Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-05-01
TRAIN ROBBER CANDIDATE
CONTINUED from Page One)

tip on a large sum of money. There
| isn't very much in robbing the pas
sengers. You can't watch them ALL
At the first fire the big wads Of mon
ey and the valuable jewelry generally
go under the seats or behind the steam
pipes. Mostly, you get only watches,
trinkets, and small change.
Occasionally the expresses messen-
ger showed fight, but few bullets
lust over his head always stopped
him. Then with one Of the coolest
men, L would attend to the express
safe.
sometimes we made the messenger
open it; generally we blew 1t with
giant powder. We'd empty the con-
tents into sacks, fan few shots
around the train for a warning, and
get to our horses.
People were so dazed that they act
ed like trained dogs. Really, robbing
a train is easy. The element of surprise
fayors the robbers. The hard ana
dangerous part comes afterward when
the trainmen start up the marshals
and vigilants, and the whole country
seems reused against you. I've seen
district alive with armed men an
hour after the robbery.
We generally held together for
day or so. Then we'd got clean
through the Gordon, we'd scatter,
making an appointment, often for
months ahead, to meet for the next
robbery.
Generally I'd pass the intervening
time among the cattle ranches In
another part Of the territory. Frank
used to loaf around among the nest
ers. When we found him again, he'd
be comfortably settled down in
farmhouse, smoking corncob pipe,
helping the women wipe the dishes,
and singing at the melodeon or even
ings. He could eat into the bosom
of a family quicker than any other
man l ever knew.
understand that people are dig
ging all over the Creek nation for the
buried treasure of the Jennings gang.
| used to bury my treasure all right
but not that way. 1t used to run
through my fingers like water.
First, a big wad went to the terri
torial or railroad official who had in
formed us of the shipment. We had
our friends to take care of-they
were mostly poor. We thought noth-
ing. when we were flush Of throwing
down a hundred dollar bill on the
table.
Most of the valuables we gave
away-gold thimbles and brooches TO
the little girls, gold watches to the
older people. l don't know just
where the rest of it went-mostly, l
su oppose, 1 dropped 1t on Broadway or
Wabash avenue; for 1 used to vary
life on the ranches by going east.
When the time came for the next job
we were always broke.
Our chief trouble, barring the es-
cape from the marshals, was in re-
assembling. We didn't dare use the
mails. Most of us went under assum-
ed names. 1 usually travelled as "Mr.
Edwards" and Frank as Mr.. Will
liams."
Sometimes when you heard or
chance for a robbery and wanted to
gather the riders, you had to hunt
for a fortnight. You knew nothing
about them except their regular
haunts, and even then you were hard
ly ever right
A Novel Getaway.
The depredations Of the gang final
ly made the territory so hot for them,
that, after one of their robberies and
the subsequent splitting up of the out
laws, AL and Frank determined to
leave the country for awhile. Instead
of going to New York or Chicago as
usual, they went to New Orleans.
There they looked UP a college friend
Of AIS, who invited them to his house.
AL says he felt that he couldn't go
under false pretenses, so he told this
man everything. Nevertheless, Jack
still wanted him to come, and he ana
Frank were introduced to Jacks
mother and sister.
The family introduced us to their
friends, the pleasantest, most hospit-
able people 1 ever met. Immediate
ly we were flooded with invitations
that's a way they have in New Or
leans.
Frank and 1 bought full outfits OF
society clothes. Every evening we
went to a dinner or a dance, wearing
the loot in money belts under the
bands of our trousers, and 45-calibre
Colt revolvers in shoulder scabbards
under the left-hand flap of our new
dress coats. Sometimes l had to
manage a lot to conceal that gun
from my partner in the waltz.
Our friends had treated us so well
that we determined to give them
little pleasure trip. Chartering a
yacht, we took party of seven to
IG Galveston-Jack, his sister, Miss
Margaret, two of her girl friends, the
two hosts, and an elderly aunt, who
didn't know that she was chaperoning
outlaws. At Galveston, Jack and Miss
Margaret had friends who gave us
ball at the old Beach hotel, after
ward destroyed by the tidal wave.
Here also, we wore our money and
our revolvers.
1 was talking to Miss Margaret in
an alcove when L felt light touch
on my shoulder. looked up and saw
an old friend He had been on our
end of the game, but had gone back
on it and became a Wells-Fargo de-
tective. He said loud enough for Miss
Margaret to hear:
| Look out, This place is surround
ed" Then he passed Cn down the
lobby, making a bluff at looking for
someone.
l excused myself and crossed the
floor to Frank He was waltzing with
one of the young women who had
come with US from New Orleans
| said in Spanish: