Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1887 — THE SOUTHERN STATES. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTHERN STATES.

Dobleb & Mudge’s paper warehouse at Baltimore was destroyed by fire, with a loss of about $60,000. Two masked men with drawn revolvers mounted the cab of a Texas <t Pacific express train as it pulled out of Benbrook, Texas, a small station twelve miles west of Fort Worth. The engineer was ordered to run the train a few miles from Benbrook and compelled to stop on a high trestle. The engineer was then made to move the train again until the express car was off the trestle. Here two other masked men boarded the train and the fireman and engineer were placed under guard. A dozen shots were fired into the express car, and the door was finally opened by the messenger. One robber entered and cleared out the safe, and then went into the mail car. Every registered letter in the car was secured by the robbers. The work was done in ten minutes, and the engineer was ordered to pull out The train was the through express from San Francisco. The booty taken is valued at $30,000. A train was robbed on the same trestle last June. Guards wcre.in the passenger coaches, but they were over tho passengers. No attempt was made to molest the passengers. A hurricane which swept Matamoras, Brownsville and the adjacent region of Texas, was very disastrous in its results. A special from Brownsville says: Morning dawned on a scene of desolation. W ater filled the streets, through which the roaring north wind drove the rain like great volleys of small shot. The fallen trees, ruins of houses, and prostrate fences, all half submerged in water, rendered passage difficult and at times dangerous. The duration of the storm may safely be calculated at thirty-five hours. The rainfall was very heavy, being 10.40 inches. The damage in tho country, outside of the two cities, is incalculable. Countless head of cattle and sheep have been lost, and the crops of cotton, com, and sugar cane are completely prostrated and destroyed. One rancher on a small place calculates his loss in cotton alone at $20,090 and many others are equally heavy losers. The total of the losses will be far beyond $1,000,000. In Brownsville tho chief sufferers were among the poor.