The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-09-11

a favorite stand for robbers. 1t is
usually in a sharp reentering angle,
where the horses must be brought
down to a walk, and the rocky bank or
tree affords "A hiding place for the
robber. 1t does not matter if the
driver knows that he 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 a shotgun is
pointed at his head from behind the
tree. The stage driver. being common
ly a 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 one another in their haste
to obey TIE orders of the man with the
gun. and he makes a good haul of
watches and loose change.
If the robber is alone nobody need
lose much wealth in a hold-up, howev-
err The robbcr will not throw himself
off guard to search the pockets of lot
of passengers. 1t is his business to
keep them covered with his gun, and
he depends upon their terror to induce
them to give up what he would not
search for. 1t requires an artistic OPP
orator and one with supreme audacity
TO go through a whole stage load of
people and clean them out to the ulti-
mate nickel, but California can proud
ly boast of having produced such art
lists. One way of doing the trick is to
pretend that another robber is con-
cealed in the brush close by.
Jim, you keep these galoots covered
while 20 through en- remarks the
road agent, in a cool, matterof-fact
way. after he has ranged the fright
ened 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 very
neat method of taking care of passen
gers when they were numerous enough
to be troublesome. His outfit consist
ed of a 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 ne 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
wears ago when the driver saw some.
thing white tiuttering just ahead, and
his leaders stopped with their breasts
against rope sire tched across the
road handkerchief was tluttering
from the center of the rope. The
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 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 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 found the masked man.
The express box is the main attrac-
ton for the road agent, and sometimes
| it is an affiiction 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 an industrious
and painstaking robber. When rob-
berries were the rule and safe trips the
exception in California, the express
companies invNnted 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
4 held him up. and Budd cheerily tossed
out an empty box belonging to the
Great Western mine, and drove along
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