Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-08-09
A STAGE ROBBERY.
Story OF Daring Exploit and It's
Humorous Side.

Story OF q Daring Exploit and It's
Humorous Side.
E. c. K. ROcklin, young eX-ser-
yeant of the United States regular army,
arrived in the city the other morning
en- route to Rochester, n. Y, and was
seen by Globe Democrat reporter at
Union depot, to whom he RECALLED a bit
of personal experience that is in the
nature of novel and thrilling story of
the pure, genuine type of the wild re-
cions OF the Far West. Mr.. ROcklin
was sergeant in Troop E, of the Eighth
United States Cavalry, stationed at
Eagle Pass, on the Rio Grande river,
in the southwestern portion OF Texas,
but, his enlistment of five years having
ended, he is on a trip home before en-
listing the second time. His troop is
on a march from Texas to Dakota Ter
ritory, and is at present in the region
of Fort Reno, !. 7. He babe goodbye
TO his comrades at Fort Concho, Tex,
and proceeded to San Angelo. in the
southwestern part of the same State.
Here he joined party OF civilians, who
started overland forty-five miles to Bal
linger. The young sergeant from that
point tells story Of most daring
stage robbery, showing the nerve and
grit, and at the same time grim humor,
OF a Western desperate.
ION last Saturday. the 2Sd of June.
a party composed of six civilians and
myself started out from San Angelo
for Ballinger. Tex, in a large stage
coach pulled by four horses" began
Sergeant Rocklin. 1T was jolly
crowd. for there We're Harry Bennett,
a wealthy saloon-keeper of San An
gelo: Mr.. King. commercial traveller;
a Jew known as Jake. also travel
ing salesman. and q man from Atlanta,
Ga, who had his negro servant with
him, and a deputy sheriff from Angelo.
Our route lay across the plains, and
was n sandy trail winding along drear-
lily. and few miles out from San
Angelo there was not a single human
habitation to be seen. As the eye
views the long stretches of level plain,
there was nothing seen but IA clump of
mesquite bushes here and there. All
was earth and sky. 1t was an exceed
ingly warm day. and the rays of the
sun came down with scorching heat,
which was almost suffocating. But the
driver cracked his whip occasionally
and kept the horses moving at good
pace, and while We glided along the
desert trail there was nothing to break
the utter loneliness and mOnOtony, ex-
cept now and then u jack rabbit or
coyote would jump from behind a mes
quite bush and sling real estate behind
him so swiftly that he would soon dis
appear.
Naturally. the crowd banded Jokes
back and forth for amusement. 1t was
well known that the country is infested
with bandits and stage robbers, only
six weeks ago a stage-coach being
held up and robbed. We talked
about what a joke it would be for the
stage robbers to swoop down upon us,
and many appeared to be afraid. but
only for the purpose of arousing the
fears of Jake. the jew. But the deputy
sheriff was given to braggadocio. and
rolling up his sleeves said that he had
a muscle that would brighten any rob.
Der. We Travelled along. joking in this
manner, until about three o'clock in
the afternoon, when. twenty-seveu
miles out from San Angelo. We saw q
man coming over q swell of the plain
a short distance from the trail. He was
walking leisurely in a direction to NEE,
us. Now the passengers joked more
freely than ever. and in pure fun sale
this was bandit who was making hi
way to rob the party. One of thu
passengers was riding on the seat with
the driver. and a small gust of wine
blew his hat to the ground.
while the coach was standing
still, waiting for the passenger to ge
his Eat, the strange man walked up b,
the side of the horses. He was q mar
of powerful build, six feet in height
with brown. shaggy hair, small mus
tache, had a cold gray eye. with /,
treacherous look and with q larg,
white sombrero thrown negligently OF
one side of his head. and wearing Z
belt from which dangled two larg'
Smith & Wesson revolvers; he plainly
showed that he was q desperate of tn
most dangerous character. The maj
stepped around on the other side of tn
coach" continued Sergeant Rocklin
:. and in trice he had blue sill
handkerchief over his face below hi
eyes as q mask. The passengers though
he was playing joke and guyed' hin
BY hallooing: When did you get in. Oh