Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1893-08-26

RAINaROBBERY..,
Genesis OF the Business Of Robbing
Railway Passengers
Some OF tho Noted Despcradoes Who Died
with Their Boots On-The Only En-
cAclOus Method of Dealing with
tho Outlaws.

- AO hiHH tA14A 1ODpe5LxI 10 bLtIdCk
general attention occurred less than
twenty years ago at Gad's Hill, small
station on the Iron Mountain railroad.
The public mind was stunned by the
audacity of the enterprise, and it has
not yet completely recovered from the
shock, says the ST. Louis Republic.
The murderer with q mask on his face,
who stalks through train and DULLES
drawer men than he, has been from
the first invested with an heroic per-
sonality that is not his due. He is.
generally speaking, a coward, who
never shoots unless he has the drop
and who would not think of risking
his precious carcass by pursuing the
comparatively creditable but more
hazardous occupation of stealing
horses. -.'.- 3D..
Because his lay was unique the train
robber was accepted from the first as
a king among outlaws, and though it
has been. demonstrated again and
again that a train, with it's sleepy
passengers, it's unprotected express
messenger, its engineer, in whom,
the instinct of self preservation
is strong, and it's conductor, who
is more or less human, is easier
to hold up than hen roost
sentineled by faithful house dog, the
train robber will have imitators as
long as morbid fools read yellow
backed literature
Every year since the Gad's Hill affair
a new crop has been produced. True,
the sheriff has usually been in at the
harvest as chief reaper, occasionally
adding the duties of hangman to
those of gaollleeper. The lack of ade-
quatc returns, which is peculiarly char
acteristic of the industry, does not de-
ter the ambitious neophite, who has
intoxicated his so-called brain with
"SiXteen-String Jack" ..
The james Boys" and Younger
Brothers." who were pioneers in the
business, are mostly dead or in the
pcnitentiary; Sam Bass, their earliest
and ablest imitation, was, with his en-
tire following, wiped off the face of
the earth during the first year Of his
career; Cove johnson and his three
lieutenants were hanged at GAINESVILLE,
Ark, on one scaffoId three months
after they quit holding up plow-handles
and went in for holding trains as
means of livelihood; Rude Burrows,
who was for time thought to- be in
vincible, drew on his boots one morn
ing and died before he had chance to
take them off. 1t was learned that his
strength was in the main geographical
He knew the country. His neighbors
also knew it, and when they finally
went out after the reward that had
been offered for their quondam friend
they got IL ana MIN.
The fate of the Daltons is too recent
to require comment. Dozens of the
smaller fry of the profession" are in
the pcnitentiary. Every mothers son
of them has been or will be the subject
of certain book, the title of which is
changed from time to. time for obvious
reasons. This book is the genealogical
tree of the train robber 1t propagates
the species.
. Remedies innumerable for the train
robbing habit, which just now seems
to be epidemic, have been suggested.
The most rational and thoroughly
practical is to make it q dangerous un-
dertal<ing! If it were capital offense
in Missouri to attempt to rob a train
the statute might result in driving the
bandits across the state line, but it.
wonld not reduce the number Of rob-
berries half of one per cent. 90" 20
Viewed from any standpoint the train
robbcr promises to betwith us as long
as the printing press. and the free
school. This is not an argument against
either of these agencies of civilization.
The naturally vicious will be bad in
any event, and they RIM their course
sooner, perhaps, in this line than they
wouklin any other. -
Dead train robbers. IRE absolutely
harmless, and tho most. rational way
to treat any member OF the guild is to
shoot him Whenever and wherever he
is forul plying his vocation. Let the
railroads put guards on their trains
whose, business it will DC to kill any
train roIi6er who shows himself. Such
rncnnrp easily found and when the rail;
roads begin TO- haul in dead bandits, as