San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-10-15
Southern Pacific railroad. The other en-

Southern Pacific railroad. The other en-
gineman although younger, also aat
been long in service. Both of them LETT
families. They were Woodworking mel
engaged in calling perilous enough
without the addition OF banditry. Re-
ports indicate they were unarmed and
unprotected. They were engaged in saw
ing the lives of the passengers aboard
the train when they brought it to stop
as dynamite placed by the outlaws cave;l
i'll the mouth of tunnel before the pilot.
Then the bandits cold-bloodedly shot
them down as they sat in the cab of
the locomotive. The mail car was dyna-
mited and robbed and the explosives
apparently killed another faithful en-
ploye, the mail clerk on duty inside.
American train robbers for decade
nave been surrounded with certain halo
for daredeviltry and adventure. There is
something appealing to Our sense OF
dramatic in the nerve of a, few armed
men holding up passenger train at the
point of six-shooters and dashing off on
their horses with the loot.
And it can be said in mitigation of the
crimes the oldtime bandit committed,
that he usually was "nan" in the gen.
orally accepted sense of that expression.
He never shot if he could avoid it and
he did not kill except in self defense
True, his motives were not altogether
altruistic in that regard. He did not
wish to place his neck in jeopardy with
a Jury in the event of capture. He
knew that as usual thing, he could get
off with a prison sentence if convicted
of train robbery although under the laws
of most western states, robbery with
arms is a capital offense. If he killed
however, he then faced the probability of
being hanged.
But these Siskiyou bandits apparently,
planned these murders premeditately.
To shoot down those honest, hard
working enginemen was a part of their
carefully laid plan for robbing the South
ern Pacific train. They went about that
piece of fendish work as calmly and de-
liberately as a hunter goes about shoot
ing a squirrel. 1t is one of the blacklist
crimes of the sort in the annals Of Amer
lean train robbery and both the state and
the railroad ought to bring those bandits
to Justice regardless of time or cost.
The engineman on transcontinental
run faces dangers enough without such
outlawry. But few days ago, an
engine crew, faithful to the trust, went
to death in the raging torrents of a river
which had swept out bridge. Those
men on that engine stood at their posts
in vain effort to stop their train before
the coaches were wrecked and gave their
lives as proof of their fidelity to high
trust. Every engineman on every rail-
road in America is potential hero. Few
of them in the history of American rail-
reading have proven faithless to duty.
Faults they may have, but cowardice is
not among them. The story of railroad
ing in this country contains one thrilling
chapter after another of the bravery and
hercism of enginemen.
The bandits who Killed these inof-
fensive workers at their post of duty are
beneath contempt. They have wrested
from train banditry any particle of the
mantle of romance that may have
shrouded it. They stand forth as dc!ib-
crate assassins seeking money at the
cost of blood and broken hearts. They
have left vacant chairs by two firesdcs
and they have brought down upon the
heads of their ilk, a condemnation that
we hope will make train robbery the
most hazardous undertaking on earth
hereafter.