AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY, NORTHWESTERN DIVISION. ASSISTANT GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE, CHICAGO, MAY 25th, 1868. CONFIDENTIAL... [caption title]

[Chicago, 1868. Small broadside, 19.5 x 12 cm., printed in various sizes and styles of type. Old fold lines, else very good. Chas. Fargo's instruction to his Agents and Messengers reads in part: "You are again particularly cautioned against Safe Blowers and Train Robbers. The late bold and murderous robbery of the Adams Express Company on the Jeffersonville Railroad should be a warning to Messengers to be on their guard at all times...." He warns them not to let anyone into their car, not to leave money or valuables belonging to the Company in the safes over night, unless they are duly guarded, etc. Signed in type by Chas. Fargo. Fargo was referring to the train robbery perpetrated by the Reno Gang on May 22, 1868, near Marshfield, Indiana, where the gang made off with some $90,000 in cash, gold, and bonds. The New York Times reported the incident on May 24: "While the train was taking wood and water at Marshfield, twenty miles below Seymour, a party of robbers seized upon the engine, and disconnecting the express car from the train, started off in the direction of Seymour. While in motion they broke into the express car, disabled the messenger and threw him out of the car. ... It had been ascertained that the men ... opened two safes and made a clean sweep of both."
Not their first train robbery, the Reno Gang had begun this novel way of crime in 1866. Brothers John, Frank, Simeon and William Reno and their crew are widely considered the country's first train robbers and the 1868 heist is often referred to as "the Great Train Robbery."
No listings found on OCLC. Not in Checklist of Chicago Ante-Fire Imprints, 1851-1871.