The daily sentinel., 1908-01-11

Last night about ll:3O CLOCK,
while Joe Green. the bartender at
the Royalty Club saloon. located on
the corner of Second street and Colo
rado avenue. was standing behind
the bar talking to man well known
to Green and who has been a resident
of the city for many years, two
masked men suddenly entered the
rear east door of the saloon from
the private area that is fenced in ad-
Joining the saloon on the east. There
were just three men in the saloon
when the masked men entered-Bar-
tender Green, Ed Fleet, who was sit
letter. and the man who was stand
ing in front of the bar talking to Bar
tender Green.
The two masked men entering the
door stepped quickly to the end of
the bar and quickly covered Green
and the man in front of the bar with
revolvers, shouting at the same time
Hands up!" Green did not lose his
nerve; but, instead of throwing up
his hands, he ran behind the parti-
ton at the north end of the bar and
into the little office. picking up a re-
volver of 3S caliber which was laying
on the desk. Fleet, at the desk, kept
his seat. The man who standing in
front of the bar hesitated about
throwing up his hands and was again
commanded to do SO, and naturally
complied.
Immediately upon securing his gun
Bartender Green appeared at the end
of the bar and opened fire on the two
holdups. Within few seconds time
a number of shots were exchanged
Green fired four times. firing once at
the floor before reappearing at the
end of the bar. hoping thereby to
get the holdups on the move so that
he could get a good shot at each of
them. Every one of the other three
shots fired at the men must have
come mighty close to the mark. The
holdups fired two or three shots In
return, and one of the bullets struck
the thumb of Green's right hand and
inflicted a painful wound, but the
nervy bartender held his ground
The holdups, evidently realizing
that they had tackled the wrong man.
ran out of the door into the dark
area. from there into the alley and
made their getaway in the darkness.
Green did not follow them out of
ish to have done so, as he would |
have been in the flare of the light |
from the doorway, and the |
fleeing men, protected by the dark |
ness of the area, might have easily |
fired upon him and killed him.
While the firing was going on. the |
man who had been standing in front |
of the bar suddenly ducked out of |
the front door and started in search |
of an officer, knowing that on had |
been called to a place not far distant |
only a few minutes before. He was |
unable to locate the officer and so |
turned in call to the police station.
He returned at once to the saloon, |
but the holdups had disappeared.
A number of officers were soon on
the scene and rigid search of the |
district was made and the town pa
trolled in an effort to run down the |
holdups. but to no avail
The two men were evidently bent |
upon robbing the cash register of the |
saloon. Bartender Green was not |
the money when they en-
tered, as the very unreliable and bad
ly butchered report in the morning
paper states. The cash is never
checked up at that hour. Neither
was Green's revolver laying right at
his hand when the men entered
Bullets from the revolvers of
Green and the holdups were dug
from the walls and floor of the sa-
loon this morning. All the shots were
fred inside the building and it is a
wonder that one or more of the men
engaged in the fight were not killed.
Ed Fleet, sitting at the desk in the
office, had a narrow escape from a
glancipg bullet.
From the description given by Mr..
Green and the man to whom he was
talking when the holdups entered.
one of the holdups was tall and
heavy and the other was rather short |
and heavy. Each wore a pair of
well worn overalls. The mask each