Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-24
HOW HE SAVED HIS GOLD.
Yosemite Bandit Passed by 5000 and
a Gold Watch to Get Sixty Cents.

| From the San Francisco Chronicle.
\ ]. " Dusenberry was one Of the victims
| of the Yosemite bandits who held I'D the
passengers of five valley stages In one con-
| tinuous performance
| Dusenberry lost only 60 cents. but on his
| person when the highwayman searched him
were ten twenty-dollar gold pieces and
| 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 take cross coun-
| try path later on and head of the stage,
which was obliged to follow the tortuOus
road.
The highwayman 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 and
horses from the stage following The pas
sengers he lined up behind clump of trees
Dusenberry, ignorant of the excitement
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 in
cloth. Through one of the crevices in the
face covering cleaned an eye.
from another crevice.
Now stand at the head Of that line" con-
| tinued the voice.
The highwayman then resumed the opera
| ton 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 friendly
shelter of an old lady's parasol Dusenberry
made Encouragement of his personal prop
erty. The 500, part of which belonged to a
fellow traveller. and the watch and chain
he dropped inside the waistband Of his pam
| falcons 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 90 cents
| and knife.
Better let me keep the knife" said Du-
senberry. If you take 1t it might cut
friendship"
ing the outside of Dusenberry's pockets
for more coin the hishwayman told him to
chase himself"
While standing in line many of the pas
sengers, says Dusenberry, threw their val
uables 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
The highwayman opened the Wells Fargo
box, but refrained from taking the $50 he
discovered there. His modesty. he explain.
ed, 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 passengers
for distribution later to the ownera
He was very COOL" said Duseneberry.
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 gunnysacks.
The detectives found that after we had
left the fellow had discarded his mask and
the loose-fitting clothes and burned them.
He was a tall man. but maintained
crouching position and 1 did not suppose
any who saw him could guess his height
within a couple of inches. In the valley
nobody seems to think there is much chance
Of capturing him.