Rocky Ford enterprise., 1894-05-17
THE COLORADO ARMY.
sanders Forces Capture n Trnin ant
start Eastward.

start Eastward.
News came from Pueblo Tuesday night
that Sanders and his army of 400 men from,
Cripple Creek and Pueblo had started for the
cnst. All efforts to secure transportation at
reduced rates having proved unsuccessful,
Sanders and the other leaders resolved on u
bold stroke. At $50 In the evening as an
engine Of the Denver 81 Rio Grande railroad
was taking COAL the fireman being off the en-
gine, it was surrounded by fifteen Of the men
under General Sanders. They took the en-
gineer and ran the locomotive down to the
Missouri Pacific yards. A train consisting 6
OF D. & X. G. yard engine, one coach, one
mall car, one baggage car and seven box cars
was run down to the camp, the men speedily
boarded it when the train pulled out for the
east over the Missouri Pacific road.
Four miles out they met an engine which
was coming in for the purpose of taking out
the regular passenger train, as none OF the
rolling stock has been kept near the town
since the Cripple Creekers arrived. The en-
gineer reversed and ran back, keeping ahead
of the industrlals. The latter stopped their
train at Boone and took coal aud water. The
train passed Nepesta going at the rate Of fifty
miles an hour
The railroad officials ordered that an en-
gine and box car be ditched In . cut at Olney,
thirty-nine miles out 1t was thought that
this would stop the runaways. 1t was re-
ported during the night that the men were
hard at work laying track around the OBJ
struction. Superintendent Derby, in antici-
patton of their succeeding ordered the water
tanks beyond to be emptied so that they
could not run their engine far. He said
other cars would be ditched In front of them
II necessary.
The army succeeded In laying temporary
track around the ditched engine at Olney and
proceeded eastward. At Haswells another
similar obstruction was met and gotten
around the same way, after four hours hard
work. Near Chivington q more serious
wreck in a big cut proved serious obstacle
In their path. A part Of the 554 men went to
work there, while the others wandered into
Chivington, where they camped for the night.
The wrecked cars may be burned to clear the
way. The men said they. must &c: into Kan
sas Thursday morning.
The chief incident of the day occurred
when the engineer on the commonweal en-
glne discovered that he was running low on
water. The tanks used for filling the tenders
with water had been drained by order Of the
railway management. The commonwcalers
were aware of this move, and so, when the
water was announced to be low, the men were
drawn up into lne after the fashion of an
old-time fire brigade, and by the use Of tin
cans, coffee pots and a few buckets, the en-
gine tender was replenishcd from an irrigat-
ing ditch which flowed conveniently near the
track.
The county and state officials Of Colorado
and Governor Lewelling of Kansas. all having
declined to interfere with Sanders army, the
Missouri Pacific management decided Thurs
day morning that they must get the federal
government to assist. In order TO accom-.
! pl!sh this the obstructions at Chivlngton were
removed and tic industrial train allowed tc
proceed into Kansas. Mail trains from each
direction soon had Sanders train between
| them and then a case could be made out OF
having obstructed the mails special train
from the east, bearing United States Marshal
Nceley and 1G0 deputies, the United States
commissioner and officials Of the road, met
the industrials and General Sanders was
placed under arrest 1t was the intention OF
the marshal 10 arrest only the leader, and ne
quietly submitted, saying he would leave II
all to the men. Each con pany went into
consultation, and stated that they would sub
init 10 the generals arrest only on the terms
that the entire army was placed under arrest.
| The marshal agreed to accommodate them
| and In short time train of passenger
coaches was made up to carry the whole army
| to Topeka. Once at Topeka, the industrlali
hope TO be released and tbcr would be tha
much nearer Warrington Tho railroad OIL
stals th:nk that ihsy oNH ~ lssst convict III.
| lanisfs
The train ldai Of sifsslsa Hsa reached Td