The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-10-19
TRAIN ROBBERY WANING
DEATH PENALTY IN THE WEST THE
CAUSE OF THE DEcADENcE.

Lb 10 hOiu ny runway uicu anu eA-
press agents whose lines traverse
some of the far Western States that
the efficacy of law aflixing the death
penalty to crime against property
has been proved by the utter de-
cadence of the once thriving industry
of train robbery. There was time
when it was common mode of max
ing a living. Within year of the
passage of the law defining it as a
capital offence it had dwindled in
Arizona by more than fifty per cent.
In two years cases of train hold-ups
were rare. Since then there have
been merely sporadic cases. The
men of the road have gone back to
robbing stage coaches, or take their
chances in looting detached express
Offices in small towns. Ninety per
cent. of them think too much of their
necks to run them into almost certain
nooses.
There has been, however, one
curious result of the law: While it
has enormously decreased the num-
Der OF train robberies, it has increased
the percentage of fatalities attendant
upon them. This Is due to the fact
that with capital punishment hanging
over them, only the most desperate
kind of criminals have been willing to
engage in looting trains ot all, and
once in it they were prepai ed to stop
at nothing, In these days the slight
est show of resistance is met with in
stant death. The robbers say that as
they are going to be hanged anyhow
if caught, they might as well be
hanged for something worth while.
Eight years ago in Arizona there
was train robbery month, and this
is large number when the compara-
lively few railroads in this territory
and the few trains are taken into
consideration. Into such a condition
of desuetude has the pursuit de-
scended, that it has now been more
than year since anything like a
"decent hold-up" has been accom-
plished. That which is true of
Arizona is true also of California, in
which State the law covers train
wrecking as well as train robbery. 1t
IS also true of nearly all the States in
which train robbery once flourished.
Not all these States have prescribed
the death penalty for the crime, but
the robbers seem to think they have.
The inactivity of their brethren in the
far Southwestern States has dis
couraged them. In Texas, for in
stance, there has been no coup of this
kind worthy of the name for more
than year, yet in Texas, less than
ten years ago, there were five distinct
bands of robbers operating simul-
taneously. 1t is tribute to the Off
GERS of that State that very few of
these men are now alive. Most of
them were killed before there was a
chance to send them to the peniten-
tiary.
The almost utter stoppage OF these
enterprises merely through the fear Of
public execution is q singular thing,
and it becomes more singular still
when it is recalled that the men en-
gagged in it just previous to its decline
had succeeded in perfe citing a means
of entrance to express cars and safes
against which all the science and in
genuity of builders were powerless.
That means was dynmite, applied in
large quantities where it would do the
most good. Cars lined with steel,
which were good enough against rifles
or shotguns, were nc bars to it, nor
could any express messenger, however
brave and trusted, be expected to re-
main at his post when once the threat
was made that he would be blown up
unless he opened and betrayed the
combination. High explosives of this
kind were unknown to the early prac-
titioners of the craft, and if they had
known how to use giant powder their
hauls would have been even larger
than they were. When dynamite was
first used by robbers they were un-
skilful. They had no idea of the
proper quantity and they blew up
themselves as often as they blew mp
the cars. They learned rapidly how.
ever, and when suddenly aud perma-
nently discouraged by the hangman's s
rope were fast becoming experts in
explosive forces. There is no record
of any express car standing against
the use of explosives when they were
properly applied, and the managers of
the companies were in despair when
the Legislatures came to their relief.
The express chiefs had gone even to
the length ofsending apowerful lobby
to Washington to work for a national
law prescribing the death penalty. 1t
becomes speedily apparent, however,
that the national jurisdiction in this
matter extended only to the territories.
1t could not be stretched to cover the
States although United Statea mail
was carried upon every train that was
dynamited. Even Congressman with
every disposition to oblige were forced
to admit that it would be hardly the
proper thing to provide hanging as a
punishment for delaying the mails, so
the thing fell through. State Legis-
latures are almost wholly responsible
for the widely-spread reform of the
railway freebooter.
The rise and fall of this industry.
if completely and sensibly written,
would make book more thrilling
than the work known as the "Vililantes
of Montana" a paper covered volume
compiled by n preacher, which once
had the distinguished honor of com
mendation at the hands of Charles
Dickens.