demonstrated its own unfitness to safeguard life and property, as so
often it has in this country. And, as so often has been the case,
outraged society at length took the law into its own hands and settled
the matter.

The full tale of the Dalton robberies and murders will never be known,
for the region in which they operated was reticent, having its own
secrets to protect; but at last there came the climax in which the band
was brought into the limelight of civilized publicity. They lived on the
border of savagery and civilization. Now the press, the telegraph, the
whole fabric of modern life, lay near at hand. Their last bold raid,
therefore, in which they crossed from the country of reticence into that
of garrulous news gathering, made them more famous than they had ever
been before. The raid on Coffeyville, October 5, 1892, both established
and ended their reputation as desperadoes of the border.

The rumor got out that the Daltons were down in the Nations, waiting for
a chance to raid the town of Coffeyville, but the dreaded attack did not
come off when it was expected. When it was delivered, therefore, it
found the town quite unprepared. Bob Dalton was the leader in this
enterprise. Emmett did not want to go. He declared that too many people
knew them in Coffeyville, and that the job would prove too big for them
to handle. He consented to join the party, however, when he found Bob
determined to make the attempt in any case. There were in the band at
that time Bob, Emmett, and Grattan Dalton, Bill Powers and Dick
Broadwell. These lay in rendezvous near Tulsa, in the Osage country, two
days before the raid, and spent the night before in the timber on Onion
creek, not far below town. They rode into Coffeyville at half-past nine
the following morning. The street being somewhat torn up, they turned
aside into an alley about a hundred yards from the main street, and,
dismounting, tied their horses, which were thus left some distance from
the banks, the First National and the bank of C. M. Condon & Co., which
were the objects of their design.

Grattan Dalton, Dick Broadwell and Bill Powers stepped over to the
Condon bank, which was occupied at the time by C. T. Carpenter, C. M.
Ball, the cashier, and T. C. Babb, a bookkeeper. Grattan Dalton threw
down his rifle on Carpenter, with the customary command to put up his
hands; the others being attended to by Powers and Broadwell. Producing a
two-bushel sack, the leader orde