The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-03-04
BANDIT BUSINESS
NOT THRIVING
Present Day Emulators of the
James Boys Now Found
Only in Southwest
ADDED DIFFICULTIES TO TRADE
still, Present Day Emulators Of the
James Brothers and "BIack Bart"
Are More Desperate Men Than
Were Their Prototypes.

Though the day of the train robber
and brigand is almost over, occasion
ally a desperate man dons black
mask and tempts Fate in the person
of some hard-hearted, straight.shoot.
Ing deputy sheriff by sticking the muz-
7ie of a gun into some engineers face.
But as a steady business in this coun-
try at least, the hold-up man of thir-
ty years ago has ceased to exist.
In the United States almost the only
hold-ups reported to-day are from the
Southwest Mexico still has its ban
dts, but an edict issued by President
Diaz two or three years ago, ordering
the Rurales to kill, rather than take
the trouble of capturing alive, the
brigands who infested the mountain
roads has had the desired effect of
decreasing very perceptibly the num-
Der of hold-ups reported from that
country.
The present day emulators Of the
James brothers, Younger brothers
and BLACK Barts" are more desperate
men than were their prototypes of
thirty years ago. The chances for es-
cape Of the train robber are many
times less to-day than they were a
generation ago. Every express and
railroad company has a well-equipped
protective organization of its own.
The conveniently lonely stretches of
road have given way to towns and set
Elements. In each of which law-abiding
men are ready at an instant's notice
to form posse and take to the coun-
try in pursuit of :; robber.
Despite the added difficulties and
handicaps under which he must work,
however. the bandit does still occa-
sionally make his appearance. A rob-
berry as daring as any ever perpetrat-
ed in the younger days of the West
was reported but few weeks ago
from the City of Mexico.
A pay car on its way to the Las
Grandes Mines in the State Of Guer-
zero was held up by bandits, three of
the four guards accompanying 1t were
killed instantly and more than $5,-
900 In gold was stolen. The robbery
was committed at lonely spot on the
road that winds along the foothills
of the Sierra Madre Mountains. The
four men who were riding on the car.
though heavily armed. had but little
chance to offer resistance to the rob-
bers. AS the car rounded turn in
the road perfect rain Of bullets that
came from the heavy underground
along the side of the mountain, in
stantly killed three of the men. The
fourth. although badly wounded, fired
several snots from his rife, but when
more than half dozen masked men
sprang down into the road and sur
rounded the car, he threw up his
hands and surrendered The bandits
made their escape into the mountains
with their plunder and although the
Rurales were sent in pursuit they |
have not as yet been caught.
The European bandits, who up to |
five years ago flourished practically |
by law, have, like Ameri- |
cans, been forced to become more cir |
cumspect in their operations. Up to |
about 1902 large bands of robbers in |
certain remote regions of Sicily and
the Balkan countries made a practice
of levying on travellers who passed
along the mountain roads, seizing the
richer ones and holding them for ran
som. A favorite means of enforcing
and possibly hurrying up the payment
OF the money demanded was to send
a finger or an ear of the captive to
the relatives on whom the demand for
money had been made.
In the East five years, however, the
governments of these countries have
given close attention to policing the
mountain districts so that to-day
brigandage in Europe is no more COM
mon than in the United States.