622 ' 
may be had. The road has been cut out of the 
hillside which rises abruptly on the left and 
makes an extremely sharp turn when Shoshone 
Point is reached. The embankment around which 
the coaches must be driven hides from the view 
of those following, the coaches which have made 
the turn, and it was after we had made the turn 
that we got our first glimpse of the robber. 
He was not a large man and was rather roughly 
dressed. Over the lower part of his face he 
wore a large black silk handkerchief and the 
brim of his felt hat was pulled well over his 
eyes. Consequently when we looked at his face 
we saw his nose only, and it was such a prom¬ 
inent and pointed one that it was suggested that 
it was false. The palms of his hands and their 
backs were equally brown and we believed that 
their very dark color and sameness were the re¬ 
sult of a stain. The consensus of opinion was 
that to identify him would be quite impossible 
and he himself must have believed in his dis¬ 
guise for he readily granted permission to the 
tourists to take his photograph. His 30-30 re¬ 
peating rifle he made no attempt to hide. In 
fact he was very insistent that we see it and he 
frequently called it to our notice. With his 
rifle in his hand and two revolvers in his belt, 
he presented an extremely formidable appearance. 
The pictures of western bad men on the covers 
of dime novels are not exaggerations. 
For hold-ups conducted as this one was, it 
would be impossible to find a better place. The 
physical situation was perfect. The bandit stood 
on the side of the hill which hid him from the 
view of the people in the approaching coaches. 
Underbrush grew on the hill and to have tried 
to approach him from behind would have been 
quite out of the question, for the noise of a per¬ 
son in the underbrush would have furnished him 
warning. He stood on one side of a canyon 
and on the other was a grassy slope reserved 
for the tourists, a fact of which we were unaware. 
His method was simplicity itself and yet very 
efficient. He must have pursued a policy of 
“watchful waiting" in the early morning, for it 
was ten o’clock before we put in an appearance. 
After two or three coaches had made the turn 
in the road, he made his presence known by 
calling upon the drivers to stop. He told them 
that as they were working men he would not 
bother them. The passengers, however, he or¬ 
dered to get out of the coaches and follow him 
up the hill. The coaches hold ten persons each 
and he allowed but one coach load at a time to 
get down on the ground. He walked backward 
up the hill with coach load number one following, 
and when he decided where to stop they all 
stopped. He indicated a spot on the ground be¬ 
fore him and ordered the tourists to put their 
money—“all of it”—on the grass and then walk 
over to the opposite side of the canyon and take 
a seat and “watch the show which I am going 
to give.” He demanded of us nothing but money. 
Let me quote him: 
“Put your money down on the ground—there. 
I don't want travelers’ checks or jewelry—just 
money.” When I heard those words I realized 
how foolish I had been to start from New York 
without having procured some of the Bank’s 
travelers’ checks. Greater security is beyond con¬ 
ception. His purpose in accepting money only, 
was doutbless to have no incriminating evidence 
on him in case of capture. 
Now that the bandit’s method of conducting 
FOREST AND STREAM 
t 1 " J © ■ " m M 1 ‘. 1 ■ 1 ' i! 
his hold-up has been outlined, it can be easily ap¬ 
preciated how simple ad productive of results it 
was. As obeyed the people in the leading coach, 
so obeyed the people in all of the following 
coaches- They all descended at the appointed 
place, walked in single file up the hill, paid tribute 
to the bandit, and took seats on the opposite side 
of the canyon. It took forty-five minutes for 
the procession to pass before the highwayman 
and when the last ones had taken seats on the 
ground he had before him about one hundred 
sixty people, as well as the eighteen drivers who 
were waiting with their coaches in the road where 
he had told them to wait. The bandit stood at 
the apex of an angle, as it were, of less than 
ninety degrees and all of his victims were with¬ 
in that angle. It was comparatively easy, there¬ 
fore, for him to play the role of dictator, and 
particularly so when his Winchester rifle is con¬ 
sidered. 
The people in the leading coaches were taken 
so completely by surprise that they lost all of 
Making a Get Away from the Film. 
their money. A young' girl in the first wagon 
proved a friend indeed to the people in those 
following by slipping back to the road; walking 
from coach to coach she informed us of what 
was to come. Because of this warning oppor¬ 
tunity was given us to divide our money and try 
to save some. Each one elected what would be 
the amount of his or her contribution to the 
common fund and the balance we hid either in 
the wagons or in our clothing. Because of the 
smallness of some of the, contributions the bandit 
must have realized that he was not getting all of 
our money. Time was the essence of his con¬ 
tract, however, and to secure ail that he could 
and get away safely was his determination. The 
endeavor to save part of our money was pro¬ 
ductive of some interesting incidents and a few 
are enumerated. 
One man, becoming confused when he was 
before the robber, gave his larger roll of money 
instead of the few dollars he had decided upon. 
Another thought that he put his savings in his 
pocket but in reality he dropped them in the 
road and someone following found and kept 
them for him. At the table that noon the owner 
was relating how he had lost one hundred and 
forty dollars not to the bandit but in the road, 
and much to his surprise, his neighbor told of 
finding the money and passed it across the table. 
Others dug holes in the ground and covered 
their money with dirt and later were unable to 
find where they had dug and so lost their all. 
Still another was ordered to open wide his coat 
and vest and when he had done so the bandit 
saw protruding from the man’s negligee shirt a 
roll of a hundred dollars which took its place 
on the ground. 
When we had all taken our places on the op¬ 
posite side of the canyon, the bandit gathered 
the money before him and placed it in a canvas 
bag which he had brought for the purpose—three 
thousand dollars in all. He opened the women’s 
handbags which had been thrown down and 
searched them. One he was unable to open and 
he called out that he disliked to cut such a hand¬ 
some article and that the owner might come for¬ 
ward and open it for him. At his suggestion a 
lady stepped forward and unclasped it and he 
very politely thanked her. 
It was during these later operations that one 
man stood up and addressed the bandit as fol¬ 
lows: “If I had a gun you would never carry 
out this game.” The bandit hurled a broadside 
of choice Billingsgate at the speaker and or¬ 
dered him to sit down and be quiet. He did both. 
As we sit at home and read, we can scarcely 
comprehend how it was possible for a lone bandit 
to have robbed so many people and not to have 
been captured. The following is offered in ex¬ 
planation : 
The regulations covering the park provide that 
neither the tourists nor the coach drivers shall 
carry arms, and these regulations are strictly en¬ 
forced. It can be readily seen that the bandit 
with his weapons was the complete master of the 
situation and was in a position to dictate terms 
which did not admit of argument. By concerted 
action the men of the party doubtless could have 
rushed at and captured the robber but not before 
he had shot and probably killed not only some 
of the men but also some of the women. 
It is safe to say that there will never be an¬ 
other occurrence of this kind in Yellowstone 
Park or in any National Park. This did not seem 
a fair exchange and so was not made. The next 
evening at the Grand Canyon Hotel, Major Brett 
who commanded the troops in the park told Us 
that while he regretted that the hold-up had oc¬ 
curred, he was a happy man that no attempt had 
been made at a capture for it would have been 
attended by dire results. 
At all events we were very glad when we real¬ 
ized that the time for his departure had arrived 
and we retain vivid recollections of his going. 
With his booty in one hand and his rifle in the 
other he went over the hill and just before he 
disappeared he shouted, “Good-bye, folks—good 
luck to you !” *— 
The incident was so rare as to warrant per¬ 
manent record, and Mr. Scattergood certainly has 
proved a fine chronicler of the experience. 
In Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa, 
more chickens than last year. Some teal and 
mallard, local birds. 
