The morning call., 1894-02-17

W0ulQ nave +DeeH. luuescEiDd Oly humorous
under any other circumstances; 1t resem-
bled the fear and abiect terror depicted on
tie faces in the conduct of passengers OF
an ocean Steamship which is momentariIy
expected to 20 down. .
Conductor Odell and Brakeman Foster
thought the wreck due merely TO an acct
dent at first, but when pistol shots rang
out and. bullets began whistIing through
the cars they Immediately changed their
opinion. =:.. .*:..# =, ...,.>-
Two tramps boarded the pilpt Of the
engine at Burbank and we're stealing a
ride when the locomotive jumped the track
:. One of them was hurled about fifty feet,
and in most miraculous manner. escaped
injury. The other was caught and buried
beneath the debris of the engine and
= instantly killed. His body was horribly
= nrangled and lacerated. His name IS
Harry DAILY. ~. :.
: just after the blowing open of the
: express car the robbers~at the point of a.
revolver compelled he.extra fireman, who.
WIS riding on the engine, TO get into; the
car while the ro5bef followed tIiiTI. THis
:: was done in order To protect the rabber in
case the messenger fred Under. command
= of masked r0bber the extra fireman.
carried the contents OF the local box which.
contained many sacks of gold ontside the
. carsWhere the other robbers were waiting.
:. All this time the robbers. kept: up
a. furious tusilade,.: firing into.
this train: and in the air. This was done
! evidently to intimidate the tfalnmen and
= passengers and to compel. them ITO keep
aloof and not interfere with their; opera
liOnS. After gathering all that was avail
able and portable and supposed valuabtes
: the hghWaymen turned their attention 10
s. the, overland safe. These, safes are so.c0p-:
" stTueted that it requires much time and.
patience to open them, and the robbers
realized the futility of attempting ii, so.
they left it intact and vented their dIsap-
. proyal*of their inabilty@to take: even: that.
by Yoliey from their revoIvers. After
gathering together the booty they had
secured the robbers placed it In gnnny
sack. and mounting horses gaIloped off in
the direction of the noun taIHs.=:> s:+ =
1t is not known how much of the treas
!. ure If Wells, Fargo & Co. the robbers.
made pff with, but it is supposed to bea
very large amount. @
- Brakeman Foster, when he jumped from
the traiB, esDied q house near by with Is
light in one of the windows. He ram
toward it with all the celebrity he could
command and succeeded in getting a horse
there. He at once rode back to Burbank
Il al a furious spesd. Waking up the tele-
}, graph operator, he Immediately Informed
8 the authorities here of what had taken
place. Sheriff Cline and three deputies
started AT o'clock this morning in a
furions rainstorm to the scenes<> a wreck.
age train followed. DR.. F. E. Ainsworth
...wentout on alight engine to give. care and
attention 70 the injured. The wreck was
soon cleared away and to-day Trains are
running as usual
=. No better place could be secured for the
: lpeTpetration Of so demoniacaE a deed as at
Roscoe. just before the station there is a
short spur which runs out few hundred
: feet and terminates abruptly, as the road
bed here is soft and insecure. It follows
that train suddenly running Oh il with
] great speed would be overturned and .
wrecked. No other place on the road be-
tween here and. San Francisco is so favor
able t0reckless train-robbers. :. =. -. z. = 7
:. David W. Thomas, engineer of the train,
: tells the following story: Il was f0rtt-
/: nate enough to escape from the disaster
with only my right wrist sprained. and
" scratches about the legs" He SAID il his
WristwouId permit he felt we'll enough to
90 outagain tonight. He certainly locked
: none The worse for haginR passed through
the terrible experiences of last night. He
said: "We left.tbe Arcade depot ON time,
but were about seven minutes late as we
=: approached Roscoe siding. 1t was bright
moonlight and objects could ba dl8ttn-s
.guished readily quite distance ahead.
:: Roscoe is about mile north of Burbank,
and as we approached that point | saw
two men on the station platform. They
were sitting down, and it made me mad 10
think of having 10 stop on that up grade
:; for two passengers. Suddenly the men
: arose. and one of them lighted an OIL
!: soaked ball of rags or paper. i,
''Then be swung the frebaH with his
left hand. and with the right held Win.
chester rife. I then saw that they were
? not passengers, but train-robbers opening
an attack on us. They opened up with
their guns asthe train approaehed-one, /
think, using a Winchester and the other
two reyolvers-at the same yelling, Stop,
stop her / made UP my mind to pull
right on and try TO get away from them,
but at that instant Idlseoyered to my sor-
row that they had the switch fixed to ditch
US. [ yelled TO Fireman Masters to get in
and crouch down away from the flying
bullets. and as d}dso a Winchester rifle
was poked through the window at me and
gruf voice again. commanded Stop, stop
her, hold her up thought l was gone
sure when looked into that mpzzle, but
took chan ces by dropping down as low as
possible in the cab.
by this time. the engine was off the
track and was ioiiing over the ties with
awful thumps. To tell you the truth l
was more afraid then of tie engine turn
ing over on me. as she is very high
wheeled machine. than | was of the shower
of bullets. But fortunately the engine
did not turn over. The ground was soft
and she pl0wed into the mud and sand
clear up to the cylinders. and stuck there
about twenty feet away from the track.
She pulled with her two cars of oranges
entirely clear of the track, but the remain
der of the train staid on the rails. / was
Still with the engine when she stuck In
the sand. and did not Jump out before she