Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1891-09-10

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way, after he has ranged the fright
ened passengers in a 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 very
neat method of taking care of passen-
gers when they were numerous enough
to be troublesome. His outfit consist
ed of six-shooter ana a bundle of
barley sacks. He stopped the inward
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 had finished that part Of the
job the outward bound stage drove up,
and he stopped that and bagged the
heads of all hands. Then a farmer
happened along, and he was treated
similarly. A citizen of Redding, driv-
ing for a doctor, fell into the trap and
joined the barley-sack brigade, and
then came the schoolmarm of the dis
trict, 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 schoolmarm
began to laugh at their ridiculous as
pect, and told them the robber had
gone.
In the hands of road agent entirely
great fence picket is as mighty as a
two-shot scatter gun. The Gilroy stage
was toiling up long hill at dusk some
years ago when the driver saw some.
thing white tluttering just ahead, and
his leaders stopped with their breasts
against a rope sire tched across the
road A handkerchief was futtering
from the center of the rope. The
driver put on the brake, and then
somebody standing by 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 pointing 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 it's
way. The next day the officers found
the broken express box, the rope, and
an old fence picket in the road, but they
never found the masked man.
The express box is the main attrac-
ton for the road agent, and sometimes
it is an affliction to his soul. In the
natural order of things it ought to con-
tain wealth, but the heartless express
companies sometimes load it with
bricks and cause great loss of time
and anguish of spirit to all Industrious
and painstal1ing robber. When rob-
berries were the rule and safe trips the
exception in California, the express
companies invented the dummy box
and worked it off frequently on the en-
terprising agent, but the joke didn't
last long. The agent acquired the
habit of bursting the box in the pres
ence of the driver and then profanely
requesting him to hand out the other
box, and no BANKED foolishness. AS
the drivers weren't hired to be shot,
they discouraged the use of the dummy
box, and it was abandoned by all the
well regulated lines, although it was
worked in occasionally on some anna
teur robber When Budd Philpott was
driving the Lakeport stage 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
time, but the road agents beat that
game by sending the driver and pas
sengers along the road afoot and
breaking into the box at their leisure
with cold chisels. AS they usually con-
cluded the evenings entertainment by
setting fire to the coach and burning
up one thousand dollars worth of the
company's property, besides running
away with the horses, the stagemen
concluded that the iron-box scheme
didn't pay.
Going through the mail sacks used to
be tedious job for road agent, and it
didn't often pay for the time wasted
Besides, it doubled the number of pur-
suers by setting all the United States
marshals on the hunt for the robber,
and when caught it landed him in the
United States court and insured a
heavy sentence. Nevertheless a great
deal of money is sent by mail, and, for
the convenience of road agents and
other thieves who may desire to take
the chance of being caught, Uncle Sam
invented the registered letter and it's
especial pouch. No other reason for
the invention of the registered letter
system can be imagined. A registered
letter is not issued, and Uncle Sam will
not pay for it if it is lost or stolen.
The registered mail is put into little
pouch, which is put inside of the regu-
lar mail sack. When the road agent
gets held of mail sack he rips it open,
either by running his knife around the
sack near the bottom, or by making
two slashes criss cross in one side of
the sack. Thanks to Uncle Sans kind
consideration and foresight, he isn't,
obliged to ransack thousand letters,
but finds all the valuable mail sorted
out and neatly done up in an easily
portable pouch, which he takes along
to open at his leisure in the brush.
OF all the devices and inventions for
the protection of treasure and the cir
convention of the road agent, the only
one that has stood the test of time and
experience is big, ugly-tempered
man with sawed-off shotgun on the
box. OF course, when the other fellow
has the drop shotgun is of no more
use than a piece of lead pipe; but the
lone road agent can't watch a lot of
passengers and driver. and at the
same time keep the drop on a man who
has been hired to shoot him full of
holes, and only wants half chance
to do it. It the robber gets the drop
on the messenger and keeps it, and
contents himself with ordering the