Evening star., 1898-12-10
HOLDING UP A STEAMBOAT


said an Ana9pstia man who used to travel
out west with a 0one-nigh,-stand circus.
You've heaytd ofHtrains, any number of
EN-, being held up, and stages, slews of
em, being he'd up.- and burro pack trains,
loaded to thS guards with v.rs silver, be-
ing held p;Ltnd men, individually and col
lectively, being held up in such places as
Chicago, Hyena eGulch, Cemetery Station
and such places; but I'll bet money that
none of you ever heard before of a steam
boat being he'd UP. Well, did. Not only
did hear of it, bnt I've told it, Not only
have | told 1t. but I was in the hold-up
myselr, as a-bu.iet-scar on the outside OF
my lett ankle would show If had time TO
old-time, regular steamboat hold-up, al
the same. and the first and original one
Well. here's how it happened:
was boss tentman win Bobinsons
circus back in II. We played the middle
western circuit all during the summer, and
along toward the wlnu-up of August We
struck crCss-country from middle Nebraska
Tor the Black Hills. That was during the
Black Hills excitement, and we ca.cuat,d
to show up there in that region for mon,h
or so, charging EN- ali the way from s2 20
50 a head to see the show. and then to
sail down the Missouri and the Mississ ppi
on TWO or three chartered 81 tern-whee e..
Tor winter quarters IN Memphis. The pro-
gram went through all right. We did up
the Black Hills for about SIX weeks, play
ing to capacity, and just coming money.
Then 1t commenced to chill up some, and
some OF the animals that had b, Ell b Jrn
ana reared down around the equator began
10 Sneeze ana cough a good lot, and so it
was decided to pack up and trek out cf
me BACK Hills for winter quarters. Cd
man Boblnson was wiling to cave after
the six weeks. for he hadn't done a thing
but Just make about hundred thousand
oohafs out Of his one-ringer during that
season ana he had been especially prosper
Gus, at from 81 to 50 a head. in the Black
Hills country. So we moved down to
ankton, where Cd man Eobinson had "A
couple of the cd n-whee,ers-the two
plsgest mat ever naVigatld the Big NJ d V
ing to take on The show The ern-
wheelers We're the General Wi Liam Team
sen sherman and the General PM. T Saer-
ldan. Big as they We're we had some t!ou-
nie IN loading all of our monster, NAM
moth, mastadonic, miraculous show
ABOARD OF en- but We finally did do ii, and
away we started down the Big Muddy
we got along all right. except that we
poked our noses occas. .onaly into sand
bar and when we got down as far as
olnaha we Inquired on beginning TO unload
IN Memphis about three weeks later on,
which would be making cork ng good time,
as time was made in those days
NOW, let me d:gress just a bit right here.
was on the General William Tecumseh
sherman. and our boat. because we had the
better pIlot, kept about quarter of a mile
ahead of the General Phil. T. Sheridan right
alohs. one OF the men with the show Was
cross, peeVlsh little old bareback rider
named Fisher, who had been in the business
ABOUT a hundred years or So and whose
temper was heap soured for that reason.
we an had talked good deal about the
up In the Black Hills country, and one
hlght this little bareback riuer man, Fisher,
got up on his hind legs and declared him
self on the holding up question
- want to tell Won all ono fbipo' ia
he, and that is, that the nine-foot high
pug doesn't live in this world that's got
INC weight and the heftiness to hold me up
at the point of a gun. 1t can't be done. /
can oe held UP. / want to go on record
Tsnt here and now, in the middle of a wild
neck of country, by saying that Jim Fisher
cannot be held up, and never will be held
''Oh, we'll, we had all heard that kind os
blun talk often before, and so we all gives
little Fisher more or less of the laugh.
All right. We left Omaha our two
stern NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. o'clock in the af-
..rfooh |, OF an: October day, and we more
than tossed up the water behind US Must
nave made fully four knots an hour. [
reckon. Anyhow, about the middle of that
hlsht the General Sherman showed her nose
. onSslde an eleN ted sort of sand-bar by
taston, Mo, to take on wood. We hadn't
any more than come to full stop than all
OF us down on the deck heard a conmotion
IN the pilot house and some short. loud
talk 0
Up with your hands, and git away from
that wheel i'll a hurry. said a voice that
none of us was familiar with, and in a sec
ohd or two we heard some of the same kind
OF talk, directed by another unfamiliar
voice to the engineer of the boat who had
been snoozing in an armchair. Oh We
knew all right what had happened We
knew better, though, when we looked up
to the bridge and saw six ducks with Win
chesters pointed right our way. They had
gust sneaked over the rail when we drew
alongside for that wood, and they lust
bout had US, armed and ammunitIoned as
all hands of US were. In about a minute
the General Sheridan moves alongside us,
ana We could see that she, too. was pretty
talr In the hands OF the enemy, for there
were about a dozen of en- also with Win
chesters, taking 1t nice and easy--looking
almighty alert, just the same - on the
bridge.
"Old man Robinson was on our boat and
ne hustled out of his cabin with a roar and
got TO the foot of the bridge ladder where
he was gently told by one OF the auiet-look-
ing ducks on the bridge to stay just where
he was.
What's this here game. anyhow asked
Old man Robinson. What you after? My
summers pickings?
" That's about it, 7 reckon said the man
on the bridge, who seemed to be the leade..
You can Just stand where you are and tell
This boy alongside of me here where your
dust is. He'll take care of it. You needn't
pothef about moving yourself
Well. old man Bobinson just stood here
frothing at the mouth. He was sDeecblp5s
We were all more or less speechIess. rhon
it happened. 1t happened so blooming sud
denly that 1t nearly gave us all heart dis
ease. Little Jim Fisher. the bareback rider
VINO didn intend to be held up by any man
he said. stood right behind me when oli
TINS was going on. When the robber on the
bridge sprung that spiel about holding old
man Bobinson-who had been Fishers en-
pioyer and friend for about twenty ye,.rs-
UP Tor his summers rake-off l could hear
FISHER breathing hard. l figured thar he
was skeeart to death. But he staDDe,} ripht
out into the light, and he had q cleaning
AZ In each hand.
Why, d-n your impudent eyes" said
little jim Fisher and before Won could
sneeze he had banged away at the leader
or the robbers on the bridge We all 7,1mped
10 cover. but Fishers move gave us nerve
II gave EN- nerve on the General Sheridan
TOO, and you never heard such a fusiIlade IN
your life. But in four minutes there were
not any robbers In sight but dead robbers
six of those-and after we had chased the
others, thrown the dead bodies over the
side and taken on our wood, we went ahead
down to winter quarters. And 50, for a
wonder, Jim Fishers laundering in the in
deX about nOhGdy being hle to I-oI5 III. -.