Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-10-31
THE SILENT MAN HAD SAND.

Quietly Put Up His Hands 1t the Robbers'
Call. Then Went Back and @Got Them.
II have travelled through the States
Of Washington and Oregon, and parts
of California, Idaho and Montana,
for eighteen years." said South
western shoe drummer. ''Ten years
OF that time travelled by stage,
steamboat, and canal, and my life
has been fuller Of adventure than that
of most travelling men. 1t has been
my misfortune to have been twice
held up by stage robbers In both
instances my hands went up as quickly
as those of my fellow passengers. I
have no patience with those people
who tell what they would do ii they
met robbers l know what they
would do. They would fall into line
with the rest OF the passengers, and
reserve their expressions of indigna-
ton until later In the day. There Is
no use of talking, the stage robber
has killed, and he will kill again, and
a man never realizes how dear his life
is until it is in actual peril.
'One day in October, 1877, I was
staging 1t in northern California.
There we're six Of us in the coach.
We were talking about stage robbers.
Suddenly there was a hault, ana one
OF the party said, Speak Of the devil
and he will appear Well. we all got
out and stood in line and gave up
our purses and watches. The driver
had thrown of the mail bag and the
Wells-Fargo safe. There were two
robbers, neither of them masked.
They were not polite like the knights
OF the road in romance, but swore
continuously and without artistic ef-
feet. One of the bandits could not
get oaths enough between words, SO
he 1nterjected few choice specimens
Of profanity between the syllables.
and greatly shocked a professor from
the Smithsonian Institution by the
coming Of such words as ''hesitadam-
nation, meaning hesitation.
1.-THE job was done in about five
minutes. and the robbers told the
driver to go ahead. We did so for
half mile or SO, when one Of the
passengers, silent man whom Ihad
taken for a commercial man, said to
the driver, Go slowly and wait for
me at the ford He then produced
a Winchester from the bottom of the
coach and started back over the road
alone. who is hep we asked of the
driver. wells Fargo man, l guess:
never saw him before, but guess he
knows his business II he comes
back, he will have got them; il he
don't they'll have got him. Twenty
minutes later we heard some rapid
firing. We stopped at the ford.
'Nearly an hour passed, and then
the man who had gone back appeared
on the trail. He walked slowly, as
II In pain, and a bloody handkerchief
was tied about his head. Drive back
and get the box he said to the
driver. Did you get 'em?' asked the
driver Both Of 'em,' he replied.
We drove back. In the middle Of the
road where we had been held up both
men lay dead. The Wells Fargo de.
tective, calculating that they would
stop to rifle the mail bag and the
strong box. divide the plumber. and
then separate, had quietly walked
back. One of them he dropped with
his Winchester, before he was sus
pected; the other got in one shot be.
fore he fell, and that had struck the
brave man glancing blow on the
head Our property was all restored
to US We helped bury the dead
robbers by the roadside. The brave
officer refused to accept the purse we
hastily raised for him, saying, the
company will pay me, gentlemen
Shoe and Leather.