Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-23
POSSE HOT AFTER ROBBERS
Believed Men Who Held Up Missouri
Pacific Train Will Be Caught.
CHASE LEADS TOWARD ST. LOUIS
bandits rifle Mail Bags OF $4,000,
but Use No ExpIosive-Let water
Out OF Engine Boiler and
Then Disappear.

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 22.-With all trails lead
ing to st. Louis, more than 200 men. divided
into six posses, are pursuing the four
train robbers, believed to be practical rail-
road and mail service men, who last night
help up and robbed the mail cars OF Mis-
souri, Pacific train No. 3, near Eureka, Mo.
Postoffioe Inspector Dickson stated that
the loot might amount to $4,000, as sixteen
pouches OF registered mail, containing
about 200 registered letters, were rifled.
The bloodhounds, which we're put on the
TRAN at dawn started towards st. Louis
from the scene Of the robbery, thirty miles
from here.
Rewards a~ggregating $500 rave been
offered by the state Of Missouri and United
States Postoffice Inspection Service De-
partment for the arrest and conviction Of
the robbers.
The safe in the express car, which the
robbers. failed to open, contained $50 in
cash and valuables.
Two Of the bandits boarded the train.
due into st. Louis at 1O:45 o'clock from
Kansas City, at Pacific, nine miles west
Of Eureka, at 1918 o'clock. The other
two tagged the train a mile east of
Eureka in a lonely spot, with red lanterns.
AS the train slowed down. the two on
board climbed over the tender and GOV.
ered the engineer and fireman.
RObbers Cut Off Mail Car.
The engine. mail coach and combination
baggage and express cars were cut off,
after the express messengers and mail
clerks had been ordered from their cars.
F. E.Beeton, the baggage clerk. hesitated
about leaving his car, and a bullet carried
away his hat and a lock OF his hair.
With one Of the robbers at the throttle,
the engine and two cars ran to Castle.
wood, six miles distant, where the four
took their time about rifilns the mail.
The water was let out Of the boiler ana
the engineer and fireman were ordered to
walk east for fifteen minutes, under
threats of instant death. The quartet then
disappeared into the woods.
The stranded passenger coaches, three In
number, lay on the main line until 2 O'Clock
this morning, when they, together with
the engine and baggage and express cars,
were brought into st. Louis by a freight
train.
The engine and the two cars with II were
then locked until the engineer and flremen
ran the six miles back to It, after getting
their orders from the highwaymen.
e. J. Karn OF Toledo, o., one of the
passengers on the train said, when he ar
rived in St, Louis this morning:
w heard shots and then the engine
stopped. The conductor came running into
the car and said: It's a holdup. sure
Som OF US stuck our heads out the
window, but. several bullets went whistling
by. We found 1t convenient to stay inside"
w. W.. Dickson, postoffice inspector in
charge at st. Louis, announced on reach
ing his office this morning he would offer
a reward OF 81. 900 each for the capture Of
the robbers. He had Just returned from
the scene Of the robbery, where five Of his
assistants were working,
The ~bloodhoundt. as soon as they were
put on the trail, followed it east from the
scene of the robbery to Manchester, st.
Louis county, and thence along the Man
chester road toward st. Louis. This caused
the belief that the robbers came here, and
the local police have been ordered to join
in the search. Train robbery in Missouri
is now a capital offense.
The five mail clerks were changing their
clothes when the train was held up, and
they were forced out into the cold without
their trousers. They took refuge in the
smoker and passengers supplied them with
clothes.