St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-13
The Main Thing Is to Get the
Drop on the Money
Messenger.
Easy Enough Then to Get the
Express Box and Run
With It.
{ Driver With a Gomez aled
Gun Which Created a
Painful Surprise.
San Francisco Examiner.

San Francisco Examiner.
In 1881 the stage road between Ben
son and Tombstone was bad route to
travel by night or by day. Benson was
inhabited mostly by rustlerS and toughs,
and Tombstone was infested by Doc
Holiday and other people of that sort.
The Earps managed TO hold things level
in Tombstone, but the road agents
bossed the highway, and in Benson q
Nan was liable to be held up at noon on
the depot platform while waiting for a
train. Budd Philpot, brother-in-law of
Charley Foss, the king of stage drivers,
was driving the Benson and Tombstone
stage, and one night somebody tried to
hold him up not many miles from
Tombstone. Philpot had had expert
ence with road agents, and when he
heard the order to halt come from the
darkness q little behind the off fore
wheel, he concluded that the rObber was
green hand at the business, and, in
stead of putting Oh the brake, he gave
the horses the silk and sent them ahead
on the run.
in nine cases out of ten the trick
would have won. as the robber would
have hardly thought it worth the while
TO fire at rapidly escaping stage, and
the darkness would have spoiled his
aim If he did fire. Bnt the crack of
PhilpOt's lash was answered by the
crack of Winchester, and PhilpOJ half
sprung to his feet, dropped back with
moan, and swayed in his seat. The
messenger who sat behind him threw
his right arm around the driver, and
with his left seized the lines as they fell
from Philpot'S relaxed fingers.
The Winchester cracked again and
again. and cry from the inside of the
coach told that one Of the passengers
had been hit. The frightened horses
flew over the road. The messenger held
the dying driver with one arm, and
with the left hand tried to arrange the
tangled lines while the bullets whistled
by in the dark. He got the stage into
tombstone with the express box safe,
but two dead men were taken from the
coach.
That was not the work of a profess
sional road agent. The main purpose
of the robber is to secure plumber, and
if he does any killing it is either to pre-
vent somebody from killing him or to
insure the success of the robbery. The
attack upon the Tombstone stage was
the work of man-killer who had
turned road agent for one night only,
and for that and other good reasons the
Job was generally attributed TO Doc
Holiday, a man who left trail of
blood across the state and territory
between the Mississippi and the SierraS.
man who understands the art of
highway robbery can hold up any stage
without firing a shot, unless a fighting
shotgun messenger happens to be on the
box, in which case he may get into
trouble and miss the trick. The expert
professional never fools with stage on
open ground or steep down grade. He
selects his ground with ease and judg-
ment choosing place where the stage
must be driven slowly, and taking such
q position that he cannot be seen until
he has the driver covered with his shot
gun. He uses shotgun rather than
the rifle or revolver. because the shot
range. its capacity for scattering fire
being well known and duly respected by
drivers.
The bigger the bore of the gun the
more terrifying it is to passengers, al
though 1t is a singular fact that under
such circumstances % caliber rifle bar
rel is likely to be mistaken for the
mouth of the Sutro Tunnel. On the
line of every stage road in California is
pointed out some spot that is favorte
stand for robbers. 1t is usually in
sharp re-entering angle, where the
horses must be brought down to walk
and the rocky bank or a tree affords
a hiding-piace for the robbers.
1t does not matter if the driver
knows that ne is liable to be held
up at that spot and is on the alert. He
cannot make the turn at high speed. and
he must give his attention to his team
to avoid an upset. Just as the coach
swings into the gully, and the driver is
about to rein the leaders out from the
bank, he hears the Sharp command to
halt, and without turning to see he
knows that shotgun is pointing at his
head from behind the tree. The stage
driver, being commonly man Of sense
and good Judgment, puts on the brake
and stops instantly.
''Throw down the box" is the next
order, and the driver losses out the eX-
press box. Sometimes the man behind
the tree wants the mail sacks too and,
if he is very greedy and bold, he orders
the passengers to jump out and empty
their pockets. Usually the passengers
tumble over each other IN their haste to
obey the orders of the man with the gun.
and he makes good haul of watches
and loose change.
If the robber is alone nobody need
lose much wealth In holdup, however.
The robber will not throw himself off
guard to search the pockets of a lot of
passengers. 1t is his business to keep
them covered with his gun. and he de-
ponds upon their terror to induce them
TO give up what he would not search
Tor, 1t requires an artistic operator,
and one with supreme audacity to go
through whole stage load of people
and clean them out to the ultimate
nickel, but California can proudly boast
of having produced such artists. One
way of doing the trick is to pretend that
another robber Is concealed in the brush
close by.
Jim, you keep these galoots covered
while 90 through 'em," remarked the
road agent in a cool, matter-of-fact
way, after he had ranged the frightened
passengers in row with their hands
above their heads. And then he goes
through them without undue haste,
making facetious remarks as he brings
up the plumber.
The lone highwayman of Shasta, who
was captured recently, had a neat
method OF taking care of passengers
when they were numerous enough to be
troublesome. His outtlt consisted of
siX-Shooter and bundle of barley
ooSho' I1C otOppCu 6l0 luWdIu-UOunu
stage within the town limits of Redding
and put barley sack over the head of
every man in the crowd. Justas he fin
ished that part of the job the outward
bound stage drove up, and he stopped
that and bagged the heads of all
hands. Then farmer happened along,
and he was treated similarly. A citizen
of Redding, driving for a doctor, fell
into the trap and joined the barley-sack
brigade, and then came the school-marm
of the district, who was told to stop and
sit still in her buggy, which she did.
The lone robber explored the pockets of
the crowd, broke open the express
boxes, and quietly slipped away into
the woods, and the bagged victims
didn't dare to move until the school
marin began to laugh at their ridiculous
aspect and told them the robber had
gone.
In the hands of road agent entirely
great a fence uickat fc &C MIGHTY oc q