Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-06-25
A GENTLEMAN ROBBER.
Remarkable Career Of "Sheet Iron
Jack" Of Shasta.
a Daredevil Outlaw and His Wonderful
EIplOlts-HOw He Once Captured His
PurSuors-HelpInE an Unfort-
un1eO German.

Exploits-HOW He Once Captured His
PurSuOrs-HelPIng an Unfort-
unAEO German
II you want a story, full to each mi
mute detail Of exactness, like the exact
ness of photograph, come with me to
the cabins of the pioneers. Listen to
the legend Of ''Sheet Iron Jack, Of
| Shasta" one of the old briga of early
California.
Sheet Iron Jack became a noted char
acter about the time the surface mines
of Shasta and Trinity began to ''play
out" He was handsome, young and
talented, and very AinswOrth's Dick
! Turpin, or John Ridd's Cousin Tom, on
horseback. No clergyman was ever
molested on his beat so from this and
other circumstances the story came that
he was the youngest naof prominent
Baptist minister in New York His
popular name, the only one by which he
was known, arose from some of his re-
markable escapes. Men said that he
could shake bullets from his coat as a
! duck sheds water. Certainly the best
shots among the constables and sheriffs
of the region found it impossible to
wing this flying rider, as he passed like
a whirlwind through the mountains of
the Northern Coast Range and Sierra.
There was never a more audacious
! brigand. The elder Dumas would have
made him the hero of three-volume
! novel. 1t wGs not that he was the most
expert of horse-thieves, but he practiced
| his profession with such admirable DO
| liteness and humor that nine-tenths of
| his victims never cared to complain,
which left his unique genius free to
escape, dertde and cover with obloauy
and confusion the remaining tenth and
all whom they called to their help. 1t
goes without saying that he was brave,
with that splendid physical courage
that in times of tumult raises fishermen
to ducal chairs, and makes hostlers
Marshals of France.
His high vitality overflowed, so the
old pioneers say, in acts and sayings
that would have chorded well with great
surroundings and fateful crises of his
tory. He belonged to the type of men
whom Napoleon and Skobeleff loved,
understood and sent on desperate err
rands. Only horse thief, and yet what
wasted raw material of heroism went to
the making OF his character.
No one knew where Sheet Iron Jack
lived. Somewhere in a wilderness un-
crossed by wagon roads he made his
camps, never twice in the same raTine.
He seemed to have knowledge of all the
moves Of his enemies, and, if the sheriff
went to San Francisco, was as likely as
not to ride leisurely through the county
seat, take drink in the leading saloon,
dine at Miners Hotel and give the news
paper editor an item, written out for
publication in his own Italian hand and
signed "Sheet Iron Jack, of Trinity
Center"
One OF his most famous exploits oc-
CURED In the foothills of Southern
Shasta. He had taken dozen blooded
horses from a wealthy Tehama farmer,
but was closely pursued, and just as he
reached the Cottonwood crossing he
found 1t necessary to change his tactics.
He turned the stolen horses into another
rancher' stable, and drove dozen of the
rancher's own horses into tho highway to
confuse his pursuers. When these latter
reached the little village across the
bridge o rough teamster was the only
guest at the log cabin hotel-Sheet Iron
Jack in Whimsical disguise, for he was a
perfect Proteus when occasion required.
Before morning he locked the sheriff's
party in their rooms, took the best
horses, turned the others loose in the
woods, went back to the rancher's stable
and secured the pick of the first lot.
With these he swan the Sacramento,
and taking advantage of hiding-places
known only to himself, reached Oregon
In safety week later. The saucy and
amusing letter of thanks which he left
behind on the occasion, pinned with his
pocket-knife to the sheriff's door, went
the rounds of all the newspapers.
Sheet Iron Jack on one memorable
occasion ventured into town on the
Sacramento at time when half dozen
warrants were hanging over his head.
He was recognized under his disguise
and pursued by crowd of armed citi-
zenS He could not reach his own
horse, but ran into a stable, cut out an
animal, rode out of the back door on an
alley and made for the river. Every
one saw the horse and rider swim
across in hail of bullets and climb the
shrnbby bank, but when the pursuers,
who rap around by a bridge, reached the
place the horsc was found riderless.
Sheet Iron Jack had quietly slipped off
and crept under the wild grape-vines
into the river, again foated down
stream close under the bluff, swan
back and waited his time. An hour
later he recovered his own horse and
made q successful break for the West
ern foothills.
That was time OF frontier balls in
the thinly-settled counties of Northern
California. People would often drive
twenty or thirty miles to dance, and
Sheet Iron Jack sometimes appeared
unlimited. 1t was in the edge of the
oak forests on tho eastern side of the
Sacramento, in Northern Shasta, that
the Stiilwatsr settlers were once having
ball in log-catiR scbool-houso. A
tall, black-haired young man, elegantly
dressed, appeared on the scene and be-
came the bright, particular star of the
occasion. A handsome brunette was
about to be led on the floor by her part
ner, when the stranger stepped up to
his side, whispered his name, bowed 70
the young lady, saying that her partner
had resigned tho privilege, and led her
gut The terroElsed young man sas