Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-15
They Rife the Mail Car and Steal the
Registered Pouches
EXPRESS SAFE PROOF AGAINST DYNAMITE
Engineer and Conductor Safely Dodge a
Fusillade of Bullets,
SCORES OF MEN IN PURSUIT OF ROBBERS
Amount of Money Secured Not Yet
known, but There IL Reason
TO Believe the sum
Was Large. ~

OGDEN, Utah Oct. 14.-(special Tele-
gram.)-one of the bodcst holdups
of railroad train that has oc-
Cured in this section of the
west for many years was that OF the Union
Pacihc's Fast Mail' train eight miles east
Of here this morning shortly before o'clock
Three masked men held up the train, intimi
dated the engineer, brought the train to
staudstill and made away with three pouches
Of registered mail, supposed to contain con.
siderable money aud other valuable mail
matter, The robbers have escaped to the
mountains and half hundred scouts are
now on their trail. The passengers were no.
molestod in the least, and the majority of
them knew nothing Of the AFFAIR until some
time after it had occurred,
There is probably not a drearier place along
the Overland route" an noue better suited
for such a robbery than the scene of this
mornings affair II Is half mile east OF
Uintah a small station eight miles east of
Ocdep II is near the mouth OF the great
Weber canyon and the entire surrounding
country is extremely mountainous The
Fast MALI is due here at . o'clock, and it
was about l;30 that the holdup took place.
The train was making fast time and how the
trio OF robbers got or board is a mystery.
The train stopped for water at Patterson,
| small station in the heart OF Weber canyon.
and it thought the bandits boarded the
blind baggage at that point
The first notice that the tranmen had OF
| their presence was when two of them
crawed into the cab from over the tender
the third one remaining behind All were
| heavily masked were armed to the teeth
and showed by their every movement that
! they were out for desperate work II 1t were
| needed to accomplish their object The
largest of the three jumped down alongside
OF the engineer. Placing his revolver at tho
| engineers head. he said: when l tell
| you to stop, stop right away, or III blow
| your brains out emphas zug this threat
with foul oath. The other compelled the
! fireman to cover his head with a cotton
| sack. which had been brought along evil
| IDENTIFY for the purpose. The engineer re-
| ceived his orders as soon as the robbers
! were convinced that 1t was safe TO go
ahead with their work The train was
! brought TO a full stop and the unwelcome
visitors ran back and uncoupled the train
| just back of the first mail and express car.
ENGINEERs BRAVE ACT.
The engineer being left alone started to
run toward Uintah. a half mile west. He
was ordered to stop and few shots were
| sent after him, but they all went wide OF
| the mark and he Kept on. He ran as hard
| as he could and covered the distance IN
| fast time From Uintah he telegraphed
here for help and gave the bare facts. He
| then started back 20 his train. Before he
! got back however, he met his engine COM
| ing west at full speed. The conductor,
surprised at the sudden stop, ran ahead to
| find out the cause. When he found the
| locomotive unguarded he jumped aboard and
| threw open the throttle.
! In the meanwhile the brakemen and the
other trainmen had been aroused by the
| firing that was going on outside The rob-
| hers were not aiming at any one or any
thing in particular but unioaded their re-
| volvers Just outside the mail and express
| cars to terrify the attendants. They sue
! cceded I'm covering the men in charge OF the
| express car and while two of the trio lined
up the men in charge against the wall OF
their car the third desperado made an at
tempt to blow up the safe containing the
packages of money and other valuable eX-
press matter. For some reason or other the
dynamite did not work properly and the
discharge proved inefectual so far as tho
opening of the safe was concerned. The
safe belonged to the Pacific Express COM
pany and was In charge Of the cofnpany's
regular men. None OF the other express
matter was disturbed.
ROBBERS GROW NERVOUS
The robbers then threatened to blow open
| the safe in the mail cGT, but they never
4 carried out their threat. They had dis
a covered tnat lne tUElu' nal bttn run dHCdu
Tor aid and knew that their time for work
| was growing short, So they made no at
| tempt to use dynamite In the mail car, but
! turned their attention te the sacks OF mail
| that lay on the hCor. They sorted out the
pouches containing the registered mail in
| short order. There were three OF these and
| thev gathered them all in.
| The pouches were taken outside the car
and cut open. There they were rifed Of their
contents. and the letters and packages that
appeared to be the most valuable We're taken
| and the remainder thrown out on the ground.
| As the Union Paclc's Fast Mali Is the
train that brings the eastern mall through
! to the coast the mail on tho train is usu-
ally heavy. 1t Is not only heavy but val
| liable.
The fast mail carries the registered mail
| 10 and from the coast, and as great pro-
| portion of such mail is correspondence be-
| tween the banks enclosing exchanges and
remittances, and always a good proportion
Of cash. the loss is supposed 20 be Of conse-
| quence
robbers took to the Wahsatch mountains
| on the north. This Is a desoate country
| and wildly mountainous aud the hiding
places thereabouts are numberless. The
| country lying on the north side Of the Union
| Pacific however, lies In a "Y" OF rail-
road. The road separates into two branches
| at Granger, the one running to Ogden and
| the other to Pocatello. II Is hoped that tho
robbers may be kept Within this "Y." II
this can be done thelr capture Is reasonably
| certain. There are certain places where
they must come out for food and drink. and
| these will be closely watched.
PURSUED ny OLD SCOUTS.
As soon as the news Of the hold-up reached
| here a special train bearing a hastily organ
| 2ed posse was sent out. Another special
with larger number OF mon Was soon after
ward sent out from Salt Lake cry Scouts
have also been dispatched from Pocatello.
I Evanston, Montpelier, Green River and
Granger. These little bands are composed
Of scouts that know the country thoroughly
and know the fayoritc hiding places as well
~ a farmer knows The hooks OF his farm.
They start In from the four sides OF tho
strip where the robbers are supposed TO be
and Will work toward each other. The OBJ
Get Is to keep tie robbers from getting
cross the north track he line from Granger
% pocatello. II they once get across nat
II Is doubtful whether they ever viii be
caught. The whole country has heard "