The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-06
HOLD UP YOUR HANDS!n
Bold and Partially Successful Attempt to Rob
a Passenger Train.

a Passenger Train.
| KANSAS CITY, Aug. 4" Hold up your
hands ~ was the command that astonished
the passengers of the st. Paul sleeper at
tached to the rear of the Wabash evening
express as it pulled out of Harlem at s
o'clock last evening. The command was
spoken by one of two armed men, whose
faces were concealed behind hankerchiefs,
and who had entered the rear of the coach.
Hands went up. There were seven people
in the coach, five passengers, the sleeping
car conductor and the porter. OF the pas
sengers one was a lady. At the first COM
mand her face blanched with fear, her
| hands went up for moment and then fell
| listlessly into her lap. She had tainted. Il
/ guess they want bother u.s. remarked one
! of the robbers, and satisfied that no resist
would be offered, they commenced their
work of plumber One of the men went
through the passengers, one by one,
while the other, with his revolver in his
extended hand, kept watchful lookout for
signs of opposition. In this way the plum
derer secured all the booty he could in his
haste, and when it was all over and the
robbers had escaped, the passengers found
they had been relieved of S175 in cash and
two gold watches.
The train left Kansas City at s 20 o'clock
last night. When the train reached the
Missouri river bridge two men were seen
to get off the forward end of
the baggage car and disappear behind
a lumber pile. The train hands thought
they were tramps who had stolen a ride
from Kansas City and paid no attention to
the incident. They are now convinced that
they were the robbers, and that they caught
the rear end of the last sleeper as it passed
Al. Il. i
out of Harlem the robbers entered the
sleeping car and went through the passen-
gers as described. 1t was evidently their
intention to rob the passengers in all the
coaches. They worked the train from
the rear, for as they left the St. Paul
sleeper they again cautioned the passen-
gers to not give the alarm under penalty of
being shot by ''the man on the platform -
Leaving the st. Paul coach, they started
for the next one ahead. On the platform
they met the conductor of the train, John
Roach. One of the robbers pushed his re
volver under the conductors nose and or
dered him to throw up his hands. The
conductor supposed from the nature of their
disguise that number of railroad men
who had taken passage on the
train were playing practical joke on him,
and with laugh he attempted to push past
them and enter the sleeper. Just then
gust of wind swept the masks of the rob-
bers aside, and he knew that the affair was
one of dead earnest He had no weapon
but he carried his lantern in his hand, and
with that he dealt one of the men a vicious
blow on the head. simultaneously with
his assault the other robber fired shot at
him. His aim was bad, and the bullet
missed its mark The first robber had by
this time recovered himself, and he,
too, took shot at the conductor. His
aim was no more precise than that
of his partner. The robbers then
with one more parting shot swung off from
the steps of the car. AS they did so the
conductor hurled his lantern after them,
determined to have the "last tag on them.
The train was running at the rate of TWEEN
ty-five miles an hour Conductor Roach
swung out beyond the side of the car and
saw the robbers arise and make with all
haste for the road that leads to Kansas
City. That was the last seen of them. In
the meantime the passengers in the sleeper
had been so completely terrorized that they
did not regain their senses until they
heard the firing on the platform. Then
one of them pulled the cord that con-
nected with the air brake, and the train
came to stand still about mile from the
place where the robbers jumped off. A
special agent of the Wabash road who was
on the train ordered the engineer to run to
Randolph, few miles ahead, and there
uncoupled the engine and ran it back to
Harlem, where a posse was organized and
started out at once. Guards were stationed
at the approaches of the bridge to prevent
entrance into Kansas City. The police of
the neighboring towns have also been
warned. The robbers are described as
rather youthful, not over twenty or
twenty-three years of age, of slight build
and dressed something like farmers No
one saw their faces except the conductor,
and by the dim light from his lantern he
received no definite impression of their
fIves.
The sheriff's posse returned this morning
after an almost fruitless search for the
robbers. They succeeded in tracing the
men to farm house where it is known
they stole a horse from a farmer named
Evans. 1t is supposed that they forced the
horse to carry double load. The tracks
of the animal at least were traced to a
bend on the river where footprints in the
sand showed that the two men probably
dismounted. AT this place all traces of the
bandits were lost. 1t is likely that they
crossed the river and boarded the train for
Leavenworth on the Kansas & Northern
railway and escaped by that means to
Leavenworth and thence to some point in
Nebraska. Two of the passengers in the
sleeper were Mr.. and Mrs. Charles P
Denham, of this city.