St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1894-06-09
SMITHS TWO "GuN" GAME.

They Lived to KNOW What KILLED Them
''But speaking of train robberies, :"
put in the colonel, reminds me of .
man l met when was in command Of
Fort d. A. Russell ut Cheyenne. He
Smith. and his run was on what they
called out there the high line of the
Il & NJ. railroad. Smith amt much OF
q 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 in western
Kansas and they were saying around
Cheyenne that he was bad So was
curious to get him 10 tell me the story
and after awhile he did.
"He used to have a run on the Santa
Fe down where it crossed into COlora-
do All the messengers. you know.
carried guns in those days-they do
yet for that matter-but Smith under
stood the use of = six-shooter better
than some of his mates Things had
been so smooth on his run for so long
that he got bit careless at last and
used to leave the door Of his car unlocked
SO that the brakemen could come in
and talk with him whenever 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 practised it good deal so that he
could shoot within fraction of u sec
ond after hearing any one say: Put mp
your hands All the train men on his
run knew that You know those fel-
lows are great in slsy-larking 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.
Zone day he was sitting behind his
little square iron safe checking OF his
money packages He had the safe in q
corner of the car facing one end. He
always sat with his back against the
front end of the car. The front door
was always barred. When he raised
the lid of the little trunk-like safe the
messengers used then. he always put
his two big six-shooterN on the corners
of the safe in front of the lid Anyone
approaching him from the rear of the
car could see the guns, but they were
ready for instant use.
''Well, on this day I'm 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
granted that the visitor was the brake
man whom he was expecting, and with
out looking up went on with his work.
He checked two or three more pack
ages and was almost finished when he
heard the sharp command: Put up
your hands
'.Hc looked up on the instant and
saw two men, not in the least dis
guised. covering 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 q 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 thsf bullets went
wild
''It was all done SO quickly that there
was no outcry or noise, and when the
brakeman went into the car a few min
utes afterward he found Smith wash
ing up the blood iron the floor. The
dead men were on . blanket in a COR
ner That was how Smith got his
reputation for being bad. IN. Y. Sum.