Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-19
About FruIi sleaIing.

In Cincinnati, the other day, an old gentle
man named Samuel ]. Browne, who has large
fruit garden around his house, fired musket at
a gang of boys who were stealing his fruit,
whereby one of them was fatally wounded. 1t
is claimed that he sought to scare the boys
without intending to injure them; and one of
the Cincinnati papers says, "the testimony
seems to put the intentional shooting of any one
out of the question" He had been greatly pro-
voked by the depredations of the boys, which
had been persisted in daily for some time,
against his earnest circumstances and efforts TO
prevent them. The saucy thieves who stole his
fruit, injured his trees, and despoiled his
grounds, Knocked and de6ed him. Nevertheless,
his method of dealing with them, in the case
stated. was uniusti6able, for one of them was
killed by the means used TO scare them. He
was very properly called to account for the
shooting; but there was also an attempt to
lynch him, supported by an excitement among
some of the people which assumes that the fruit
stealeTs did nothing wrong while he alone
merits censure and punishment.
We notice that some of the Cincinnati papers
are moved to point out that there is something
more in the case than the ofiense of Mr.. Browne.
There is danger that the young rouehs who
steal fruit will persuade themselves that they
have positive right TO invade and despoil all
the fruit gardens in and around the city, and
that whoever shall interfere with their proceed
ingS will deserve to be lynched. Heretofore,
they have been accustomed 10 carry on their
robberes in gangs strong enough to defy the
families they rob, and to choose hours of the
day when, as they suppose, those at home will
be chiefly women; and it stated that they have
sometimes appeared in the gardens armed with
pistols Manlestly, the fruit thieves in Cincin-
matt have become nuisance which should be
abated 1t demands stern measures, such as the
laws provide for checking and Furnishing rob-
berry. Mr.. Brownies ofiense is likely to be dealt
with as the law requires. Public sentiment is
not backward in this matter. At the same time,
it should be just as active against the unscrupu-
lous robberies by which he and others suffer,
and the more SO because the robbers demand
impunty.
Fruit stealing is not so audacious in this
part Of the country as it appears to he at Gin
cnnati; nevertheless, this kind of thievery is
not unknown here. Fruit yards are liable to be
robbed in Massachusetts. Every year, depreda-
tons of this kind are heard of and no kind of
thievery is meaner or more provoking. 1t costs
money to make and keep up choice fruit gar
den, and those who do it can not patiently see
it robbed. They might be calm if the young
reughs who are learning to be thieves should
merely rob their hen roosts, and speak quietly
TO the police} but the fruit gardens made by
their money and labor, are objects of perpetual
interest. They have no property more truly
theirs than their fruit trees, or more intimately
associated with the daily life of every summer.
They watch the growth and ripening of the
fruit with an interest which all fruit growers
can understand. And yet, there are people who
deem it a small thing to steal this property, and
even think they should be allowed to steal it
with IMMUNITY. True, they study to do it by
stealth or in the dark, and show that they are
in training to become thieves in earnest; but
they contrive to persuade themselves that the
fruit, which is so costly and of SO much special
value to the owner, is hardly property at all.
These loose views Of property of this kind are
due in part to defective training; but the thiev-
ing they encourage should not be tolerated
The laws against fruit stealing ought to be
strictly enforced, not only for the protection Of
valued property, but also to establish correct
ing public sentiment for the benefit of those
who are liable to take first lessons in thieyery
by plundering fruit gardens. To tolerate these
depredations is to encourage them