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A Gentleinnulj Robbw.j Now tiwit the days of your roman n tie stage robber and W estern hold-up ^ are gone and almost forgotten, except in the romance which some interesting but fancilul writer bus seen tit to cast arouml the hardest ] and most exacting of occupations, it ? may be interesting to recall the advent of one of the most highly educated and gentlemanly robbers who ever got the drop on the unsuspecting driver of a Western tour-in-handIn 1870 Clmrles E. Itolles deserted his wife and children in a little town in Southwestern Missouri and went ’ over the Rocky Mountains with the ' fager flood of farmers and’ mechnn ‘ ica who had left the plough and work-bench to engage in the fascinating but elusive game of hide nnd seek with the gold diggings.Holies was after gold, too, but he did not believe in digging for it. He was a clever, well educutod fellow, but the foot that the money in his belt belonged originally to his deserted wife would hardly serve to raise him in the estimation of any one who admired his tulents us well as his coolness and nerve.After Holies crossed the divide he was. for the time being, lost to sight. But he did not permit his candle to flicker under a bushel very long, tor on August 3. 1887, as big Jack Holmes, the driver of the regular mail conch from Fort Boss to the Russian River, California, swung his leaders around the sharp curve of a blutt in the Sierras, the figure of a man. grotesquely attired in jute l»ngs nnd linen duster, with a white linen flour sack over the head, arranged so that sight was possible out of two holes cut at a convenient distance apart, Btepped from behind ft con ven-ientbowlder nnd presented a double-barrelled shot-gun with the danger end pointing at Jack said, in the most pleasunt nnd polite manner possible:“Will you be kind enough to throw out the box and mail bags.The “box referred to was Wells, Fargo Co.’s shipment of treasure.Jack was kind enough to do as re quested without lurther parley and finally when asked in the same polite nnd urbane manuer if be wouldn’t please drive on, obeyed with alacrity, as any far-sighted and experienced Western man would. t The sheriff of thecounty was noti- tied, nnd with a posse went back to where the box lay. It hud been broken and rifled, and all that thest range robber had left was a bit of doggerelj. which read:. Now I Iny mo down to oleop,G To wait the cominjz morrow;$ Perhups bucpphm, perhnpH de'eat.Or evorlnstinic narrow l Lot coidp what will, I’ll try it on,r My condition can't bo wonu*.And if there m money in the box,'Tis mouey in my purse. The lines were written on the back* } of a. way-bill belonging to thcexprcsscompany, and nt the bottom was * the signature: “Black Hart, the I’o l 8.i “Black Bart was the K. Holies ofi Missouri, nnd while the other fellowsj were breaking their back ut the washings and diggings, he was mnh . ing u barrel of money by crocking , tho treasure boxes of Wells. Furuo l Co. After ho had succeeded twen-. tv-three times he was arrested in San . Francisco, where he had been living , as a gentleman should, by means of - a laundry mark on a cuff which he , had left near the scene of one of his . robberies. Among his effects was found his family Bible with numerous marginal notes which he had r made from time to time.’• On tho 17th ol November, 1883,. Holies was sentenced to six years' t imprisonment, and was immediately i taken to the famous old jail at San e Quentin to serve out his time, his i captors reaping an accumulated r *-L, ward of $18,400. a He was discharged from San Quen p tin on New Year’s Day, 1888. aud r promised to reform. Ha had I teen a I model prisoner and spent six years of e confinement with profit to himself,. for he became an expert chemist.,1 Some months after his release I u met him in Denver, Colorado, and v while still a powerful man physicial-ly, he was aging fast, nnd his hair, mustache and imperial were plentifully frosted with the white of advancing age.t How the Jailer Kept Informed.
Newspaper Details
The Alliance
Lincoln, Nebraska, US
Wed, Jul 17, 1889
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
San F.
CA, USA 13 Apr 2024
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