The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1888-03-17
An Old Express Agents Con-


AN OlQ Express Agents Con-
fession.
eff you won't give me away" said a
m;ddle-aged man whom we will call
Brown. because Brown is not his name.
Il will tell you little trick l once
played on an express company for
which 1 was running as a messenger on
train not far from here. 1t was in
The days when thee, 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. had thought this
scheme all out carefully and tried to
look at it IN all its phases. so that no
unexpected evil result would come of
it One night we were running along
at rafting speed, BY which l mean
speed that made everything about the
old Stacking cars fattle til you
couldn't hear yourself think. The
wind was blowing very hard outside.
and everybody on the train was hug
cling about rs tight as lie could 10 a
stove. I had things all my own way.
First I took big coupling-pin and
struck my end door in such a manner
with it as TO show several large dents
in it. Then stepped outside, locked
the door, and with tremendous blow
broke the lock. | waited awhile. in
tending that if anybody was attracted
by the noise to say | lad licked N.Y.
self out and dropped my key off the
train. But nobody came. Then l
closed the door and quickly fired sew
eral shots from an old pepper-box pis-
toll which l had loaded not very heav
lily. One of these fired through the
rim of my hat. IN another moment
was back iii the passenger-coach, ex-
cited and calling for help. The con-
ductor, a brakemen, and several of the
passengers jumped up and followed
me. l was so excited [ could hardly
speak, you know, but when they saw
the broken and battered door they
OWNED what I did not tell them.
When my excitement had subsidized l
managed to explain how two masked
men had broken in the door; how had
called for help in vain; how l had
fought them both off with the stove
poker; how they had shot at me several
times,-I couldn't tell how many times.
and how, after 1 had miraculously
escaped their bullets and fought them
off. calling for help as loud as l could,
they had rushed to the platform and
probably jumped off OF course let
somebody else find the bullet hole in
my hat and then expressed surprise
about it.
swell, 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 money-chest 1 was the lion
OF the hour The president of the COM
pany, too. wrote long personal letter
to me, and inclosed check for $500.
Here l made another point by send
ing the check back, and saying that l
could not accept such check for hav-
ing done merely my plain duty. From
that time on was very solid with the
company. and soon had one OF the best
runs and the best pay they could give
me.
There were two funny things about
that case. One was that the agent at
that station we had last passed said
he saw two handbook ing charac-
ters around the station just before
the train came in and never saw
them again, while the conduc tor
said no such persons boa rded the
train as legitimate passengers. An
other funny thing was that gentle
man who occasionally sent large sums
of money 10 his agent at the other end
of the road said he had tel egraphed on
that day that lie would send ST., 900
that night. 1t SO happened, however,
that lie did not SEMI it till the next
night. He always thought it was his
money the robbers were after. CHI
cage Times.