Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-07-22

sHARPERs FACED BY A MlssoURlAN
GRAVEYARD ON 4 TRAIN.


Mischief.
''What is known as bad man in the
far West is not necessarilya man of an
unvaryingly evil disposition, or of dis
position evil at ali; he may be uni
formly and cussedly bad, or bad only
in the sense of being dangerous TO
those who offer him unjustifable pro-
vocation. 1 have met many varieties
of the species in my twenty years of
travel west of the Mississippi" said a
former commercial traveller.
Zone of the occurrences that
amused me most was the experience of
gang of confidence men with an old
man on Kansas railroad. At the
station in Atchison one afternoon,
just before the Santa Fe Il ain pulled
out for Topeka, the sharpers tried to
work game on some one, but were
interrupted, and their scheme fell
through. They piled aboard the train
as the bell rang, and set in to work off
their i'll temper by chatting and NAL
treating the passengers about them.
Presently there entered at the rear
door of the coach typical South
western farmer, tall old man, with
grizzled, patriarchal beard, steepe-
crowned hat, and long linen buster.
As he strobe along the aisle, his gaze
bent on the coach ahead, one of the
sharpers reached from behind and
pulled him back by the coat tail.
"'Hold on, old fellow" he said,
Don't hurry! Dye think you're
bound somewhere, or going to stop
awhile with us?'
"The old man turned, his beard
bristling, his eyes flashing fire. His
hand went down to his hip pocket and
came back clutching the butt of an
extraordinarily longbarrelled re-
volver.
"'I'm from Cass county, Missouri.
he said, but he got no further.
The sharper let go the coat tail and
threw up his hands.
"'I see you are, he gasped. Il
only wanted to find out. For Gods
sake, let the rest of that pistol stay
where it is and go along as soon as
you want to. Never mind u.s.
'"The old man glared moment on
the confidence men as if undecided
whether to let the matter drop at
that; then turned, pushed the pistol
back where it came from, and, still
keeping his hand ON the butt of it,
went on through the car. The sharp
ers subsidized, and were perfectly
orderly during the rest of the trip.
81 was in the train in which it hap
pened, although / did not see the
occurrence, when two thieves came to
grief in trying to rob cattleman. 1t
was in the c., b. and O. station in
Chicago, or rather just beyond the sta
ton. The thieves evidently had
planned the robbery beforehand,
knowing that the cattleman had
large sum of money with him, and
they had followed him to the train
and aboard coach. He had seated
himself near the middle of the car
After the train had started and got
under good Roadway, one of the
thieves suddenly grappled him from
behind, pinioning his arms to his
side, while the other drew his pocket
book from his inner breast pocket.
Then the thieves ran in opposite ways
toward the car doors, with the inten-
ton, of course, of jumping from the
moving train. But they hadn't reck-
oned rightly on the quickness of the
cattleman's pistol. Drawing his re-
volver, he brought down one of the
thieves, half way to the door, MORALLY
wounded, with a bullet through his
back. Turning, he fired at the other,
just dashing out at the door, shooting
him through the heart so that he fell
dead on the platform.
''The whole thing was done so
quickly that few of the passengers in
the coach were aware that anything
unusual was going on until the pistol
shots rang out. Then, naturally,
there was jumping up and confusion
and Mysteries. The cattleman, pistol
in hand, went at once to the first
thief he had shot, searched him, and,
not finding his pocketbook, went back
through the car to where the other
thief lay dead on the platform. The
crowd gave him free passage along the
aisle, you can bet. At the door
brakeman handed him the pocketbook,
which the thief had dropped when he
fell. The cattleman ran his eye over
the contents, satisfied himself that
they were all right, then went back to
his seat where he remained quietly
until the next station was reached.
Here he got out, asked the telegraph
operator to notify the police that he
was waiting for them to arrest him
and stayed until they came The
Coroner's jury exonerated him for the !
killing, and his case, if ever it came be-
fore court, was quickly dismissed. /
met him afterward in Wyoming,
quiet everyday sort of man of no par
ticular reputation as a shot, who had |
got along with little trouble in fight
ing way before and after his exploit at |
Chicago. But he showed himself great |
at this one time when nerve and |
and good Workmanship
were needed.
II saw rough fellow taken down
by q man who was not bit rough to
look at once on a passenger train of
the Southern Pacific road, west of
Deming. 1t was in parlor car, and
the tough had arrived at the stage of
where he felt it neces-
sary to get out his pistol and shoot at
telegraph poles along the side of the
track. He got ugly when the conduc-
tor spoke to him and allowed he'd do