The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-07-01

The Ocean Baak Robbery and Its Lesson.
We have deferred commenting upon the rob-
berry perpetrated on the Ocean Bank from q
conviction that disclosures would soon change
the aspect Of the case, and perhaps throw some
light upon the systematic villany by which so
many public institutions are robbed of their
valuables, and particularly their public securi-
ties. The singulariy insecure building in which,
In the present case, such large amounts were
deposited; the renting out of rooms In the
basement, which was separated from the bank
ing room by thin plank and plaster floor; o
combination lock which an expert opened in
o few minutes before the officers, and without
using force the practice of leaving the key of
the inner door of the vault within the passage
to It; the fact that the gold and securities Of
the bank were not stolen. but left in admira-
BILE disorder, 'lying about loose;" the absence
of any systematic watching of the premises,
and the probability that the enterprise did not
occupy more than an hour or two in its per-
Torrance, all seemed to us to present such a
singular combination of the want of foresight
on the part of the bank officers, with skill on
the part of the burglars, that we did not know
whether most to condemn the carelessness of
the first or praise the skill of the latter.
It seemed to us more difficult to distinguish
where the carelessness ended and the skill
commenced; cad we may here remark that
the recovery of 30 large an amount as
three hundred thousand dollars of the Sc
Nil toll nal boo
this discrimination all the more perplexing to
US. We have long since come to the conclusion
that this business Of burglary is reduced to
science among us, with several grades of skilled
attainment in its pursuit. The man whose
brain devises the operation, like the architect
who plans a building, is not the expert work.
man with the auger, the cold chisel and the
hammer, nor the rough and tumble breaker
open Of safes, nor the skulking bearer off
OF the spoil. It is plain to US that the master
minds in this business have sufficient capacity
and attachments to be familiar in Wall street, to
operate largely with the bulls, bears and bro
kers, and to hold seats at the bank boards and
in the social clubs of our upper tendon, with
no doubt comfortable pew in some of our
fashionable churches. Skilled workmeh in the
various departments required for a great bur-
glary are ready to their hand at any time, and
our very peculiar system Of police and private
detectives affords them ample facilities for
realizing the swag and securing immunity from
punishment.
The lax morality of Wall street considers
the Ocean Bank robbery small affair, and
perhaps when compared with the daily prac-
tees of other bank operations, by which the
funds of depositors are turned from their regu-
lar employment among merchants and made to
bring in from one-eighth to one-half per cent
day, equal to from .forty-fve to one hundred
and eighty per cent year, on short loans, it
may not be such very heinous crime; but
to people who hold to the old-fashioned notions
Of right and wrong both practices seem equally
reprehensible; and the facilities for compound
ing felony which our detective system offers
are looked upon as equally criminal. To-day
the losers by the Ocean Bank robbery are in
the hands of police and private detectives sim
ply as customers, out Of whom good thing is
to be made in the shape of q reward for acting
as a go-between and shielding criminal. If
this occurrence tends to awaken public atten-
ton to the facilities we offer for burglary, and
impress upon it the necessity for radical
change in our police system, we, too, may come
to consider it good thing In the meantime
we would advise bank depositors and share
holders to begin their lookout at home after
men who find no criminality in taking hun
dred and eighty per cent year. The morality
that sanctions such practice will not find it
difficult to break into bank vault.