El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-23
A CURIOUS INCIDENT.
An Intoxicated Passenger Had His
Clothes Filled With Wads
Of Money!


When the Mexican Central train YVES
leaving Chihuahua last Sunday two
Americans came out of the rear door of
the eating room at the station and
boarded the second class coach Their
manner rather impressed bystanders
with the belief that they desired to
avoid observation. One of the men,
says fellow passenger, was tall, stoop
shouldered, dark, fiat chested, and
had hard face. Che other was some
what shorter, and his chief stinguish-
ing feature was his very red hair, not
auburn or bronze or merely red, but
approaching scarlet. He had a nous
tacbe which had a yellowish tinge, and
his face was very aorid, not with the
flush of intOXication, but rather from
long exposure to the sun.
AS the two men crossed the platform
it was noticed that the dark one was
very much under the influence of liquor,
so much so indeed that his companion
had almost'to carry him into the car.
The two men first went into the second
class car. but before the train started
they came into the first class coach
and the rudy individual dropped his
burden into a seat and proceeded to
compose him for the Journey.
The intoxicated man was totally
unable to take care of himself, and had
| to have his head and limbs arranged
so he would seem to be sitting up.
After his companion had succeeded IN
getting his charge settled he proceed
ed TO bring forth roll after roll of bank
bills. These he crammed into the
drunken mans pockets, first filling the
trousers pockets, then stuffing them in
to the side POCKETS of the mans coat.
OF this proceeding the dark man ap-
peared to know nothing.
After the train had gone about forty
miles The red headed man got off. The
little performance in the car bad inter
sted some OF the passengers, and the
Americans on board agreed tn at it was
worse than folly, i; was criminal, to let
| his man go to Juarez or Ell Paso q his
helpless CONDITION with so much money
,bout him. 1t might EASILY result il
The mans murder in some low Joint
that he would be likely to drift into
sooner or later. One pass enger ac,ed
as interpreter for the Mexican guards
hoard, but they could get nothing out
of him. The conductor was urged TO
relieve the man of all his funds, t
keep for him until he could be put in
the hands OF friends. but he declined.
The man before long found the
money in his pockets. and then be pro-
eeded to strew it ali over the floor OF
the car near where he was sitting. The
conductor picked up something over a
hundred dollars in bills of.very small
denominations, mostly ones, that be
had thrown away in this fashion
When the ruddy man left his compa-
mon he had given him Il ask of whis-
Key, and the drunken man had Just
sense enough left to understand
what the bottle meant. He kept at it
persistently, and that did not help him
to gather his thoughts.
The officers of the guard took
great interest in the strange case.
They seemed to think that the man
had committed crime, or at least
cats paw, of criminals. They felt GER
tain that he had come by bis money
10 no honest way. and they limited
that they intended to arrest him in
JuareZ and have the case Investigated.
The man seemed to be an entire
stranger to every body on the train ex-
cept 10 one young fellow by the name
OF Higbee, who was on his way to the
military academy at San Antonio.
He said he knew the man, that he was
named Mccarthy and that he WAS a
contractor on the chihuahua and Paci-
6c railroad. He said Mccarthy bad
the money honestly, that he was going
to hire help and Ito paw the
fare of some labOrers he was
about to have shipped to Chihuahua
The passenger before mentioned ex-
erted herself to see if possible that no
harm should come to the man. She
told the conductor what she had
heard, and said that it was not right
that he should be turned loose in that
condition: that as he was in charge of
the train he was really responsible |
for the safety OF the man. She even |
offered to telephone to the Ell Paso |
chief of police TO have him meet the !
train and see that the man got safely |
into Ell Pa O, because she had heard |
the guards say they intended to arrest |
him in Jusrez.
When the train reached Juarez the |
woman happened to see MIR. Kuhn, the |
Mexican Central commercial agent, !
and told him the facts n the case. He |
at once asked her to point out the man.
They jumped of the train and looked |
up and down the platform and in the |
eating house, but Mccarthy was no.
where to be seen. They understood |
that the Juarez jefe pOliJ ico |
had taken charge OF him.
From the jefe politicc it was learned |
that upon the arrival of the train at
the station one of his officers, who had |
been informed of the condition of the
man, had, with the iefe's approval, TAX
en- the man in charge and had him
placed in jail to sober off. The money |
he had on him, says the jefe, amounted
to over two hundred dollars, and of
course all OF it was returned to Mr.. Nc
earthly upon his release next morn
ing. The jefe did not seem to think
there was any mystery about the case
at all, and he said that was all he knew
about it. There was no charge against
the man.
1t rs been finally determined that
The man was really Contractor Nc
Carthy. He has been having q pretty
wild me since he struck FL Paso and
he has been in straits for cash. His
story of the incident. is about as fol-
lows: Mccarthy was in charge /
Of construction party on the
and Guerrero railroad near
San Andreas, about sixty miles north
west of chihuahua on the Santa Ysabel
river. He was trying to get some
teams over the river and while he and
his men were working at that he
had some words with ore of his en-
ployes- He called on police
man to arrest the man but the officer