The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-09

4. ding it around to make a little money.
Along in May, about the 18th or 18TH.
we all met at Rumsey's again and hat
another talk, about another explosion;
didn't understand it at first, and they
wanted to know if 1 could get some
thing stronger than that powder we
had used before Now, while I was at
Canon City l worked for a Smelter COM
pany there under the name of I. O.
White and lived at the old smelter on
Ninth street. One night some proSpec-
tors came there and asked if they could
stay there that night and l said they
could. The next morning they went up
town and I looked into their wagon
and found a couple of two pound tins
of glycerine and 1 took one of them out
and hid it under the floor and covered
it with saw dust. took my wife up to
Cripple Creek Thanksgiving day and /
went to see if that stuff was there and
it was and 1 hid it in another place
and never thought of it any more until
this conversation occurred up at the
house. L told them l had a lot of stuff
down at Canon City 1 wanted to get
and 1 would bring this up with me.
gave me $1,000 to pay my fare to
go to Canon City to get the glycerine
and some wire 1 had and 1 decided to
try to save my fare: The conductor
on the Florence and Cripple Creek line,
Captain Bradbury, will remember prob
ably that a fellow came to him at Vic
tor at the depot and asked him If ne
could take him to Canon City and take
his pay in w. P. H. ore. He consent
ed to the plan and took me down and
carried me back. 1 brought lot of
canned fruit 1 had there, 16 or 18 cans,
and this can of glycerine. l also
brought a coil of wire containing 500
or 500 feet of wire that / had taken
store at Canon City long time before.
L had been at his place in Canon City
to buy some stuff and while 1 was
there at that time I had thrown this
Of xxrtr nj "a nd
it home. Well, 1 took the glycerine and
wire in a grip over to Rumsey's place
where it stayed till the night of the
9Th of June, 1904. 1t was about seven
o'clock wnen they all congregated there.
They talked over pain to blow up the
depot of the Florence and Cripple Creek
road, but my understanding was that
no one was to be injured. So they got
the stuff, about 40 or so of them all to-
gether, some being detailed to watch
around and the rest of the union men
to be careful, and about eight o'clock
they took it up to the depot. 1t was
about dark and / carried the wire and
glycerine. 1 had obtained another iron
prong like the other one and made by
the same man. One man went under
the depot platform to fix the machine
in place and / went with him to snow
him how to do it. We went up under
the platform at point tbout under
the end of the depot and levelled a
place there to put the can along with
the lIOn prong anu PISTOL. Inlnk
furnished the pistol. The. wire
1 mad brought was fastened to the pis-
tol and carried down through under the
railroad track up to the Delmonico
shaft, shaft about 500 feet away from
the depot. and fastened the end of it
to a chair rung. That was done about
eight or half past eight o'clock.
1.-THE depot was empty at this time
and was used just as a stopping place
for the train. After this was all fixed
everybody went over to Cripple Creek
and commenced to drink and carouSe
around. We stopped first at John No
lan's and then went to the Red Light
saloon, and about ten or half
past, Mckinney, Davis, and Foster
took a high line car back to Independ-
ence where and myself remain
ed in Cripple Creek while and took
a narrow gauge train back, the one
got there just before the depot was
blown up, leaving there about o'clock
and getting to Independence in time