The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-09-10

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In the hands of q road agent entirely
great fence picket is as mighty as q
two-shot scatter gun. The Gilroy stage
was telling up a long hill at dusk some
years ago when the driver saw some.
thing white futtering just ahead, and
his leaders stopped with their breasts
against q rope street.-the 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 1T the
side of the road told him to throw
down the box. He glanced toward
the person who spoke and saw q
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 affection 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 painstaling robber. When rob
berries were the rule and safe trips the
exception in California, the express
companies invented the dummy box
and worked it of frequently on the en-
terprising agent, but the joke didn't
last long. The agent q 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 q robber
held him up. and Budd cheerily tossed
out an empty box belonging to the
Crest Western mine, and drove along
with the Wells-F Fargo box safely slowed
under his feet ,.,..s,~v.
The scheme of building an iron box
into the body Of the coach worked for
q 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. .ez
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 caught it landed him in the
United States court and insured q
heavy sentence. Nevertheless q 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 its
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 q little
pouch, which is put inside Of the regu-
lar mail sack. When the road agent
oets hold Of . mail sack he rips it open,
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