Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-26
THE SILENT MAN HAD SAND.
Quietly Put Up His Hands Mt the Rob-
bers' Call. Then Went Back and
s.Co<

Quietly Put Up His Hands ut the Rob-
bers' Call. Then Went Back and
"GOt Them"
From Shoe and Leather Facts.
| II have Travelled through the states of
Washington and Oregon, and parts OF Cali
fornia, Idaho and Montana for eighteen
years." said a 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 been twice held up by
| stage robbers. In both instances my hands
| went up as quickly as those Of my fellow
passengers. / have no patience with those
| people who tell what they would do They
! would fall into line with the rest Of the
passengers. and reserve their expressions
Of Indignation until later in the day. There
is no use Of talking. the stage robber has
| never realizes how dear his life IL until Il
is in actual peril.
"One day in October, 1877, I was staging
1t 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 ana stood in a line and gave up our
purses and watches. The driver had thrown
off the mail bag and the wells-Fargo safe
| There We're two robbers. neither Of them
MASKED. Ihey were not polite like the
knights of the road in romance, but swore
continuously and without artistic effect.
I One of the bandits could not get oaths
| enough between words, so he interjected
a few choice specimens of profanity be-
| tween the syllables. and greatly shocked a
professor from the Smithsonian Institu-
| ton by the coming Of such words as hes
/ Inflammation meaning hesitation
| THE job was done in about five minutes.
and the robbers told the driver to go ahead
We did SO for a half mile or 30, when one
Of the passengers, a silent man whom i
had taken for commercial man, said to
/ the driver, Go slowly and wait for me
| at the ford He then produced a Win
chester from the bottom of the coach and
he? we asked of the driver 'wells-Fareo
man, L guess. Never saw him before. but
l guess he knows his business. If he
comes back he will have got them; IL he
don't, they'll have got him. Twenty min
utes later We heard some rapid Airing. 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
head; Drive back and get the box he
said to the driver. Did you get 'em?' 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. calculat-
ing 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 suspected; the
other got in one shot before he fell. and
that had struck the brave man a glancinR
| blow on the head Our property was ali
restored to us. We helped bury the dead
| robbers by the roadside. The brave officer
ed for him, saying. The company will pay
me, gentlemen"