People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1893 — SPOILED THEIR PLANS. [ARTICLE]

SPOILED THEIR PLANS.

A Brakeman Thwarts a Gans tt Train Robbers and Ur Shot. • Mount Pulaski, 111, Nou. 15.— A daring attempt was made Monday evening to hold up the south-bound passenger train on the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville railroad, between Mount Pulaski and Lincoln. The train left Lincoln at 8:45 p. m., and was due here at 9 o’clock. It consisted of a combination baggage and express car, a smoking car and two coaches. At the junction of the Peoria. Decatur & Evansville railway and the Havana branch of the Illinois Central Is situated the citizens* coal shaft, which has always beea a favorable place for tramps to board trains on either of the roads. Monday night when the train held up stopped for coal and water three men were seen to board the front end of the combination car, but not much attention <was paid to the occurrence, as it happens frequently. When the train reached Salt creek bridge, 6 miles east of Lincoln, it slackened its speed, owing to the defective condition of the bridge. At this point a shot was fired into one of the coaches, which caused Brakeman Scott to run forward to inquire the cause As he approached the forward platform of the car next to the last he was confronted by a medium-sized man wearing a gum coat and a mask made of a handkerchief. Scott saw th© danger and promptly cut the bell cord, thus preventing the robbers from stopping the train. He was in the act also of extinguishing the lights in the car when the robbers, who had confronted him, fired at him and inflicted a dangerous wound in the abdomen. Scott, however, had succeeded already in putting the car in darkness and in baffling the robbers. Being unable to stop the train they were afraid to undertake to rob the passengers in the darkness. One of the passengers ran to rescue the brakeman, but was halted by a shot from a confederate, which passed through the passenger’s hat

Immediately the robbers began shooting into the cars. The engineer hearing the firing increased the speed of the train so rapidly and suddenly that one of the robbers, a tall, slim man, did not venture to jump from the train when the other jumped. He was carried to this station, where he alighted, and with a revolver in each hand began firing to intimidate whomever he met No one attempted to intercept him. A posse was organized at once and began a search. All strangers here in Lincoln were taken into custody and the sheriff of the county was notified. When the train pulled into Mount Pulaski the passengers were in a lively state of excitement The injured brakeman was placed under the care of physicians, who pronounce his injuries very serious. The train proceeded on its way with a guard of armed citizens, who volunteered to accompany it as far as Decatur. Brakeman Scott’s home is in Paris, Edgar county, HL The pay-car was generally supposed to be attached to this train, but owing to the faet of the many train robberies of late Superintendent Starbuck decided to hold the pay train until daybreak. Five shots in all were fired through the window from the plat form. St. Paul, Minn., Nov. 15.—Near Worthington, Minn., Sunday night a gang of robbers attempted to wreck the Omaha passenger train. The track was torn up so as to throw the train from the track. John B; Iverson, a farmer living about 3 miles from the junction, had been to Worthington to get >350, and shortly before dark started for home. About half a mile from the junction a gang of men working on the track called for him to halt, and on his refusal opened fire, wounding him in the leg. When he recovered consciousness he was minus his cash. He raised the alarm and section men sent along the track found the spikes drawn at the most dangerous point on the grade.