The San Francisco call., 1896-10-15
Forced Engineer and Fireman
to Disguise Themselves
as Desperadoes.
FAILED TO WRECK THE SAFE.
Extent of the Loot Taken From the
Through Mail Pouches Is Not
Known.

SALT LAKE, UTAH, Oct. Alt ap-
pears that the holding up of the westbound
Union Pacific train No. at Uintah, eight
miles east of Ogden at 3:15 o. clock this
morning was the work of one man, single
handed and alone, who by clever coup
cajoled the passengers and trainmen into
the belief that he had ample assistance in
the raid that he was making.
The outlaw first made his appearance
by climbing over the tender into the cab
of the engine, peremptorlly demanding
the fireman and engineer to throw up
their hands, saying that he was about TO
rob the train. The robber was disguised
in such way as to prevent any possibility
of identification, having his head closed
in sack, with eve holes cut. The men
Immediately complied with the request
of the robber and were forced to disguise
themselves as he directed, he furnishing
them with -four sacks to pull over their
heads. Over their mask they were re-
quired to pull down their hats in man
ner that would indicate to the passengers
and others that they, too, were robbers.
At this point he compelled the now cap-
tive engineer and fireman to uncouple the
train, leaving the express and mail car at
tached to the engine. After this was done
he personally mounted the engine. leaving
the engineer and fireman upon the ground,
pulled the throttle and ran part of the
train half mile down the canyon, where
| he stopped and began his efforts to blow
! open the safe.
The express messenger and mail clerk
| in tee meantime remained in their respect
| i've cars. The ro bber commanded Express
Messenger Mccoy to maintain absolute
silence, an injunction which he unwill-
ingly but implicitly obeyed. After this
| the desperate spent an industrious but
| fruitless thirty minutes in an attempt to
bore into and blow open the safe with dy-
Mantle. During the operations of the rob-
ber the express messenger sat quietly on
a box near by.
After failing to reach the inside of the
safe and seeing that success in that direc-
| ton was impossible, he abandoned his
| work and turned his attention to the mail
| car. He commanded the clerk to throw
| out the registered packages, and four mail
bags were accordingly thrown out. TAX
| ing out his knife he proceeded to cut open
| the bags and rifle them OF such matter as
suited his fancy. He secured number
| of registered packages, but as TO the ex-
| act number and how much money they
| contained there is no means of knowing at
| this time At this point the robber fin
/ ished his business and escaped. The di-
/ rection which he took from this point is
| not known.
| The passengers were not molested but
were badly frightened, and being led to
believe that the track on each side was
| lined with robbers ready to shoot at the
| first head that appeared, they kept very
| Quiet during the hour the bold 70 obber was
getting in his work.
| The four mail pouches overhauled were
through pouches. Three of them were
destined for San Francisco and came one
from Chicago, one from Omaha and the
other from Hartford, Conn. The fourth
was from Chicago, going through to Sac
| ramento The bandit threw aside the
large packages likely to contain merchan-
| disc and carried off an armful of the
smaller ones. He also took the receipts,
which makes it more difficult to deter
mine what packages are gone.
The only clew to the identity of the rob.
Der is the fact that a stranger was noticed
in the neighborhood yesterday riding a
horse and leading two others. He re-
mained around during the day and even.
ing and acted in suspicious manner. 1t
| is claimed that he showed great expert-
ness in handling a train, with which he
seemed familiar.
Tonight it was found that a package
containing $4,000 in greeubacks for
| Wells Fargo & Co.'s bank in San Fran
cisco was overlooked by the robber, who
got hold of it, tore the end open and
threw it to one side without examining it
| sufficiently to become aware OF the nature
of its contents.