The Press., 1894-06-28
SMITH WAS A BAD MAN.
And He Had Learned One Game of WhicH
 He COuld Roast.

And He Had Learned One Game of Which
 He Could Boast.
 "But speaking of train robberies," put In the colonel, reminds me of man met when was in command of Fort D. A. Russell at Cheyenne. He was an ex- press messenger named Smith. and his run was on what they called out there the high line of the B. and M. railroad. Smith ain't much of a man to look at, but he was great in action, as you'll agree. .'I'd heard of Smith before met him. He'd killed two men down ill western Kansas, and they were saying around Cheyenne that he was bad So was curious to get him to tell me the story, and after awhile he did.
 He used to have run on the Santa Ee down where it crossed into Colorado. All the messengers, you know, carried guns in those .days-they do yet, for that matter-but Smith understood the use of ask shooter better than some of his nates Things had been so smooth on his run for so long that hegot bit care- less at last and used to leave the door of his car unlocked so that the brakemen could come in and talk with him when ever they liked without his having to go to the end of the car to unlock the door.
 Smith had one game, though, which was all his own. He told me that he had practiced it good deal so that he could shoot within fraction of second after hearing any one say, Put up your hands, All the train men on his run knew that You know those fellows are great in skylarking, and Smith had warned them never to try to play that joke on him, because, he said, the first man who came into his car and took him unawares with that remark would be likely to die.
 "One day he was sitting behind his little square iron safe checking off his money packages. He had the safe in a corner of the car facing one end. He al- ways sat with his back against the front end of the car. The front door was al- ways barred. When he raised the lid of the little trunklike safe the messengers used then, he always put his two big six shooters on the corners of the safe in front of the lid. Any one approaching him from the rear end of the car couldn't see the guns, but they were ready for in- stant use.
 "Well, on this day Pm telling you about, as he was checking off the pack ages, he heard the car door open and some one come in. He took it for grant eG that the visitor was the brakeman whom he was expecting, and without looking up went on with his work. He checked two or three more packages and was almost finished when he heard the sharp command, Put up your handsr
 ''He looked up on the instant and saw two men, not in the least disguised, cov- ering him with six shooters His own hands were behind the lid of his safe. All right, boys,' he said. Don't shoot. They're up.'
 '.They went up, that was true, but as they came over the lid of the safe there was a six shooter in each one. Both six shooters cracked the instant their muzzles came above the safe lid, and both bullets killed. The robbers fired. but they didn't pull until after they had been hit, and their bullets went wild.
 ''It was all done so quickly that there was no outcry or noise, and when the brakeman went into the car few min utes afterward he found Smith washing up the blood from the floor. The dead men were on 8 blanket in corner. That was how Smith got his reputation for be- ing bad. '"-New York Sun.