The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-02
SMITH WAS a BAD MAN.
And He Had Learned One Game OF
Which He Gould Boast.

But speaking of train robberies.''
put in the colonel, reminds me of
man 1 met when 1 was in command
of Fort D. A. Russell at Cheyenne. He
was an express messenger named
Smith, and his run was on what they
called out there the high line of the
B. and NJ. railroad. Smith amt much
of a man to look at. but he was great
in action, as you'll agree.
I'D heard of Smith before l met
him. He'd killed two men down in
western Kansas, and they were saying
around Cheyenne that he was bad
So 1 was curious to get him to tell
me the story, and after awhile he
did
He used to have a run on the Santa
Fe down where it crossed into. Col
orado. 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 a bit careless at last and
used to leave the door of his car I'M
Hooked so that the brakenen could
come in and talk with him whenever
they liked without his having to so
to the end of the car to unlock the
door.
was all his own. He told me that ne
had practiced it a good deal so that
| he could shoot within a fraction iof a
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 s1ylarking, 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.
lone 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
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 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 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 1t for
granted that the visitor was the brake
man 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 handsp
He looked up on the instant and
saw two men, not in the least dis
guised, covering him with six shoot
| ers. 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 nuzzles 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.
TT was all done so quickly that
there was no outcry or noise, and when
! the brakeman went into the car a few
minutes afterward he found Smith
washing up the blood from the floor.
The dead men were on a blanket in
a corner That was how Smith got
his reputation for being bad New
| York Sun.