BED DP BY TRAIN ROBBERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1280, 4 August 1914, Page 4

BED DP BY TRAIN ROBBERS.

NEW ZEALANDER’S EXGHTNG EXPERIENCE. HOW A DESPERADO MET HIS DEATH. We are fairly well accustomed to hearing highly-coloured narratives of train “holds-up” in America, and with that veilingrained scepticism regarding all things American, are apt to think that fiction enn at times be made stranger than the truth (says the Dominion). Our outlook on such’ happenings has undergone a change as the result of a chat with Mr David Evans, the well-known sheep export, who arrived back from America, and is at present in Wellington. Mr Evans who las no gifts as a romancer, was actually concerned in a train “hold-up in Oregon on July Ist last, to be explicit—as he wa. journeying from Boise (the capital of Idaho) the join the steamer at Vancouver. Tho trouble occurred when crossing the State of Oregon, between Le Grande and Pendleton, at about 1.20 a.m. Let Mr Evans tell his own story. THE HOLD-UP.

“It i* customary for tho train to pull up at the summit of a big hill climb after leaving 1.0 Grande, to test the air-brakes prior to tho run down the hill. ihis is done somehow by an electric spark sent through the train from the engine—if n sparks all is well. Just as the brakesman was about to give the aignal fer aU clear, three masked men stopped out of the ni £hL each carrying a couple of six-sliooters the loader a big man, over »ix feet m height. “ ‘Signal that things are right, but not to go on,’ said the leader, jamming his sixshooter into the brakesman « face. Now cot into the train and no noise ! The throe bandits climbed in, covering the man, who was scared out of his wits, and they proceeded to go through the tram. “They drove the officials and nigger attendants before them, with their guns looking murder at them, and passed through the train to tho luggage van, where they ordered the purser (or clerk) to open the iaio but he hadu’* the combination oi something, and couldn’t do it, *o the 'j® 11 ; dits prepared to bI9V.. 'T schemed out every detail woiulevful > but on the clerk swearing, with a loaded revolver at his throat, that there was nothing of value in the safe, the leader said he would take his word, and restored the dynamite plugs to his bosom. “DEADWOOD DICK” INCIDENT.

“Then two of the three ipoii went ‘through the train,’ in the ‘“opted man"l One caried a bag something like a pillow-ease Tyith an open mouth, and the others kept the passengers flunking ‘J homo and their loved ones With ffif 1 f ’’V ‘barkers.’ When they had gone tfiiqi gh the carriage the first time most of the occupants were asleep or dozing (it was after 1 a.m.), but soon the people grasped the fact that the train was being u, ‘ by bandits who never hcsiUtcd Jo ..hoot Lie,, the necessity arose, 1 was travelling with a Mr Wm. Riddell, Of Oregon, and he wim hard to waken. ‘‘Bv the time the robbers came back \vo were all on the alert. I had put my money i i ~'s sf! dollars in a purse) under so mi lers and had borrow'd about 15 cents from my friend to make a show. Along emne the man with the open bag. whilst the big man—he looked a giant—kept up a winning fhc of gentle instruction* to those X were satisfied ffitb things on this side of tternity.

“SHELL-OUT—QUICK}”

“Keen quiet—she'd out, quick ! we don t want, watches ! Quick, 1 say ! (a* a man attempted to rise)—sit down ! And all along tho men were emptying their pockets into tho bag. I emptied out my iittcen or twenty cents with ft great rattle, and showed an empty pocket. , “Behind me sat two blind men. They ro *Wtl «• passenger. “‘All rigli,t—they want it more than us, get oni’ . ‘That hunk on joujt chain, mister, drop it in!’ said the big man to a passenger with a little nugget hanging as a pendant to his watch-chain. “ ‘Please allow me to keep it —it is a keep-sake from my daughter.’ “ ‘Right--got a gal of my own. lush

“They were pof very particular with us--anyono could see they ryoro in a hurry. It was argued afterwards that tiler Jiad planned to make their bifj Hall m' the Fullijian ears (sleepers), which were well filled with wealthy politicians who had been attending a conference at Jlojso (pronounced Boy-see). THE TABLES TURNED, “They went through the first two cars fairly quickly, and then entered the third, which was well filled with women. They did not waste much timo there and the big man was just passing out into the yes tibule at the end of the car when a little man who had been apparently asleep fired three shots quick into the back of the bandit. The two first shots got him in the body. Too low to reach the heart; tho third found the brain, but before the last bullet had found its billot tho bandit had partly turned, and shot clean into tho little man. Thanks to a in his left-hand inside pocket, the bullet glanced, and only a flesh-wound resulted. “As soon a* the, big man was shor, the other man retreated tp tho baggage van, alarmed his mate, who was guarding tho train officials, and together they vanished into the night, 1 believe they had a motor car handy, but it did not avail them much for they were both captured a day or two later.” A MURDEROUS RECORD.

“The little man who had settled the whole business so coolly was discovered to bo M'Duffy, the Dcputy-Sherilt of Heppnor County, Oregon, and the dead bandit was a num named AViiitpey, who had a record ot four murders and numerous holds-tip au

over the country. “Thorn was a price of 1000 dollar* for him, dead or alive, which, 1 supiwse, M'Duffy will get. M'Duffy is n grand little man, full of *and and no skit© —a man. of action, who on arrival of the train at Pendleton was hailed ns a hero. He is running lor Sheriff at the next election, and I guess he will wipe any other candidate off the earth. Whitney’s accomplices were proved to be ‘green horns,’ but it wbb proved that the hold-up had been planned weeks ahead, bcouusa of the politician* on th* train. THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR. “You ask why no one did anything after they first, passed through the carriage? Well—l don't know. I didn’t feel disposed to tempt the forefinger of that big fellow ail (he time. He was out to kill anyone that was troublesome, and I wasn’t going to be shot for being silly. Why, there were men in the train with loaded revolvers in their pockets, who never attempted to draw them. It’s all very well to have a gun, but the ordinary individual shrink# at taking life—especially when its at the risk of hie own. I never thought the bore of a revolver was so big as Whitney’s seemed to me !"