeTS are
upon u.s." The only response came from
Hughes, who said he was unarmed, but if
some passenger would lend him a weapon he
| would lead the attack. An unloaded VIM
chester and ten cartridges were handed him,
and hastily loading the weapon. be sprang
out of the door, followed only by Conductor
| Wilkinson, who also secured Winchester
As the two men reached the ground the
robbers ordered them back, saying they
were only after the express money and
wanted to harm no one Hughes replied by
dscharging his rifle at one of the robbers
who wss not more than twenty feet away
Immediately the firing became rapid, the
two robbers using their pistols and Wilkin-
son joining in with bis Winchester Only a
cars length separated the combatants,
Hughes and Wilkinson standing at the rear
end and the two robbers at the front end Of
the express car About twenty-five
shots were exchanged, neither party
showing disposition to STOP
until their weapons were emptied
During the firing one OF the robbers
stumbled and fell, but Immediately regaine
his footing, and it is believed that he escaped
injury. Hughes ran through the front door
of the smoker, saying Boys, l am gone,
and fell mortslly wounded. Wilkinson says
that after the first excitement of the combat
was over he fired five times at one of the
robbers, taking steady and deliberate ain
each time, and he does not under stand why
be did not bit him.