Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-11-18

ahead, as he turned himself round.
But doesn't it look that way to a
man up tree?"'I said in reply.
Very likely, but there's where your
eye deceives you You've read of these
stage-coach robberies quite frequently,
haven't you?'
'Yes."
''1t's always where from four to eight
runn are held up and cleaned out?"
''Most always
''Well, let me tell you there's another
sside TO it. I've been right on deck on
several occasions when a hold-up didn't
work worth a cent. The papers never
seem to get hold of the other side,
Though"
''Lets go and have cigar and talk
7aboutroad agents. If you have been
heldup, give us the particulars"
yes I've b cen held up" he said, as
we got seated in the smoker. My first
experience was about twelve miles
from Tuscarora, New. There We're
seven men in the coach, and every one
of us had shooting irons and sand
enough to use them. We were stopped
Just where we didn't expect it, and
that was the trouble. Before we knew
what was up fellow had us covered
'withtwo revolvers. 1t wasn't his guns
that made us take water so much as his
general demeanor. You had only to
glance at him to realize that he was a
devil and held human life as cheap as
dirt. He could keep all of us covered,
but we had no show at him. If one of
us had fred and missed, he'd have
,downed the whole crowd before he
stopped shooting. l believe that any
one of us, if alone in the stage, would
have pulled down on him, but as it was
each one feared to draw his vengeance
on the rest. He took watches, rings
and money to the value of five thou
sand dollars from our crowd. He had
US stuck up for half an hour, and there
wasn't second in that time he didn't
have his eye on every man and hold
himself ready for a shot. That chap
stopped over a dozen stages before he
got his dose"
.'And you spoke of several failures" I"
''Yes, I've witnessed several. Of all
the road agents in the west for the last
twenty years not more than five or six
had any business to take to that line.
The others were chumps and failures.
Why I've been from Cheyenne north
when we'd pass three or four dead
bodies in day, corpses of chumps
who'd tried to make a hold-up and got
left. One day, about ten miles south of
the Platte, when there We're five of us
in the stage, fellow jumped out and
yelled his yell Every man in the stage
knew he was galoot by his antics and
the trembling of his voice, and we
weren't hit surprised when the driver
out with his gun and dropped him
without checking the gait of his
horses. Another time on the same
road about nine o'clock of pretty
dark night, the driver sees something
ahead of him and pulls up and calls
out:
"Who's there, and what dye want?'
'''I'm Jim Rich; and holdin of this
stage up, came the answer.
''You git alongp
"Hold up yer hands or I'll shutep
$'The driver shook his lines and yelled
at his horses, and jim Rich was knocked
down aud run over. He had broken
leg, and was one TO help pick him up.
He hadn't sand enough to hold up a
coy p, and the driver knew it the min
ute hd.heard his voice At another
time fellow overlook us on horseback
and commanded the driver to halt
This was also at night, and he rode ur
80 close to the right-hand door of the
stage that reached out of the window
and got him by the leg. One of the
other passengers came to my assist
ance, and we pulled him off his horse
and held him dangling against the door
for good three miles. Then we got
down and gave him the boot and drove
him into thicket. He wasn't worth
shooting. He cried and begged like q
boy of ten, and we felt that he deserved
TO live on and enjoy his own miserable
society"
Then man has got to be goot
one to make a successful hold-up?"
asked.
''There's where you hit hardpan, /" h,
answered "Therc may be cowardl