Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-02-22
Il A MESSENGERS TRICK.
How an Old Express Agent Won the Con.
: ~ adonce OF His Employ ers.

How an Old Express Agent Won the Con.
ii adonce OF His Employ ers. ~
IF you won't give me away" said
q mid dlc-aged man whom we will call
Brown, because Brown is not his name.
Il will toll you a little trick I once
played on. an express company for
which was running as messenger
on a train not far from here. 1t was
in the days when they never thought
Of sending out more than one man
with an express-car, and it was not
deemed necessary to arm him, as they
now do their messengers. I had
thought this scheme all out carefully
and tried to look at it in all it's phases,
SO that no unexpected evil result
woull come of it. One night we were
running along ut rafting speed, by
which mean speed that made every
thing about the old Stacking
cars rattle till you couldn't
hear yourself think. The wind was
blowing very hard outside, and every
body on the train was hugging about
as tight as he could to a stove. had
things all my own way. First I took
big coupling-pin and struck my end
door in such manner with it as to
show several large dents in it. Then
l stepped outside, locked the door.
and with tremendous blow broke
the lock. I waited awhile, intending
that if any body was attracted by the
noise to say had locked myself out
and dropped my key off the train.
Bat nobody came. Then 1 closed the
door and quickly fired several shots
from an old pepper box pistol which l
had loaded not very heavily. One Of
the Sc l fired through the rim of my
hat. In another moment was back
in the passenger-c coach, excited and
calling for help. The conductor, a
brakeman and several passengers
jumped up and followed me. was
50 excited I could hardly speak,
you know, but when they saw the
broken and battered door they
OWNED what / did not tell them
When my excitement had subsidized l
managed to explain how two masked
men hal broken in the door; how l
had called for help in vain; how had
fought them both off with the stove
poker; how they had shot at me sew
eral times, couldn't tell how many
IT, es and how, after l had miracu-
lously escaped their bullets and fought
them off. calling for help az loully as
l could, they hal rushed to the plat
form and probably jumped off. O.:
course let sombody else find the buI-
let hole in my hat, .end then expressed
surprise alb ut it.
"Wcll. sir. it worked like a charm.
The next morning the papers had long
accounts of it. and they all praised
me highly for keeping the robbers
away from the monej-chest. l was
he lion of the hour The presidentof
The company, too. wrote long
personal letter to me. and in
closed a check for $500. H re
made another point by seniinr
the check back, and saying that l
could not acc pit such a check for hav-
6 done merely my plai', duty. From
that time on was very solid with the
compant, and soon had one of the
best runs a'd the best pay they could
give me.
'There were two funny things about
that case. Que was that the agent at
Me station We had last passed said he
saw two hard cooking characters
around the station just before the
train come in, and never saw the m
again, while the conductor said no
such persons boarded the train as
legitimate passengers. Another funny
thing was that g ntleman who oc-
ca|ionally sent largs sums Of m ,n.y
20 his agent at the other end of the
road said he had telegraph d ON that
day that he wo:,ll senl $4,000 that
night. II 81 happened. however, that
he did not send it Till the next night.
H, always thought it was his money
he robbers were after. -Ctica 90