The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1895-01-03
SHOOTING AN ENGINEER.

SHOOTING AN ENGINEER.
across the channel, are almost of weekly
occurrence and involve vast sums of
money. The locomotive engineer Of Eu-
rope would not know q train robber If he
saw one starting from the woods, and pas
sengers on express trains go to sleep with
the consciousness that nothing short of a
collision will disturb their SAUNDERS.
European observers commenting upon
the absence Of train robberies from Euro
pean life and their frequent occurrence in
the United States, have held it up as show
ing a crude and raw civilization here
which is unable to cope with outlaws and
to protect its members in their lives and
property.
This however, is far from being the
fact. The Aqua Creek outrage in Vir-
sinia has shown that the development and
age Of a country do not make train rob-
berries impossible.
The American train robbers come of a
race of bold, audacious, reckless men, ac-
customed to taking their lives in their
hands, familiar with the rife and the
volver from childhood and ready for any
desperate deed to accomplish their aims.
The first representatives Of the profession
were drawn from the lawless adventures
who thronged to the Pacific coast upon
the discovery of gold, and to whom the
sight of lonely, mule drawn stagecoach
on its way over the divide with gold dust
from the diggings was an Indictment to
plumber.
But the stage drivers of those old Cali
fornia days were equally ready with the
gun, and it was the custom for the passen
gers all to turn in and help protect the
load. Sometimes the passengers were rob-
bed even Of their clothes, and Bret Harte
has told of bunch of them who once
drove into Calaveras wearing nothing but
~
though the proprietors of a rival sheet
doubted the stories Of their having been
held up and said it was all an ad. for The
Argonaut.
1t took more men in those old California
days to rob q stagecoach than are now re-
Qutrsd to hold up modern express train.
And it Is likely, in physical courage and
readiness for any desperate deed, that the
stage robbers Of California were a superior
race Of men to those who now lie in wait
for the whistle of the express and put
dynamite cartridge on the track to warn
the engineer.
The modern train robber is therefore
the professional successor of the California
inventors of the game, which has been
steadily improved with time. Thus the
use of the dynamite cartridge at Aqua
Greek to blow open the door of the express
car and terrorize the company's agent was
something of novelty, and, as train rob-
bers would express 1t, the bluff worked"
For their work Is largely bluff. IL Is
ridiculous that handful Of bandits, no
matter how well armed, should terrorize
and hold in subsection a traipful of men.
Among the trainhands, including the
mail carriers and the express agents, there
are always a certain number of guns, and
in . trainful of ordinary passengers even
east of the Mississippi a respectable num-
Der of reyolyerg can ALWAYS be scared up.
But train robbers rely upon terrorizing
men and passengers. The moral effect Of
| . liberal display Of rsvolvers is an impor
| tant part of their game. The black mask
also plays n leading part.
When detectives 60 upon the trail and
| one Of the gang Is arrested who tells the
truth or part Of the truth, thus letting the