The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1893-11-11
A DANGEROUS REMEDY
Proposed Means to Check the
Train Robbing Epidemic.
The Aiming of inexperienced Railway
Employees Likely to Result in Whole
sale Destruction of
Life.

1t is frequently the case that physi
clans prescribe remedies that are NOR,
severe than the disease, and there i
some danger that the doctors who art
essaying the treatment of the train
robbing epidemic may make this mis-
take, says the Washington Post. I'm
| doubtedly it is desirable to put a stof
to this indiscriminate holding up Of
trains, but if it is to be done by expos
ing the lives of all patrons of the roads
the travelling public will not take kind
ly to the proposition.
Several of the large railway corpora
tions have caused it to be announced
that all of their trainmen and station
agents are to be provided with revolv-
ers and Winchestcrs. The express
companies will follow suit, and all OF
their messengers will be heavily armed,
and they will also be expected to shoot
every time an effort is made to hold up
their trains. Not only will these men
be pressed into service, but the Pull
man conductors and porters are to be
transformed into walking arsenals,
and are to be added to the force that is
expected to convince some of our grasp
ing and reckless western friends that
train robbing is dropping industry.
The great danger attending this pro-
posed reform lies in the fact that there
is no telling just where an amateur
marksmen is going to land. As rule,
the gentlemen who make q profession
of financiering on smooth-bore basis
are very good shots and don't waste
much powder and lead during their
business hours. There is no assurance
that train crew that is suddenly at
tackled will be able to maintain disci-
pine, and in an indiscriminate shoot
ing match the probabilities are that
the innocent passenger would get much
the worst of it.
But train robberies are not the only
incidents that would precipitate
trouble should the general armament
of railway employees go into effect.
There would be a constant gauntlet for
the traveller to run. There would be
the n't-lnow-it-was-loade station
agent, the observation-disclosures
fun conductor, the point-at-your-head
joke on the part of the brakeman, and
other like pleasantries too numerous
TO mention. In the early hours of the
after the Pullman car porter
had cleaned the shoes and had engaged !
himself in cleaning the Colts, Win
.hesters, and other paraphernalia Of |
he car, there is no telling just when
he passengers would receive an early |
all and dose of lead all around, as a
irearm in the hands of sleepy and
'verworlSed colored gentleman is a
cry uncertain piece of mechanism.
For our part we prefer to bear the
ills we have rather than
ly to others that are more or less prob
ematical 1t might do to equip the
ngineers and express messengers with
uns, but give US the oldfashioned
tation agent who doesn't know how to
boot, who doesn't know the time the
rains arrive and depart, or anything
lse he is expected to know. Give us
be sleeping porter of our fore
athers-the colored gentleman who
aries nothing but the old-time, sin
razor, and an air of supe-
ority that even the most hardened
ain robbers cannot batter down with
npunity. Allow us to retain these
ID landmarks and we will make SO
DID as to take our chances with the (
ain robbers.