Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-13
A MIDNIGHT ATTACK.
Bold Bandits Overhaul a Train in the
Suburbs of a Large City.
THE EXPRESS CAR SUFFERS MOST.
Trainnaen Held Up and Several Safes Are
Blown Open With Bombs.
THRILLING STORY OF THE FIREMAN

MILwAUKEE. Nov. 12.-When the st.
Paul train arrived at point not far from
the Western Union Junction at 1 o'clock
this morning the fireman, Edwin Averill,
who was putting some coal into the furnace,
was startled to hear a noise behind him.
He turned around and discovered two
heavily masked men clambering over the
tender. Both leveled double-barreled mus
kets at the fireman and engineer, "Bill'
Mackay, with the Injunction:
Don't move an inch till we tell you to.
or we will blow the top of your heads off. -
Engineer Mackay was ordered to run the
train to within point about one mile from
Western Union Junction. Here the engi-
neer was commanded to stop, and he and
the firemen were ordered to step out. They
were marched to the express car, under
cover of the guns, and then the work of
blowing open the express car began. Sew
eral bombs, the fireman thinks they were,
were thrown into the car, and the explosions
were terrific and must have awakened every
passenger on the train, but nobody appeared
on the scene.
The Fireman's Graphic Story.
Fireman Averill's story is the most COM
prehensive. They made me walk ahead of
them to the express car" he said, "and they
gave me jimmy to pry open the boxes. I
had to move all the dead matter off the
boxes and do their dirty work generally,
but was glad to get off with whole
skin. They got the messengers keys,
though he was in no hurry to give them up.
and they had no trouble in getting away
with the money"
The train was held for over half an hour,
and if the plans of the robbers had not been
perfect they would not have been delayed
much. Their entire efforts were centered
on the express car, and not a passenger was
molested. The fireman thinks there were
half dozen men guarding the coaches, how
ever.
LESS than five minutes out of Western
Union Junction." said Messenger Murphy,
"the train slowed up suddenly. A musket
was poked through top window of the car,
and second later terrific explosion oc-
CURED that knocked both myself and Mr..
Cook in a heap. Half dozen other ex-
plosions followed, and both doors flew off
the bolts. Then two men, wearing big
black masks, clambered quickly into the car
and covered us with double-barreled
muskets. We were cautioned to maintain
silence, at the penalty Of getting our heads
blown off,
AThorough Overhauling of the Car.
"After glancing hurriedly about the car,
the robbers fastened their eyes on the two
iron boxes of the American Express Com
pany. The robbers brought the fireman in
little later, and went through all the
boxes. They compelled us to hand over the
KEYS. and then dumped the boxes out on the
roadbed. One of the robbers kept us COW
cred with his musket all the time, while
tn, other robber superintended the oper-
ations of the fireman."
Messenge. Murphy stated that he had
secured all the bills Of the money contained
in the safe and that the sum was undoubtedly
q very large on. 1t is believed here that
the robbers secured at least 100000. An
official of the St. Paul road said that the
train which was held up was the one which
carried all the money received by Mil
waukee banks from the East in the
morning.
Later dispatches, however, say that the
loss will probably not be so heavy as was
feared, as the largest sums of money were
in safes that were not opened.