Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1892 — WRECKED BY ROBBERS. [ARTICLE]

WRECKED BY ROBBERS.

PASSENGER TRAIN DITCHED NEAR OSAGE CITY. KAN. Twenty-five Passenger* Injured—A Million Dollar* In Treasure Was the Prise Sought—Robber* Will Be Lynched If Captured—How *Twa» Done. Four Train Men Are Killed. A million dollars in currency. That was the prize for which Kansas train robbers strove. An appalling loss of human life was the price they were willing to pay for It. Passenger train No. 8, on the Atchison, Topeka A Santa Fe Railroad, eastbound, was wrecked early in the morning three miles west of Osage City by train robbers who hoped by that means to plunder the express car of $1,000,000, which was being transported from the city of Mexico to Boston. A wrecked train, four men killed, and thirty-live men, women, and children Injured are the only results of the attempted robbery, for tho robbers secured not a penny of the treasure to capture which they imperiled so many lives. . The wreck and attempted robbery had been carefully and deliberately planned. To avoid the possibility of leaving a clew behind them the robbers stole the tools with which they did their dreadful work, instead of purchasing them. They stole a crow bar, wrench and sledgo hammer from the tool house at Barclay, three miles west of the scene of the wreck, and with them removed the fish plate which joined two rails together, which would necessarily derail the train. The robbers had evidently selected with care the spot at which to wreck the train. They selected the top of a grade, up which the train would bo obliged to ascend, thus lessening its speed and at the same time lessening the chances of so badly wrecking the train as to bury beneath the debris the treasure they were seeking. These precautions were unavailing, and the very thing they sought to evade thwarted their efforts. When the train passed over the weakened track the entire train was wrecked, with the exception of the rear car, and most of the cars wore piled ono on top of the other above the express car, burying it, and its treasure so deep as to require several hours’ digging to reach it. The engine, when it passed over the loosened rail, left the track, swayed to aud fro for a second of time aud then toppled over with a dreadful crash. Four Trainmen Killed. The engineer and fireman had no warning of their dreadful fate and no chance for their lives. They must have been killed outright when tho engine was wrecked. The express messenger and express guardsmen were equally unprepared and they were killed In their car. There were some 250 passengers on the train, but not one was killed. How they escaped seems miraculous. The cars wore piled one on another and composed a mass of timber and twisted iron in which it seemed impossible for any being to havo escaped death. When the work of rescue was completed, however, all the passengers were found to be alive. Several wero badly injured and a few may dis. The $1,000,0110 belonged to the Mexican Central Railroad Company, and was being forwarded to that company's headquartors at Boston. It was rescued from the wreck and turned over to the Wells Fargo company at Topeka to be forwarded to its destination. i Reward for the Wreckers. The Santa Fo has offered SI,OOO reward for the train wreckers, and several posses are searching the country in the vicinity of the wreck. Advices from Osage City and Barclay state that intense excitement and indignation prevails among the people there, who declare broadly that the wreckers shall be lynched when caught. The train consisted of a baggage, express and mail car, two day coaches, two chair cars and three sleepers. It was thrown over an embankment three feet high and the first six cars tele* sooped.