Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-08-13


the Cherokee Nation. Those were their
lucky days, and they got so reckless and
sandy that they used to announces before
hand what joy they were going to IN
dertake. Once they gave 1t out that they
were going to hold up the NJ, K & T.
flyer on a certain night at the station
Of Pryor Creek, in Indian Territory.
That night the railroad company &C
fifteen deputy marshals ip Muscogee and
put them on the train Besides them
they had fifty armed men hid in the de-
pot at Pryor Creek. {
When the Katy Flyer pulled In not
Dalton showed up. The next station was
Adair, six miles away. When the train
reached there, and the deputies were hav-
ing good time explaining what they
would have done to the Dalton gang IL
they had turned up, all at once it sounded
like an army firing outside. The con-
ductor and brakeman came running into
the car yelling TRAIN robbersl"
Some Of those deputies lit out OF the
door, hit the ground, and kept on run
ming. Some Of them hid their Winches-l
ters under the seats. Two of them made
fight and were both killed.
1t took the Daltons just ten minutes
TO capture the train and whip the escort
In twenty minutes more they robbed the
express car of $4,000 and made a clean
getaway.
Ny opinion Is that those deputies
would have put up a stiR fight at Pryor
Greek, where they We're expecting trouble,
but they were taken By surprise and
"locoed" at Adair. just as the Daltons.
who knew their business, expected they
would.
I don't think ought to close with
out giving some deductions from my
experience Of eight years "on the dodga."
It doesn't pay to rob trains. Leaving
out the question Of right and morals,
which I don't think I ought to tackle,
fhNra "a HfSla in fha ltfA
an outlaw. After a while money ce2Ses
to have any value in his eyes. He gets
to looking upon the railroads and ex-
press companies as his bankers. and bis
x-shooter as a check book good for ary.
amount be throws away money ES@ptl
and left. Most of the time he Is on the
jump, riding day and night, and he lives
so hard between times that he doesn't
enjoy the taste OF high life when he gets,
It, lie knows that his time is bound to
the accuracy Of bis atm, the speed of his
horse and the fidelity Of his hsider' are
all that postpones the inevitable.
Il isn't that he loses any sleep over
danger from the officers Of the law. In
all my experience I never knew of1csrs
to attack a band Of outlaws unless they
oCtDumbered them at least three to one.
But the outlaw carries one thought con-
stantly in hs mtnd-and that Is what
makes him 80 sore again7t life, moro
marshsls get their recruits of deputies.
He knows that the majority of these up
holders Of the law were once iaWbreakers
horse thieves, rustlsrs, highwaymen, ana
outlaws ike himself, and that they gained
their positions and immunity by turning
States evidence. by turning traitor and
delivering up their comrades to impT1son-j
mont and death. He knows that soma
day-unless he ts shot frst-his Judas
will set 30 work, the trap will be laid,
and he viii be the surprised instead OF
the surpriser at q stick-up.
That IS why the man who holds up
trains picks his company with a thou
sand times the care with which care
full girl chooses 8 sweetheart, That IS
why he raises himself from his blanket
of nights and listens to the tread Of
every honses hoofs on the distant road.
That Is why he broods suSpiciously for
days upon testing remark or an IN
usual movement Of a tried counrade, or
the broken mutteI1ngs Of his closest
friend. sleeping by his side.
And 1t is one Of the reasons why the
train-robbing profession Is not so pleas
ant a ono as either Of its collateral
branches-politics or eornering the mar
ket