The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-24

purely aCcluculal that ne escaped death.
Tor the train was moving swiftly and the
grading of the road was anything but
smooth or level As it was he was laid
up for months. Perhaps il viii afford
some satisfaction 10 many TO know that
this same miserable gang persisted, aC-
cOrding to their deserts. Three swung
from beech tree three miles east Of
BrOwntown, Ind, and seven more of
them were taken by Jail storming mob
from the New Albany prison and justly
hanged
The work of the Starr gang in Indian
Territory was cruel enough, and every
one knows of the many train robberies
that figured in it. The express mes
sengers who surrendered to them
We're wise. Such determined hu-
man devils would have rammed
the cold barrel of a A down victim
throat and blazed away into his anat-
Omy before they would have been inter
fered with.
Those who have read the exploits of
Evans and SOntag can imagine how a lone
messenger with a spark of objection in
him would fare at their hands. Those
two cool-headed murderers lived a
strangely dual existence, pretending to be
quiet. honest citizens of California, while
making a record of crime that has ap-
palled the nation.
The desperadoes who push dynamite
sticks under express car doors or stand
erect upon the tender of a flying engine
and level the silvered barrels of their re-
yolvers straight upon the cab crew in the
Shadowy glare of an engine furnace fire
or moonlight beams are fully determined
and enthuSed, Like some crOuching
feline of the jungle, with the odOr of
blood in their nOstrils, the desire OF gold
is in their hearts, and neither the sight of
human woe nor the thought of eternal
perditiOn could stop them in their labor
or gainsay their purpose.
In 1876 the Adams express company
was plundered Just beyond Greenville,
Ill, at lonely water tank. In this the
messenger fought the robbers off and was
wounded, though not seriously.
In 1881 Kellogg Nichols, a messenger of
the United States Express Company, run
ming on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pa
ci1c road between Chicago and Daven-
port, Ia, was killed by express robbers.
The bandits came upon the train between
Mansfield and Joliet, Ill. Nichols was
alone in the express car and back of him
rolled a baggage car, the master of which
has ever since been considered an accom-
plice in the murder. How the robbery
was conducted is not known. The flying
train never stopped nor was any struggle
heard Yet when the tram pulled into
Joliet Nichols was found bruised and dead
upon the car floor, the express safe looted
and the robbers fed. He had been beaten
TO death with large iron poker that lay
near by.
The great Pacific robbery of 1886,
where in Messenger H. D. F'otheringham
and Fred Witrock, alias Jim Cummings,
figured, it is still a matter of public inter
est. AS will be remembered E'Othering-
ham took into his express car one Jim
Cummings, who bore letter from
Superintendent Damsel of the Adams Elk
press Company ordering F'otheringham
to take him along and break him in as a
messenger. When Pacific was reached
the supposed employee turned upon Foth-
eringham and bound him tight. He then
looted the express safe and fed. In this
instance FotherIngham stood in disgrace
and was prosecuted. Being freed, how
ever, by the court he in turn sued the
express company and secured $4,000
damages The company appealed, and
rather than have the matter linger on
Fotheringham compromised for smaller
sum.
Not over a year ago in Florida the
Southern express car on the Florida Cen
tral route was held up by three masked
robbers and looted. The express mes
senger, one Sanders, was sitting in the
door way Of the car and refused to allow
the men to enter. Upon finding Sanders
obstinate one of the men drew revolver
and fired. The bullet entered the alb
domen of Sanders and he died in a few
days. In this case, according to Superin-
tendent Agee of the Southern, that COM
pany made a handsome contribution to
the relatives of the deceased but just
how much he could not remember.
Only on last Sunday the east bound
through passenger train on the St. Louis
and San Francisco railroad was stopped
a half mile east of Mound Valley, Kan, at
4 o'clock in the morning by three robbers.
The robbers killed the Wells Fargo ex-
press messenger, Charles Chapman, and
then being unable to open the safe with
out his assistance went through one of
the chair cars and took from the passen-
gers most of their valuables. The
amount of the plumber was nearly s., 600
1t seems as the weeks go by that train
robberies become more and more frequent.
St. Louis and its envirOns appear to be the
choice of many who have entered the
business In all directions close to the
city express robberies have occurred and
money has been stolen. Valley Park,
Pacific and MurphysbOro have been most
recently visited. When Sam Wilson held
up the San Francisco train at Pacific,
alone. the country laughed, and the mes
senger was viewed with disgust by the
Pacific Express Company officials Yet
he had no means of knowing how many
robbers there were. In reality it would
seem that an,eXpress messengers choice
is of two evils. Either he in defense of
the Companys property dies and becomes
a hero or lives and is viewed as a coward
or worse, an accomplice. The devil and
the deep sea is here most curiously typifed.
Supts. Calhoun of the Adams and Agee
of the Southern are inclined TO think not.
They assert that the messengers are never
blamed except in. cases of gross negli-
gence. In addition the families of the
dead heroes, they say, are ever most
amply looked after. However this may
be, the lives that messengers lead are GER
tainly lonely and filled with terrors such
as ordinary mortals seldom experience.
JAGS IN A SPRING.