The record-union., 1896-02-13
KARL,THE TRAMP
Rises From Poverty
to Ahuence.
Found The Fifty Thousand
Dollars in YolQ,
Planted by Browning and Brady,
the Train Robbers.
Has Been Rolling in Luxury in San
Francisco Ever Since.
Now in the County Jail Here-He Admits
Having Got Away With $4,000
A Romance in Tramp Life.
Has Been Rolling in Luxury in San
Francisco Ever Since.

The curtain may now be rung down on
the drama of the Yolo train robbery,
for the last of the S51, 800 stole from
Wells, Fargo & Co. has been accounted
for.
Browning and Brady, the men who
robbed the train on the 11th of October,
1894, got only about 100 of the
''swag," as nearly as can be ascertained,
and the express company recovered
$1S090 last August where it had been
cached. The remaining $50, 600 had
never been accounted for until few
days ago, although it was believed that
it had been found by tramps who lived
in the bushes in the vicinity of where
the money was planted. and was car
ried away by them.
This theory was correct, although
it appears there was but one tramp
concerned in the finding and looting
OF the plant.
His name is John p Harmens, other
wise known as Karl Herman, and he is
now in the County Jail, where he was
placed on Sunday last by J. NJ.
Thacker, Wells, Fargo & Co.'S detec-
tive, and Sheriff Johnson. The officers
then went to San Francisco to procure
certain facts connecting him with the
possession of the money, and returned
yesterday morning with F. S. Kordt,
business man of that city, who has had
dealings with Harmels, from whom he
had borrowed 800. After an interview
with Harmens in jail he was taken be-
fore Justice Henry on a charge of Sc
creting money that he believed to have
been lost or stolen, and his examina-
tion was set for Tuesday next, bail be-
ing fixed at $1,000.
Harmens' sudden transition from a
brush-camp tramp to man of wealth,
a money-lender and high-roller in the
metropolis of the Pacific, furnishes the
groundwork for a drama that, in the
hands of a clever stage writer, would
doubtless carry the country by storm.
When the eastbound overland express
was held up near SwingIe's Station on
the night of October IL, 1894, Harmens
was common tramp, living in hut
made of willows, old bags and bits of
board in the bushes within 80 yards
of the spot where Browning and Brady
left the locomotive and buried the
sol 900 they had just taken from the
express car.
Four days afterward he had that
$51 900 in a ''bank''- a Yolo County
sand bank-having either stumbled
upon it accidentally or hunted for it un-
til he found it. The latter is probably
the case, for he doubtless heard of the
robbery soon after it was committed,
If indeed he was not an eyewitness to
the planting of the plunder, for the spot
selected for the purpose was but a few
yards from his camp, which was con-
cealed by a heavy growth Of young
willows.
After finding the money Harmens
buried it. except such sum as he at first
saw fit to carry away with him. This
he admits was $4,000 and he says he
brought it to town in his blankets and
about his person and took a room at
the Mechanics Exchange Hotel on I
street, within fifty yards of the police
station The rest of the money, amount
ing to S1S,090, was recovered by De-
tective Thacker and his aids near the
spot where Brady showed the officers
the money had originally been buried,
and its condition showed that it had
recently been reburied. Thacler knew
the person who reburied the money
would soon be after it, so he removed
only $1,000 of it, and placed trusty
guards in hiding near by, but the next
day the San Francisco papers got hold
of the fact that a portion of the money
had been found and told all they could
learn about it. This placed Harmens
on his guard and 50 disgusted Thacker
that he removed the remainder of it
and abandoned the spot.
HUNT FOR KARL.
The detectives next work was to try
and find the tramp who had got away
with the money This was no easy
task, for the former Weary Waggles''
he knew could not then be found among
the ranks of the tramp fraternity. He
had got a clew to Harmens long before,
but had not been able to locate him.
Finally he fell in with a blacksmith
known in this city as Augustine. a
worthless, dissipated fellow. who had
known Harmens for years and been
with him off and on.
Augustine told Thacker he had dined
at the Mechanics Hotel with Harmens
shortly after the robbery and the latter
had money. He told Augustine he was
going away, and wanted him to go out
to his camp and get some grub" he