"BULLDOG GUNS!
A Pair of Them Raised Postmaster Fahy's Hands
AT DELAWARE BEND
Nervy Resistance Frustrated
a Daring Robbery.
Two Masked Highwaymen Enter a Store at a Late Hour in Quest of the Proprietor's Money.
Delaware Bend, Nov. 15 - Robbers at Delaware Bend!
They attacked Postmaster James Fahy last Saturday evening, intending to take his money or his life, but failed to obtain either.
About 10 o'clock, Mr. Fahy, who runs a general store in the same building the post office is maintained, notified the people who customarily make the village store a rendezvous for social intercourse, that he was about to close his place for the night. They observed the polite hint, and all vacated except a brother of Mr. Fahy, and he locked the door.
Mr. Fahy then placed his own money, and the post office funds in a large pocketbook and put the book in an inside pocket of his coat. About the time he had completed his arrangements for locking up the store and leaving for the night, somebody rapped on the window. Supposing it to be a belated customer, Mr. Fahy opened the door to accommodate him.
Just as the door was opened, two small men, heavily masked, crowded themselves quickly inside with ugly looking bull dog revolvers, cocked and pointed full in the face of Mr. Fahy, and ordered him to throw up his hands. One of the robbers thereupon immediately turned his attention to Mr. Fahy's brother and caused him to elevate his hands.
Then the foremost bandit, who was giving especial attention to the postmaster, made a move with one hand to reach inside of the intended victim's coat to take there from the coveted pocketbook. At this, Mr. Fahy grabbed the hand which held the revolver and threw it up and as he did so, the weapon was discharged and the bullet whizzed by his ear.
This distracted the robber's attempt to secure the pocketbook and a scuffle ensued. The robber shouted to his partner to shoot Mr. Fahy, and he did discharge his weapon two or three times, but he had to be careful how he pointed the missile, to avoid hitting his partner in crime. As a result, the bullets all missed their mark, and no one was injured.
After a few seconds spent in the scuffle, during which the robbers failed to get any money, the bandits broke for the door and made their escape. As they were leaving, they turned and fired, each one a shot into the store, but fortunately neither of the occupants were hit by the bullets. In turn, the Fahy brothers ran to the door and sent some revolver bullets after fleeing robbers, but without effect.
The rain had interfered with the trail some which made it difficult for the dogs to follow, but they soon struck the track and, held with ropes by Dr. Slough and an assistant, started out through the fields north and west.
For about two hours in the rain and mud, the dogs followed around through the fields and woods, making a circuit of four or five miles, and finally brought up at a door of a dwelling not far from the store where the hold-up occurred, where the dogs stopped and barked at the door and would go no farther.
This was a poser for the men of the party who were assisting in the search, as they would not admit for a moment that the parties who reside there could be the guilty ones. Besides, they said the male occupants of that house had been accompanying the searching party in the early part of the hunt. The house was all dark and the hunting party did not arouse the inmates.
The party informed Dr. Slough that they believed his hounds had been switched off the robbers' tracks onto those of some of the searching party. Dr. Slough did not enter into an extended disputation on that point, but as so much rain had fallen by that time as to wholly obliterate the robbers' trail, it was decided to make no further attempt.
The bullets fired by the would-be robbers, which were found in the store, were 44 caliber size. Mr. Fahy did not recognize the robbers in any way. But he admits he was too nervous and embarrassed when he first looked into the muzzles of these guns to give much thought to identifying his visitors and he was soon too busy dodging bullets and hanging onto his money to be able to do anything else."
Defiance Democrat, November 18, 1897
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