The national leader., 1889-02-02
A MAN In A TRUNK,
From Chicago to st. Louis as Baggage
He was Travelling With Stolen Pro.
perty and q Guilty Conscience.

-I1c WAS 1rhVel0& WIFI SIOlcn Il EOs
perty and a Guilty Conscience.
Probably The sLrangest experience
that ever befell a man was that of
Thomas w. Vines, an employ of
Adams q Westlake company, who Gis-
appeared from Chicago with 81 500 of
the company's fund, and was finally
captured in st. Louis. He emptied
the stolen money into sack In the
celler of his employers store and later
carried it to a room he had rented In
the vicinity. There he remained two
days. and finally took a friend into his
confidence on promise of share of the
stealings and they planned his escape
in large trunk in which was placed
the money also.
The story of his ride to st. Louis is
best told in his own words.
when we got to the depot in Chlca-
go, my friend, with the assistance of
the express driver lifted the trunk with
its human contents to the baggage
room. where it was checked and thrown
In the Wabash car in the roughest kind
Of a manner. The smashers did not
SCENE to care who or what was inside,
| judging by the way was tossed in the
car. This was not the worst of it by
any means. as there was more tortures
| In store for me. The outside smasher
had no sooner dumped me in than the
smasher inside of the Car stood the
trunk up on the end in such a way that
my head was down. If 1t had renamed
in this position any length OF time
| surely would have died, as the blood
rushed to my head and made me sick
and dizzy. / was determined to grin
and bear as much as l could, but you
Can bet l was glad when tie SmaSher
gave the trunk shove throwing the
right side up.
81 was tossed around considerably
and badly bruised. as the condition of
my face, head, and body will show.
The baggage. handler finally made
another attack on the trunk and this
time l thought was a goner sure. He
rolled 1t back and forth and gave it an
occasional push with his foot. almost
| shaking the teeth out of my head, |
could hardly keep from crying out to
| him to break open the cover. He finally
got the trunk in Que end Of the car and
put another heavy trunk on top of it,
which interfered to great extent with
my breathing. l kept growing sicker
| from the time the train left the depot,
and before 1t was fifty miles out l felt
that | could not live much longer
packed In the trunk.
81 put my mouth and nOStriis to the
holes but the supply of air was neither
pure nor plentiful. When the train
| started my only fear was that 1 would
be discovered, but as we kept getting
further away from Chicago began to
| fear that | would not be discovered.
About seventy. five miles out l became
deathly sick, and felt myself getting
weaker. had told my friend that 1
| would go to st. Louis, alive or dead,
in the trunk, and would not allow my
self TO be caught, hut with suffocatiOn
staring me in the face my resOlu. ion
weakened, and using al my strength
began to yell and kick for dear life.
"I heard the baggageman say, What
in the devil is thatY" and then he
walked to the other end of the Car
evidently to locate the meaning OF the
racket. 1 was getting close to a state
of Inconsistencies and 1 improved my
time by crying to be liberated. could
tell from the movements and the talk
of the baggageman that he was frigh-
tened at the noise. 1t seemed an age
before he did finally throw Off the trunk
that was On mine and took me out.
The train crew came in and looked at
me as though was curiosity. asking
hnr T in l told
| them l was too poor to pay my fare and
was stealing ride III novel way and
they agreed that it was very novel
way, but instead of throwing me off
i they assisted me back to passenger
coach, as L was very weak, and told me
[ could ride the balance of the way as
human being.
"As soon as got out of the trunk it
was tied with ropes, the back having
been broken to let me out. and thrown
in tho car. They did not examine the
socks or old clothes in IT., consequently
did not find the money. When the
train reached st. Louis, my friend
! went away and the trunk was found In
the baggage room. AS he had the check
| could not secure the baggage. the
agent giving me to understand that he
would not let it get out of his hands
without the check.
II remained about the depot and was
near the baggage-room about 5 O'Clock,
when detective came up and called
me Vines and then made me prisoner.
|! When saw him take the trunk out
concluded that the jig was up and that
1 was IN for it.''. Vines is now Jailed
in Chicago awaiting trial for murder.