The morning call., 1892-10-07
TIE END OF THE DALroNs.

There is nothing new in the final catas-
trophe of the Dalton gang, who were shot
down on Wednesday at Cotfeyville, Kans.
Change the names of men and places, and
the story can be found in the narratives of
the exploits of Jack Sheppard and Jonathan
Blneskin, which Harrison Ainsworth re-
hashed for modern readers fifty odd years
ago. The Daltons were simply common
robbers, who did not redeem the villainY of
their calling by single flash of human
sympathy. They lived by stealing. as other
men lived by work, and they were always
ready, like the hghwaymen of HOunslow
Heath, to take the lives of those who OBJ
jecIed to be robbed Not a single trait IN
their character entitled them to the regard
or even the tolerance of their fellowmen !;
vet they seem to have bad friends. Emmett
Dalton. who was fatally wounded on
Wednesday. objected 10 robbing the Coifay-
willie hanks. because sit would not be treat
ing the people of that town fairly, as they
had always befriended" the bandits. The
gentlemen of the Kansas town seem TO have
misplaced their sympathies.
The robbers appear to have acted on the
theory that they had as many friends as
enemies in the place. There we're two banks
there. on opposite sides of the street; they
opened for business at A. NJ. At a quar-
ter TO 10. Bob, Graf and Emmett Dalton,
Tom Evans, Texas Jack Moore and Ollie
Ogelle rode up the street with Winehesters
in their hands and revolyers in their belts
and tied their horses in an alley Four of
them entered one bank, the other two the
other. Each party demanded the sur
render Of the money in the vaults and on the
counters. got it, and marched the bank
cashiers and clerks in front of them into the
street. BY this time the City Marshal and
a few citizens had collected at the spot with
arms, and opened fire on the robbers as
they appeared. The bandits returned the
fire and the Marshal and several of the citi-
Zens were shot down; but four of the rob-
bers were also killed; only two of them
reached their horses and made for the open
of these one fell dead after riding half a
mile. Only one made good his escape. This
was Ollie Ogelle.
In audacity the operation has seldom
been paraleed. The Datons must have
reckoned that they would get away with
their plumber before the honest people had
recovered from their surprise, and that
there were in Coffeyville and the neghbor-
hood enough people of the other kind to pre-
them in their flight. For once their caleu-
latiOns we're at fault. They were men OF
nerve and shot straight. but among the citi-
Zens also were men of nerve who could
draw a bead with accuracy under exciting
circumstances.
These highway-robbers seem TO be all
kith and kin. All or nearly all hail from
Missouri or Kansas. The Daltons are said
n IA SaP0n6 Of q Iap1 how Il
related to the Youngers, who are in the
pententiary in Minnesota. Their exploits
in this State are well remembered. 1t was
the Daitons who committed the train rob-
berry al Alila last year. Two of them were
arrested, but one was acquitted and the
other escaped after sentence through the
assistance of outside friends They are sus-
pected of having been the principals in the
Goshen and PXley robberies. After these
transactions California became warm for
them and they moved TO Oklahoma, and in
the neighb0ring State of Kansas they have
pursued the business Of train and bank
robbery with assiduity and success. 1t is
said that they accumulated fortune of
several hundred thousand dollars. There
are only two of them left nova farmer in
Kansas and brother who a year or two
otANc vas octtloA Oh IdACH III AASlCOu
County in this State.
The romance which fioated like halo
round the heads of Robin Hood and Little
John. and which inspired ballad writer's to
sing their fame and peasants to supply
them with food, save in few benighted
communities has faded away. Even the
dime novels which recount the lives OF
famous robbers and pirates have ceased to
sell. COmmon-sense has asserted its sway,
and the wOrst-balanced minds realize that
rohber can be nothing but a robber and
that the only thing TO be done with him is to
put him out OF the way. Ia an age which
has witnessed crowds Of women bedeeking
with flowers the cell Of the assassin Guiteau
it is unsafe TO say that female sympathy for
wron gdoers is extinct. But the thief and
the murderer has ceased to be hero to
young men unless they live in very vicious
localities. The female mind is sometimes a
mystery. Women wept copiously over the
corpse Of Jesse James, but the sympathy
fer the dead rufian was confined to very
few Of the sex.