Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-01
Amount of Plunder Not Known, But
Probably Is Not Large.
REVOLVER SHOTS LIKE HAIL
Car Windows Smashed by Bullets
and Passengers in Panic-Four
Defenders Wounded.

train was bound from Philadelphia for
Chicago, and was brought to stop
shortly after 10 o'clock against ties and
telephone poles that had been piled
on the track at Wesleyville, about five
miles from this city. The bandits riied
the mail and express cars before they
escaped. the mail clerk was shot and
seriously wounded. the conductor was
stoned and many passengers had narrow
escapes from death or wounds by bullets.
The men who are searching for the rob-
bers are heavily armed and an encounter
with any of the bandits will result in
bloodshed
Number in Gang Uncertain.
The pantc-stricken passengers tell con-
fiicting stories as to the number Of rob-
bers, but all agree that they were
masked. Some say there We're six, others
say ten; in any event, there were enough
to successfully carry out the boldest hold
up in this section of the country in years.
No accurate information is obtainable as
to the amount of loot the robbers secured.
Reports that they got $4,000 which was
being shipped to this city by Adams Ex-
press were promptly denied by the express
company as well as the railroad officials.
The train was rounding Five-mile curve
at reduced speed when Engineer Albert
more passengers the train carried, saw
the obstruction on the track in the ref1ec-
ton of the locomotive headlight Throw
ing on the reverse the locomotive crashed
into the pile of timber and came to a
stop. Had the train been running at any
kind of speed railroad men say it would
have been hurled over the outer side of
the curve, down an embankment to rocks
200 feet below.
Engineer Fought Bravely.
AS the train stopped one Of the robbers
boarded the locomotive. Carey jumped
to the floor of the cab from his riding
seat and hurled coal at the man. The
bandit fired, and Carey leaped to the
ground. struggled with the robber until
another came up and threw Carey over
the embankment. His clothing caught
| on a protruding plank, and he escaped
with a wrenched back.
c. II. Block of this city, one OF the mall
clerks, was first warned by the smash
ing-in of the mail car door. The gang
Immediately opened fire on him, and he
fell with bullet through his hip. de
is in a hospital here in a serious condi-
ton. Conductor III. ID. Rooney borrowed
a revolver from a passenger. who, when
told there were train robbers attacking,
facetiously remarked, '.Aw, it's too dark
to take moving pictures
Conductor Felled With Stone.
Rooney fought his way through the
gang, but was felled with a stone He
crawled to a farm house. He was chased
by q posse of farmers, who thought him
one of the robbers, and he sought refuge
in a tree. The farmers, with lanterns,
discovered their mistake and Rooney got
to telephone and notified the railroad
officials here. who dispatched officers on
a switch engine. The passengers, when
they learned they were participating in
a hold-up of yellow novel magnitude. be-
came panic-striken. Women screamed
Historically and tainted. Heads thrust
from the windows were hastily pulled
back and those that ventured to leave
hastened within the car when dozens of
shots belched fire along the line of the
train.
Shower of Bullets.
The shooting toward the passengers
continued, and broken glass from the
windows fell tinkling to the track. None
of the passengers, however. was hit by
the bullets, but the express agent on the
train. James Hart, received a bullet In
the side and was brought to a hospital
mere. carr ". AHUcTSOn VI fleHONO, Hd.s
travelling salesman. grappled with one
of the hold-up men and was hurled over
steep embankment.
He was saved from serious injury by
catching on a bush, and is at q hotel
here with severe bruises and cuts. An
derson says the man he tackled was an
Italian.
Frank Freund, an Erie business man.
who was on the train, said this morn
ing:
Thought Brakeman Was Joking.
when the train stopped and the
brakeman came running in asking for
a revolver. saying the train had been
held up. the passengers laughed and
thought he was joking. A moment
later shots began to crack around the
train. and the women were wild. Men
rushed for the doors. Many of them
ducked behind seats. 1t seems to me
that two hundred shots must have
been fired before the men left"
William Epp of the firm of Epp Broth
ers, here, was also on the train, and he
tells a story similar to Freund's De-
tectives who have been put on the
case are of the opinion that the high
waymen intended the train to hit the
obstruction and go over the embank-
ment to the bed Of Four Mile creek
nearly 200 feet below