Hold Up Artist Comes to Grief

Herman Borge, Clayton Little and Chris Jensen, members of the threshing crew on Phil Manseau's farm, were held up by a hobo named Martin J. Burns, about a mile from Grand Harbor Monday night. The hold up artist had been around the Harbor with these three men during the evening, and learning that they were going back to the farm and the route they were going to take, skipped along in advance and laid in wait for them. With a revolver he commanded them to hold up their hands in the true Jesse James order. The three travelers quickly complied with the request until Burns went through the pockets of two of them, from which he extracted $2.11 from one and 35 cents from the other. The third man, however, refused to be robbed so easily. Quick as a flash he knocked the revolver from Burns' hand and struck the robber a Bob Fitszimmons' blow that sent him to the grass. As he struck Burn's {sp} arm that held the revolver the weapon went off, and Borge says he can still hear the whiz of the bullet which passed dangerously close to his head. The three men, after nearly pounding the life out of Burns, took him back to the Harbor and lodged him in the caliboose {sp} for the night. The next morning Deputy Sheriff Stenseth brought him to the county jail, where he now repines waiting a chance to plead guilty in the district court. The penalty for highway robbery is from one year to life. Burns says he deserves about fifteen years, and Judge Cowan will see that he gets all that is coming to him.

Devils Lake Inter-Ocean, 9/14/1906