The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-03-13
HELDAY OF TRAIN ROBBER.
Incidents of Old Times in the Young
Southwest.


ting about a table on a dining car
that reeled off the miles across the
desert country of Western Texas. One
of the group, large, clear-eyed
man, was the superintendent of a
well-known division of the Southern
Pacific railroad. For some time he
had sat silent, listening to the dis
cussion of a recent hold-up of a
Louisville and Nashville train, near
New Orleans. With some of that
good-natured tolerance with which
a westerner feels for the down
asterner" he allowed his section OF
the States to be handled pretty
rough. Finally, however, he broke
into the conversation:
Il see that train robbing is fast
getting to be on a par with football
and other popular sports back in the
east" There was no denial, and he
proceeded:
Don't do things in quite the same
way as the bandits that used to op-
crate. out here did. 1t looks as if the
robbers back on the other side of the
Mississippi get the rough end Of the
deal almost every time. See where
an engineer put one of them out of
business with an engine torch few
days ago. Mighty few of them ever
get away with the plunder. The
trouble is, the would-be bandits are
bunch of 'mollycoddles.' Their
nerves and their methods are soft
and amateurish. Baby-carriage rob-
bing would be more in their line. l
would invite one of those eastern
men who goes in to make success
of that sort of business to look up
carefully the methods of the gang
that it took us 25 years to break up
along the Southern Pacific lines. They
were men of steel, and paused at ab-
solutely nothing. When they went
after a mail car, an express car, or
after the passengers they got what
they went for. Rarely was one OF
them ever injured, and almost as
rarely were they ever caught for
years after crime.
Hatchery for Robbers.
Down here at point between Ell
Paso and Tucson at town called
Benson, and at another called Co.
chise, were favorite places for rob-
berries to be hatched. Those were
tough joints along in the late 'SOs
ard early '90's. They were excel
lent places from which to operate,
for this reason. To the north of
them, and nearby, we're the White
Mountains, while to the South, with
in a days ride, was Mexico. A man
who knows anything about the White
Mountains knows that there are
places up in there that couple OF
men can hold out against a regi-
ment for month, provided food and
ammunition are plentiful. One place
in particular was popular with the
badits after pulling off job. The
place is called Russell's Park, and is
there to-day just as it has always
stood-a secure retreat for evil
doers, who wish to escape capture.
Like the famous Devils Hole and
other places of refuge for bandits,
it consists of large valley or de-
preston, way up in the top OF the
mountains. There is plenty OF
grass for the horses and also lots OF
good water. The surface OF the
ground is covered with great, huge
boulders that have paused on their
route from the highest points along
the peaks to the lowest in the valley.
These boulders form excellent 'cov-
err and it is not a hard matter to
get lost among them. The park is
several thousand acres in extent. But
here is the important point-there is
but a single entrance to the great
park. One can gain access to Rus
sells park in one way only and that
is through a narrow, tortuous pass
age, fanked on either side by high,
sheer precipices. Why, after officers
of the law had made several efforts
to get at bandits known to be hid
ing in the park they gave it up for
all time-the place simply cannot be
taken as long as single man remains
on guard at that narrow door. How
many officers were winged or killed
outright before learning their lesson
it is hard to estimate, but lots OF
them.
An Instance.
''In the early days of the South
ern Pacific out here, Benson and Co.
chise were nothing more than adobe
settlements, with saloon or two