The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-18
EXPRESS TRAIN HELD UP
Masked Men Succeed in Get
ting Away With Many
ValuableS.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo-, Jan. is, 1894. Train No.
8, the through express on the Kansas City,
ST. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railway, was
held up this morning at 1880 at Roy's Land
ing, one mile north of this city, in the same
place that the Kohler gang met their Water
loo last September just as the train ap-
preached the landing, a man appeared on
the tracks and signalled the train to stop.
The engineer obeyed the signal and brought
his train to standstill The train stopped
just in time, for had it gone few yards far
,ther it would have run into a number of ties
piled upon the track.
As soon as Engineer Davis brought his
train to standstill two masked men clam
bered over the tender and at the muzzle of
revolvers made the engineer and his fire.
man, F. Simmons, step down from the cab.
In the meantime three of the bandits COM
menced firing to intimidate the passengers,
who huddled close to the seats and hugged
the floors of the train.
EXPRESS CAR ATTACHED.
Two of the bandits clambered into the ex-
press car and, with leyeled revolvers, made
Expressnlan G. E. Baxter open the safe and
hand over the express packages contained in
it. The men then backed out of the car, and
with a parting volley, took their leave.
A spring wagon was hitched to a post by
the roadside, and as soon as the bandits had
transacted their business they sprang into
the wagon and drove off into the darkness.
Just as soon as the train came to stand
still, and the bandits commenced firing, the
passengers realized that bandits, who are
making things interesting for the Burlington
people, were at work The train was well
filled and at the first shot everybody began
squeezing himself into as small a roll as pos
sible One man named Biggs, from St.
T hod had
pulling his satchel and overcoat over
his head for protection His
companion, who sat in the same seat
with him tried to get part of his satchel over
his head, when Mr.. Biggs yelled out -
50 Hold on there. l have not enough for my
self" A number of amusing scenes occurred
which were gone over with hearty relish
after the train had steamed back into the city.
The front passenger coach had a number of
shots pass through it in close proximity to
the heads of several of the passengers.
A PASSENGERS STORY.
Benjamin F. Hill of the Sedalia Gazette
was passenger on the train. He says :
''When the train was signalled and began
to slow up, 1 recognized the locality, and re-
marked to a fellow passenger:-'We will be
held up in minute Just then a perfect
volley of shots were fired. All Of the pas
sengers in the car dropped to the floor, and
got as close to it as possible. 1t did not take
the bandits five minutes to complete the
work"
Engineer Davis said that he was signalled
to stop just as the train reached Roy's
Branch half mile north of the Francis
street depot. A torpedo had been placed
upon the track and red light was swung
across the track. AS the train came to d
stop a tall man, wearing black mask,
stepped into the cab and covered the engln-
eer and fireman with two revolvers, COM
pelling them to climb down and accompany
him to the express car. The express messen-
ger opened his door in response to the engi-
neer's and fireman'S request, and two men
climbed into the car, while the others kept
up a constant fire from their revolyers to in
tinidate the passengers.
| Fireman f. Simmons told practically the
same story.
THE CONDUCTOR SURPRISED.
Conductor William Haywood said that his
first intimation that anything was wrong
was when the train stopped. He. got off the
front passenger coach to see what was the
matter, when he heard pistol shot and
some one said:
Get back there, you -" He got back.
A constant fusilade of shots was kept up, and
every time passenger had appeared at the
window he was ordered to get down out of
sight.
Expressman Baxter says he opened the
door of his car in response to the engineers
fequeSu; anu WAS lHluleulaOeiy Gofelou uy q
double-barreled shotgun in the hands of one
of the robbers Two men then climbed into
the car and covered Messenger Baxter and
Baggageman w. A. Skinner with revolvers
Baxter was ordered to open the safe, and the
robbers took all of the money packages in
sight.
He can give no estimate of the value of
the booty secured, but believes it to be less
than $1,000.
A vigorous search is being made by the de-
tectives and county authorities for the rob-