The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-03
vINEs's RIDE IN A TRUNK.
Chicago Thief Tells the Story of His Rough
Railway Experience.

Railway Experience.
st. Louis Special to Chicago Times.
Thomas w. Vines, the employee of the
Adams 81 Westlake Company, who disap-
peared last Saturday with $4,000 of the
company's funds, arrived here to-day, hav-
ing made most of the trip here from Chica-
go IN trunk, locked up and checked as
baggage. His fight and ride to st. Louis
is best told in his own words. He said:
When we got TO the depot my friend,
true to his promise, was there, and 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 toughest
kind of a manner. The smashers did not
seem to care who or what was In
side, judging by the way | was tossed
worst of it by any means, as there wa
more fortunes in store for me- The outsld
smasher had no sooner dumped me In than
the smasher inside of the car stood the
trunk up on the end in such way that my
head was down. If it had remained 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 de-
termined to grin and bear as much as
could, but you can bet l was, glad when
the Smasher gave the trunk shove, throw
ing the right side up.
Il 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 thought was goner
sure. He rolled it back and forth and gave
it an occasional push with his foot, almost
shaking the teeth out of my head. l could
hardly keep from crying out to him to break
~ the esS Of He finally n got nut the anT
heavy case on top of it, which interfered to
a great extent with my breathing. kept
growing sicker from the time the train left
the depot, and before it was fifty miles out
l felt that / could not live much longer
Il put my mouth and nostrils to the
holes, but the supply of air was neitherpu
nor plentiful. When the train started
my only fear was that l won, would be dis =
Sthsr aw Sst from Chicago nsR' beggsn
fear that would not be discovered.
About seventy-five miles out i became
deathly sick, and felt myself getting
weaker. had told my friend that would
get to st. Louis, alive or dead, in the trunk,
and would not allow myself to be caught,
but with sutfocation staring me in the face
my resolution weakened, and, using all my
strength, began to yell and kick for dear
life.
the devil is thatN and then he walked to the
other end of the car evidently to locate the
meaning of the racket. / was getting close
to state of Inconsistencies and i'm
proved my time In crying TO De liberated.
could tell from the movements and the
talk of the baggageman that he was
frightened 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 how
ever got in such box. / told them was
too poor to pay my fare and was stealing a
ride in a novel way, and they agreed that 1T
was a very novel way, but instead of throw
ing me off they assisted me back to a pas
senger coach, as was very weak, and told
me could ride the balance of the way as a
| human being.
'As soon as got out of the trunk it was
| tied with ropes, the back having been bro
| ken to let me out and thrown in the car:
| They did not examine the socks or old
| clothes in it and consequently did not find
| the money. When the train reached this
city 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 il
| get out of his hands without the check.
81 remained about the depot and was neal
| the bagga ge-room about o'clock, when q
| 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 was i'll for it,"