, 1891-08-29

captured recently. had n very neat method
of taking care OF passengers when they
were numerous enough to be Troublesome.
His outfit consisted OF a six-shooter and a
bundle of barley sacks. He stopped the in
ward bound stage within the town limits
of Redding, and put a barley sack over the
head of every man in the crowd Just as
he finished that part Of the jobthe outward
bound stage drove up, and he stopped that
and bagged the heads of all hands. Then
a farmer happened along and he was treat
ed similarly. A citizen of Redding, driving
for a doctor, fell into the trap and Joined
the barley sack brigade, and then came the
schoolmarm 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 ex-
press boxes, and quietly slipped away into
the wood and the bagged victims didn't
dare to move until the schoolmarm began
to laugh at their ridiculous aspect and
told them the robber had gone.
In the hands of a road agent entirely
great a fence picket Is as mighty as a two
shot scatter gun. The Gilroy stage was
toiling up a long hill at dusk some years
ago VIXEN the driver saw something white
fiuttsri7g Just ahead, and his leaders
stopped with their breasts against a rope
stretched across the road. A handker-
chief was autterinR from the center OF the
road. The driver put on the brake, and
then somebody standing by a tree at the
side of the road told him to throw down
the box. He glanced toward the person
who spoke and saw a masked man point
ing something at him. He threw down
the box, the masked man cut the rope and
told him to drive on, and the stage went
on its way. The next day the officers
found the broken express box, the rope
and an old fence picket in the road, but
they never ound the masked man.
The express box is the main attraction
for the road agent, and sometimes it is an
affiiction to his soul. In the natural order
of things it ought to contain wealth, but
the heartless express companies sometimes
load it with bricks and cause great loss of
time and anguish of spirit to an industri-
Gus and palnstaking robber. When rob-
berries were the rule and safe trips the ex-
ception in California the express compa-
MES Invented the dummy box and worked
it off frequently on the enterprising agent,
but the joke didn't last long. The agent
acquired the habit of bursting the box in
the presence Of the driver and then pro-
fanely requesting him to hand out tho
other box, and no blanked f~oolishness. As
the drivers weren't hired to be shot they
discouraged the use of the dummy box,
and it was abandoned by all well regulated
lines, although it was worked in OCCASION
ally on some amateur robber. When Budd
Philpot was driving the Lakeport stage a
robber held him up, and Budd cheerily
tossed out an empty box belonging to the
Great Western mine and drove along with
the Wells, Fargo box safely slowed under
his feet.
The scheme of building an iron box into
the body OF the coach worked for II time,
but the road agents beat that game by
sending the driver and passengers along
the road afoot and breaking into the box
at their leisure with cold chisels. As
they usually concluded the evenings en-