Dakota County Herald

Just Outside of Gotham

Reports of a hold-up of passengers on an Erie Railroad train in which west-bound immigrants were the victims, reached New York Friday night. The reports came from Middletown, N. Y., and said that the hold-up occurred just after the train had left the Bergen tunnel in New Jersey. The train is known as the Western Express and leaves Jersey City at 12:10 a. m. The varying reports of the affair say that either one or two men stepped into the first of two day coaches bound west and, holding the passengers at bay with revolvers, stripped them of money and valuables. Before the train crew discovered that there had been a robbery, it is said, the train was almost at Middletown, N. Y., the first stop after leaving Jersey City. The robber or robbers in the meantime had made good their escape. While the robbers were at work there was a wild scene in the car. The men, women and children, just landed in a strange country and unable to make themselves understood, became panic-stricken when the robbers covered them with revolvers and compelled them to turn over their property. Many of the women fainted, while the children added their cries to the uproar.