Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-11-19

mile, and marched them back and forth
for ten minutes, then sent them back to
the engine. The crew mounted their en-
gine and after delay of half an hour
went to Milwaukee The robbers were
so fri0 htened at the delay that they made
no attempt to open the safes they had
thrown out. Their dynamite bombs
wrecked the car, tearing away heavy iron
plates and tossing them fifty feet away.
After the robbery the plunderers disap-
peared, while tha country in that vicin-
ity was secured for them by detectives
of the railroad and OF the city police OF
Milwaukee.
Concerning the manner in which the
robbers did their work, Engineer
,iLaa5er or mifes north or the western
Union Junction The fireman was put
ting in coal. Suddenly he heard a
noise and looked up ! saw there was
something wrong from the expression of
his face. looked close by to see what
it was and saw a masked man with a
double bar relied gun in one hand and a
revolver in the other They were
leveled at the fireman. Quicker than /
could think another masked man ap-
peared and pointed gun and revolver
at me.
"Fireman Averill got his speech first
and called out: What do you want?'
Throw up your handsr said the rob
ber. Up went Averills hands.
II asked what they wanted. None of
your business. Well let you know soon
enough replied the man who held that
big gun and revolver pointed at me.
"The other robber handed the fireman
a cigar and said: Light it and be quick
about IL, or I'll blow your head off.
@The fireman lit it at the water glass
lamp and began comfortably pulling
away at 1t when the robber said: Give
il to me. 1t was quickly handed to
him.
"The man who held the gun at my
head said: stop her, and be quick about
il, too stopped her. He said: You
two get off the engine We did So
They followed as They said go up to
the express car. We did so They said:
Get that car OPEN / raped on the
side door. There are no end doors to
those cars. They are what tramps call
blind baggage cars.
"Well, l raped, but there was no
answer from the inside. One OF the
robbers left us and crawled through
under the car to the other side; the other
covered both myself and the fireman
with his shot gun and revolver. Soon
we heard terrific explosion. That was
bomb which he had taken from his
pocket and placed on the ledge OF the
side door of the express car
HE soon crawled back under the car
to us. lie pulled from his pocket
bottle about eight inches long, which /
could see as he stood close to me had
two fuses in IT. He 1T the fuses from
the cigar which he was then smoking
and which he had compelled the fireman
TO light He laid this bottle on the ledge
of the door and motioned us to get down
the ombankment. We ran down. They
kept us covered all the time with the
guns IL did not go of. He threw it
away. 1t was picked up and is now
held by the detectives from Milwaukee.
"He drew another from his pocket,
lighted il from his cigar. The other rob
ber said: Throw IL into the car He
held II until it burned down pretty well.
AS / stood close to him / trembIed
trifle, as I'D sooner face the revolver
than the bomb. Then he tossed it
through the glass above tho side door.
IL didn't explode for twenty seconds
Then the explosion threw the glass all