, 1896-12-24
A BLUE CUT HOLD-UP.
TRAIN ROBBERS CAPTURE THE
CHICAGO AND ALTON EX-
PRESS CAR.
Messenger Locked in the Car and the
Engine and Car Taken a Consider
able Distance From the Train
Engineer and Fireman Finally Re-
cover the Engine.

AhuuO lAIou6h ULC OVGl dlloLo
therein of the James and Younger
bands, when they were pioneers in the
train robbery industry, was the scene
tonight of a fourth hold-up by road
agents. At. $50 o'clock tonight the
st. Louis and Chicago express, which
left Kansas City at S:45 was tagged at
Blue Cut and came to a standstilf.
Masked men Immediately covered the
engineer and fireman and compelled
them to get down from their cab. At
the same time another member of the
band %uncoupled the express car from
the rest of the train. The robbers
quickly climbed aboard the locomotive
and express car, and before the sur,
prised trainmen had time to collect
their wits the bandits were speeding
down the steep grade beyond Blue Cut
with the engine and express car, and
the express messenger A.. ]. Frier OF
st. Louis, a prisoner in the express car
AT midnight nc word was received
here Of the train robbers.
From Independence to Glendale, the
next station beyond it is six miles and
the supposition is that the robbers have
looted the car and left the train some>
where in the woods between the two
stations. The fate of messenger Frier
is causing considerable anxiety. The
Kansas City officials of the United
States Express company state that the
train carried very little cash, but that
the car was filled with an enormous
amount of miscellaneous express OF
considerable value. Christmas boxes
made up a large amount Of the treas.
ure of the express messenger. Frier.
all the officials say is heavily armed
and dead game" but they admit the
chances are all against him.
When the robbery became known at
Independence a posse of county offs
cials set out for the scene Of the holdup
and at midnight County Marshal Kesh>
Ter was arranging to send out a force
of officers from Kansas City.
1t was at Blue Cut in 1881 that the
James gang held up a Chicago and AL
ton express train and made one Of the
biggest hauls in the history of train
robbing. A few years later another big
train robbery was committed at the
same place and two months ago to-
night, October %. a holdup at Blue
Cut occurred. The men who planned
the robbery in October were local now
ices and got nothing. Two members OF
the gang have since been arrested.
Though Blue Cut is less than Is miles
distant from Kansas City. it is a wild
for such outlawry. 1t is a deep cut
through the solid rock and, except in
broad day light, is almost as dark as
a tunnel. For a time it was patrolled
day and night but a few years ago.
after the bandit gangs about here were
supposed TO have been effectually brok-
en- up, the guards were Withdrawn.
Kansas City. Dec. pat l o'clock
this. Thursday, morning a telephone
message was received from Glendale
stating that Engineer A. D. Meade, and
the fireman had arrived there. Immedi-
ately after the robbery they set out
towards Glendale In search of their To-
connective. They found the engine about
a mile east Of Glendale dead, with the
express car, but nothing was said OF
the fate Of the xpress messenger.