The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 8, 1900, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CALL we & ..,.. How Tt Felt to Be “THeld Wyp” by the IBlack Rid ~ Had Been Through Thrilfing -Experiences at Home and D of the Passengers cf the Yosemite Otage Qives a of the Damng Robberu. GraDH c Aficoun - One of the inter stalking ver of the party I do not think ken a chance at e robber's ge glitter in h! the danger. I that did the work ground I am not Under the J‘pell of the Black Kid's Rifls. r not to tell if you let us go ahead.” * replied the Kid with & “if only you fellows were take a chance, but ladies can't ret, and I have a dinner date ow TATADR @ here are t away, I hand and , but then, moved its it n and, after it he place where | S { | together, ap- | f to brush its wings with | The funniest thing was when the Chi- their pockets. With feverish haste, In P gentle pressurs nese arrived on the scene. The coach strong contrast to their stolidity of a mo- becames driver toid them to get out, and they ment before, they threw out money, to- X ‘ed. while | looked at the robber with wooden faces. bacco, cigars, all sorts of odds and ends, o ¥ their nat- | “Shell out, you fellows,” he sald pleas- end did not stop until thelr pockets were ’ position and left the er part of | antly turned wrong side out. Then they stood body exposed. canwhile the hind | “No sabe; no splek Englis,” they all, with hands high in the air, in’ abject 4 entomologist, has continued to b each other from | said, shaking their heads, terror. markable fact Dur- to time. N Ny I watched th The robber took a step forward and The highwayman seemed to be Im- r s B ‘:'ff “;‘11”;;:2‘1;"]‘ (‘{”"L ‘h‘@- | leveled his rifle. “You fellows heap sabe mensecly pleased with the performance, one of those BN I 000 O tudy, where it leed 1w | When you want to.” he said sternly; “you for he laughed heartily, and remarked: and horses rid of it by instead of tre day, spending the time at the un- grateful task of making its owp funeral | ain't goin’ to fool me like you did at Oak “Give 'em time, those Chinamen, and | Flat. Dig up’ they'll learn the ways of the land yet.” | You should have seen the Chinese empty We were glad to see that he had re- Group Dicture -of the People on the Regular JStage. : covered his good humer and more so when he said he “Guessed it was about time for him to keep that date.” He ordered us all back into the coaches and two of the party who had horses must mount and ride in the opposite direction for half a mile, remaining for an hour. ened to shoot any one who disobeyed or- ders and tapped the stock of his rifle to emphasize what he sald. We were ready to start when the soldlers wera heard coming down the road and the robber dis- appeared. Not, however, without a few parting words. He threat- | I hope we'll t's my card, old man. soon be better acquaintec He said it to Al driver. Then he da 'a a d hment of soldi charging down the road upe For an hour and a half he road comp their stage coa pec while entire tain d joked of the m and mounted troops the introduced self to the with the Intimation remain in the would prob- ably halt him as: road at a fa- vorable opportun He.was such a ) I think any one of us would hav bad form to take a shot at him if we had had the chance. I never before wit- nessed such an exhibition of supreme nerve and®l cannot but honestly admire the scoundrel. He did not Insist upon the regylation “Hands up” after the first flurry of excitement was over. Accepting the assurances of the stage drivers that none of the several parties were armed he merely demanded that the men form in a line in front of him and “pass the hat.” The ladies in the second stage were even permitted to keep their seats in the coach, and it is asserted that one of them recovered her self-possession enough to take a covered snapshot at him with her kodak. He never for a moment left the knoll by the roadside. There he stood in a pos that enabled him to see up »wn the road for some distan H was onl d as each ing rolled before him. His ground had been selected with excellent judgment at a sHarp turn in the road, where the sand was deep and the wheeling heavy. The man habita ith thi le: coach spot was far ck brush t How a country covere offered r. well the Bl a f'.g\(lv'n. w the coun the ease with which he e they tried to surro proved by the soldiers when him. Abroad, but Thia Was the Most Exc' mg aid n rs appeared on imed that strain of what do you of the game, after the gave the ed his cap to said that Black Therefore R. BOMANJT of Bombay. At the “ Any-Old-Jime" Club g of rallway re- marked the man with the tu‘bou- nose, “I think the strafigest one I ever saw was over here in Jo Daviess County. Two freight trains met, head when they were coming around a cur I was In the caboose attached to one of the. trains, and as sbon as I could drag myself out fr the debris—I belleve debris is the per word"'— “Debris is a good word,” said the man smoking the inverted pipe. “Go on.” “I hurried down the track. The cars d up inextricable con- P were in tuston xtricable spoke up cont the man cheerfull “is a pe “But what struck be as most 5 Mr, Griffin Passing the [at, Another advantage the robber must have possessed was a knowledge of the coaches on the road that day, and the characters of thelr passengers. When he had overhauled the last of the four he was ready to take to the brush, and he O THTATAT AT AT HATHTAT ‘Where do all the acrobats and tumblers come from? Where do they learn their | trade? There is no school, as such, for the training of men whg imperil their ltmbs for a living. An old acrobat solved these questions when he told where he had learned to leap and turn springs in the air and fall on the back of his neck without injuring himself. Most of the c cus acrobats, and not a few of the rough and tumble comedians of the stage, who have graduated from the ring, were reared and learned the rudiments of their business in the lumber towns of the | Northwest. In the “busine: these are known as “sawdust towns.” on account of the sawmills, which are their chief indus- try. There are many of these in Wiscon- sin and Michigan and several in Jowa that have turned out the bulk of the acrobats and tumblers in the business. In the “sawdust towns” the small boys have exceptional facilities for learning to the bulbous nose said. coug! ‘that the thermomet 7-in the sun I don't mind a little artistic lying,” observed the man with the green goggles, after a long pause. at I do hate & bungler.”—Chicago Tribune. SHTA TR TR TATRETORATAT @ “Sawdust Towns'’ Responsible for Acrobats turn somersaults and handsprings in the great beds of sawdust that surround the mil Soon they begin to try the more diffic feats they see done in the shows that visit the towns. A school hours they tumb rtil it is time to go home “chore From out of them nerally rise two or three boys et the knack of the acrobatic feats, a.d these work in constant rivalry, each trying to excel the other. LOne day along comes a circus, and the best boy tumbler applies for a job and shows what he can do. Perhaps he Is given a chance as a “top mounter,” or the top man in a pyramid act, because he is light and active. When he gets older, heayler and stronger he may become an ‘“‘understander,” or one of the men who helps to hold a mountain of men on his shoulders. And thus he gets into the show business. If he works hard and studles he may become a good acrobat in time, But he got his start on a sawdust nile.