Omaha daily bee., 1900-02-11
LOI OLD TINES At SIDNEY
RecOllecuoas Of thl Days When the Towu
Was the Warmest Pebble.
QUITTING POINT FOR The BLACK HILLS

Swas of q RoBbcr Gang, ThCir Ioot-
Ing Operations aud How They
Were Persuaded to Hustle
out OF Town.
The present settlers in the counties o,
western and northwestern Nebraska. in their
happy and prosperous homes among the pine
clad hills and sparkling streams. with their
churches and school houses and with law
and order for their everyday guide. have but
a vague idea Of the country they occupy in
comparison with what it was twenty years
ago. TIL peace-loying and prosperous citi-
zens OF Sidney, the county seat Of cheyenne
county, have but little knowledge Of the sid
ney at the time Of the opening up Of the
Black Hills country in IS. At that time
and. in fact. up to 1881, Sidney was a typical
and what was called in western parlence a
wide open" town. 1t was the ermiuus of
the stage line to Deadwood and also the
freighting point from which all freights were
transferred from the railroad to be laden in
wagons for all points in the Black Hills
country.
The huge wagon trains drawn by mules or
oxen, which sometimes extended a mile or
more in length. were some of the interesting
sights to be witnessed in those days. while
the town at night was bright and lively with
its dance halls, saloons and gambling dives.
which were always well filled with bull
whackers, mule SINNERS, cowboys. gamblers,
horse and cattle thieves and border rufians
generally. These, together with a large
number OF abandoned women bedecked in
flaming colored dresses with dazzling Jew
elry, Wed with each other to make night
hideous with their drunken orgies and saw
age yells. All night long one could hear
from his room in the hotel. through the
otherwise stiffness Of night, the evcr-shrill
voice calling out: Balance all" Ladies
change" Gentlemen right" This at times
would vary to: Balance TO the bar, q"
Treat your partners" This. interminElal
with yells and the almost incessant firing
o. revolvers. made Sidney 1T that time a
very lively and interesting town. Many
murders were committed and shooting
scrapoS were Of frequent occurrence. En-
igrants enroute over the railroad across
the continent were almost daily robbed by
three-uard monte men ami others with
various gambling devices and were at times
held up and robbed in open daylight with
out any cerHuony whatever.
Ironclad Coaches.
The Black Hills Stage company was COM
PEELED to put on its line an ironclad stage
COACH, IN WHICH " transport the ROlu DQl-
lion from the mines at Deadwood. This
coach. besides being armored, carried six
stalwart messengers or guards fully armed
with shotguns, rifles and six-shooters. In
the summer of 1850 this armored coach
rolled into Sidney on its regular semi
monthly trip, on schedule time, with its
valuable freight. consisting of some 1920, 600
in gold bullion. On its arrival at Sidney
no time was lost in transferring the pre-
Cious metal over to the Pacific Express
company. The express agent at Sidney,
after receipting for the bullion, left the
office for a few moments and when he re-
turned was greatly surprised to find that
it had disappeared through a hole in the
floor of the office, which had been made
by parties with an auger from the basement
OF the Office. This basement was at the
time being used as a coal cellar. The alarm
OF course was at once given and the writer,
with several others, Immediately left Chey-
enne, Wyo., for Sidney on a special train
and made the run, 100 miles, in something
less than two hours. Fortunately for the
express company most Of this bullion con-
sisted of large gold bricks and consequently
was entirely too heavy for the thieves to
get away with, especially as the robbery
occurred at about l O'Clock in the daytime
and hence the robbers attempted to conceal
their plumber in among the coal in the base
ment of the express Office. All OF the bull
lion was recovered, excepting one brick. val
ued at s14, 900, which eventually found its
way into the Denver mint and was of
course a total loss to the company.
Rout of the Robbers.
The loss to the express company on this
occasion proved to be a blessing in disguise
m tho pOod DaCn1a nf Sidppy nc ~, g1,,o,
will readily prove. These robbers, some
twelve or fifteen in number, having been
successful in getting away with a consid-
cradle portion Of their plumber and
thoroughly succeeded in overawing the
sheriff and his deputies, they became mora
and more bold and defiant, until at last the
sood citizens OF Sidney determined to call a
halt. They met in consultation and agreed
that the then sheriff of Cheyenne county
must resign and that official complied with
their request without any hesitation what
ever. The next move by the citizens was the
choosing or the designating OF a suitable
person TO fill the vacancy. This being read
lily done TO the entire satisfaction of all
concerned the COUNT board was called in
special session and in less than two hours
after this appointment Of sheriff was made
the robbers then infesting Sidney, consist
ing OF some twelve or fifteen, among them
an eX-sherif Of the county, were securely
locked within the walls Of the county Jail.
on the second night after the arrest of thess
parties one of their number, Joe Mcdonald.
was taken from Jail by masked men ana
hanged to a cottonwood near the court house.
Since this time Sidney has been quiet ana
law. abiding. The others who were in jail
with Mcdonald were ordered to leave SID
ney by twos, that is, two each day, with the
injunction never again to return, and this
injunction, on their part, has been faith,
fully kept, Just why Mcdonald should have
been singled out from among the others
and made an example OF is not known. 1t
was said at the time by many that he was
less culpable than any of the others Of the
gang. JAMES L.. SMITH.