lass of criminals the
world ever knew. Robert R. Dalton, better known as Bob Dalton, served on
the posses of his brothers, and soon learned what it was to stand up and
shoot while being shot at. He turned out to be about the boldest of the
family, and was accepted as the clan leader later on in their exploits.
He also was a deputy United States marshal at the dangerous stations of
Fort Smith and Wichita, having much to do with the desperadoes of the
Nations. He was chief of the Osage police for some time, and saw
abundance of violent scenes. Emmett Dalton was also possessed of cool
nerve, and was soon known as a dangerous man to affront. All the boys
were good shots, but they seemed to have cared more for the Winchester
than the six-shooter in their exploits, in which they were perhaps wise,
for the rifle is of course far the surer when it is possible of use; and
men mostly rode in that country with rifle under leg.

Uncle Sam is obliged to take such material for his frontier peace
officers as proves itself efficient in serving processes. A coward may
be highly moral, but he will not do as a border deputy. The personal
character of some of the most famous Western deputies would scarcely
bear careful scrutiny, but the government at Washington is often
obliged to wink at that sort of thing. There came a time when it
remained difficult longer to wink at the methods of the Daltons as
deputies. In one case they ran off with a big bunch of horses and sold
them in a Kansas town. On account of this episode, Grattan, William, and
Emmett Dalton made a hurried trip to California. Here they became
restless, and went back at their old trade, thinking that no one even on
the Pacific Slope had any right to cause them fear. They held up a train
in Tulare county and killed a fireman, but were repulsed. Later arrested
and tried, William was cleared, but Grattan was sentenced to twenty
years in the penitentiary. He escaped from jail before he got to the
penitentiary, and rejoined Emmett at the old haunts in the Nations,
Emmett having evaded arrest in California. The Southern Pacific railway
had a standing offer of $6,000 for the robbers at the time they were
killed.

The Daltons were now more or less obliged to hide out, and to make a
living as best they could, which meant by robbery. On May 9, 1891, the
Santa Fe train was held up at Wharton, Oklahoma Territory, and the
express car was robbed, the bandits supposedly being the Daltons. In