The age-herald., 1897-09-19
Eugene Blair, Express Guard. and
 Van Sickle, Ranchman.
WHERE BAD MEN FLOURISHED
Blair, the Man Who Killed Numerous Express Robbers, Finally Retired on a Pension
 How Sam Brown Died.
the New York Sun.

A4ii lnAl ne u-u HIS Killing chiefly among bad men. But at Pioche, Nev., he submitted to arrest as peace- fully as a. lamb when Eugene Blair came for him. I forgot what Bill had been doing, but the Pioche people didn't want him there, and Blair started in the stage with him for Carson City"
 Colonel s. c. Dixon a Sotuhewsts srn mine owner was telling of old Nevada days at an uptown hotel and his sub ject at the moment was Eugene Blair, guard and messenger for the Wells Fargo Express company at an early tim=
 'The prisoner was handcuffed, of course, and Blair sat beside him in the c5ach. It was generally thought that Bills friends would try to rescue him somewhere on the road, which led Blair to say to him:
 Bill, I've heard that your frisnds are going to take you from me between here and Carson If they can. Likely enough they will, but it's fair to tell you that it'll never do you any good, for l shall shoot you dead at the first brsak they make It's well to have the mat ter understood between us.'
 " All right, Blair said Wild Bill, in a cheerful way but the officers remark set him to thinking As they cama near Elko he grew uneasy. Pioche was not a comfortable o~ safe town for Bill to be in at that time but before they got to the station he asked Blair to take him back there.
 '' 'Ths fact is I've got friends at Elko, and I'm afraid if we go there they'll put up a move to rescue me-, he said. If they try it I know you'll do just as you said I think my chances are bet ter to go back than go ahead.
 But word got to the friends some how of what would happen if thsy inter- fered, and Blair took his prisoner to Carson with no trouble.
 Eugene Blair was from the state of Maine, and came to Nevada among the pioneers. He was very tall long-limbed and muscular, quick of motion, ready and perfectly brave. His killing of Bill Davis the stage robber, was an exploit that showed his wonderful courage and readiness. Davis had been the leader in the great Birdseye robbery, in which a Csntral Pacific train was stopped be- tween Reno and Tahoe and a big haul made by the bandits. Davis was cap- turned and tried for this, but by reveal ing where $50,000 of the plunder was hidden he got off with year or two in the penfts ntiary. He took to the road again after his release, and one night as the stage rattled along between Pi- oche and Elko, with Blair sitting on the box beside the driver, Bill Davis, with a confederate, appeared at the roadside and drew shotgun on the messenger.
 Hands up, Blairr' he called. I've got you!''
 There was no time for Blair to use a weapon but he rolled off the coach to the ground on the further sid1 before the robber could fire. He wrested the shotgun from the robbers hands, and shot him dead with his own weapon The other robber ran, and Blair chased him four hours through the sag=brush, capturing him at last. You can judge what kind of a man Blair was, and his killing of Davis was only one of many deadly shooting affairs he had in dis charge of his duty He killed so many men on the Wells Fargo lines, and upset so many schemes of robbery that it seemed certain, sooner or later, that he would be killed in revenge. To save his life the express company retired him with a pension and he settled in Piochs, After his long career of danger on the road he lived quietly at Pioche to die at last from injuries received through his being run over by load of wood.
 By the way, I have heard the story of the killing of the desperado, Sam Brown, from the lips of Van Sickle, the ranchman who shoe him. You know, nPrbanS what a nhe early history of Nevada He was naturally bad. Murder was a pastime, and to disenbowel a man in a barroom was part of a pleasant evenings enter tainment to Long Haired Brown. There was no law in those days, and a man like him could run his course a long time withoun punishment. Brown was ono of a gang who operated along the main trail between Carson City and the Utah line roIbbing emigrants coming overland to California Van Sackle's ranch, twelve miles below Carson, was a sort of way station or hotel for travellers. Brown thought the ranchman had ill., used him in some transaction and 11e let his feelings be known, so when he rode up to Van SiclSle's ihouse one afternoon the owner thought it. prudent to hail him from the doorway before he dismounted and ask him what he wanted
 "I want you!" growled Sam Brown, in tone that made Van Sickle turn back ineo the house in a hurry. Brown sent a shot after dim as he went through the doorway, and then disnDounted, tied his horse to post, and went into the house to find the ranchman. He got as far as the dining-room, and not finding Van Sickle, came back, stopped for a drink at a ltle side room that served as a bar, and then went out to his horse, mounted him, and rode out in the d.rec- tion of Luto Old's ranch, eight miles away. After he was gone Van Sickle appeared with his rife in hand and look ed after the desperado as he rode away.
 "You must kill Brown today, or he'n kill you,' sad Jake Moore, Van Sickie's clerk.
 'T guess that's so," said Van Sickle,