THE WILD, WILD WEST OF SCOTLAND.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9162, 4 June 1908, Page 6

THE WILD, WILD WEST OF SCOTLAND.

This is not a story from the “Wild and Wooley West,” nor is it a bushranging yarn from the back blocks, but simply a plain tale from the lowlands of Scotland. On Apri 10th, in broad'daylight, an amazing attempt was made to “hod up” the Motherwell branch of the Bank of Scotland. The bank stands in the centre ox the town, which is a busy little place containing some 30,000 inhabitants, situate some twelve miles from the great City of Glasgow. Soon after noon three men ■entered the bank. All the clerks bar one we da temporarily absent from their accustomed places behind the counter, and the manager was in his parlour. Advancing to the counter, one of the strangers asked a question. The clerk looked up and found himself looking full into the muzzle of a revolver of quite the “business only meant” pattern. The clerk, a young man named Fergusson, behaved in a somewhat unorthodox fashion. Instead of inquiring politely what the gentleman holding the weapon required, or throwing up his hands with an appeal for mercy, he seized the muzzle of the weapon, dashed his fist in the holder’s face, and, with a yell for help, vaulted over the counter. His cry brought out the manager, Mr King, who, grasping tho situation on the instant, sprang to his assistant’s aid. Meanwhile the other “desperadoes,” who appear,to have been xmarmed, had been gazing spell-bound at the sight of Fergusson’s pluckly tackling of their fighting force, and on Mr King’s appearance on incontinently “bunked.” Tho man with the revolver was made of sterner stnff, and fought desperately with his assailants, using fist, revolver and feet with considerable effect. Once he contrived'to get his finger on to the trigger of his weapon but the bullet happily only found lodgment in the bank’s mahogany counter. The discharge, however, startled both Mr King and Mr Fergnsscn, who each feared that the other had received tho contents of the cartridge. Taking advantage of their momentary nerve paralysis, the would-be robber wrenched himself free and fled, leaving the protectors of the bank breathless, bruised and bleeding, but otherwise not much the worse for their startling adventuro. The noise of the shot attracted the attention of some schoolboys, who, seeing men rushing from the bank, at-once came to the conclusion that it was a case for “the coppers.” They “raised the alarm” in no uncertain fashion, and in the space of a fow seconds half a dozen men in blue and half a hundred lads were in hot pursuit of the fugitives. The man with the revolver made good his escape, but about half an hour’s hunt led to his accomplices being run to earth by the juvenile pack in a wood some distance from Motherwell. Happily, just as the boys had “treed the coons,” a cquple of policemen came along with a “drunk and disorderly.” To them the lads told their tale, and, abandoning their prisoner to his own bemused devices, the policeman went for the new quarry. Aided by the boys, they succeeded in capturing the would-be bank robbers after a fierce struggle, and they were soon safely lodged in Motherwell prison. The prisoners proved to be Poles of a low Glass, of whom —more’s the pity— l many are to be found working in the Lanarkshire coal mines. The raid on the bank was capitally arranged as to time. The day chosen was one on which the bank received a large amount of gold for the wages to be paid on the morrow to the thoaoands of miners employed in the vicinity ol Motherwell, and the hour selected was one during which ide staff of the bank is usually* confined to two or three men. The man with the gun has not yet been captured.