St. Paul daily globe., 1888-06-18
AT A RIFLES MUzzLE.
Ten Highwaymen Stop a
Northern Pacific PaSSen-
ger Train,
Break Open the Express Car
With a Pick From the
Engine,
And Take a Money Pack
age---ItS Contents I'm
known.
Two Hundred Shots Fired, But
Nobody Killed--Passen-
gers Robbed.

conversation with passengers and train
men from the West, it is learned that
there were at least ten in the gang of
train robbers who stopped the Northern
Pacific train near Big Horn at II o'clock
last night. The signal which stopped
the train was torch made by setting
fire to brush, which was swung across
the track. The engineer stopped the
train, and as soon as the train halted
one of the robbers boarded the engine
and compelled the engineer and fire.
man to leave their posts at the
point of a Winchester rifle. They
took the coal pick from the engine and
with this implement broke the door of
the express car, forcing the engineer to
enter the car first to prevent the express
messenger from shooting. The mes
Senger pleaded with the engineer to
keep out Of the car, but the robbers
forced him through the door after in
timidating the messenger by riddling
the car with bullets. Several of the
gang entered the car and took posses
sion of
A MONEY PACKAGE,
the amount of which is unknown. as it
is learned the messenger refused to in
form the conductor of the amount.
They took the conductor to the rear
Pullman car and told him to stay there
After remaining under guard 45 min
uteS the conductor asked permis-
sion of the robbers to go back and
flag train which was nearly due to
prevent it from crashing into the pas
Senger. Permission was given and the
train was tagged. The passenger train
was held about one hour and thirty
minutes, during which time about S4O0
was taken from the passengers. Over
200 shots were fired, evidently for the
purpose of terrOriZing the passengers.
as no was killed. When they escaped,
the gang separated, part going south
and others north. A posse under the
sheriff Of Billings has been organized
and is now in pursuit.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
Special to the Globe.
HELENA, June IA special from
Billings, Mont, says that the west
bound limited passenger on the North
ern Pacific was robbed by highwaymen
Friday night near Big Horn. I. I'll.
Sargent. engineer, and w. B. Cavender
were interviewed on the robbery, and
Sargent gave the following account of
the affair:
We were halted three and one-half
miles west of Big Horn by torch about
9:30 D. m. We stopped and a masked
man appeared at the steps of the engine.
A moment later gun was discharged,
the bullet cutting its way through the
end of the cab. was invited to throw up
my hands. l was then ordered to
get out of the engine, and under an
car, which was broken open by the
| al
to crawl through the opening, and did
so, telling the express messenger what
was gong on. He at first declined
to throw up his hands, but
finally weakened and gave up the keys.
Several of the gang followed me in and
opened the safe, securing $50. One
package that looked particularly valu-
able proved to be a package of lead
pencils. The profanity that followed
its opening can better be imagined than
described. The gang then took
me down through the train. The pas
sengerS were ordered to hold up their
guard was stationed at each door of the
car, and only one robber went through
the train. Several had only a dol
lar or two in silver, which,
as the robber remarked, broke
his heart to accept, and the coin was
promptly returned. About 800 was OBJ
tanned from the passengers in the
sleeper. The performance lasted nearly
two hours. The engineer was finally
allowed to return to his engine.
but the fireman was kept in
close custody until the robbers
were through with their work and had
retired. One passenger resisted the
robber, who at once discharged his re-
hn h,l 1nt rl, hi
victims hat and passing through the
window. The victim gave up without
further argument. Conductor Beeman
acted heroically and prevented blood
shed.
LEARNED IN ST. PAUL.
Supt. Browning. of the express COM
pany. was seen by a reporter for the
GLOBE last night, but had no details
about the robbery. He said that the
robbers could not have secured much
from the messenger, whose name is
Enos. If they had secured the money
that was being sent through, they
would have gotten good haul.
But as precaution against such rob-
berries each express car is provided with
a burglar-proof safe fastened to the car,
and which would require an expert
eight hours to open. The messenger
does not know the combination on that
safe, which is opened at certain points
along the line. All the money
that the robbers secured was the
small amounts that were passing from
local points. Mr.. Browning, as soon as
he learned of the robbery, put the sheriff
at Billings On the trail of the gang, and
the commander at Fort Custer has
offered his assistance in running them
down. A reward will be offered for
their capture to-day and nothing will be
left undone necessary to bring about the
capture of the men. The robbery oc-
Cured near Big Horn, water tank six
miles east of Custer.