Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-11-03
THE SILENT MAN.
How He Euchered the Train Rob

A writer in Shoe and Leather Facts
says: Il have travelled through the
States OF Washington and Oregon,
and parts Of California, Idaho and
Montana for eighteen years." said
southwestern shoe drummer. "Ten
years of that time / Travelled by stage,
horseback, steamboat and canal, and
my life has been fuller OF adventure
than that Of most travelling men. 1t
has been my misfortune to have twice
been held up by stage robbers. In
both instances my hands went up as
quickly as those of my fellow passen-
gers. have no patience with those
people who tell what they would do.
if they met robbers. 1 know what
they would do. They would fall into
line with the rest of the passengers,
and receive their expressions of indig.
nation until late in the day. There
is no use OF talking, the stage robber
has killed and he will kill again, and
man never realizes how dear his life
is until it is in actual peril.
"One day in October, 1877, 1 was
staging it in Northern California
There were six of us in the coach.
We were talking about stage robbers
Suddenly there was a halt, and 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 off 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 effect. One OF
the bandits could not get oaths
enough between words, SO he inter
jected few choice specimens of pro-
family between the syllables and great
ly shocked professor from the Smith
sonian Institution by tie coinage of
such words as hesitadamnation,'
meaning hesitation.
"The job was done in about five
minutes, and the robbers told the
driver to 60 ahead. We did so for hall
a mile or so, when one OF the passen-
gers, silent man whom ! had taken
for commercial man, said to the
driver, Go slowly and wait for me at
the ford He then produced q Win
chester from the bottom of the coach
and started back over the road alone.
Who is hep we asked of the driver.
Wells Fargo man. 1 guess; never
saw him before, but guess he knows
his business. If he comes back he
will have got them; if he don't they
will 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 if in pain, and
bloody handkerchief was tied about
his head. 'Drive back and get the
box he said to the driver. Did you
get 'emf' asked the driver. Both of
EN- he replied. We drove back. In
the middle OF the road where we had
been held up both men lay dead. The
Wells Fargo detective, calculating that
they would stop to rifle the mail bag
and the strong box, divide the plunder,
and then separate, had quietly walked
back. One of them he dropped with
his Winchester before he was suspect
ed. the other got in one shot before he
fell, and that had struck the brave
man a glancing blow on the head.
Our property was all restored to US.
We helped bury the dead robbers by
the roadside. The brave officer re-
fused to accept the purse we hastily
raised for him, saying: The COM
pany will pay me, gentlemen