The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-10-17
TWO LIEN HOLD UP A TRAIE.
They Escape With Four Bsgs Containing
e5i.01o.

SACRAMENTO, CAL. oct. l2.-The east
bound overland express, due here at Q
o'clock last night, was held up ab0u; six
miles ont of the city and robbed of four
sacks of money 10y two men, who escaped
with their booty. The amount Of money
in the sacks was SjI, go.
The robbers first held up the track
walker, and taking his torpedoes and
signal lanterns from him, tagged the
train in proper fashion, indicating that
likely they were railroad men. They
then covered Engineer William Scot; and
Fireman Lincoln with rifles, and forced
them to uncouple the express car and
engine from the rest of the train and run
ahead, with the robbers on board, To 4
point between two trestles. While the
uncoupling was being done the conductor
and brakeman appeared, but were scared
away by bullets. When the spot between
the trestles was reached. Express Mes
senger Page was ordered to open the door
of the car. He replied with two shots,
which narrowly missed Scott and Lin
coin. The robbers threatened Ia Kill the
latter unless Page opened the door, which
he did. Page gave up his keys and the
robbers forced Scott and Lincoln to carry
the money to the engine, which was un-
coupled, boarded and started toward Sac
ramento. Some distance away they
stopped and reversing the engine desert
ed it with the money and disappeared.
The engine banged into the express car
without damage, and the train was
brought in here several hours late.
Lincoln says he can identify the rob
bers, and the country is being secured for
them.
James Cotton, a tramp who was beating
his way To Sacramento from Suisun,
probably saw more of the robbery than
any one else. His story is a. follows ::
1.-The first thing knew about any trou-
BILE was when the torpedo went off. 1t
seemed to light the ear. | said to Han
ley, another tramp, who was riding with
me on the forward platform of tho blind
baggage car, There goes torpedo; some
things wrong Iswung out on the steps
and looked ahead and saw two figures on
the track, swinging lanterns. One had a
red and the other a white lantern. As
the train slowed up, climbed up on the
back end of the tender and lay down,
while Hanley went inside the storm
doors. The next thing saw the two rob
bers run up on each side of the engine.
They were dressed i'm clOse-fitting white
suits, wore high, peaked white caps, eX-
actly like the pictures have seen of the
White Caps in tht EIst. They looked
like clowns in a circus. They had Win
chester rifles, but no pistols or cartridge
belts that could see. The big one fired
his rifle of and said to the engineer, Get
down out of that, and be quick about it,
The engineer replied: / Will, | Will,
don't kill me, I'll mind you.' The engi-
neer and fireman accompanied the rob-
bers, who kept poking them with their
guns. The tall one said: Get move on
you They went back and uncoupled
the express car from the Others and
brought the fireman and engineer back to
the engine.
"The tall man stood on the platform Of
the express ear and said to the engineer: ::
Pull out, now, d lively, and go till /
tell you to stop One of the robbers kept
his gun aimed at the engineer and rested
il on my legs without seeing me. II was
an old gun with so large a bore that |
thought it was muskct at first. After
we had gone about mile the big man
told the engineer to stop. The big man
climbed on the tender and saw me for the
first time. He pointed his rifle at me and
said: who in the h is this?' | said 4:
DON'T shoot, mister, I'm only tramp.
lie told me to keep quiet and would be
all right. Then the men compelled the
engineer and fireman 10 go back to the
express ear and call the messenger. The
messenger began To shoot at once, bat
was implored not to by the engineer.
81 SAW the four come back presently
bearing a sack each, and heard the large
man say the sacks weighed about ~
pounds, though the two carried 10y the
railroad men were larger than the other
two. They put the sacks ON the engine
told us Ia get away from the machine and
then they pulled out. As they were
bringing the sacks to the engine the mes
senger fired two shots at them and the
engineer said: That d fool will kill
us yet The big robber laughed and
said ''No he won't; he can't hit the side
of house, They were the coolest men
ever saw. The mouth-opening in the
big fellows mask was very large AMI |
could see that he had a dark mustache."
IIanley, the other tramp, tells a story
similar to Cotton, although his opportu
mites for seeing were not 80 good, as he
was behind the storm doors most of thc