The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-30 00:00:00

BANK ROBBERIES.

The burglars must soon give up breaking the banks of
Maine as a bad job. Not that they find the vaults too
strong, nor that they go to the work with less preparation
nor that they usually fail to get hold of a plenty of booty,
but that they run the very unpleasant risk of detection
capture, and imprisonment in the lime district. We
wonder that with the remembrance of the Bowdoinham
robbery fresh in their minds the cracksmen who plun-
dered the Lime Rock Bank at Rockland last week should
have ventured to undertake operations so near to Thomas-
ton where Sims and his confederates of the Bowdoinham
affair are at work in the service of the State. Their in-
discretion will, however, be of value in several respects—
in the workshops of the State prison, as a warning to
burglars generally to steer wide of the country detectives
of Maine, and possibly in giving a lesson to the profes-
sional thief-catchers in the larger cities.
The story is short and simple. The Lime Rock
National Bank was entered by five scientific
cracksmen who adopted the popular expedient of getting
at the vault through the wall of an adjoining apartment.
They carried through the robbery successfully, escaped
from the city, and, having buried their plunder, scattered
in all directions to wait until the excitement about the
affair should have passed. Before nightfall of the follow-
ing day two of the .gang were in limbo, together with
several persons of Rockland who had aided, perhaps in-
nocently, the escape of the robbers. Shortly afterwards
two more of the gallant party had been captured. The
fifth escaped. The Portland detectives had been notified
to be on the lookout for him but Portland is a
city large enough to have a "ring " of detectives, and if
common rumour be correct she may assume metropolitan
airs in that respect and boast a ring that in all its more
marked characteristics cannot be excelled in any city of
the country. However that may be, the burglar escaped
arrest, although he was known to be a party in the rob-
bery, and was also known to be on the Portland boat.
With this exception the success of the officers of justice
was complete. The robbers were captured and the stolen
property was recovered, There is no loophole in the laws
of Maine or in the administration of justice in that State,
so far as we know, to lead to the belief that the case will
not be followed up by prompt trial and conviction, and by
the sentence of the criminals to terms of wholesome
duration in the State prison.

We manage these things differently. Everything is
done by rule. When the robbery has been discovered the
case is put in the hands of detectives. The reward to
be offered for the money, not for the thipves, must be
arranged first of all, and the zeal with which the case
shall be followed up is exactly proportioned to the pecu-
niary inducement to activity. The shrewd detectives
then take a great deal of pains to place an embargo on
the news, lest the intelligence that a robbery has been
committed should cone to the ears of the burglars.. An
air of mystery is thrown about the affair, and the news-
papers are requested to give publicity to supposed facts,
so as to mislead some one, it matters little whom. In a
week or two the affair has been partially forgotten. The
losers by the robbery assume more cheerful countenances
as though they had recovered a part of their property, the
detectives become more mysterious and reticent than
ever, and the public is only prevented from forgetting the
whole affair by the marplots of the newspapers who per-
sist in inquiring occasionally what is to be done about the
robbery. In a month we are ready for a new case. We
need not specify any particular instances for our readers
to recognize the above as a true history. The new ad-
ministration of our city police has had no opportunity to
shew its vigilance and pluck, but for a long time past our
sketch of what might happen would stand for the story of
any one of a dozen great burglaries. Even in cases like the
last famous robbery, where the shrewdness of an ordinary
business man would tell him whom to suspect and arrest
at once, the effort has invariably been to make a plain
matter very mysterious, either with the hope of increasing
the share of the booty to go to the detective force, or to
furnish an excuse for the inaction or absurd action of the
officers.

We commend the country method which, if not scien-
tific, yet results in the capture and punishment of the
guilty persons, and net unfrequently in the recovery of
m
the money be,sides. The detectives have th consusness
of performing their duty anct of receiving .L e Applause of
all good citizens, which, if 'not of so much value in a
mercenary point of view, is an object worth striving for,
to say the least. The losers do not always get even a
dividend on their losses. We suppose that their love of
money is as strong as it is in other people. But they
labour under an impression, well or ill-founded, that
the surest way to put an end to burglary is to make it
unprofitable. When it has become a settled thing, that
once in so many years bank depositors must divide
their property with those who would rather take it by
force than earn it honestly, the fraternity of burglars will
become a recognised class, much larger than it is now,
and very likely more respectable. They may even aspire
to the protection of the laws against such arbitrary action
as that the Maine detectives have been guilty of. An order
was introduced in the Legislature this winter to direct in-
quiry into the possibility of more stringent laws against the
compounding of felonies. The lawyers have examined the
statutes and find that they are strong enough. "The diffi-
culty is about enforcing them. So long as the robbed are
contented to forego the natural desire to see the criminals
punished, so that they get their money, or a part of it
back again, and so long as the officers appointed to prevent
violation of the laws and to arrest and punish the violators
care more about their private gains than about the en-
forcement of the law, the present system will continue.
The remedy is in public sentiment and in a stern and un-
yielding demand that the first aim be to seize, ebnvict,
and imprison offenders. This remedy ought to' be, can be,
and we are hopeful will be applied.--Ikstan Advertiser.

THE GROWING CROPS.

WASHINGTON, May 9•

The monthly report of the Department of Agriculture
will contain full returns from all sections of the count*"
relative to the appearance of the Winter grains with the
opening of Spring. They picture a small and slog
growth, thinned in places by Winter-killing, weak and
unthrifty in spots from loss of vitality by long exposure
under ice or to freezing winds ; but with these exceptions/
vigorous, of good colour, and ready to start under the
influence of a genial Spring., into luxuriant and healthful
growth. These blemishes are neither general nor very
marked in locations where they appear, with occasional
exceptions of severe freezing. While the appearance of
wheat is by no means as promising as it was last year, the
difference is due more to backwardness of growth,
caused by late sowing, followed by an early Winter,
which allowed of little more than germination before
cold weather set in, than to injuries by freezing. In the
northern part of New England on the Ist of April the
winter grain was lying under two feet of snow, and another
month will better determine how it endures the vicissii-
tudes of early spring. The winter to that date has
been generally favourable. New England, however,
produces but a small amount of the cereals, and mostly
spring grain. In New York more than half the counties
report a favourable prospect for a crop. The same is true
in regard to New Jersey, whence correspondents report
that the sowing season was dry : cold weather came early
and the winter was changeable, but the extremes of tem-
perature were not great, nor the winter killing either
general or severe. In Pennsylvania a majority of the
counties report wheat and rye below =average, from late
germination and unfavourable conditions for growth before
the winter sets in. In Delaware wheat is small, but looks
well ; in Maryland backward and thin, and in sone
level clay soils it was drowned or frozen out. Fort}'
tw.o counties in Virginia report a generally favour-
able condition of winter grains, while but four of the
forty-two reporting, rate the condition of wheat below O
average. Forty counties of Georgia report, but six of
which represent the crop as unpropitious in appearance'
Comparatively little wheat is grown in Alabama, Missis-
sippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. Few counties ill
Tennessee fail to send a favourable report on winter grain'
and but little complaint is made in the reports of upw3r
of forty counties of Kentucky. A majority of the cowl-
ties of Ohio reporting represent wheat and rye as "111 r
promising in appearance, " below an average," or "not
so good as last year." The injury, however, is of such 5
character generally, as to be remedied by the favourable
weather of April and May, and the later reports indicat,
that April has brought much of recuperation in its genicl
weather. More than half the counties of Michigan re'
port favourably, though injury was done by freezing ar'd
thawing. In some sections of the State the grain was
under three feet of snow on the Ist of April. The return 3
from Indiana indicate a condition below the average in
majority of the counties, but the injuries 1333. i
generally be repaired by, favourable spring viet!i
then In Illinois the sowing was late, the group'
generally prepared, and the winter comin,, earlier than
usual, a poor shew of weak plants too often resulteai.
The freezing and thawing of a comparatively open wiutLe
was therefore disastrous. Yet there were farmers 11
got in their winter grain early on well-prepared land, a%
the result, despite the changes of an open winter, is se!A
in green and vigorous wheat : fields that were manur7,
were also exempt from the ravages of the frost. Thesi
suggestive facts appear year by year, and it is a pity Oa
such hints are not more generally taken by the fanners'
Later accounts indicate an improving condition, and ail
average crop is yet possible in the State. Little winter
wheat is sown in Wisconsin, but that little is promising'
Minnesota grows, too, but little winter wheat to spealcc!!
while not more than one-tenth of the crop of lowa', I;
sown in the fall. Same winter-killing in Missouri, IT,
the appearance of the plants is improving with tP;
advancing spring. No State sends more encourAt°
news than Kansas, scarcely a complaint coming
any county. Nebraska sows spring wheat chieurt
There is a fine prospect of another good crop in the grey
wheat-prOdueing State of California, and the returns frau
Oregon are generally favourable, as are also the report
5 14,
from such portions of the territories as produce win"-
grain.—Newark Advertiser.