The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-03-09
HUNTING TRAIN BEERS.
They We're Downed and Twelve
Graves Mark the sp@t.

Inc ,IoOOerg was 50 CuDnln2iy Planned
and boldly executed that the peoria of
Rawlins Springs felt themselves aggTiev-
ed, and band Of choice spirits pledged
each other over the bar Of the Oriental
saloon that they would follow the des-
peradoes who had insulted their town by
committing so great an outrage, and
never return until they had captured the
outlaws and wiped out the stain with
their blood
One hotel, one livery stable, half doz-
en- barrooms, and as many gambling sa-
looms, with music hall and an immense
cattle pen, made up the town of Rawlins
Springs. Numerous fights had occurred
there. The little graveyard on the side
of the hill contained twenty-five mounds.
and on the head boards of all save one
We're inscriptions which explained how
the occupant of thenarrow home had met
his death with his boots on. The one I'M
marked grave was occupied BY a man
who died a natural death, and it had not
been considered necessary to record so
uninteresting an event. Never had a
train robbery been committed there be-
fore, however. and it was natural that the
citizens should feel themselves insulted.
It was dark when the express train
stopped long enough to allow the passen-
gers to eat their suppers at the Rawlins
hotel, and on the evening of the robbery
it was even darker than usual, because
a great storm was gathering and the
heavy clouds shut ont the light of the
moon aud tile stars with an inpenetrabe
veil. Two miles below Rawlins, the
train halted to take on water. It was
just after making this last stop that the
passengers in the sleeping cars realized
that something unusual was happening.
The train suddenly began to slow up,
and a minute later the people in the car
next to the express heard a sudden order
to hold up their hands. Then from each
end of the car came man with his face
muffied in handkerchief and a big re-
volver in his hand With perfect cool
ness every passenger was examined. and
money, watches and all other valuahles
were levied on. Then one man was left
to keep the people quiet, and the other
cars were gone through until nobody in
tho train was left unexamined. When
the work was done, a long vssstle was
given, and suddenly as they had appeared
the robbers slipped away in the darkness.
The train was taken back to Rawlins
Springs, and there it was found that the
express car, too, had been robbed, and
on the floor in front of his safe lay the
messenger, shot through the heart.
Thirty thousand dollars in all had been
taken. One of the passengers claimed
that when the signal to leave had been
given he had seen four men jump from
the train. It was to capture these four
and recover the stolen treasure that the
good citizens of Rawlins had pledged
themselves.
Twenty of the boldest men of Rawlins
started on the man hunt Every one of
them had for years lived frontiersman's
life and was accustomed to risk his ex-
istence on the slightest provocation, and
it therefore seemed a trivial matter for
such number of well armed men to
capture four fugitives, no matter how
desperate they might be.
With the daylight on the morning af-
ter the robbery, the cavalcade of vigil
lantes left Rawlins, and rode down to
the water tank. Without difficulty they
found the place where several horses had
been tied, and it was easy work to see
that from that point they had been led
distance of mile or more, and had then
been ridden at full speed toward the
mountains. For ten miles the track of
the fugitive was plain and distinct, and
then as the ground became more rocky
the trail faded away until it finally dis
appeared altogether. For several miles
the vigilantes rode on ia the same direc-
ton, but when they found not the slight
est trace of the men they were following,
they concluded that the robbers had
changed their course, and it would be
necessary to begin all over.
By the orders of the leader of the
vigilantes, the twenty men spread them
selves over the prairie with the agree
ment that they should meet at shutdown
and report any discoveries which had
been made. When the stunted trees be-
gan to cast long shadows over the
prairie, one by one the men returned to
the trysting place disheartened and tired.
Finally, however, the hopes of all were
revived by the arrival of one of the
party waving something over his head
as he came galloping up. The article
he was waving proved to be red
bandanna handkerchief with two holes
cut in the shape of eyes piercing it.
With the handkerchief as the sole trophy
of the hunt. the whole party returned to
Rawlns Springs.
That evening levee was held at the
Oriental saloon, and the handkerchief
was placed on exhibition behind the bar.
Suddenly a small man who had entered
the saloon unobserved caused deep
sensation by asking to examine the
trophy of the hunt, and then by an
.nouncing that he knew the train robbers.
The small man was generally known
as the keeper of ii prairie store ten miles
out from Rawlins, and he told how four
men whom he recognized as Tom Aus
tin, of Texas; Dave Simmons, from the
same state, with RUDE Reynolds and
Long Ji:n Farnsworth, from Colorado
had ridden up to his store on the after
noon preceding the robbery and had
each purchased red handkerchief, and
he could further swear that the handker-
chief before him was one of the nupber