The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-24
FIST WORK WITH pistols.

knJE EgVAaEE Bsh1M l AJIVAJe
How Two Robbers Died While Rob-
bling Ranchman.
What is known as a bad man in
the far west is not necessarily man
of an unvarying evil disposition. or of
disposition evil at ALL he may be uni
formly and cussedly bad only in the
sense of being dangerous to those who
offer him unjustifable proyocation. S
nave met many varieties of the species
in my 20 years of travel west of the
Mississippi river" said a former COM
mercial traveller.
"One of the occurrences that amused
me most was the experience of a gang
of confidence men with an old man on
a Kansas railroad. At the station in
Atchison one afternoon, just before the
Santa Fe train pulled out for Topeka,
the sharpers tried to work a game on
some one, but were interrupted and
their scheme fell through. They piled
abroard the train as the bell rang, and
set in to work off their i'll temper by
chatting and maltreating the passen-
gers about them. Presently there en-
tered at the rear door of the coach
typical southwestern farmer, a tall old
beard, steeple 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 be-
hind and pulled him back by the coat
| tail.
Hold on, old fellow he said. Don't
| hurry! Dye think you're bound some
! where, or going to stop awhile with
| us?'
The old man turned, his beard brist-
ling, his eyes flashing fire. His hand
! went down to his hip pocket and came
back clutching the butt of an extraor-
| binary long barreled revolver.
I'm from Cass county. Missouri
| he said, but got no further. The shar-
per let go the coat tail and threw up
| his hands.
Il see you are he gasped. I 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.
1.-THE only man glared a 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 sharpers subsidized
and were perfectly orderly during the
rest of the trip.
Il was in the train in which it hap
pened, although L did not see the oc-
currence, when two thieves came to
| grief in trying to rob a cattleman It
was in the G. 3. & @. station in Chi
cago, or rather just beyond the sta
ton. The thieves evidently had planned
the robbery beforehand, knowing that
! the cattleman had a large sum of
money with him, and they had followed
! to the train and aboard a coach. He
i had just 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, pinioned 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 intention, of
course, of jumping from the moving
train. But they hadn't reckoned rightly
on the quickness of the cattleman' s
pistol. Drawing his revolver he brought
down one of the thieves half way to
the door, mortally wounded, with a bull
let 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 quick
ly that few of the passengers in the
coach were aware that anything unusu-
al was going on until the pistol shots
rang out. Then, naturally, there was
jumping up and confusion and hyster-
les The cattleman, pistol in hand,
went at once to the first thief he had
shot searched him, and not finding the
pocket book, 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 a brakeman handed him
the pocket book, which the thief had
dropped when he fell The cattleman
ran his eyes over the contents. satisfied
himself 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
Il coroner'S jury eXonerated him for the
killing, and his case, If II ever came be
fore a court, was quickly dismissed.
/ met him afterward in Wyoming, a
quiet, every day 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
promptneSS ana Soou Hldl hshieiHslilA
were needed.
"One of the biggest and most salts
factory surprises ever runs IN on a
stage load of passengers, occurred when
I was travelling to Colorado almost
20 wears age There had been great
many hold ups on the stage line, Their
recently started between Pueblo and
| I,eadyilIe, so, as 1 was making my sec
ond trip over the route the passengers
were less astonished than they might
have been when, about 10 o'clock of &
moonlight night, the driver pulled the
horses up short at a sharp command OF
some one by the road side ahead, anc
a face masked with red handkerchief
appeared at the window A pair o.
cooked revolvers emphasized the words
Hands up. Get out, everybody, ant
be lively
There was nothing to do but get out
and one by one men and women alight
ed. and, nine in number, all holding
their hands above their heads, were
silently ranged into line along the trai
by two masked men, each holding il
! his hands pair Of revolvers. A thirt
robber, near the horses heads, KEEP
the driver covered with a pistol.
Keep perfectly quiet said one o
| the robbers and nobody will be hurt.
Then, while one man stood guarC
over the passengers with his pistols
the other searched the passengers, on