The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1892-07-07
THE ROBBERS DRAWN PISTOL.
It Doesn't Look Pretty, and Brave Men
Suprupsb.

Francisco Examiner. Each was reading
morning paper. Each had his paper open
at the page describing the robbery that
startled Berkeley. II cannot help having
admiration for such bold thieves" said n
verS respectable looking member of the
gathering. Not" he added, "that | ap-
prove stealing in any form, but IL one is
bound to loot a strong box IL is more
manly to do it at the point of pistol than
to sneak into the victims confidence and
then betray it."
One by one the readers threw their
papers aside, and without difficulty dis
posed of bandits and plunder in the re
markably short order that always prevails
on such occasions. Then they grew rem
iniscent.
"The pluckiest robber ever heard Of
said Denverite twas the one who made
Dan Moffatt give up S21, 900 about three
years ago. The story became familiar
enough, but the sequel has been generally
squelched. A young fellow walked into
Moffatt's private office at the First Ma
tional bank, covered Moffatt with pistol
displaying bottle of harmless oil that he
said was nitroglycerine, made Moffatt fill
out q check and then get it cashed and
hand him the money. He specified Just
what he wanted, demanding 81 900 in gold,
a $4,000 bill and smaller bills. When
Moffatt went to the paying teller for the
cash the visitor was just behind him with
the revolver close to his ribs. but hidden
by an overcoat. Having secured the money,
the robber backed out the door and disap-
peared.
"Did they ever catch himP Well now,
that is hard to state. There is some mys-
terry about it, Some people did not think
that Moffatt wanted him caught But a
big row was made about it, and rewards
offered. In perhaps year, after numer-
Gus arrests and releases, it was announced
that prisoner in Jail in Clay county. Mo,
charged with horse stealing, had confessed
TO being Moffatt's robber. The bank teller
went there and identified him. Then Mof-
fatt went 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 been in the state Of
Colorado. Then the chap went crazy.
You can't try lunatic for robbery, and
the public does not keep track of the crazy
prisoners of Clay county, Mo. So the mat
ter rests"
The Denver man had the floor. "You
remember, don't you, the way Senator
Tabor's gold bricks from the Vulture mine
in Arizona were stolenH He got the prop.
erty along in the eighties. The output in
the form of a brick left the mine every two
weeks. One Of these bricks was worth
about $1,000. The foreman thought he
could carry the treasure himself, but
lone highwayman fooled him; got away
with the game, too. He was afterward
caught in the city Of Mexico and the
brick recovered. The foreman took some
assistants with him next time, and on this
trip ran into an ambush. One assistant
was killed and the other wounded. One of
the robbers was hurt, and was caught later
nursing his wound in hut. The other
robber was picked up in lonely canyon,
dead, bullet through his head, revolver
in his hand and the brick on his breast.
Must have been grimly sarcastic cuss.
II notice you are having n good many
stage robberies ont here. Used to have
them in Colorado Abolished the rob
berries first and afterward the stage. But
speaking of robberies reminds me of the
who could give your Black
Bart points. He had held up stage after
stage in southern Colorado; taken every
thing in sight. He always gave orders as
though he had whole posse in his gang.
When he was captured it was found that
he was a cripple weighing about one
hundred pounds, and never had any con-
federates except dummies armed with
broomsticks. He's in the government pen
at Detroit now"
"Whats the use of resisting when man
mas the drop on your" This from fierce
looking individual whose piercing eyes
would have scared the ordinary highway
II . L.,
Redding robbery Messenger Montgomery
resisted. What did he getY Why, sys-
tenn full of lead. He didn't save the treas
IRE. He didn't do himself any service, and
the good opinion of the company is nothing
to dead man. say it's all right to give
up when gun is Mt your head. There's
nothing else to do Shoot your highway
man as he runs if you can, but look out for
your own hide. You'll never get another"
Are the authorities severe upon stage
robbers in California;" queried Philadel-
phian.
''Oh, not very" answered the fierce look
ing one. 'In the first place they usually
do not catch them. Two boys. frightened
half to death, stopped a stage near GAIA
dero the other day. Theytrembled so that
they couldn't get the quaver out Of their
voices for a week, and this gave them
away. They were sentenced to two years
each. As to the Redding robbery, the
innocent lad who was led
into it was captured. His elder brother,
the one who killed Montgomery and got
the booty, is still at large. The San An
dreas murderer, who shot into a stage a
few weeks ago and riddled young lady
passenger, has never come to light. No,
California is not particularly hard ON stage
robbers"
Coming back to the Berkeley case" re-
marked the qutetest member of the loung-
ers, 'the pair Of brigands were audaciOus
enough to have been trained under Jesse
James. l do not blame the men for yield
ing. When robbers are so desperate as to
make such an attack in daylight and in
the midst Of n crowd they are desperate
enough for anything. / was in the big
Blue Cut hold up on the Rock Island rail
road years ago 1t was done by the James
crowd, and | want to say that the barrel
Of the sixshoOter gazed into looked big
ger 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 II. We attempted to
crawl under our seats and through win
lows, and many forgot TO hide their
watches and money. Oh, it's easy enough
TO sit AROUND hotel and brag but the
man who refuses To acknowledge the po-
tency OF the drop the other fellow has on
him is a bigger fool than am. But don't
mean to be personal-no, indeed"
And the quiet man looked apologetically
about to see II he had hurt any ones feel
ings.
ConcIuGnsd to Go to Work.
A family in Abilene, Kan, who be-
lieved that the world would come to an