The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-11-22
PRESENCE OF MIND
IN Time OF DANGER
Helped One Stage Coach Pas
senger in Retaining His
Coin.
WATCH AND MONEY SAVED
Vixen Road Agent Was Making Fellow
Passengers Give UP Valuables,
This Man Dropped His Down
Trousers Leg.
From the San rrancisco Chronicle.

1loil III q l. ShSS -
]. ". Dusenberry was one of the victims
of the Yosemite bandits who held up the
passengers Of five valley stages IN one con-
tinuouS performance.
Dusenberry lost only GO cents. but on his
person when the highwayman searched
MIN were ten tw~enty-dollar gold pieces ana
a gold watch and chain.
Dusenberry had left the stage shortly
before it reached the bandits ambush. He
was following slowly behind, gathering
wild flowers and intending to a k a cross
country path later on and head off the
stage, which was obliged to follow the tor
tuouS road.
The h~ighwayman stopped the five stages
one after the other. AS he stopped one he
ordered the driver to pull off the ROAD IN
such a way as to conceal the coach ana
horses from the stage following. The pas
sengers he lined up behind a clunp of
trees. Dusenberry, ignorant of the excite
ment ahead, was dawdling along enjoying
the beauties of nature and adding blossom
by blossom to the bunch Of wild flowers in
his hand.
He turned a sharp bend in the road and
found himself looking into the barrel OF a
rifle. Behind the rifle was a tall, STOPPING
figure with head, face and neck swathed
n cloth. Through one of the crevices in
the face covering cleaned an eye.
The First Command.
Hands up!' came in a quiet tone of
voice from another crevice.
Now stand at the head Of that line"
continued the voice.
The highwayman then resumed the OPP
GRAFTON of stripping the passengers OF their
wealth which Dusenberry's unexpected APP
pearance had interrupted.
Instead of standing at the head of the
line, however, Dusenberry sauntered down
to the other end and joined those who al
ready had been robbed. Behind the friend
ly shelter of an old lady's parasol Dusen-
berry made a Encouragement of mis- per-
sonal property. The $500, part of which be-
longed to a fellow traveller, and the watch
and chain he dropped inside the waistband
of his pantaloons and a sudden chill
around the ankles told him of the safe
arrival in his socks of his valuables.
1t was not until all the passengers had
been ordered back into the stages that the
bandit remembered Dusenberry. He found
the passenger agent and demanded his
money. Dusenberry gave up the 60 cents
and a knife.
Better let me keep the knife" said Du-
senberry. IF you take it it might cut
friendship
The knife was returned and after sound
ing the outside of D~usenberry's pockets
for more coin the highwayman told him to
'chase himself"
ValuabIes in Bush.
While standing in line many of the pas
sengers, says Dusenberry, threw their val
tables into the brush. They returned later
to find them gone. They had been picked
up, however, by the detectives who took
the bandits trail, and were restored sub
sequently to the owners.
The highwayman opened the Wells Far
go box, but refrained from taking the $50
ne discovered there. His modesty, he ex-
planned, was due to a dislike to interesting
the express company in his capture for so
small a sum He borrowed Dusenberry's
linen buster, spread it on the ground and
On it laid all the loot he did not want. He
turned this bundle over to one of the pas
sengers for distribution later to the own
ers.
He was very COOL" said Dusenberry,
but took no chances either Of surprise or
subsequent identification. The mask he
wore hid even his hair and disguised the
shape of his head. He wore a loose fitting
suit and his feet were swathed in gunny-
sacks. The. detectives found that after we
lad left the fellow had discarded his mask
ind the loose-itting clothes and burned
hem. He was a tall man, but maintained
/ %crouching position and I did not suppose
any who saw him could guess his height
within a coupls OF inches. In the valley
Nobody seems to think there is much
chance Of capturing him."