The morning news., 1899-12-30


each one had the same experience. II g e
were only six revo,vers, and yet each man
in the room was willing 10 swear that one
OF them was pointed at his read all the
time The crowd was slmpy paraiyzed
with fright For iwo or three seconds
not man moved. Then over in one cor
ner a LeadviEe sport brought his han1
around TO reach his hip pocket.
Stop that or I'll shoot SAID one of the
masked men, covering him with his re-
volver. Hands up, row, quickl We mean
business.
Every man in that room did hold his
hands up. There was no hesitation then.
II was my first experience 10 that kind
of game, bul II was not untl l was able
to take my hands down that | realized
how tiresome the operation was. There
we stood, each mon with his hands
stretched high above his head held up In
a room on busy street when an outcry
would bring help at once. IL was a pretty
sure thing, however. that no one Would
make the outcry. the three masked men
had eyes for every move, and their re-
volvers pointed all ways at once. Ii was
easy for man who has not been through
such an experience to suggest that If sew
era men had only made break these fell
lows would have run. | can honestly
say that the barrel of the revolver into
which looked seemed to me to be as large
as sewer pipe. | even thought that I
could see the end of the bullet, and was
awfully afraid that the man who held the
revolver might get nervous and shoot me
by accident | tried to look pleasant to
please him. An this had taken perhaps
minute and hale when tho spokesman
shouted to u.s.
- Line up against that wall with your
backs to me and the man who takes his
hands down will get shot Quick now
gentlemen il you please. Obey orders
and you won't get hurt
Cool Piece of work.
I'VE lined up as directed like a lot Of
school boys.
Nov then. my friend here will relieve
you of your valuables without your as
sistance said the spokesman. Don't move
| because there are two dead shots behind
you. Keep quiet and II will soon be over
ut was a very cool piece of work, I
can assure you. one of the three went
| right straight down the row. taking each
| mans watch and money. He didn't got
as much as he expected and as near as We
could estimate later, the total haul was
| under 5000 There was over 100000 in
the safe which the robbers overlooked.
When we had been cleaned out the spokes-
man said:
Now gentlemen, we are sorry TO In
convenience you further, but we shall
have to request you to stand just as you
are for five minutes more. Don't cut the
time short or you will get hurt
"The side door opened at this instant and
we heard the order Hands up, Chlnk. o.
you are dead man 1t was one Of our
! Chinese servants who was returning wi h
a tray filled with drinks. He promptly
dropped his tray, smashing OIL the glasse 3
and threw up his hands. We heard o
other sound for five minutes. Each man
counted the seconds to make sure that he
shouldn't take down his hands ahead OF
time. The proprietor was the first man 20
move. As soon as he felt that II was safe
he turned and found the robbers gone. He
picked up a heavy chair and threw u
through the window. 1t carried the sash
with It and the crash that followed at
tracted general attention In the street be-
low The proprietor stuck his head out of
the window and profanely shouted such
details of the holdup as might put the
| people in the street on track Of the rob
| bers. II was useless, however The fell
| lows walked out quietly, took off their
| masks and disappeared without leaving
any clue We all piled out OF the place
to aid the search. When we found out
that the chase was hopeless most of us
came back to the gambling room to talk
| it over. When we entered the place we
| found Chink standing In the ruins of his
| glasses with his hands still above his cad.
| The proprietor told him TO take his hands
down. The Chink wouldn' do Il and two
men who pulled his arms to his side had
all they could do to hold him. He had
| looked in the big barrel of one of those
small revolvers and he hadn't forgotten It.
Now this was an actual experience and
some of your New York papers had ac-
counts of IT, If were mixed up In an af-
fair of that sort again, | would raise my
| arms just as quickly. 1t was expediepcy
and not a yellow streak that made that
| crowd act as IL did"