'Holding up A Train' by O.Henry

O.Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862 – 1910)

Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. He attended school for a short time, worked as a clerk in a drugstore, later on a ranch. He wrote Cabbages and Kings (1904), The Four Million (1906), Heart of the West and The Trimmed Lamp (1907), The Gentle Grafter and The Voice of the City (1908), Options (1909), Whirligigs and Strictly Business (1910).

Note. The man who told me these things was for several years an outlaw in the South-west and a follower of the pursuit he so frankly describes. His description of the modus operandi should prove interesting, his counsel of value to the potential passenger in some future “hold-up,” while his estimate of the pleasures of train robbing will hardly induce anyone to adopt it as a profession. I give the story in almost exactly his own words. O. H.