The log cabin Democrat., 1909-11-16

stand and deliver" held up stage coaches, plundered passengers and feheVed the guards of the bullion in ther care, the products of the gold mines, and set at defiance all attempts on the part of the authorities to catch him. At the time speak of. the country around where Black Bart played his audacious pranks was th1nly settled, and his chances of es- cape from the posses that took the trail after him were, as a matter of course, much greater than they would De at the present day
 During the latter part of his ca. reer, while playing the game single handed, he robbed only the express messengers and took no chances with the passengers. His first big venture. in conjunction with his three allies. was executed in 1SS6 and had for it's object the holding up of the stage running between Angels camp. Gala veras county, California, and Milton.
 There were five passengers in the stage coach, huge, solid affair, resem- bling an immense box. It rested on enormous leather straps that allowed 1t to swing with a diagonal motion All five passengers were riding inside, for 1t was day in November and rather chilly. Military titles are fairly plentiful in the west, and two of the inmates of the coach addressed each other as Colonel and Major" Of the remaining three, one was a mine owner known to fame as Cactus" Bill Crosby, New England surgeon, and a midde-aged Chicagoan, the latter a keen-faced business man who took an immense amount of interest in the glowing descriptions given by the burly Crosby of the unlimited possibil- ities of hidden wealth in the surround ing country
 On the coach was an express box said to contain s90.000 in bullion, the product of the Utica gold mine, the largest in the state. In a rack near the drivers feet hung two Colts re- volvers and a Winchester rife. The road was considered safe enough. for no robbery had occurred there since the camp had been in existence; still the stage company preferred to be on the alert. and hence the weapons
 While fresh horses were being put to the coach the passengers alighted and stepped into the room that served as bar, office and lounging apartment. for Sullivans place was hotel as well as a relay station. There was but one beverage sold at Sullivan's whisky though there hung upon the wall back of the rough bar an illuminated card setting forth in fly-specked characters. the superior merits of Bunds Jamaica ginger. But as for the ginger. there was none to be had. Nor were there any indications, beyond dusty ltho- graphs nailed askew to the wooden partitions. that soda water, seltzer or extra dry champagne were procurable on demand. Therefore it was forum ate that the systems of those passen- gers who needed stimulation craved whisky only, for that was positively all there was. On the sticky bar stood a half-dozen thick. dirty glasses, side by side with the long-necked bottle, half filled with an amber fluid, and behind it stood Proprietor Sullivan himself, smiling blandly under his thick red mustache at the assembled guests.
 The passengers had not noticed at first, in the dim light of the room, the figure of a woman, clad in deep black and wearing heavy veil drawn over her face. She sat in a dark corner and seemed to shrink from observa- ton. But when Frank Slammons, the driver, entered after looking to his cattle, and had fortified his nerves with four fingers of the feyorite cor dial Sullivan took him aside and en- gagged him in conversation, and mine