The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-02-23
BANDITS HOLD UP TRAIN
SOUTHERN FLYER ROBBED AT
WHITE SULPHUR, GA.
Attempted to Blow Up Large Safe
but Could Only Get Into the
Smaller One.

train No. S6, New Orleans to New
York, which passes Greenville at $40
a. NJ. was held up by five masked Dan
dts, one mile north of White Sui
phur, Ca, 100 miles from Greenville,
at 2:15 o'clock this morning and the
express car dynamited. A bandit en-
tered the express car and attempted
to blow open the stationary safe,
containing thousands of dollars, but
the attempt was not successful. He
then placed a stick Of dynamite on a
small safe, covered it with dirt and
touched off the fuse. The safe was
blown to atoms and some 500 was
secured.
On a straight line just north of
the 5S7 mile post D. J. FAINT, the en-
gineer, was induced to stop his en-
gine by the waving of red light
across the track, some 800 or 400
yards ahead of the engine. He ap-
piled the brakes and slowed down,
picking up a man, who told him that
there was a broken rail ahead and
that it was being repaired. At the
same time a bandit climbed up on
the other side of the engine and the
two covered the engineer and the
fireman with revolvers, ordering them
to hold up their hands. One of the
bandits informed the engineer that
it meant a hold-up. Leaving his
partner to guard the engineer, the
bandit got down and went back to
rob the express car, telling the en-
gineer before he left that when GER
tain signal was given for him to start
the engine.
Couldn't Break Coupling.
The bandit attempted to cut loose
the express car, but failed. He then
severed the air pipe and went back
to the engine. He ordered the en-
gineer to get down and bring along
a shovel. Going back to the express
car, once more the express messen-
ger was ordered to open the door.
When the messenger failed to re-
spond to the order, the bandit threat
ened to blow up the entire car with
a stick of dynamite which he held
in his hand. The door was thrown
open and the messenger was covered
with a revolver and ordered to throw
up his hands. A bandit then entered
the car anu placed a stick of dyna-
mite on the stationary safe and
touched off the fuse. The explosion
failed to accomplish the desired re-
suits, and he turned his attention to
a small safe close by. A stick of
dynamite was placed on top of it
and dirt piled on top. The explosion
completely wrecked the safe, dam
aging the car and express matter. A
number of packages were taken out
of the demolished safe by two ban
dts, a second one having entered the
car in the meantime.
After having looted the safe the
engineer was told that he could go.
He went back to his engine and pull
ed on up to Lula, minus a fireman
and a flagman. The former, col
ored man, was made to get down
from the engine and flee through the
woods by the bandit who was left in
the cab when the engineer was car
ried back to the express car. When
the train stopped the fagman dis
mounted and went back to flag later
trains.
Conductor Also Covered.
When Engineer FAINT was taken
back to the express car by the bandit
he called to Conductor Mooney, who,
he thought, was in coach short
distance back. The conductor, how
ever, was under cover of bandits
revolver from the time the train stop
ped. When the train first stopped
Conductor Mooney stepped to the
ground to see what the trouble was,
and was Immediately covered by
bandit. Having looted the express
car, the bandits backed off, keeping
their revolvers on the trainmen all
the while. When they had gotten into
the woods they turned about and
beat a hasty retreat.
At Z o'clock this morning No. Sc
rolled into the Southern passenger
station on Washington street, only
40 miutes late. Every window in the
express car was blown out and a
portion of the roof was torn off by
the explosion.
Engineers Story.
Engineer Fant, speaking of the
hold-up said:
"I was engineer on train 36, engine
1915, Atlanta to Greenville, this
morning Fehurary 12 On a straight