The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-06-04
ROBBERS ROAD.
A Deed Of Heroism and q Chew OF
Navy Plug.

Way back. some thirty years agone.
dition of lawlessness that has made it
the scene of many a romance; in fact,
in that epoch of CALIFORNIA; history
which corresponds closely with the
Middle Age period in the history of
the world, there was stage route of
some extent crossing an inland county,
which had gained for itself the title of
the Robbers Road" Like many an
other good old name and landmark,
its appalling title has passed through
a degenerative process, and now its
origin lives only in the memory of a
few white-haired old pioneers. the
remnants of the brave and doughty
settlers, who cleave with the tenacity
of despair to the tales of yore.
Important business complications
necessitated my undertaking jour
ney through this portion of The State,
where the depredations of highway
men resembled the sudden swoop Of
feudal barons on itinerant hucksters
and pilgrims, and where a heavy
purse changed hands with the celebrity
with which the handkerchief of puz-
zled spectator passes from his own
pocket into that of the performing
prestidigitator.
Though far from a coward, and in
ured to danger. as was any one who
had made the perilous trip over
mountain, plain and desert from East
to West, l confess il was with any
thing but pleasurab.e anticipatiOns
that took my seat in the vehicle that
carried the occasional mail
will digress here TO say that my
general habits are abstemious, while
as to tobacco in particular-with the
sole exception of the circumstance
soon to be related-it has never in any
form passed my lips; but have found
it by no means subversive of. success
with men to have always on hand a
small supply of the article which con-
stitutes the nectar and ambrosia OF so
many, and on this occasion, as on
many others before and since, had
with me pocket-case OF cigars and a
large piece of what is called by the
initiated, / believe, navy plug" an
article used for masticatory purposes
and recommended by its strength to
the strongest palates- The position of
the latter in my right-hand lower
waistcoat pocket is sufficiently i'm
portant to the sequence of the naEa-
tive to warrant my particularly in
asserting its exact location.
My only fellow-traveler was lady,
to whom had the felicity of an intro
daction previous to our departure,
though the close proximity occasioned
by the roughRess OF the road would
have made that an entirely unneces-
sary formality. Truth compels me to
state that she was neither young,
pretty nor otherwise interesting (alas!
for the lovers of romance), and as l
know that the lady is now where no
encomiums or their reverse could pos
sibly affect her. say this the more
unrestrainedly.
To beguile the tedium OF our jour
ney, and for want of a better topic of
conversation, devoted my energies to
blood-curdling tales of bandits and
highway ontrages. partly true, but
largely devolved from a fertile imag-
ination, and told of "Three-fingered
Jack" and "Bottle-nosed Billy" Of
their cruelty and cunning. and skill
fully interlarded my stories with dark
inuuendoes and insinuations of our
own peril. told how revolvers had
been used as effective coercive agents
in variety of instances, and always
rs sufficiently good considerations"
In the transfer of property; how
their horses outstripped the wind,
and permitted them to take part in
the stoppage of mail-coaches miles
apart; how their suspicion and greed
prompted useless outrages; in word,
/ succeeded in filling the wretched
woman with the direst OF forebodings,
that worked her up TO pitch of terror
that knew no bounds, and from thence
on every shadow concealed for her
some frightful shape, whose sole aim
and object, she was firmly convinced,
was her destruction, and these fears,
try as / would, / was now unable to
allav MEANWHILE our coacb spad m