Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1895 — THE OUTLAWS’ CHRISTMAS. [ARTICLE]

THE OUTLAWS’ CHRISTMAS.

How the Bandits of Indian Territory Amused Themselve-:. Little Rock, Ark., Special, Dec. 27, Travelers reaching Little Rock from the Indian Territory tell a thrilling tale of experience Christmas day in that land of outlawry. Capt. B. B. Bouldin, a well-known revenue agent, camo through from Kansas City, and encountered such an unenviable experience that he will not soon forget the manner in which he spent Christmas day in 1894. The passengers on the Kansas & Arkansas Valley passenger train that day were entertained in a manner they might have read about but had never before experienced. One-half the Territory seemed to be frenzied with drink. At every station where the train stopped drunken desperadoes armed to the teeth got on board and punctuated their yells with rifle and pistol shots. The trainmen were, of course, powerless, being completely at the mercy of the desperadoes, who value human life, as light as a dog’s, and who would re; sent the slightest objection to their revelry. The outlaws shot their pistols from the car windows and from the platforms, and gave emphasis to their revelry by protracted yells. Thoroughly cowed by the numerical strength and bloodthirsty appearance of the revelers, the passengers kept themselves under cover, heads down in their seats, fearful every moment of a flying bullet. A tall, lank, cadaverous • looking fellow sauntered up to Captain Bouldin and announced in stentorian tones that “Christmas comes but once a year and the boys propose to have a good time." Inasmuch as the fellow phasized his declaration at the muzzle of a pistol, Captain Bouldin waived the formality of an argument on the premises and conceded the correctness of the position assumed by “the boys.” The value of the leaf tobacco exported bv this country in 1890 was $20,640,000.