Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-11-04

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0sssAay ~ % ~ 0ss1. SAss Wsss
Dasa 80 .sose 1AoN~
II have travelled through the
states a Washin4toa aad Oregoa.
asd parts Of Califoru.a. Idaho and
Montana for cightoen years" aid .
South-wcstern shoe drummer 70 Shoe
ond Leather Facts. Ten years Of
that time travelled BY stage, horse
back. steamboat and cana. and my
life has been fuller Of adventure thaa
that Of most travelling men. It hos
been my misfortune TO have beea
twice held up by stage robbers
In both Instances my hands went
mp Is quickly Is those Of ny fellow
passengers. have NO patience With
these people Who tell what they
would do IL thcy met robbers. 1
know what they would do They
would fall into line with the rest Of
the passengers and reserve their
expressions Of Indignation until later
d The day. There Is no use talking,
The stage .obber has killed and he
will kill again. and . man never
realizes how dcar bis life il until IL
b In actual peril.
One day in October. 1877. vas
staging 1t in Northern California
There were six Of us in the coach.
We were talking about stage robbers
Suddenly there WAS . halt aad one
d the party said: Speak Of the devil
and he will appear. Well. VIC eli
got out and stood in . line and gave
up our purses and watches The
driver had thrown OF the mail bag
asd the Wells-Fargo safe. There
we're two robbers, neither Of them
masked.
They wore not polite like the
ksixhts Of the road 10 romance. hut
sworc continuously and without artis-
tic effect Oae OF the bandits could
not get oaths enough between words.
% he INTERCEPTED . few choice spcci-
Deus Of profanity between the syl-
tables. and greatly shocked = pro-
lessor iron the Smithsonian iustitu-
tioa by the coinsgcOt such words ~
'hcsitadxmnAtion.' meaning hesita-
tioo.
1.-The job was done in about five
/! minutes, and the robbers told the
| driver 70 go ahead We did so for
half . mile or 50. when ono Of tho
| passengers, . Silent mau whom had
taken Tor = commercial man. said "a
the driver. 30 slowly and wait for
me At the ford lie then produced z
Winchester from the bottom of the
!; coach and started back over the road
L n IA j. no. lx~~l <>R H.,
! driver.
"Welis-fargo mxn. I guess: never
saw him before. but guess he knows
his business II he comes back he
will have got them; il he don't.
they'll have got him" Twenty min.
utes later we heard some rapid FIR
lo-. We stoppcd at the ford.
Nearly IN hour passed, and then
the man who had gone back appcarc d
on the trail lie walked slowly. -
II in ls;sin. and bloody handler
chief was tied around his head.
Drive hack and get tho box h(
said TO the driver. Did you gel
em?"a>kcd the driver. Both OF en-,
he replied. We drove back. In the
middle OF the road where We had
been held up both men lay dead
The wclls-Fsrgo detective, cxlculat
Ing that they would stop to rifle The
mailbag and the strong bog. divide
the plumber and then separate. had
quietly walked back.
.-One Of them he dropped with hi
Winchester before he was suspected
the other got in one shot before b,
fell and that had struck the brav,
man a CHANGING blow on the head
Our property was all restored TO us
We helped bury the dead robbers b!
the roadside The brave officer re
fused 10 accept the purse we hastil,
made up for him. saying: .fhe com