The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-04-02
Robbery by Burglars.
A Prosperous Trade Carried on by tn,
Rascals.


In spite of the capture and convic-
ton of the masked burglars" says
the New York Times, the winter cam
paign of the thieving fraternity ap-
pears to be progressing in and about
New York with unabated vigor. Nine
houses on one block in Jersey City
were entered and ransacked i'll success
sion, without leaving any clue to the
robbers. On the same morning, in
Newark, three houses were in like man.
ner broken into and robbed. The roads
of Queens County are rendered unsafe
after dark, and sometimes in daylight,
by desperate bands of highwaymen.
A farmer returning from Brooklyn,
where he had sold a wagon load of pro-
duce, was set upon by party of mask
ed men, who demanded his money, OF
which he had considerable sum about
him, or his life. They were finally put
to fight by the opportune intervention
of some laborers, attracted thithtr by
the cries of their intended victim, but
not until they had beaten him severely.
In the upper part of New York city
number of organized house. breakers
and sneak thieves are at work with q
success and impunity neither comfort
ing to the public nor creditable to the
police. Three houses at Harlem were
robbed of property amounting to sew
eral hundreds of dollars in silverware
and jewels. Only short time previ-
ously, several dwellings in or near
Fifty-ffth street were similarly served.
In one instance lady sitting in her
parlor reading one evening was sud-
denly startled by the appearance of a
masked face thrust into the room, and
as suddenly withdrawn. A policeman,
summoned to the spot by the aid of the
district telegraph, failed to find any
trace of the mysterious mask or his
confederates beyond the evident signs
of their entrance by prying open the
basement door. The servants being up
stairs, failed to hear them.
The most noticeable thing about these
depredations is the systematic manner
in which they are conducted. The
plunderable part Of the city appears to
be mapped out in districts, each of
which is carefully ransacked before
another is entered on. One robbery in
another quarter is generally followed
by several others in the same immediate
neighborhood. Sometimes an entire
street appears to be gone through
before beginning upon another. The
continual repetition of this course Of
events indicates thorough organization
and carefully -matured plans, and il
also proves most painfully the incom
potency of our police, who show them
selves utterly unable to cope with these
rascals.
Another point to be noticed is that
these city robberies are for the most par
confined to the daytime or the early
evening. A time is selected when the
family is at some meal down stairs al
entrance is effected through the scuttle
if there be an unoccupied house on the
block; not unfrequently after duck il
warm weather by clambering in an oper
second story window. The iron porti
Goes over the hall doors of many houses
or the trellised vines running up the
front, afford ample facilities for al
active burglar. The peculiar constrc
ton of our high-stoop" houses, es
pecially where, as is often the case, the
front basement is used as a dining
room, favors greatly these modes o
entrance. At other times, moment II
chosen when the male members of tht
family are known to be absent, and the
servants up stairs, when an experienced
burglar lets himself in through lowe
door or window as easily as though i
stood open.