Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16
DRAGGED TOO SOON
Thought the Joke Was on
the Hold-Up Man.
TABLES WERE TURNED
PASTE JEWELS TAKEN INSTEAD
OF REAL DIAMONDS.
But Jack Ketchum Came Back and Got
the Genuine Articles After
All.

Written for The Evening Star.
I've just been reading a dispatch in The
| Star, with the Trinidad Colo. date line, an
nouncng that Bob McManus, the last sur
viving member of Black Jack Ketchum's
notorious band of train robbers, that ter
rorized Colorado and New Mexico for many
| years had been captured at that place"
| said Caspar Marks, a well-knoWn travelling
salesman for NJ York diamond firm,
| who often visits Washington. THAT OBJ
scure little item of news carried me back
fourteen years. to the summer when l had
the distinction-to put it in that light and
breezy way-of being one of Black Jack
Ketchums victims. It's story that i
would never have told upon myself for
years after it happened, for the memory of
it ranked within me, seeing that it in
volved lot of fool vanity and unnecessary
garrulousness on my own part But I've
reached the stage where l can get as
| much fun out of one on myself as upon
some other fellow.
1T happened in the summer of 81, when
l was a good deal gayer and more addicted
to talkativeness than | afford to be
nowadays. The beginning of it a trip
l took on Sante Fe eaSt-bound train,
turning from my regular annual tour of
the west ard southwest. [ was in the habit
at that time of wearing a good many Of my
samples, so 10 speak, IN one shape
other; for 1t hadn then become a settled
maxim that a diamond man doesn't help
his business a little bit by parading around
with enough gems on him to make him look
like the Nizam of Hyderabad on a feast
day. My outfit of visible white stones con-
sisted of three big studs three rings, two
collar buttons-only one of those visible, by
the way-and a pair of sleeve iinks-worth,
in all, about $1,000. Before l started for
the east from Albuquerque l had a talk
with a jeweler of that town that got me to
thinking.
Perhaps you are not aware young un,
said this Albuquerque jeweler, that Black
Jack ketchum and his bunch are working
the Santa Fe just now for all it is worth.
If you don't know it, I'm telling you now.
If you do know it, you ought to be under
treatment. It's an even money bet that if
you're fmbecile enough to carry all those
gew-gaws on you on your trip back you'll
never take them into Denver
A Great Idea.
Badly as l hated to own up at that time,
even to myself that l didn't know it all, I
was compelled to- admit that 1 would be
making myself an easy mark if / didn't
take his advice. But l was young enough
and vain enough to hate to surrender my
diamond front even for the couple of days
that my roundabout trip to Denver would
take. Meditating upon this subject, l sud-
denly became seized with an idea that
struck me as being exceedingly humorous.
"A few months before travelling man
who sold paste stuff on the road had had
all of the things l wore on me duplicated
in the paste junk and gave them to me as
a sort of sardonic gift, telling me that l
might as well save the wear and tear on
the genuine stuff by wearing the phony
goods, which, being fanatic the subject
of his bogus goods he declared looked just
as good as the real stuff, anyway. l had
put this paste bunch of duplicates away in
the bottom of my trunk. After having tina.
talk with the Albuquerque jeweler l sud
denly thought of my paste replicas. 1t oc-
CURED to me that 1t would be a whopping
funny thing to wear that stuff my trip
to Denver, so that, if Black Jack Ketchum
should hold the train and me up, | would
be enabled to perpetrate a gigantic sell
upon him. l just chuckled and chortled
over that idea, and the more l thought
about it the more screechingly funny it
seemed to me.
so L sent my genuine stones, together
with the rest of my samples and most of
my money, on to Denver by express. Then
l stuck all of the paste things in my APP
parel around my person where l had
been habitually wearing the genuine stuff,
and took the train.