Black Bart :: essays research papers

Black Bart On August 3 of 1877, a stage was making its way over the low hills between Point Arenas and Duncan’s Mills on the Russian River when a lone figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. Wearing a duster and a mask made from a flour sack, the bandit pointed a double- barreled shotgun at the driver and said, " Throw down the box!" "I’ve labored long and hard for bread, For honor and for riches, But on my corns too long you’ve tred You fine-haired sons of bitches." When the posse arrived later, all they found was a waybill with the above verse painstakingly written on its back, each line in a different hand. Almost a year later, on July 25 of 1878, the PO8 struck again. A stage from Quincy to Oroville slowed to make a difficult turn a long the Feather River, the masked man stepped out of the bushes and asked that the box be thrown down. His soils included $379 in coins, a silver watch, and a diamond ring. Once again, when the posse reached the scene, all they found was a poem: "Here I lay me down to sleep To wait the coming morrow, Perhaps success, perhaps defeat, And everlasting sorrow. Let come what will I’ll try it on, My condition can’t be worse; And if there’s money in that box ‘Tis munny in my purse!" Once again the lines were written in varying hands and the work signed "Black Bart, the PO8." In order to make the highways safe once again, Governor William Irwin posted a $300 reward for the capture of the bandit, to which Wells Fargo & Co. added another $300. Another $20 contributed by the postal authorities. The reward went unclaimed for five years, during which Black Bart seemingly robbed at will. Often laying low for several months, Bart would suddenly go on a spree and rob three or four stages in as many weeks, and then vanish without a trace. Black Bart’s talent for covering great distances on foot in impossibly short times was no doubt a great asset in his life as a highwayman. In another, and it turned out to be his last, stage robbery McConnell (the stage driver) turned his head to find the muzzle of a double-barreled shotgun looking at him. You see, Bart knew that this stage was carrying gold coins and gold amalgam with it. What Bart didn’t know is that in the woods following the stage was a young hunter that had gotten off a few miles back to do some hunting.