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x L KJttiA U I. lt;)EXPRESS ROBBERIES.tA PROFITABLE INDUSTRY OFIIAMDRON ORIGIN.THE MESSENGER'S LOT NOT AN ENVIABLE ONE.The Treasure which He Guards a Standing Invitation for Desperadoes to Make an Attack—Some Famous Hob* berics.HE CUSTODIANof large amounts of money when on duty, the lot of the express messenger is not by any means an enviable one. The treasure which .^he carries is astanding invitation*to desperadoes, who lMTas a rule hesitate s atj^o crime when money is the prize sought. The messenger who was in charge of the train which was recently robbed in Indiana has been discharged because he did not save the treasure under his charge. Had he attempted to resist the desperadoes he would have been shot on the spot. About the safest course for the messenger to take is to hand over the keys of his safe and ask for his share of the proceeds. The Northern Michigan messenger who took this view of it when his car was robbed of $75,000 just saved the thatmuch, for had lie not received his share none of t ie money would have been recovered. He will probably be rewarded for his peculiar share in the capture of the desperadoes.' f./Mil£’ it R.......r mi ^ r... ^wor«-S-’ V‘THE FIUST INTIMATION.Every since the James boys inaugurated express robbing as a profitable employment the life of the express messenger has been at stake. The work of the Reno gang in Indiana,the Star gang in Indian Territory and Texas, the astonishing pursuit led by Evans and Sontag, both in California and other states, has merely added to the general risk that has constantly hovered over these men. The danger cannot be modified or explained av*ay to a minimum. When it is seen, as has often been illustrated, |that these desperadoes traverse whole states and even the entire Union to execute their daring work, it becomes apparent.*Evans and Sontag traveled fsom California fro Wisconsin to hold up the American Express comp iny’s ear at some unexpected moment and out of the way place. It. has since been learned that they traveled elsewhere and further to accomplish their purpose. The James gang did likewise and all the southwest knew them from St. Louis to Brownville and from the mountains of Tennessee west to the coast. It stands to reason, then, that the messenger in Florida or Oregon, InMaiDeorOld Mexico, tending the wealth of some one of these great express corporations, is as liable to receive a visit from local desperadoes as from outlaws who have traveled from afar to their shadowy night work.Leaving his comfortable home for the labor of a long journey, the express messenger enters the car over which he has charge and travels forth on his journey alone. There is usually wealth about him, of tfye presence of which he is not certain how many are aware. His doors are barred and bolted. His labor is one of silence and speculation. Through the long hours of the night the various stops are to be wondered at as meaning something dangerous. Finally in theirs, as in the lives of all men, there coines the critical moment. A train had been halted in the shadow a gloomy forest or the depth of a solitary canon. A voice has sounded the demand for an immediate opening and surrender; a manly stand is taken. Then comes the blowing open of a door with dynamite, a demand for keys. The final test is a brutal blow or a deadly shot and another hero, uusung, has died at his postIt is either this or the other—a surrender because life and the pursuit of happiness is held higher than packages of gold or bundles of silver. The aftermath is usually less thrilling and more painful. Usually it means that the messenger dies a hero or lingers a susp^t in the service or out of it. The families of the dead are left to shift for themselves or to suffer because of inability to shift. The living messenger has the inadequate salary and the perhaps moderate odium of having been a coward or untrustworthy upon him. or has no work at all and so drifts out of the business entirely.rl he first train robbery in America occurred at Gad’s Hill, Mo., in 1875. At that point and time an Adams express car, presided over by MessengerYounger brothers. All the after years of their outlaw experion e were stained by deeds of whien express robbing was certeinly the mildest. Their example also was copied by other am-bitiotfi Intellects of an ignorant and bloodthirsty turn.A KeDO gang sprung up in Indiana and made their headquarters at Seymour, where the senior Rsnc and hisfamily tyved. Their operations covered southern Indiana from New Albany to Indianapolis. About fifteen years since th.-y began holding up trains along with other minor enjoyments.In their operations as train robbers only one messenger, according to thememories of several gentlemen,figures. His name was Joe Dresbach, and for a number of recent years he ran into St. Louis, but now has moved henee. The incident in question occurred when he was a messenger on the J., M. and I. road, running from New Albany to Indianapolis. One midnight the Reno gang boarded his train at a water tank eighteen miles south of Seymour, Ind., and broke into the express car. One of the gang had taken charge of the engine and was running the train. Dresbach refused to comply with the prearranged details, and for his heroic obstinacy was thrown off the train. It was purely accidental that he escaped death, for the train was movingswiftly and the grading of the road w’as anything but smooth or level. As it was he was laid up for months. Perhaps it will afford some satisfaction to many to know that this same miserable gang perished according to their deserts 'three swung from a beach-tree three miles east of lirowntown, Ind., and seven more of them were taken by a jail-storming mob from the New Albany prison and justly hanged.The work -of the Starr gang in Indian territory was cruel enough, and every one knows of the many train robberies that figured in it The express messengers who surrendered to them were wise. Such determined humaai devils would have rammed the cold barrel of a forty-four down a victim's throat and blazed away into his anatomy before they would have been interfered with. Those who have read the exploits of Evans and Sontag can imagine how a lone messenger with a spark of objection in him would fare at their hands. Those two cool-headed murderers lived a strangely dual existence, pretending to be quiet, honest citizens of California, while making a record of crime that has appalled the nation. The desperadoes who push dynamite sticks under express car doors or stand erect upon the tender of a flying engine and level the silvered barrels of their revolvers straight upon the cab crew in the shadowy glare of an engine furnace fire or moonlight beams are fully determined and enthused. Like some crouching feline of the jungle, with the odor of blood in its nostrils, the desire of gold is in their hearts, and neither the sight of human woe nor the though't of eterpal perdition could stop them.iiTHE IilM!) BAGGAGE CAR.ilson, was neld up on the Iron auntain road by the James boys and Dted The Adams company lost sev-al hundred dollars, and the Inited ates mail carrier was robbed as well i most of the living world knows e story of the James band, the se-tel to this primodical incident may guessed.It was not the onlv train, however, atwasheldup b^d the James and
Newspaper Details
Princeton Bureau County Tribune
Princeton, Illinois, US
Fri, Sep 29, 1893
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Kevin B.
IL, USA 13 Jan 2022
Other Publications Near Princeton, Illinois
Princeton Bureau County Record
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