The Washington herald., 1920-09-05

the hold-up. while posses were
securing the country in every di-
rection, Jim and / were eating
supper in the second story of a
friends house in the town where
the alarm started from. Our
friend pointed out to us. in an
office across the street. a print
ing press at work striking of
handbills Offering a reward for
our capture.
have been asked what we do
with the money we get Well, /
never could account for a tenth
part OF IL after IL was spent II
goes fast and freely. An outlaw
has TO have a good many friends.
A highly respected citizen may.
and often does, get along with
very few, but a man on the dodge
has got to have ''sidekickers
With angry posses and reward
hungry officers cutting out a hot
trail for him, he must have a few
places scattered about the coun-
try where he can stop and feed
himself and his horse and get a
few hours sleep without having
to keep both eyes open. When he
makes a haul he feels like drop
ping some of the coin with these
friends. and he does il literally.
Sometimes / have, at the end OF a
hasty visit at one OF these havens
of refuge, flung a handful OF gold
and bills into the laps of the kids
playing on the floor, without
knowing whether my cOntribut-
tion was a hundred dollars or
thousand.
When old-timers make a big
haul they generally go far away
to one Of the big cities TO spend
their money. Green hands. how
ever successful a hold-up they
make, nearly always give them
selves away by showing too much
money near the place where they
got il.
I was in a job in "a where we
got twenty thousand dollars. We
followed our favorite plan for
get-away-that is, doubled on our
trail-and laid low for a time near
the scene OF the trains bad luck.
One morning I picked up a news
paper and read an article with
big headlines stating that the
marshal. with eight deputies and
posse Of thirty armed citizens,
had the train robbers surrounded
in a mesquite thiCket on the Cim-
arrOn. and that IL was a question
of only a few hours when they
would be dead men or prisoners.
While ! was reading that article
l was sitting at breakfast in one
Of the most elegant private resi-
denCes in Washington City, with
a fiunky in knee pants standing
behind my chair. Jim was sitting
across the table talking to his
half-UnCle, a retired naval officer,
whose name you have often seen
in the accounts or doings in the
capital We had gone there and
bought rafting outfits Of good
clothes. and were resting from
our labors among the nabObs. We
must have been killed in that
mesquite thicket. for ! can snake
an affidavit that we didn't sur
render
Now l propose to tell why it is
easy to hold up a train. and. then,
why no one should ever do it.
In the first place. the attacking
party has all the advantage. That
is. Of course, sUpposing that they
are old-timers with the necessary
experience and courage. They
have the outside and are protected
by the darkness. while the others
are in the light. hemmed into a
small space. and exposed, the mo-
ment they show a head at a win
dow or door, to the aim OF man
who is a dead shot and who won't
hesitate to shoot
But. in my opinion. the main
condition that makes train rob
bling easy is the element OF sur
prise in connection with the i'm
aginatiOn 0f the passengers. II
you have ever seen A horse that
has eaten loco weed you will Un-
derstand what l mean when I say
that the passengers get locoed.
That horse gets the awfullest i'm
aEination on him in the world.
You can't coax him to cross a lit
tie branch stream two feet wide. II
looks as hi Cto him as the Missis-
sippi River. That's just the way
with the passenger. He thinks
there are a hundred men yelling
and shooting outside, when maybe
there are only two or three. And
the muzzIe of a fOrty-five looks
like the entrance To a tunnel. The
passenger is all right although
he may do mean little tricks, like
hiding a wad Of money in his shoe
and forgetting to dig-Up until
you justle his ribs some with the
end of your sjN-shooter; but
there's no harm in him.
As to the train crew, we never
had any more trouble with them
than If they had been so many
sheep. l don't mean that they
are towards: l mean that they
have got sense. They know
they're not up against A blufT.
It's the same way with the Off
GERS. I've seen secret service men
marshals and railroad detectives
fork over their change as meek
as Moses ! saw one Of the brav-
est marshals I ever knew hide his
gun under his seat and dig up
along with the rest while l was
taking toll He wasn't afraid; he
simply knew that VIC had the drop
on the whole outfit. Besides,
many of those officers have fami-
lies and they feel that they
oughtn't to take chances; whereas
death has no terTors for the man
who holds up a train. He expects
to get killed some day. and he
generally does. My advice to you,
if YOU should ever be in a hold
up, is 10 line up with the towards
and save your bravery for an oC-
casion when il may be Of some
benefit to you. Another reason
why officers are backward about
mixing things with a train rObber
is a financial one. Every thine
there is a scrimmaEe and some
body gets killed. the officers lose
money. II the train rObber gets
away they swear out a warrant