The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-04
BEWARE OF FRAUD.
INCIDENTS OF A TRAIN HOLD UP.
A Railroad Mans Observations of the
Robber Gangs Methods.
From tba Tloe+y1 Herald

A Railroad Mans Observations of the
Robber Gangs Methods.
From the Boston Herald.
Il have been connected with railroad
matters to a considera BILE extent, aud, in
| 1892, travelled over 76, OO0miles as special
auditor of the Atchison, Topeka and
! Santa Ee road. During that time | often
wished that might be enabled TO witness
a regular hold up, but never had the
opportunity. I had little experience in
| Montana this summer, however, and L
know when I've got enough"
! The speaker was Mr.. Thowas II. Hig-
ham, of this city. The event To which
| Mr.. Higham referred was the sensational
| train robbery which took place on the
| Northern Pacific road near Grayclirf
/ Montana, in the latter part of last Au-
/ gust, the sequel to which occurred few
| weeks ago. when the train robbers were
/ surrounded in a hut and killed by a
| posse which had been in pursuit Of them.
/ Both of these events were chronicled
! in the news columns at the time, but the
accounts published contained only the
meager facts and none Of the interesting
| details.
| II left Boston," Mr.. Higham said, "on
| July 20, and arrived in Livingston Mont
| on Aug z. / found that l had an erraud
| to the town of Billings, in that State,
| about 100 miles from Livingston and |
! took train for that place on the evening
| OF Aug. 20. This train was known as the
| No. eastern express on the Northern
| Pacific, and it left Livingston at 6:15
O'Clock in the evening. 1t consisted of
| the engine, an express car, few coaches,
and two Pullman sleepers These sleep
I ers were attached TO the end Of the train
! and n bt laaf I
/ were eleven passengers in this car, and
| four were women. We left Graycliff a
! small station about siXty-tiye miles from
| Livingston, about $40 o'clock.
About nine miles from this station the
train came to a sudden stop and when we
put our heads out Of the windows we
were greeted by shower of bullets, and
were informed by some persons outside,
| who emphasized their remarks with
| plenty of curses on our curiosity that if
we had any interest in living we had bet
| ter keep under cover. We took the adj
vice at once, and the next incident was
the passage of the conductor through the
| train telling US what we had already sur
missed, that the Jrain had been held up by
robbers, and advising us to hide our
valuables if we did not want them taken
from us
Il didn't have a great deal of money.
but what 1 did have l did not feel like
making present of to bandits, so pulled
| out my pocketboOk in which ! had about
$3.50, picked out few small bills, which
placed in my vest pocket and then
slipped the rest of the roll inside the col
lar of my shirt and let it slip down |
thought that as safe a place as any for it.
| Then ! unsCrewed a $3.50 diamond stud,
which | was wearing in my shirt front,
and sent it TO keep company with the
money was also wearing gold watch
and chain, worth about 500, and this [
| deposited in the same bank ] then
| awaited developments, which were not
| long in coming
1T seems that when the train left Gray
! cliff two of the robbers got on to the
| front of the express car, and after the
train had got fairly under way they
masked themselves and crawled over the
/ tender and down into the cab The en-
! gineer afterward told me that the first he
knew of the matter he felt a Winchester
rifle pressed against his head and heard
man say: Pull down the road until
| you're tagged by light Then stop, and
If you make suspicious move it will be
your last He obeyed orders. and about
nine miles from Grayclif he saw the light
described and brought the train to a full
stop. There two moro masked men
boarded the train. took the engineer and
fireman from he cab, and, after search
ing them for firearms, marched them to
, the express car. They ordered the fire
man to give the signal for the opening of
the car TO the messenger inside, and he
did so. Then the crowd got in and pro-
ceeded 10 Investigate.
There were two safes in the car. one a
small one, known as the way safe, and
large one, called the THROUGH safe The
little safe is used to keep small packages
of money received at the small stations
along the route, while the large one is re-
served for larger amounts which are
being shipped some distance. The mes
senger has the combination to the smaller
safe, and when they ordered him to open
1t he did so. All they.got from this safe
was so, however, and then they ordered
him to open the larger safe. This he de-
clared he could not do, because he did
not know the combination, and this was
the truth, although he had a hard time
convincing the robbers of the fact liz
seems that only the station agents at the
larger places have the m0inatiOn of the
large safes, into which they put the PACK
ages Conhded to them Tor shipment, and
also the ones from the smaller safes The
messenger does not know how TO open
these large safes, and when this particu-
lar one told the robbers SO, they tried to
brighten him by placing under the safe
package which they declared contained
dynamite. II was only blutf, however
and when they found the messenger was
really in earnest they left the baggage
car and formed a line on the outside of
the train. They then marched along the
outside OF the train in single file the en-
gineer leading the column; then came the
fireman, the four robbers in row, then
the express messenger, and, last of all,
! the conductor
LAS they passed along the robbers fred
| perfect shower of bullets through the
| top part Of the cars. This was to impress
us, and while / felt that they did not in
tend TO hit us, did not take up any more
room above the top Of the seat than it
was absolutely necessary for me to oc-
| cupy, on account of the danger from a
| glancing bullet. When the procession