I had read a great many books on "sharpers" and "bunco men" and I had confidence that I could take care of myself, but new traps were laid.  Many posters, placed in stations, stated to look out for "sharps" and stay in the station.

Trains were slow in those days with long waits.  I had purchased a low rate emigrant ticket, forty dollars to Denver.  At last there was a train call for Detroit, and we started for Detroit.  I boarded a very common looking car and I noticed that the train was a long one.  I found a seat and the conductor came along and looked my ticket over.  He said for me to back in another car.  I picked up my baggage and took my seat in another car thinking I am right now.  Along comes the conductor and calls for my ticket again.  I handed it to him.  Again he gave orders for me to go to another coach.  Picking up my baggage once more, I walked back and came to a car that looked like a box car.  As I opened the door, I could see it was crowded with Italians, emigrants going West with their wives and children.  I had never before seen so many of them.  They were in strange costumes.  Men with heavy red sashes tied around their waists and with daggers stuck in their waists.  They had a common heating stove chained to the floor and doing their cooking on it.  One young woman was their guide.  They had all just come over from Italy.  It was a show for me to ride with them to Detroit.

I had to make another change at Detroit and had to wait over three hours for the next train to Cheyenne, Wyoming.  I sat in the station observing the things around me.  I got into a conversation with an old Irishman, who had been to Ireland and was now on his way back to Nebraska.

While we sat talking, a man about thirty years of age sat down near me.  He asked me if I had the time.  I gave him the time.  Then he asked if that was Buffalo time.  I told him it was.  He then started up a conversation with me.  He wanted to know where I came from and where I was headed for.  I told him that my work was mining.  He then told me he had an uncle who was a foreman of a silver mine in Colorado and would help me to get work in his mine.  When he told me he could assist me in getting work, his words sounded good to me for that was my purpose in going West.  It put me off guard.

He said his wife and mother-in-law were here in Detroit and he was now waiting for them to come to the station as they had planned to take the train to Denver.  He was uneasy about them not being there.  He then said to me, "I am going to the place where I left them", and asked me if I would go with him; that he had left some packages of silk at a wholesale house; had left them there to be shipped, but now if I would go with him we could bring the packages to the station.  I went with him.

As we walked along, he kept up a regular conversation.  I asked him his name.  He said his name was THOMPSON.  We kept on walking.  I asked him how much further did we have to go.  Only a short distance, he said.  I noticed that we were getting too far from the station.  Nobody was in sight.  Then we heard a voice, "Hello, THOMPSON."  Looking back to the corner of the street we had just passed, I saw a short, heavy built man with a very long black overcoat on.  He walked hurriedly up to where we were standing.  I noticed that he kept both of his hands in his overcoat pockets.  It was not very cold.  THOMPSON introduced us.  I did not like his face.  I noticed the sign of coal dust in the corners of each of his eyes.  I could not see his hands.  He kept them in his pockets.

My suspicions were aroused and I kept both in front of me.  THOMPSON asked him if his wife had paid him for the goods he bought from him.  THOMPSON had introduced him as a merchant and I had a feeling he was trying to act like one.  THOMPSON reached into his inside coat pocket and took out a large check book and commenced to write.  He then handed the check to the merchant, but the merchant refused to take it, stating that the banks were closed at this hour and he wanted the cash.  Then THOMPSON said, "I'm sorry that I haven't got the cash with me.  I intended to take the next train to Denver with my friend here." The merchant said, "I will have to detain you."  Then looking at me, he said, "Has your friend got the money to lend you?"  While they talked, I had a feeling that something was going wrong.

I also noticed the way that they looked at each other.  THOMPSON said to me, "The amount is only two hundred dollars.  I will give it back to you when we get to Denver."  I said to him, "I haven't got the money."  He said "search" to the merchant with his hands in his overcoat pockets.  He kept moving closer trying to get behind me.  This I did not let him do.  I had a two dollar bill loose in my pocket.  I drew this out, quickly folded in my hand and said to them, "That is all the money I've got", although I had sixty dollars in another inside pocket.  One of them saying "search" was all the time trying to get behind me.  This I would not let them do.  Had I known at that time that they intended to rob me by using their billy on me, most likely there would have been trouble.  Turning to THOMPSON, I said to him, "I am going to the station", and as I was going into the station, it suddenly occurred to me that they were "bunco sharps."

The old Irishman who sat near me when THOMPSON came up, (I had left my blanket and valise with him to take care of) I told him about the trip.  He said to me that the man I went out with was a "sharp".  I made a resolve then and there that I never would go out on another such trip with strange men.  If they wanted me they would have to carry me.  That resolve helped me in less than two years later.