The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-04-07
NEvADA'S BAD MEN.
HOW EUGENE BLAIR AND VAN Slc-
klE HANDLED THEM.
An Express Guard Who Made . Record
For Courage and Coslness-The Sudden
Taking or Of sam Brown. = Notorious
Desperate.

AekhnB On VI Senh DroWes - NosoHhoes
Desperate.
"wild Bill was desperate and dan
gerous one, although l must say for him
that no did his killing chiefly among bad
men. But at Phoebe. New, he submitted
20 arrest as peacefully as lamb when Eu-
gene Blair came for him. i forget what
Bill had been doing. but the Phoebe people
didn't want him there, and Blair started
in the stage with him for Carson City"
Colonel :. c. Dixon, a southwestern
mine owner, was telling of old Nevada
days az an up town hotel, and his subject
at the moment was Eugene Blair guard
and messenger for the Wells-Fargo Elk
press company at an early time
THE prisoner was handcuffed, of
course, and Blair sat beside him in the
coach. IL was generally thought that Bills
friends would try TO rescue him some
where ON the road, which led Blair to say
TO him:
Bill, I've heard that your friends are
going to get you away from me between
here and Carson if they can. Likely
enough they WILL but it. fair TO tell you
that it'll never do you any good, for |
shall shoot you dead at the first break they
make. It's well to have the matter under
stood between us.
IAN right, Blair, said Wild Bill In
cheerful way, but the officers remark set
him TO thinking. AS they came near Elko
he grew uneasy. Phoebe was not a COM
Portable or safe town for Bill to be in at
that time but before they got to the sta
ton he asked Blair to take him back
there.
1.-the fact is I've got friends at Elko,
and I'm afraid if we go there They'll put
up move TO rescue me- he said. If they
try it, know you'll do just as you said.
think my chances are better to go back
than go ahead.
"But word got to the friends somehow
of what would happen if they interfered,
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. lie 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 show
ed his wonderful courage and readiness.
Davis had been the leader in the great
Birdseye robbery, in which Central Pa
cifc train was stopped between Reno and
Tahoe and big haul made by the bandits
by revealing where 500, 900 of the plumber
was hidden he got off with year or two
in the penitentiary. He took to the road
again after his release, and one night, as
the stage ratified along between Phoebe and
Elko, with Blair sitting on the box beside
the driver Bill Davis, with a confederate,
appeared at the roadside and drew down a
shotgun on the messenger.
a. Hands up, Blair' he called. I've got
your
"There was no time for Blair to use q
weapon, but bo rolled off the coach TO the
ground on the farther side before the rob
Der could fire. He dashed round the rear
of the coach TO Davis, wyested 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 sagebrush, capturing him at
last. You can judge by this what kind of
man Blair was, and his killing of Davis
was only one of many deadly shooting af
fairs he had in discharge of his duty. He
killed so many men on the Wells Fargo
lines and upset SO many schemes of rob-
berry that it seemed certain, sooner or
later, that he would be killed in revenge.
To save his life the express company re-
tired him with pension, and he settled in
on the road he lived quietly at Phoebe to
die at last from injuries received through !
his being run over by a load of wood.
By the way, have heard the story of
the killing of the desperate, Sam Brown,
from the lips of Van Sickle, the ranchlnan
who shot him. You know perhaps what
terror Brown was in the early history of |
Nevada. He was naturally bad Murder |
was n pastime and 10 disembowel man |
in barroom was part of pleasant even
ings entertainment to Long Haired |
Brown. There was no law in those days, |
and man like he could run his course % |
long time without punishment. Brown |
was one of a gang who operated along the |
main trail between Carson City and the |
Utah line robbing emigrants coming over |
land to California. Van Sickle's ranch, ~ |
miles below Carson, was "a sort of way sta |
ton or hotel for travellers. Brown thought |
the ranchman had ill used him in some |
transaction and he let his feelings be I
known, SO hen be rode up to Van Sickle's |
house one afternoon the owner thought it |
prudent to hail him from the doorway and |
ask what he wanted.
=" L want you'll growled Sam Brown in |
a tone that made Van Sickle turn back |
into the house in a hurry. Brown sent |
snOJ dlUer MIN as ne went through the |
doorway and then dismounted, tied his |
horse to a 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 drink at little
side room that served as a bar and then
went out to his horse, mounted him and
rode on In the direction of Lutte Old's |
ranch, eight miles away. After he was
gone Van Sickle appeared with his rifle.
"'You must kill Brown today, or he'll |
kill you, said Jake Moore, Van Sickle's
clerk.
81 guess that's So said Van Sickle
and sent word to his neighbors. In a
short time party was organized and start
ed in pursuit of Brown, four or five men
riding in wagon and Van Sickle and two
others on horseback. Four miles out they
came in sight of Brown just as dusk was
falling. He turned, and Van Sickle fired
at him with his rifle, missing him. Brown
rode on, and they lost sight of him In the
darkness. Lutte Odds ranch was a mile off
the trail. Van Sickle felt sure that Brown