The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-02
A TRAIN BELD UP.
THRILLING EXPERIENCES ON THE
CANNON BALL.
Robbers Secured Little Over
Twelve Hundrd Dollars, the Pas
sengers Not Being Disturbed.

LEBANON. Mo. April 1.-The east
bound cannon ball train No. 6, on the
St Louis & San Francisco was held
up three miles east OF this city at los
q. m. today by three masked men.
The safe was blown open and robbed.
The robbers boarded the train here
at 1880 a. m, and after reaching the
scene of the robbery overpowered the
engineer and fireman, stopped the train
and with the engineer in front march
ed to the express car. The messenger
refused to open the door, it was blown
open with dynamite. the safe cracked
and the contents removed. Several
packages of valuable papers were found
this morning beside the track and in
some was money which had been over
looked. The passengers were not mo-
Tested. The engine was detached and
run by the robbers to the sleeper.
where it was abandoned. A brakeman
hurried back to the city and started
Sheriff Jones and a party on the track
of the robbers. Three strangers sup
posed to be the robbers were seen
drinking in a saloon at 10 o'clock last
Night Operator Martin. a few minutes
before the cannon bail arrived. The
brakeman furnished a fair description
of the men to the officers in pursuit
and the railway officials are confident
they will be apprehended. The robbers
secured about 1900
The conductor, c. ]. Price, was able
TO tell perhaps the best story of the
robbery.
s.XXre laf+ +ba station - oHa..- -.
o'clock this morning." he said, latter
taking on a half dozen passengers.
Got on the rear Pullman sleeper and
walked toward the baggage car. 1
reached the front end of the baggage
car when we were about six minutes
out of Lebanon. A man who afterwards
turned out to be one of the robbers
was in the smoking car and he gave
me ticket for st. Louis When
opened the door. leading to the blind
baggage two men who were standing
on the rear platform of the express
car, masks over their faces and revolt
Ners in their hands. began to fire into
the car to frighten the passengers and
myself
I went back into the smoker. but
as l did so the bandits pulled the bell
rope and the man from whom l had
taken ticket covered his face with
white cloth that had two holes cut in
1t for the eyes and leveled his revolver
at me as l brushed by. BY the time he
got on the platform the train had
stopped and L rushed on through The
train, where the women folks and
some OF the men We're frightened nearly
to death. l cautioned all of them
against putting their heads out of the
windows. and told them the train was
oeihg robbed. i also told them to be
quick IN concealing their valuables
as the robbers would probably go
through the train. The passengers
were not disturbed however.
engineer VIM. Pierce. VINO lives in
Springfield, Mo-. said: THE first init
nation ! had that anything was wrong
vas an exclamation of surprise from my
fireman. Frank Harris. | turned to see
what caused it Three men were on the
coal and within six or eight feet of us
They all had their guns leveled al us
ana one OF them said: Stop this train"
] looked down the barrels of the guns
and did not see what else there was for
me 10 do.
The men were all masked. At no time
during the whole proceeding I'D l get
a chance to see the features of any of
them. When The train had come 10
standstill, the two larger men climbed
INTO the cab leaving the little fellow
lying on his stomach on the coal with
gun in each hand, one pointed at me and
the other ct Harris.
The two men climbed down, and after
firing five shots from the cab l heard the
explosion in the express car. The men
came back, detached the engine and ran
it away. One of the men evidently bad
some knowledge of engineering, for he
worked like an old hand.
All three wore heavy black masks.
They were cool and very polite about
everything they did. No rough language
was used. The one who did the most uf
the talking spoke in a feminine voice and
was evidently a man of education. /
could not identify any of them IL l saw
them