Connecticut western news., 1900-11-01
THREE BANDITS KILLED
Desperate Attempt to Hold Up
 a Pay Wagon.
SHOT TO DEATH.

Driver of Wagon XIII. One Robber.
 Armed Posse Gets the Others, slay-
 shots Fired.
 Connellsville, Pa, Oct. 31.-Two high waymen were killed by excited citizens yesterday afternoon, one was shot while the men were trying to rob a coke com pany's paymaster and has since died, fourth was captured and locked up, and Harry c. Hosler, the paymaster, was killed by the bandits. The killing of Hosler occurred near Alverton.
 Hosler was paymaster and head book keeper for the Southwest Connellsville Coke company, which is connected with the Federal Steel company and has its main office in Morewood, about a mile from Mount Pleasant.
 On pay day it is customary for the pay master to get the whole amount of mon- ey necessary from the First National bank In Mount Pleasant. It Is taken 70 Morewood and thence to the different plants, that for Alverton and Tarr be- ing carried in big iron chest first to Alverton and then to Tarr.
 Mir. Hosler placed $12,0O0 in the chest yesterday and started with the money In a buggy for Alverton. He was accom- panied by Harry Burgess, q negro guard of Mount Pleasant. Each carried load ed rife, but neither expected any attack, the arms being carried as much for forms sake as for use.
 The paymaster was driving rapidly through a piece of woods about three quarters of a mile from Alverton when four men suddenly sprang into the road from behind trees. One of them grab bed the horses by their brides, and the other three covered Hosler and Burgess with revolvers and shouted to the pay master to hand over the money"
 Hosler and Burgess leveled their rifles In an instant and fired at the robbers, and the latter in the same moment opened fire with their revolvers.
 The thief at the horses heads fell, and the frightened animals dashed ahead. As the robber rolled into the road Hosler toppled forward and would have fallen out of the buggy had not Burgess caught him. Holding the paymaster with one hand, the negro leaned over the back of the vehicle and kept firing his rife at the robbers with his other hand.
 The unharmed bandits raced after the horses, emptying their revolvers at the negro as they ran. The horses were running at full speed, however, and quickly distanced the thieves. Then Burgess caught up the peins and, holding Hosler as best he could, guided the team into Alverton and to the office of Dr. l.. T. Gilbert
 Burgess brave effort to save Hosler's life was made in vain. The paymaster was dead. Dr. Gilbert and Dr. A. s. Chernick, who was called in, found that a bullet had struck Hosler in the side under the left shoulder. It had severed an artery and lodged in the spine. The physicians said the paymaster had lived only minute or two after he was shot. Workmen Close In on Bandits. In very few minutes the news of the murder spread through the village. Tt was our money he died to sayev ex- claimed a dozen men, and very soon 200 workmen from the coke ovens had gath cred, calling for vengeance upon the mur- derers.
 These men were hatless and coatless, some of them bare to the waist, but ey- cry one carried gun or a revolver, and the moment they had gained a clear idea of where the attack upon the paymaster had been made they dashed out of the village, determined to find and take quick revenge upon the highwaymen. They had no leader and needed none. | They spread out over the hills and | through thickets and marshes, their pur- | pose being to surround the woods in | which the robbers had been hiding. As | they ran the hunters were constantly | joined by men from Alice, Tarr, Mount | Pleasant and other nearby places, who | dropped work and hurried to Alverton as | soon as they heard of the tragedy. | t,I-n e. sk, H. |, of angry men to surround the woods, and then the great circle began slowly tc | grow smaller as the hunters closed in | toward the center, searching each thicket
 and clump of bushes and the limbs oi every tree.
 | Two of the robbers were found in the | thicket. The first was filled with lead but the second threw up his hands and was taken prisoner.
 | The other bandit was found later under
 bridge. When a shot was fired into his
 hiding place he jumped out and fired his | pistol into the crowd. About 100 shots
 hit him simultaneously.
 The body was picked up and carried tc
 Mount Pleasant, with that of the first
 robber shot in the thicket. Hosler's body
 had also been taken to Mount Pleasant | from Alverton.
 | The highwayman who was shot wheI
 the paymaster was attacked had mean
 time been found lying in the road where
 he had fallen. He was still breathing
 The bullet from Hosler's or Burgess rifle
 had struck him in the mouth and gone
 through the neck. He was placed in E
 wagon and taken to Mount Pleasant
 where pr. Horner said his wound would 1 prove fatal.
 The wounded man fingered for severa
 hours, but the doctors efforts to save hin
 were useless, and he died just before mid
 night. He was identified as Sava Java
 nov. It is believed the bullet which killed
 him was from the negro guards rife.