Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-03-21
A CHLoRoFoRMED SPONGE WAS ON BRAD.
LEYS BREAST

A CHLOROFORMED SPONGE WAS ON BRAD
LEY'S BREAST.
braska railway early in the seventies,
with q run from AtchisOn, Kan, to
Lincoln, Ncb. On his arrival at Lin
coin one day it was found that 81 200
was missing from the safe. In the
Atchison office the records were per-
fectly straight, there was no suspicion
of the Lincoln officials and the de-
tectiveS soon settled upon the messen-
ger as the thief. Shipley was dis
charged from the service, and ''shad-
owl was placed on his trail. He tried
to find employment, but the doors of
every Office were closed against him.
AT last he became q common laborer in
railway grading gang.
AT the end of four years a second rob-
berry occurred on Shipley's old run, in
exactly the same way that the first
had. A dragnet was put out this time
by the officials and detectives, and in it
was caught the company's agent at
Falls City, Neb. When he was ar
raigned for the second robbery, he con-
fessed to having committed the first.
Old Dick Ivers was one of the first
express messengers to run on the Mis-
L
extended west of St Louis. He had
been a river expressman, running from
st. Louis down to New Orleans, and
no one would have said that he couldn't
take care of himself and any amount
of treasure placed in his care. But he
did fail. His car was entered and rob-
bed just after leaving Pleasant Hill,
Mo-, while he was peacefully sleeping.
Now, the idea that Ivers could sleep
through the robbery of his car seemed
altogether prepoSterOus to the express
officials, and they sent out a detective
from ST. Louis to take him in charge,
pending investigation. But that pro-
gramme did not please Ivers, for he
was as anxious as the company to find
the clever robbers. He suspected that
two men from Pleasant Hill were the
thieves, and when the st. Louis detec-
tive arrived to take him in charge he
reversed the order, taking the detective
into camp and dragging him off to in
vestigate the men whom Ivers suspect
ed. After a chase of two weeks and
more, meanwhile Guiding and defyipg
the officers sent out by the railroad Off
Gals, the old messenger found the men
them and handed them over to the law
for punishment.
And then old Dick Ivers went back
to surrender to the company detectives.
In what manner he was rewarded for
his extraordinary zeal is not recorded,
but it is certain that he did not lose his
job.
1t was the custom of express compa-
MES for long time when making de-
liveries of money packages in city
to send a single man on foot to do the
work. This afforded a splendid oppor-
tunity for the clever robber. Early in
the sixties in st. Louis a man named
Miller was employed by q company to
deliver in the city. One day package
arrived addressed to a supposititious
lawyer in an Office near the company's
building. Miller was given this and a
number of other packages to carry to
their destinations. The lawyer had
taken an office on the top floor of
very old building that held few ten
ants, and as Messenger Miller en-
tered to deliver the package the door
was slammed and locked, the messen-
ger was Knocked down and bound, and
his packages were opened. The haul
for the clever crooks was a good one.
as that Office was the first to be visited
on Miller's round. Since then two men
have been assigned to delivery routes.