The national leader., 1889-09-28
A DARING ROBBERY.
A Mail and Passenger Train
Plundered by DesperadOes.
The Expressman Made to Sur
render at the Point of a Pistol.

! The Mobile and Ohio south bound mail and
passenger train has been held up by train
robbers at Buckatunna, Miss, station sew
! enty miles north of Mobile, Ala.
just before the train left Buckatunna two
men disguised mounted behind the tender Of
the train and covered Engineer Jack Terrell
and Fireman Thomas Hust with revolvers-
The leader ordered the engineer to pull out
! and stop at the bridge, two miles below
! Buckatunna and to place the train SO that
the express and mail car should be on the
! furthur side of the bridge from the rest of
the train the bridge being trestle over
deep creek.
'You obey instructions or it's DEATH" he
| said
The engineer reluctantly obeyed and ran
! the train where the men with the pistols
wanted it.
Then there appeared a third robber, dis
guised like the other two. These three made
| the engineer and fireman come with them to
the express car and the engineer had to call
out to Expressman j. w Dunning to open
the door of the car. Dunning, taking in the
situation, opened the door and the chief
robber jumped in, the other two remaining
outside to guard the engineer and fireman
| The leader made the messenger dump the
contents of the safe into a canvas sack, but
noticing that he was not closely watched,
Dunning showed some of the money aside, so
that about $1,000 was hidden, the robbers get
ting S2700. All this money belonged to the
Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company. Along
side the express car door was pile of SIC, GOO
Government money, en- route to Florida,
which the robbers failed to notice
Then the robbers made the expressman get
out of the car and go with them to the mail
car. W. G. Bell, the mail agent, had suspect
ed that robbery was going on and tried to get
into a baggage car with number OF regis
tered mail packages. Just as he stepped to
the end door of the car he through a
glass that the robbers had intercepted him.
The leader, supposed to be Bunch faced him,
pistol in hand and, finding Bells arms full of
packages, said:
dump those here on my left arm"
There were twenty-four packages in all,
and Bell dumped them as requested. The
robber then made Bell hand him registered
pouch and ordered the agent to open 1T, but
Bell had no key. so the robber carried the
pouch off with him. The pouch was made
up at Meriden and the contents and value are
unknown.
Just then Billy Scholes, the conductor, who
had been trying to find out what the trouble
was and had armed himself with Winches-
ter, came out of the rear of the train, waved
his lantern and shouted:
''What's the matter%
The robbers fired two shots at him, crying
out: .'COme up here and you'll see what's
the matter"
The engineer told the robber to let up on
shooting, as the train hands would open fire
and shoot their own men.
There was no more shooting and the train
was ordered to pull out at once, which it
did, the robbers disappearing in the under
growth on the west side of the track. The
train pulled down to Citronvile and swapped
time with the accommodation train, and the
accommodation train engine and car was
sent back to the scene of the robbery with
detectives and an armed posse.
The leader of the robbers is a man six feet
high, of about one hundred and seventy
pounds weight, dressed, in common clothing
and slouch hat. His assistants wore COM
mon clothing and nothing to distinguish
them; When the handkerchief slipped down
a little off of the leaders face the express
messenger says he saw he had a black mus
tache and he thinks he had beard
The leader Of the robbers is believed to be
Rube Burrows, a noted desperate, the man
for whom search created so much excite
ment in the northern part of Alabama a few
months ago. At that time it is believed he
was organizinga gang to head up some train,
and the Mobile and Ohio company. anticpat-
ing an attack armed all its train hands with
Winchester rifles. This was made public
and was doubtless what the robber referred
to when he said during the progress of rob
bing the mail car: ''The Mobile and Ohio
show them | could do it."
Another Train Robbery in Texas.
At late hour in the night, as the north
bound Santa Fe train was pulling out of
Crowley, ten miles south of Fort Worth,
Texas three men boarded the
train and two others jumped on
the locomotive. The two on the engine
placed pistols to the heads of the engineer
and firemen and told them to stop.
The robbers cut the engine, baggage, mail
and express cars from the rest of the train
and made the engineer pull half mile
further. One of the men then got into the
express car and ordered the messenger
20 show them the money He pointed
10 three bags of Mexican silver dollars
One of the men ripped open sack and show
fled the silver out of the door. while the 9TH
It one threw out the other sacks. They took
,wo packages said to contain $4,000 each, but
overlooked three or four money packages for
Fort Worth. The engineer was then made
% couple up and move.
The train reached Fort Worth at mid
hight, and posse of twenty men started in
'nrsI1it at once.
SECRETARY TRACY has finally decided TO
build the two 3000-ton cruisers in the Gov