The morning call., 1894-05-11
ON A WILD TRAIN.
Ride of the Colorado
WealerS.
ACROSS THE KANSAS LINE.
They Held the Track With Their
Stolen Cars.
ACROSS THE KANSAS LINE.
BY DEPUTY MARSHALS.
Meanwhile They Had Made Substan-
tial Progress in Their March
to Washington.

reckless army of CommonwealerS defied
pursuit and laughed at ob-tacles again
to-day. Three times their stolen train was
reported stalled before cars and engines
purpOsey run off the track ahead Of them,
and each time the railroad officials be-
| leveG they were masters of the situation;
but in less time than it took the railroad
company to dump their engines from the
track at one place and tear up the rails at
another the go-ahead Wealers had built
new track around the feeble distractions
and relaid the torp-up rails. With their
force of something over 400 meR, these
undertakings were but few hours of
enjoyable recreation for the Wralers, who.
when riding. were packed in their coal
cars like sardines in can. The army
symparhizers were hoping that the dare
nevil band might run the gauntlet OF
United States Marshal Neely's hundred
| Winchesters and reach Topeka without
| further molestaton. for oncs at the capt.
tai they believed the train-stealers would
be free from care and penalty. The atti-
tude of Governor Lewelling gave this idea
encouragement. The executive said noth-
ing sympathetic when addressed on the
subject by interested parties. but neither
did he say anything condemnatory. He
was entirely on-committal and abstained
| from interesting himself in the matter
| beyond replying TO communications sent
| him by railroad officials or petty peace Off
GERS. To one who applied for troops The
| Governor sent the following:
| James Hurt, Sheriff, Horace Kansas: Tele-
gram asking for troops to arrest 500 men who
| have stolen Missouri Pacific train received.
| Was train stolen in Kansas? Have any depreda-
| tiOns been committed In your county? Have
warrants been Issued and processes been re-
| sisted? Are the men still In your county?
L. D. LEwELLING, Governor.
The railroad company found themselves
in peculiar fix. The State authorities
having declined to help them and the
county authorities not caring to do so. pre-
lerring to let the wild train move on to
having 600 arrested men to feed and place
on trial. it took legal ingen uity 10 get the
| railroad In a position to apDrehend the
men and runaway train at all. They
depended on their general attorney, Bailey
Waggoner. to drag them out of the diff
Guilty, and he succeeded in pressing he
Unled States into service by getting the
clerk of the United States Circuit Court at
| Topeka to Issue writs of arrests for the
unknown Commonwealers, an action
which Populist leaders condemn as un-
| lawful
| With United States Marshal Neely and
a force of fifty men, each armed with a
rife or shotgun, Waggoner started out on
a special train from Topeka. The force
and firearms were increased. and when the
crew reached Scott City. Kans.. 100 deputy
marshals. each with gun, were aboard.
| The special made an exciting race to that
point, as here it was determined to give
battle to the foe, if battle there had to be.
| Meanwhile the Wealers were reported
as flying eastward, having broken camp at
Chivipgton. Colo. where they peacefully
spent the night. rolled in their blankets in
the Open air, while their train stood still
| on the main track. Formidable obstruc-
| tons were reported as being thrown up
before them al Diston in the shape of three
engines and several boXcars, and the sup
! ply of water for their engine was said 20
be cut off, but the first dispatch of their
movements for the day show them as
having passed Sheridan Lake, Colo, at
| 1913 A. NJ. (mountain time), and as cross
ing the State line into Kansas at11 o'clock.
| They were by the ditch and other barriers
and their engine was steamng all right.
at different points from there eastward
the Wealers' wildcat was reported as NOV
ing carefully and roaring by other places
at forty miles an hour. The man at the
| throttle it was said was an old Missouri
| Pacific engineer and he knew every curve
| In the road.
| The wild train reached Horace, Kansas,
about 2 o'clock. There they found an east
ward-bound passenger and mail that had
been held up by the company. The Veal
ers commanded the crew Of this train to
move. and after an exchange of dispatches
with the superintendent, the train sped
away. Regarding that train as safe
pilot, the SVealers' special kept close in
| its wake. The Wealers had now first-
class locomotive, having abandoned their
rusty old switch engine at Horace, Kans.,
and appropriated the best passenger en-
gino they could find in the roundhouse.
| Without mlshap the runaways reached
| Scott City, which they approached warily.
| They saw fifty feet of track torn up in
! front OF the station there and hundred
men with a hundred rifles lined up on the
station platform. The engineer reversed
Quickly and "threw her wide open." Be-
| fore the waiting and trembling deputies
had time to think. their expected anag-
onists had disappeared in the distance
whence they came. Then the deputies
breathed easier and were once more
courageous.
| The Missouri Pacific promptly started a
train east from Leoti. Kans.. twenty-five
miles west of Scott City. to intercept the
returning army.
| SALINA. Kans., May 10.-The war kis
over The intrepid Colorado contingent of
the Commonweal. which has kept Colorado
and Kansas in an uproar for Two days, has
surrendered uncondtionally TO Marshal
Nelly. They were 450 strong, and every
man is under arrest. The surrender was
made peaceably and the entire army is
being taken to Topeka for trial. The
special train is now en- route with the CAP
tured army, and is making rapid time on
its return trip.
The capture of the stolen train wa s
effected at Scott City, Kans., at $50 thi 8
evening, the Wealers having been CON-
PEELED to return to that city by the train
sent to Modoc. Shortly after the train