The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-27
"TaROW UP YOUR HANDS"
Real Life Reminisceu ses of Western
Robbers and Their Deeds.

Robbers and Their Deeds
From the San Fran cisco Examiner
A group of mon were lolling In the loung-
ers corner of San Francisco hotel. Each
was reading morning paper. Each had
his paper open at the page describing the
robbery that startled Berkely Saturday.
~ cannot help having an admiration for
sucn bold thieves" said "a very respectable
looking member of the gathering. mot g,
he added, THAT | approve stealing in
any form, but if one is bound TO loot n
strong box it is certainly more manly to do
it ut the point of pistol than to sneak into
the victims confidence and then betray it..
One by one the readers threw their pa
pers aside, and without difficulty disposed
Of bandits and pluDder in tho remarkably
short order that always prevails on such
occasions Then they grew reminiscent.
"rhe plnckest robber 1 ever heard OF }"
said n Denverite, was the one who made
llau MoGatt give up S2i 900 about three
years ago. The story became familiar
enough, hut the sequel has been generally
sqsched. a young fellow walked into
Mofatt's private Office at the First National
Bank, covered MoTatt with pistol, dis
playing a bottle If harmless oil that he said
was niiro-g lycerine, made Moifatt fill out IA
check and then get it cashed aud hand him
the money. He specified just what he
wanted demanding 81 900 In gold, 1000
bill, aud smaller bills. When Motfatt went
to the paying teller for the cash the visitor
was lust behind him with his revolver close
to his ribs, but hidden by an oyercoat.
Having secured the money, the robber
backed out the door aud disappeared"
Did they ever catch him9 Well, now.
that Is hard to state. rhore is some mys-
terry about it. Some people did not think
that Moffatt wanted him caught Bat u
big row was mnde about it, and rewards
offered. In perhaps year after numerous
arrests and releases, it was announced that a
prisoner IN lell In Clay county, Missouri,
charged with horse stealing had confessed
to being Moffatt's robber. The bank teller
went there and Identified lin. Then Monatt
won't and identified him. The Denver
chief of police told me. however, that the
prisoner was pretender, and that he did
not believe he had ever beeu in the state OF
Colorado. Tnen the chap went crazy.
You can't try lunatic for robbery, and
the public docs not keep track OF the crazy
prisoners Of Clay county, Missouri, 30 the
matter restsn
The Denver man had the floor. you
remember, don't you, the way Senator
Tabors gold bricks from the Vulture mine
in Ariz ma were stolenl He got the prop
form OF brick left the mine every two
weeks. One of these bricks was worth
about IS, 600 The foreman thought he
could carry the treasure himself, but lone
high way men fooled him: got away with
the game, too. He was afterward caught
in the City Of Mexico and the brick recov-
cred Tho foreman took some assistants
with him next time, and on this trip ran
into an ambush. One assistant was killed
aud the other wounded. One OF the robbers
was hurt, and caught later nursing bis
wound In hut. The other robber was
picked uu in lonely canyon, dead, bullet
through his head. revolver in his hand
and the brick on his breast. Must have
been a grimly sarcastic cuss."
81 notice you are having a good many
stage rubte cries out here. Used 10 have
them in Colorado Abolished the robberies
first and afterwsrd the stage. But speak
ing Of robberles reminds me of one high
waVman who could give your Black Bart
points. He had held up stage after stage
in Southern Colorado; taking everything IN
sight. He always gave orders as though he
had whole posse in his gang. When be
was captured it was found that's he was q
cripple, weighing about 100 pounds, and
never had any confedefates except dunn
mics armed with broomsticks. He's in the
government pen at Detroit now"
Whats the use Of resisting when man
has the drop on your This from a fierce
looking individual whose piercing eyes
would have scared the ordinary highway
man. "All nonsense, l say. Now in toe
Redding robbery Messenger Montgomery
resisted. What did he getl Why, sys-
tenn full Of lead. he didn't save the treas
ure. He didn't do himself any service. and
the good opinion Of the company is nothing
to dead map. | say it's oil right to give
up when a gun Is at your head. There's
nothing else to do. Shoot your highway
man as he runs il you can, but look out for
your own hide. You'n never get another.
Are the authorities severe upon stage
robbers in Californian queried Philadel-
phian. 20, not very" answered the fierce
looking one. "In the first place. they usu-
ally do not catch them. Two boys, fright
ened half TO death, stopped stage near
Cazadero the other day. They trembled so
that they couldn't get the quaver out Of
their voices for q week and this gave them
away. They were sentenced to two years
each. AS 10 the Redding robbery, the COM
paratively innocent lad who was led Into ii
was captured. His elder brother. the one
who killed Montgomery and got the booty,
is still at large The San Andreas muir
derer, who shot into stage q few weeks
ago and riddled young lady passenger, has
never come to light No, California IL not
particularly hard on stage robbers"
Coming back TO the Berkely case" re-
marked the quietest member Of the louug
ers, "the pair Of brigands were audacious
enough TO have been trained under Jesse
James do not blame the Een for yield
ing. When robbers are 30 desperate as 70
make such an attack in daylight and in the
midst of a crowd they are desperate enough
for anything. l was in the big Blue Cut
hold-up on the Rock Island railroad years
ago. 1t was done by the James crowd, and
want 70 say that the barrel Of the 6-shooter
/ gazed into looked bigger than joint Of
stovepipe. Some of us had been
boasting the night before what
we would do in just such an emergency
but We didn't do IT. We attempted &c
crawl under the seats and through windows
and many forgot to hide their watches and
money. o, it's easy enough TO SIT around q
hotel and brag, but the man who refuses tc
acknowledge the potency Of the drop the
other fellow has on him 10 a bigger foo
than am. But ion't mean to be per
sonal. no indeed" Aud the quiet mar
looked alphabetically aoout to see IL he hat