The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-05
Audit EVANS ROMANCE.
he Service Rendered by His Wife
and DAUGHTER.

pobber Was Caught They Went
che stage and Earned Money to
Ta1n secure His Release.
From the philadelphia Record.
CO francisco. Cal, Dec. 3.-That there
o o1a,+v of romance left in the mountains
california, such as Bret Harte found
\ Utilized in his stories, is proved by
" racent history of the efforts made to
~, imprison the famous bandit, Chris
-ans for that history includes fighting,
~a,oal,iug, fights, searches, captures,
'o,s and escapes, in all of which two
- Evans wife and 16-year-old
oncbter. have been conspicuous. It was
~ Evans who contrived the escape of
- husband from the Fresno county jail.
ras Mrs. Evaus and her daughter who
z;ded in the first escape OF Evans and
- when the bandits were sur
T.,,nded in Evans cottage, soon after the
v. n,oue Coils train robbery in the San
<ooonin valley. Then, during the nine
,onths in which the two bandits dehed
IN The efforts of the law officers to cap
- Them in their mountain retreat, it
- Eva Evans, the daughter, who did
Inbord fast riding over mountain trails
r-ben the emergency required a trusty,
IF messenger. But at last the bandits
lame careless, they were entrapped.
kontag was killed and Evans was cap
tured, badly wounded.
THEY FOUGHT DESPERATELY.
pnt in that capture and in every at
4emnt made before the successful one,
Evans and Sontag fought desperately,
Filling or wounding one or more ofncerS
hi every encounter. The daring crimes
Ear which they were wanted included
Joodshed. On the night of Aug 3, 1892,
he express train between San Francisco
IN os Angeles was boarded by the
f;vans-Sontag gang at Coils, little sta
lion ont on the plains, about twenty miles
rom Fresno The invaders stopped the
srain fred a volley to intimidate the pas
senpers. and then, with the trainmen
%overed by their guns, the robbers pro-
feeded to blow open the express car.
Nine dynamite bombs were used, one of
khem seriously injuring the express mes
kengers. The robbers secured three bags
bf gold coin and rode away. One OF them,
George Sontag, was speedily captured,
hui il took nine months to capture John
Sontag and Chris Evans, during which
lime railroad, United States, state and
county detectives, Pinkerton men, Moiave
Indians and many amateur man-hunters
were actively engaged in the search, for
the rewards offered were large.
The first encounter was on Aug. 3, four
6ays after the robbery. Sontag and Evans
met the posse at Chris Evans house, and
escaped to the mountains, after killing
Deputy Sheriff Beaver and wounding sew
eral others On Sept. IL Evans and Son
tag were surrounded in cabin at Samp-
son's Flat. In the encounter that fol-
lowed Sontag was wounded in the arm by
4 bullet. Deputy United States Marshal
Victor G. Wilson and Richard Olsen, a
volunteer man-hunter, were killed, and a
deputy sheriff seriously wounded. The
bandits again escaped TO the mountains.
THE CAPTURE OF EVANS.
There were several other minor en-
counters all of them occurring during
the trips of the reckless bandits into the
valleys and foothills, for the hunters gave
up their attempts to follow the robbers
&into the mountains. One time a stage
was stopped on a mountain road, and
Evans and Sontag ordered the passengers
to give accounts Of themselves. They
robbed none of them, and allowed the
stage and its passengers to proceed, after
being assured that none of them was
a detective. Before their final capture
they badly wounded four men and killed
three.
On Sunday, June 10, of this year, a
deputy United States marshal and posse
surrounded the two bandits in a cabin
near Visalia. The usual desperate battle
followed, and during it Sontag was
wounded so that he could not move, and
Evans so badly that he could only crawl.
When darkness came on the bandits still
'. held their nOSiflnnG and HNvanc a
chance to crawl away. Sontag begged
his companion to kill him before leaving,
4 but Evans refused. The posse then cap
tured Sontag, but Evans escaped. He
managed TO reach the house of a woman
he believed to be a sympathizer, but
was there betrayed; but, even when the
officers came and Evans was lying in an
upper room, shot through both wrists and
MS right eye shot out, he made terms for
his surrender by which his wife received
part OF the large reward paid TO his cap.
tors, What Mrs. Evans received under
the terms of her husbands surrender was
spent in caring for the desperately
wounded man.
HOW MRS. EVANS RAISED MONEY.
Sontag died, but Evans recovered, and
more money was required for his defense
0Iher members of his gang, upon whom
uepenuence could be placed for financial
assistance ordinarily, were either in state
prison or had been killed. Mrs. Evans
wanted money for her husbands lega
ueIenSe, and, as the sequel shows, tc
garry out plans for his escape if he should
oe convicted. She interested Theatrical
SPECTATOR in her cause. He had some OF
tne available material of her husbands
career put into the form of a melodrama
included Mrs. Evans and the little noun
.aiG-pred bandits daughter in the cast
an9 produced the play in San Francisco
ru4llc interest in the women, and sym
paIly TOO, were aroused to a high pitch
Al pan francisco, where the play was
plouuced IN September last in the Ma.
stoIdl Iheater, and, says the enthusiastic
t..TItleWer OF the event in the Examiner
Ma II; would have been physical impossi
;Enlly 10 squeeze another human belne
luz the house, - which is large one. III
seemed as if the walls would bulge out
%u y, split at the corners"
q. lue audience was not extraordinary il
s SSS potential bulginess aloue, for. SAYS tn,
same reviewer:
was a curious mixture of an audi
t tnee, 700, that gathered to see the .recen
snaageuy repeated on the mimic stage. On,
S I many faces that are usually only Wis
r noo1 d. the Baldwin first nights. and ,
Ill., Ill., nal OF the orchestra chairs wer,
meg n;isu with men and women who tw,
ba6n5S oelore cheered and clapped theil