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Themes "It is Impossible to Hide Sin, Sin Found Out THE TELL-TALE SCARF The year is 1883, we're in California, it's the days of stage coaches, the Pony Express and highway bandits! One of the most famous of these highwaymen was the legendary Black Bart. Over a stretch of 8 years, Black Bart had pulled off 28 robberies of Wells Fargo stage coaches, heisting more than $16,000 in money, gold and jewelry. Black Bart would always choose a desolate mountain road, usually at the head of a steep hill, where the horses were at a slow pace. When the stage coach would reach the top of the climb, he would step out of his hiding place in a long coat and a sack over his head with 2 eyeholes cut in it. Pointing his double-barreled shotgun at the driver, he would only say 4 words:"Throw down the box!" Black Bart would smash the box, steal what was inside, and sometimes leave behind a poem he had written and signed, "Black Bart, the PO8." Wells Fargo chief detective Jim Hume and his associates worked long and hard trying to trap Black Bart. But after five years they still couldn't track him down. There was now an $800 reward for anyone who could help put him in jail. On Saturday November 3, 1883, Black Bart carefully planned a holdup of the Sonora-Milton stagecoach. He had heard that it would be carrying a large amount of gold. Reason McConnell was the driver. Jimmy Rolleri with his rifle was with him. On one of the steep passes on Funk Mountain, Jimmy jumped off to do some hunting and was going to catch up with the stagecoach later. Black Bart had seen him but decided to hold up the stagecoach as it came to the top of the mountain road. Bart motioned McConnell to unhitch the horses and to move down the road. In the meantime, Jimmy had caught up with McConnell and gave him his rifle. As Bart was climbing out of the stagecoach with a bag of gold, McConnell fired two shots at him. Bart jumped on his horse and made his get away. As investigators searched the area for clues, the only thing they found was a blood stained scarf with a laundry mark on it: F.X.O.7. Detective Hume checked the records of 90 laundries in the area. They traced the laundry mark to an elderly well dressed gentleman named Charles E. Boles. He was Black Bart, the highway robber! They found the gold in his hotel room and he was sent to prison for four years. The Lord Jesus said: "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed". God has a record of all our sins in heaven and it is only through the Lord Jesus that we can be forgiven. God sees everything. "All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). Since He knows all about your sins, why not confess it before it is too late as it was for Achan. "Now is the day of Salvation".
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Simon Wallace
