Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-02-25
A DARING DEED.
Express Money Car on the New
York Central Robbed.
a Man Seizes an Engine and is Pursued
ON the Rail For Mfies-At
Last Caught in q
swamp.


known as the American Express Co.'S
special, runs between New York and
Buffalo and carries only goods and prop
erty shipped by that company, on the
same time and with the same privileges
as the limited express The train left
Syracuse at o'clock Saturday morn
ing, Conductor Emil Lass. of this city.
drawn by engine 6o2 with Caleb Cherry,
engineer. The coach was in the rear
and the money car Just ahead
When the train was near Weedsport
the conductor, who was in the coach
with his two trainmeu, thought me
heard the air whistle sound very family.
Going out on the platform of the coach
he elm bed into it and looking through
the hole where the bell cord comes
through he saw the upper part of a
man whose face below the eyes was
concealed by a red flannel mask The
messenger he could not see. He went
back. set the air brakes and called his
two trainmen to the platform
Suddenly mans form appeared at
the side door of the express car. Re-
volver bullets whistled past their ears
and a voice was heard commanding
them to signal the engineer to GO
ahead or take the consequences The
trainmen were unarmed. The con-
ductor told on of his men to jump off,
run back to Jordan and telegraph TO
Rochester that they had a train robber
on beard This was done and the con-
ductor signaled the engineer to go
ahead at fnll seeed.
At Fort Byron the trainmen went to
express car. This showed signs of q
| desperate struggle. Money packages
and jewelry We're lying scattered about
Every thing in the car was stained
was lying bleeding from several
wounds and almost unconscious. The
robi0er was nowhere to be seen
At Lyons the station was alive with
people Among others was a we'll
dressed man wearnlg gold eye glasses
and carrying a satchel slung over his
shoulder. Now it happened that the
trainmen had noticed the young man
at the station at Syracuse before the
train started and they had not seen
him sinca and the question what he
was doing at Lyons At once suggested
itself An attempt to arrest him was
made, but he pulled two revolvers,
held the crowd back and backed across
the yard until he reached a coal train.
the engine of which had steam ND
| ready to pull for the vest He pulled
the pin holding the t.uder to the first
car, climbed over the coal into the cab,
drove the engineer and fireman out
with his revolvers, pulled open the
| throttle and started the engine.
Conductor Lass and one of the switch
men procured shotguns, freed the en-
CINE of the express and with the fire.
man and engineer started in pursuit of
the fugitive The road Is four tracked
road and the engines though they were
going west were not on the same track
The express engine soon overlook
the robbers engine, but he suddenly
reversed his engine aud let his ursuers
pass him, pouring a perfect rain of bull
lets into the cab as his pursuers went
by. Then the others stopped and the
pursued went ahead. Another duel
ensued. the shotguns taking part this
time. No one was hur. on either side
About seven miles further on the
robber found his steam going out of
the engine, dropped off at a cross road
and started across the country, going
south. Here he forced a farmer to let
HIM have a horse and rode on two miles
further south. Here he procured a
horse and compelled the owner, a
farmer, to cnlr uSC MIN Win lt by hiring
on him.
The prrty in the express engine had
returned to Lyons where the sheriff Of
Wayne county had organized a posse,
which. under command of Deputy
Sheriff Collins started in pursuit
Meantime the farmers along the rob-
ber's line Of retreat had also turned
out fully armed, in pursuit.
The runaway was sighted about five
miles south of Newark. The roads
were very bad and he had made very
poor speed He abandoned his horse
and ran across lots to Benton's swamp
But the swamp proved too full OF water
to be penetrated, and the fugitive took
I'D his position behind a stone wall and
faced his pursuers- After some Tarley
he surrendered to Deputy Sheriff Col
Inns He was taken back to Lyons and
lodged in Jail.
The outlaw gave the name of William
Cross, said he was from New Mexico
and had been boarding in Syracuse for
some time. He admitted he was the
man who attempted the train robbery
to Chief of detectives Hayden, of this
city, who had been wired for. He is
believed to be the much wanted Oliver
Curtis Parry, who robbed Express
Messenger Moore near Utica last fall