Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-09-03
ROBBING A STAGE.
THE METHODS OF EXPERT ROAD
AGENTS DESCRIBED.

The Main Ihing is to Get the Drap
on the Messenger-The Highway
man of Shasta and His Barley
Sacks.
In 1881 the stage road between Ben
son and Tombstone was bad route to
travel by night or by day. Benson was
inhabited mostly by rustlers and toughs,
and Tombstone was infested by Doc
Holladay and other people of that sort.
The Earps managed to hold things level
in Tombstone, but the road agents bossed
{ the highway, and in Benson u man was
y liable to be held up at noon on the depot
platform while waiting for train. Budd
Philpot, brother-in-law of Charley Foss
the king of stage drivers. was driving
the Benson and Tombstone stage. and
one night somebody tried to hold him up
not many miles from Tombstone. Phil
pot had had experience with road agents,
and when he heard the order to halt come
from the darkness little behind the off
fore wheel he concluded that the robber
was green hand at the business, and
instead OF putting on the brake he gave
the horses the silk and sent them ahead on
the run.
In nine cases out of ten the trick would
have won, as the robber would have
thought it hardly worth while to fire at n
rapidly escaping stage, and the darkness
would have spoiled his aim if he did fire.
But the crack. of Philpot's lash was
answered by the crack of Winchester,
and Philpot half sprung to his feet,
dropped back with a moan and swaved
4 in his seat. The messenger, who sat be-
y side him, threw his right arm around the
driver and with his left seized the lines
as they fell from Philpot's relaxed
fingers
The Winchester cracked again and
again, and cry from the inside of the
coach told that one of the passengers had
been hit. The frightened horses flew
over the road. The messenger held the
dying driver with one arm, and with the
left hand tried to arrange the tangled
lines, while the bullets whistled by in the
dark. He got the stage into Tombstone
with the express box safe, but two dead
men were taken from the coach.
That was not the work of profession
al road agent The main purpose of the
robber is to secure plunder, and if he
does any killing it is either to prevent
somebody from killing him or to insure
the success of the robbery. The attack
upon the Tombstone stage was the work
of u man killer, who had turned road
agent for one night only, and for that and
other good reasons the job was generally
attributed to Doc Holiday, man who
left q trail of blood across every State
and Territory between the Mississippi
and the Sierras.
A man who understands the art of high
way robbery can hold up any stage with
out firing a shot, unless fighting shot
gun messenger happens to be on the box,
in which case he may get into trouble
and miss the trick. The expert profess
sional never fools with u stage on open
ground or steep down grade. He Sc
lects his ground with care and Judgment,
choosing place where the stage must be
driven slowly, and taking such position
that he cannot be seen until he has the
driver covered with his shotgun. He
uses shotgun rather than the rife or
revolver, because the shotgun is the most
formidable weapon at short range. Its
capacity for scattering fire is we II
known and duly respected by drivers.
The bigger the bore of the gun the
AiNiO ihS ~ 10 w puSStllStIS, Ill
though it is singular fact that under
such circumstances a 22-calibre rifle bar
rel is likely to be mistaken for the mouth
of the Sutco tunnel. On the line of
every old stage road in California is
pointed out some spot that is q favorite
stand for robbers. 1t is usually in a
sharp re-entering angle, where the horses
must be brought down to walk, and the
roeky bank or u tree affords a hiding
place for the robber. 1t does not matter
it 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 COM
mand to halt and without turning to see,
he knows that q shotgun is pointed at his
head from behind the tree. The stage
driver, being commonly man of sense
and good judgment, puts on the brake
and stops instantly.
"Throw down the box" is the next
order, and the driver tosses 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
the 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 hold-up, however. The
robber will not throw himself off guard
to search the pockets of u lot of passen-
gers. 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 re-
quires an artistic operator and one with
supreme audacity to go through whole
stageload of people and clean them out
to the ultimate nickel, but California can
proudly boast of having produced such
artists. One way of doing the trick is to
pretend that another robber is concealed
in the brush close by.
Jim, you keep these galoots covered
while l go through EN-" remarks the
road agent, in cool, matter-of- fact way
after he had ranged the frightened pas
sengers in u row with their hands above
their heads. And then he goes through
them without undue haste, making faceti-
Gus remarks as he brings up the plum
der.
The lone highwayman of Shasta, who
was captured recently, had a very neat
method of taking care of passengers
when they were numerous enough to be
+ronhIasnma HE outfit consietad of n