Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-26
NO TALK But LOTS Or SAND.

The Silent Man Who Killed Two
Bandits and Recovered the Thunder.
L have Travelled through the states
Of Washington and Oregon and parts
Of California, Idaho and Montana for
eighteen years." said Il southwestern
drummer to q writer FOR Shoe and
Leather Facts. Ten years of that
time [ have Travelled by stage, horse
back, 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 hello up by stage robbers. In
both Instances my hands went Ii as
quickly as those of my fellow passen
gers. L have no patience with those
people who tell what they would do if
they met robbers. | know what they
would do They would fall into line
with the rest of the passengers and re-
serve their expressions of Indignation
until later in the day. There is no
use of talking, the stage robber has
killed, and he will kill again, and
man never realizes low dear bis life
is until it is in actual peril
"One day in October, 1877, I was
staging it in northern California.
There were six of us III 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 a line and gave lip 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
III romance, but SWOre continuously
and without arSiStic effect One of the
bandits could not get oathS enough be-
tween words, SO he interieCted 4 few
choice specimens Of profanity between
the syllahles and greatly shocked a
professor from the Smithsonian Insi-
tuticn by the coming of such words as
'hesitadamnatiOn,' meaning hesitation.
''The job was done in about five min
utcS and the robbers told the driver to
go ahead. We did SO fos a half a mile
or so, when one of the passengers, a
silent man whom [ had taken for a
commercial man, said to the driver:
Go slowly and wait for me at the
ford He then produced 4 Winchester
from the bottom of the coach and
started buck over tie road alone
WHO is heE We asked Of the driver
'Wells-Fargo man, | guess: never saw
him before, but l guess h knows his
business. If he comes back, he will
have got them; if he don't. they'll
have got him. Twenty minutes later
we heard some rapid firing We stop
FED 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
lain, and bloody handkerchief was
tied about his head Drive back and
get the box he said to the driver Did
you get emp asked the driver. Both
OF EN- he replied. We drove back.
III the middle of the road, where we
had been held up both men lay dead.
The Wells-FargO detective, calcula ting
Tat 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
for he fell and that had struck the
brave man Il glancing blow on the head.
Our property was all restored to us.
We help@d bury the dead robbers ny
the roadside. The brave officer rc fused
to accept the purse we hastil., raised
for him, saying: The company will
Fay me, gentlemen