St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-04-02
DARING BANDITS.
cannon Ball Train Held I'm aud
Robbed Near Lebanon. Mo

LEBANON, Mo-, April East bound can-
non ball train No. on the 81
LOUIS q San Francisco road was held
up three miles east of this citv at
I.oo .his morning by three masked men
ana the safe blown open and Iohhed ~
robbers boarded the train at tbis nIoo. =.
l2:SO and after reaching the scene of The ,ot.
perry held up the engineer and fireman stonned
the Train, and, with the engineer in front of
then' marched to the express car. The mos
sehser refused 10 open up and the door was
plo"n open with dynamite, the safe cracked
ana its contents removed. Six packages of val
liable papers were found this morning beside
lhe track, and some money which had been
overlooked in the hurry of departure The
passengers were not molested.
Three strangers who are supnosed n bo
the robbers were drinking in one of the saloons
here last night, and they were seen near the
depot by Night Operator Martin ONLY few
minutes before the cannon ball arrived The
brakeman furnished fair description of the
men to the officers in pursuit and the rail-
way officials are confident they will be speed-
lily apprehended.
Tne Wells-Fargo company offers $500 for the
arrest OF the bandits. The officials say the
amount of money secured was only 81 277
About 100 mounted men are in pursuit of the
robbers. Road Agent Bradway is in Lebanon
experimenting the hunt Blood hounds will
be put on the trail, and every means known to
railroad and express secret service as we'll
as the local authorities, will be used to can
ture the outlaws.
While none of the passengers were molested
there was great excitement among them. oc-
-casfoned by the frequent firing of pistols by
the robbers, evidently for the purpose of in
timidating them.
Conductor G. J. Price was able to tell the
best story of the robbery. I'VE left the sta
tion at Lebanon at 1 o'clock this morning, -
he said, after taking a half dozen pas
sengers. got on the rear sleeper and walked
toward the baggage car. I reached the front
end Of the baggage car when about six min
utes out of Lebanon. A man who afterwards
turned out to be one Of the robbers was in the
smoker, and he gave me ticket for St. Louis
When 1 opened the door leading to the blind
baggage, two men on the rear platform of
the express car, with masks on their faces
and revolvers in their hands, ordered me back
into the car. They began firing into the air
to frighten the passengers and myself.
81 went back into the smoker, but as I did
so the bandits pulled the bell rope, and the
man from whom had taken the ticket leveled
his revolver at me as I brushed by. BY the
time he got to the platform the train had
stopped. rushed on through the train, where
the women and some of the men were fright
ened nearly to death. 1 cautioned all of these
against putting their heads out of the win
dows, and told them that the train was being
robbed. I also told them to conceal their val
rables, as the robbers would probably go
through the train. The passengers, however
were not disturbed"
William R. Mccoy, of this city, express
agent on the train, has been in the employ of
Wells-Fargo for three years. This is his first
experience.
81 was busy fixing up some baggage to be
left at Richmond he said, when heard pis-
toi shots. 1 Immediately thought of robbers,
and began extinguishing the lights. l was
just extinguishing the last light when 1 heard
a rap on the window. deep voice command
ed me to open the door.
!" will give you three seconds to open the
. door, was the command. I looked up and
saw the barrel of a revolver leveled at me. 7
opened up. Two men jumped into the car.
l told them could not open the safe, and
they blew it OPEN"