[Illustration: W. S. Chapman Poacher caught in the act.] In Captain Harris’ report of 1888 there is reference to a stage robbery of July 4, 1887. Subsequently, William James and a man named Higgenbottom were convicted and fined $1000 each and given a year’s sentence in the Montana State Penitentiary. Again, on August 14, 1897, two masked men held up and robbed six Yellowstone Park Transportation coaches and one spring wagon. The place of the robbery was between Canyon and Norris, the amount of the “haul” being over $500. These offenders were apprehended and identified as Charles Reebe, alias “Morphine Charley,” and Charles Switzer. They were also convicted, fined, and imprisoned.[312] On August 24, 1908, on Spring Creek, one masked man successfully held up nine coaches carrying a total of one hundred and fifteen people. The booty collected totaled $1,363.95 in cash and $730.25 in watches and jewelry. The entire cavalcade consisted of thirty-two coaches, escorted by one trooper. The road agent did not show himself until the soldier and eight of the coaches had passed. Thereafter, each one was held up and ordered on its way before the next one arrived. The victims of this outrage held a meeting in the Lake Hotel and drafted a set of resolutions reviewing all of the facts. They complained because they were deprived of personal firearms and denied sufficient protection to life and property. They also petitioned for redress. These resolutions, together with the names of the victims, were printed in a souvenir edition and widely distributed.[313] Perhaps the most daring robbery in Yellowstone history was executed near Shoshone Point, on July 29, 1915. It was there that Edward B. Trafton, alias Ed Harrington, an outlaw from Teton Basin, duplicated the feat of the 1908 season; the amount taken was about $2200. However, Trafton was apprehended and convicted of the latter crime on December 15, 1915. His sentence was a five-year term in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Robberies of a less dramatic character still occur. In 1941 two rangers fished several purses out of Cauliflower Geyser. They had been snatched from parked cars, rifled, and cast away, but the geyser threw them up, and they were used as evidence in effecting a conviction. Times and methods change, but crime goes on forever. Another problem that has constantly confronted every administration is vandalism. A vandal is any person who takes flowers or specimens and writes on or defaces natural objects, and his name is legion. The more cunningly contrived a work of nature becomes, the greater the temptation to remove it to one’s own premises. This urge reduces even dignified people to the most amazing behavior. They will pry and chop in such a way as to destroy an ornament for all time. Again, there is the untoward desire to throw tokens, small coins, bottles, poles, and detritus into pools and geysers “just to see what will happen.”