The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-13
TRAIN HELD JJPANDROBBED
United States Express Car Shattered
By a Dynamite Bomb.

Tbe Engineer Shot and the Passengers
Badly Frightened, But Not Mo-
lested-Amount of Money Stolen
Not Admitted, But Said to Be Exag-
rerated-Number of Robbers Any
where From Half Dozen to Twenty
Ave-Ofioials Claim That the Thieves
Got Very Little of Value, But This
ia Taken With Considerable AL
lowance.
j Chicago, Sept. 12-Twenty masked
men held up Lake Shore train 100 miles
fron Chicago near midnight, and after
ayounding the engineer blew open'the safe
h. the EXPRESS car. The train was the.
one which drew out of Twelfth street
dapot of the Illinois Central road at 7:45
asst evening. 1t reached Kendallville, a
small station in Indiana, little short of
four hours late. It went past the town,
snd had hardly gone mile through
Stretch of timber land, when the engineer
Slowed up near a curve,
DANGER SIGNAL WAVED.
As the engine ratified around the turn
the engineer saw red light ahead
"a
nen sprang into the cab, shot the engi-
heer. seriously wOunding him, and then
blew open the express car with dynamite,
And drilled open one of the safes, getting
safely away with the booty, whatever it
WAS OF that there is no certain informa-
tion, and all sorts of wild stories are
RaOat placing the amount at from S3O,
poo to $3.50, 600.
WHAT THE SUPERINTENDENT SAYS.
The car wrecked belongs to the United
States Express Company, and General
Superintendent Crosby of the company
Declared this afternoon that the loss by
the robbers is below S20,0 900. He says the
sobbers thought they were carrying away
national bank notes, but secured mostly
bapers worthless to them, and they over
looked SIS 600 of gold bullion. MIR Crosby
emphatically denied the reports that
f215, 600 had been taken. There was not
pnc-tenth that amount on the whole train,
be says. In the safe blown open was a
Sealed bag full of packages done up about
the size and shape of packages of bank
snotes.
THE THIEVES BADLY SOLD,
These packages were marked 81, 900 and
az 600 and so on. These figures indicated
the value that the packet was listed at,
but practically they were worth nothing
more to the robbers than the paper they
contained. Their contents consisted of
settlements with agents, receipts for
moneys, legal papers, etc, which can all
be duplicated after time. 1t was load
OF this nature, and very little actual
money, which the robbers secured.
THEIR NJ MBER EXAGGERATED.
Only five or six men, he saws were CON
cerned in the robbery The rumor that
the safe contained a shipment of $3.50. 900
from Chicago to a New York bank could
hot be confirmed.
None of the bank officials admit ted
baVing made a shipment, and the express
company's officers denied that there was
Hny such amount on the train. President
Newell of the Lake Shore road this after
Hoon offered a reward of 81 900 for the
conviction of the robbers.
THE MAN WHO SAW 1T ALL.
A tramp who was stealing a ride, and
Nyho claims to have seen the whole occur
4rcnce, says there We're at least twenty
lnen in the gang, and some of the train
#men put the number as high as twenty
live. The dynamite having wrecked only
4thc express car, the robbers cOntented
themselves with looting this alone, and
made no effort to force an entrance to the
other cars. The passenger cars were not
moIeSted. When the robbers elm bed on
to the engine Engineer Knapp had one
hand on the throttle and he attempted to
start the train. One of the desperadoas
pushed big revolver against his shoulder
and fired. The bullet passed through,
tearing hole in which aplead pencil
4 could be laid,
PANIC-sTRICKEN PASSENGERS.
The noise caused by the crashing of the
express door when the dynamite bomb
was hurled against it, was the first inti-
nation that the passengers had that the
tran was in the hands of robbers. There
was a lively scramble among the passen-
gers to cr vi under the seats and secrete
what valuables they had in sight, but
Ihelr precautions were not necessary.
THEY GOT $4,000.
New York, Sept. 12-Mr. Wood, treas
urer Of the United States express COM
pan{ In this city, said: I'VE have Just
received from the vice-president a state
ment showing that the loss to the com
pany Will not exceed Sl5, 900. Two pack
ages of gold, valued at S16,000 were not