Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1904-02-06
PAT REDDY'S FIGHT
WITH WELLS-FARGO
For Years He Was Their
Bette NOir
Till the Day Of His Death the
Eminent Attorney Was the
Foe Of the Corporation.

h"i l"WJOto, was, uuTlnB buS ldSO
fifteen or eighteen years of his life,
the implacable foe of Wells, Fargo &
Co.'S express. Time was, however,
when he al one of the trusted adj
visers of the great corporation, and
his services we're much in demand,
but in the early eighties an incident
occurred, caused by the penury of
the express company, which turned
him against them and made him their
bltterest enemy. From that time on,
till the day of his death, his great
legal acumen and his wonderful argu-
mentative powers and oratory we're
used in opposition to the express
company and in defense of those
whom they were prosecuting. Reddy
did not do this for the money that
could be made out of this kind Of
practice. In fact, it was a continual
source of expense to him, but re-
venge for wounded professional pride
was what he sought, and, if the dozen
or acquittals which he secured
for stage and express robbers, who
were undoubtedly guilty of the crime
with which they were charged, we're
a panacea for the treatment which
he had received, his measure of salts
faction must have been filed to the
brim.
His estrangement with the express
company, as told by Hon. Patsy
Bowler, who was a close friend of
the deceased lawyer, happened in
this wise:
For some time prior to 1882, the
stages operating between Bodie and
Hawthorne were continually menaced
and held up by highwaymen. Bodie
and Aurora were both shipping then
and the amount of bullion and coin
that was handled by the express
company was something enormous
and excited the cupidity and attract
ed to the country some of the most
hardened characters on the coast.
These were in edvidence on every
side and among them were a "long
and short" man, who made a practice
about once a month of holding up the
incoming and outgoing stages near
Fletcher's station, at a point in the
road close to where they passed each
other. The robbers worked eau
tiously and Systematically. First
they would take in the outgoing
stage, which they would hold till it
was time for the approach of the
incoming. Then spiking a wheel or
killing a horse they would go up the
road a short distance and hold up the
latter. They would then separate
and disappear, but in a few weeks
would bob up again ready for
business.
Traps of all kinds were set and
every effort made to capture the
robbers, but all failed, till one dark
night, Wells, Fargo & Co., having
an extra amount of specie aboard
sent two messengers along to guard
it, both armed to the teeth. AS the
stage reached a point in the road
where previous hold. ups had occurred
the sound Of shots in the distance in
dicated that the stage coming from
the opposite direction was being held
up. The messengers, hoping to gain
a point of vantage, took to the road
ahead of the stage, and had only pro.
ceeded a short way when the pit pat
of footsteps was heard. Taking aim
in that direction one of the messen-
gers fired, but the flash from his gun
located his position and a return shot
from the robbers struck him in his
gun arm and brought him TO the
ground. The other messenger mean
while caught sight of the robber and
a well directed shot laid him low, but
falling behind an obstacle of some
kind off the road, the messenger did
not know how effective his shot had
been. The second robber by this
time had disappeared, and the mes
senger turned his attention to his
wounded comrade. Placing him in
the coach, he had him taken to the