Salt Lake Herald | 1894-09-19 | Page 7 | A Scramble for Safety

A SCRAMBLE FOR SAFETY Such a Scene Was Never Before Wit iicHsed nCHsel Kansas City Mo Sept 18 When the wavlaid train reached this city the Kansas City passengers were loth to leave it after their night of suspense Several a they expressed themselves to an Associated Press reporter passed the worst night of their lives and for a lime thought it would be their last W H Wilson Pullman qar conductor conduc-tor had time to talk a few minutes be fore proceeding west I Such a scramble for safe places said he I never before witnessed The women were frantic In their endeavors to get out of the way and the men were no less eager showing as much fright as they possibly could display Some lay flat on the floor others barricaded II themselves in their berths or clambered clamber-ed underneath while others ran fran tically up and down the aisle appar netlv bewildered One man probably 50 years of age when the shooting began be-gan to be fierce knelt down in the aisle and prayed long and loud for de liverance George Blue conductor of the train in his official report made after arriv inc at Kansas City says afer I was in the rear part of the train when I heard the engineer answer the flagmans signal The train soon came to a standstill and in a few minutes I heard crun shots I hurried back and sent out my flagman to lagan protect the rear end of the train By the time this was done the firing began When 1 reached the ground 1 saw three men by the side of the express car One man fell to the ground and I supposed he was shot Whether or not he was able to get up or was carried away by his pals I do not know The wy other men went in under the car and escaped to the south They did not get away immediately however for they were surrounded by the guards who began shooting rapidly On either side of the track there is a dense timber and the robbers had only time to run a few feet to get under cover I found that William Prescott was shot in the right shoulder and I only remained re-mained a few minutes when I pulled the train into the station so as to have his wound looked after Onboard On-board the train was one of the com panys surgeons Dr C J Cruickshank of New Mexico I called him and he did what he could for Prescott Engineer Engi-neer Prescott told me he was flagged by a red lantern and it being so near the station and there being a curve just ahead of him he supposed there was a train at the station and the track wasnot clear and that this was one of their flagmen But when he stopped and the bandits were getting upon his engine and he realized their business he called to them to keep off Without more ado they opened fire on him Soon after this the guards opened fire ancj the battle was ion The guards did nobly no-bly They followed the robbers into the dense timber in the darkness and crowded them so losely that they shot one of their horses of