St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-21
WINGED ROAD AGENTS.
Train Load of Passengers Held Up
by Hornets i'm Mexico.

Train Load of Passengers Held Up
by Hornets in Mexico.
have had just one experience of be-
ing held up by train robbers. 1t was at
the hands of some Texas gentlemen.
and in company with good-sized train
load of fiery Southrons and mild Eastern
folk.and L we'll remember how the sand
sifted out of the boot heels of the whole
crowd, and we sat or stood or crouched
and cowed like helpless, scared infants
under cover of two medium-siZed
Winchesters, says the Kansas City
journal. But / was aboard train in
Mexico that was held up and gone
through under circumstances of horror
and terror that were beyond anything l
have heard of or imagined.
We were running along smoothly
through the state of COahuila one
wretchedly warm day last fall when,
just as we entered patch of woods,
the brakes were clapped tight OH and
the train stopped with jerk that shook
us up considerably.
The idea of train robbers seemed in
stantly TO strike every one, and there
was hurried secreting of valuables.
But it wasn't to be that kind of an in
vasiOn. The decayed trunk of big
wv Aoi dC1Ooo GHO
track. 1t was too big to take chances
oil thrusting it aside by charging it
with the pilot. so the train hands and
some of the passengers started with
rope TO drag it out of the way.
The rope was fastened round the
stump, there was a long pull all together
and then frightened howl and wild
break by everybody for the cars. every
man threshing his arms i'll the air like a
windmill.
"Hornets!" bowled the burly brake
man, who headed the rush, AS he hurled
himself into the first car, incontinently
slammed the door in the face of the
others and dived under seat. l hap
pened to be on the platform of this car
and got in Just ahead of him. Probably
half dozen passengers were in the
cars. the rest having stepped off to in
vestigate the trouble.
All the windows were open, and in
few seconds the train was in possession
of several hundred big Mexican hornets,
the wickedest things on wings, with
business ends like a dose of future
punishment administered with live
wire. There were at least three
hornets nests in tine decayed tree, and
the hauling of the train hands brought
out the Inhabitants.
WdS d UlUiuOUb vi SdplIlS SUI
prise, then chorus of bowls, and every
man and woman left in the cars tried to
crawl beneath the seats, pulling coats,
dresses, anything over their heads with
shocking disregard of the proprieties.
Not forty train robbers nor whole tribe
of hostile Apaches could have inspired
such demOraliZed terror.
The conductor, with rare presence of
mind, who headed the crowd who had
hauled on the tree. shouted, ''Break
for the baggage cars" and, as only the
one door of that car was open, the score
or SO of passengers, once bundled in,
were comparatively safe, although
hOpeiesSly prisoners. The hornets
buzzed angrily, or maybe gleefully, out
side, and about the Smothered pas
sengers in the coaches, and all was a
burning blank.
But we couldn't stay there, yet we
daren't turn out and hight them. Final
ly. so l heard later, the fireman vol
unteered to face the horror for us.
Tying his blouse around his head, he
ran forward, tied the rope, still fast to
the tree, to the plot. jumped on the
engine and started her back with a
lively jolt.
The tree was dragged almost clear
and the rope broke.
time TO try further experiments, so he
kept her running back at a mighty gait.
The hornets either flew out or blew out
OF the windows, and. after running back
couple of miles, he stopped the train
and coaXed us out, sore and sorry
crowd.
But we couldn't go back, and we
could't stay there, and we were 10th to
take further chances with the hornets,
which we imagined to be lying in wait
for us up the track. Finally all the
windows and doors we're closed tight,
the engineer shut himself in his cab,
and we went plunging ahead.
He said the pilot struck the old tree
and sent it flying skyward. enveloped in
cloud of hornets thus diSlOdged from
smashed nests. But we wers out of
range and sight in a few seconds, and
slid past the next way station at a pace
that brought the sleepy Mexicans to the
platform In amaZement.
An occasional howl during yet an
other hour or two told the discovery of
a lingering hornet in the cars, and
when we reached the next village we
bought up the entire stock of ointment,
oils and soothing salveS in the single
drug store, and the train was a surgery