El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-14

use of dynamite by road agents Is q
terrifying element for express messen-
gers. TIE minute the bandits start
to make their escape they come N con-
tact with fighting men who are as well
armed and well mounted as they and
know how to use their guns. This is
the element of danger that deters
many bandits from attacking a rail-
road train.
when gang of men contemplate
Il hold-up now. the first thing they do
is to arrange for their escape. A route
of retreat is selected. and the bandits
go over the trail. so that they can col
low it night or day. They frequently
secrete food for themselves and horses
along the route and lay in plenty of
ammunition. The Black Hills of the
country in Southern Wyoming are
! favorite resorts for train robbers these
days. Here most of the desperate road
agents live. These men are. however.
not of tie class that will undertake,
single handed to rob a train. They
operate like the James gang did, but
of course are not so dangerous. because
| they have not the sympathy of the
community in which they operate.
| They are not so expert with firearms
as the James gang, neither are they
banded together by associations. such
as made the James gang successful.
These bandits merely trust each other
as long as they are together. and they
know it is a matter of self preserva-
ton.
THE same energy. hardship and
daring these men eXpend in robbing
trains. If turned into honest channels
would reap for them a great deal more
substantial profits than the dangerous
business they engage in. but they are
attracted by stories Of enormous hauls
by train robbers and dazzled by reports
in the newspapers that this or that
gang secured a hundred thousand dol
lars in a raid. OF course these raids
sometimes net the robbers a big sum.
but in most cases they do not get
enought to pay the expenses of the I'M
dertaking. 1t costs pile of money
for a gang of six or seven western
deSperadoeS to prepare for a train hold
up. They must have the best horses
money will buy. they must get city
crook. as a rule. to handle the dyna-
mite: they must have white powder
for their guns in the event of a collis-
ion with a posse. which is quite GER
tain. and a thousand little details.
The minute the news of a hold-up is
flashed over the wire we start posses
from dozen different points. These
close in on the robbers. The road
agents are afraid to split mp in the
face of possible fight. They know
they will be killed one at n time If
they do not stick together. That is
their only chance. and. of course. il
makes the trail easier for us to fol-
low.
The Hole in the Wall country is
the place these western bandits now
make for. That is a wild section and
most difficult of access If the gang
gets in there it is hard to get at them
T-c-rro 1lr- .1l, f@,-
come out and then we get EN-
Most of the tt..iits W. crme il
contact ~irh are of tho most de.i crate
character. OF course they know that
sooner or later they will die with their
boots on. Most of them are wanted
for some crime that would keep them
in the penitentiary for life. if it would
not carry them to the scaffold. and so.
of course, they will not surrender.
usually hunt these characters singly
and with my pistols. 1t is my ex-
perience that in the wild country a
desperat character seeing a lone man
who does not carry rifle. will permit
him to approach. where otherwise he
would hide if the same man was
armed with rifle or accompanied by
others. With my pistols 1 can get
close to bandit on the plains and then
jump from my horse. use the animal
before the robber expects the attack.
He surrenders or is killed. just as he
prefers. My experience is that a quick
shot with a pistol is worth a dozen
long range shots with a rifle.
Il have had some measure of success
hunting road agents. and have been
forced to kill some of these desperate |
characters. but all my work has been |
done with heavy revolver. | do not |
recall a fight / have been in. except |
possibly when l was scouting in the
Indian service. where I used anything
but my revolvers. I can kill a man
three hundred yards every shot with |
my pistol. / carry on my watch chain |
today bullet I cut from the heart of
my horse. 1t is a souvenir of the
fight I had with the Robbers Roost' |
on the Running Water. The man
who fired the shot used Win |
chester and was firing at me from a
distance of five hundred yards. Be
fore he reached the range of my pis- |
tolls he had probably shot at me six |
times. one of his bullets blowing a |
furrow through the top of my scalp but |
the moment he came within range of |
my heavy revolver I placed a bullet |
between his eyes. This was |
Fleet Foot probably one of the worst |
and road agents the west |
has ever produced.
81 usually carry three heavy revol- |
vers when hunting road agents. and |
carry about five hundred extra shells. |
I would rather have plenty of cartridg-
es than plenty of food when am look
ing for real bad people. My experience
however is that train robbing has |
been made so dangerous that it is los
ing it's popularity and will probably
disappear in few years. Omaha
of New York Times.