The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-01
Our New York Letter.
Bank Cashiers and BurgIars.--The CroD
OF Faiiures.---The Political Outlook.
Sunset Cox and his Eccentricities.

The Northampton Bank robbery gives one
an unpleasant sense of the business like system
with which crime is sometimes planned and
perpetrated, and of the excessive audacity of
the villains who make a trade of it. hope it
will not teach US also that our facilities for
tracing and discovering thieves are so ineffec-
tive that these professional prowlers are in
very little danger of being brought to justice
And yet the chances of hunting them down do
not appear promising at this moment. They
will turn up by and by, perhaps, in some mys-
terious fashion as negotiators for a compro-
mise don't think however that the bond
and security holding public generally exactly
fancy that way of fixing things. 1t looks very
much like premium on burglary. And as
there is such an offense, known to the common
law as compounding a felony, am inclined to
believe that anybody who should venture here
after to dicker with gang of marauders for
return of part of their booty, on the condi-
ton of waving prosecution, would be COM
PEELED to answer for it at the bar of a criminal
court
If these midnight raids grow frequent it will
be necessary to select bank cashiers from the
class of men whom John Hay and Bret Harte
have immortalized. 1t wants the courage of O
"high-toned engineer or the rough of a mining
camp" to defy gang of robbers while they are
demanding the combination of the lock with
pistol aimed directly at the head of their victim.
Tillman Joy, or "the boy on the burning deck
would have done it without Wincing, but that
style of hero is not indigenous to the soil of
western Massachusetts. 1t is one of the oppor-
tunities man sometimes gets in the course Of
his life-rarely but once though-to win the
prize of Immortality by Drawing the peris of
death. 1t is not likely the wretches would
have murdered their captive, though they
might in the rage of disappointment or for fear
of his agency in bringing their projected rob-
berry to light. But if he had baffied them and
still survived what crown of glory he would
have earned. And il he had fallen in defend
ing his trust bis name would have been the
synonym, for generations, of forttude and
fidelity. 1t was the critical moment of his ex-
| istence, and he did not prove himself of the
stuff out of which martyrs are made.
1t is one of the disadvantages under which
country banks labor that the cashier is known
to have the key which unlocks the vaults.
There are very few of our city cashiers that
could get into their cafes. They are opened
| by some trusted clerk orr porter-Or both-long
| before the cashier arrives. 1t would be Lo easy
matter for gang of masked rogues to hunt up
the real possessor of the secret. The spohations
| made upon our banks are effected by ingenuity
| rather than by violence And the greatest
| obstacle to prosperity they meet with now
| days is the tax gatherer who swoops down
upon them, now in federal now in municipal
| garb, but always clothed with authority, and
altogether infexible in his purpose to get all
| he claims.
| The Winslow forgeries have attracted no lit
tie attention, partly because of their magni
tude, and partly for the reason that they ex-
hibit new phase of the pre- vailng epidemic Of
knavery. 1t was inferred-naturally enough
when the expose was first made that this cul-
| prt was New England man, as he bore a
| name of great colonial celebrity, and that sup
| position gave occasion for some sneers among
| class of people who manifest their conscious
ness OF the superiority of the Eastern section of
the Republic, by constantly disputing it. But
it turns out that he Is New Yorker and il he
ever had any Puritan blood in him, it has been
bleached out by associations of the outer world.
The most remarkable thing abont the affair is
that Winslow could have praeticed his frauds
to so large an extent and for so long o period
| without being found odt. The circumstances
| under which some little Irregularities were
hushed up on the payment of money are extreme.
| ly suspicious aud indicate that there were par
ties who preferred not to know any thing of the
| reverend forger's proceeding until they had
| ceased to be his creditors. If this is another
example of compounding felony it will not
tend to make that mode of procedure any more
popular with the community in which il was
/ practced.
We have had our usual crop Of failures this
week, but no very important ones, and none
that there was any reason for feeling surprise
about. The New York State Loan and Trust
Company" quietly gave up the ghost to-day,
but that can hardly be recorded as a failure for
the concern pays its debts and goes into liquida-
ton at the instance of its directors presume
however, it will be so proclaimed, as such an
announcement has something sensatonal
about it, point the newspapers are not apt to
overlook As plain matter of fact there wa
no longer any room for such a corporation
There has been so marked decrease in the de-
mand for loans for great enterprises that fewer
agencies for their negotiation are required.
The discontinuance of one of them simply
indicates the progress we are making in reach
ing the condition of stability and actuality
which must be the starting point of the new
departure toward healthy and remuneratiye
commerce. The failures which seem at the
first thought of them, so sad and dispiriting are
really nothing more than the clearing away of
the debris of the old ruins, preparatory to re-
building on surer foundation. They take
nothing from the aggregate wealth of the
x1J khaA kof.1 tka.,
possibly inspire among those who study the
philosophy of them is that which is based upon
sympathy for the immediate sufferers. And
in nine cases out of ten 1t is far better for them
to make an end of hopeless struggle against
fate, get released from burdens under which
they grow weaker every hour, and start anew
with the benefit of the experience of misfor-
tune which ought to act as safeguards against
future involvements.
While this holocaust OF martyrs is being Of
cred upon the pyre of insolvency, speculation
upon the stock exchange is active and all kinds
of desirable securities are high and advancing.
Something of this is referabe, doubtless to the
excessive plentitude Of money and the diff
Guilty of investing it safely. The shares of the
great leading railways, which have not de-
faulted in their interest or dividends are ex-
travagantly dear. Ordinarily the reaction
which follows prolonged term of depression
and lethargy begins with movement in stocks
and gradually extends to merchandise manu-
featuring industries and last of all to real es-
tate, but there have been so many spasms of
artificial briskness in the traffic of Wall stree.
during the past two years that it will not do to
calculate that this new one is the precursor of
better things in more legitimate pursuits. Still
it is a favorable omen and may be regarded as
an encouraging augury Of the future.
Among the poor of the city there is unques-
tionably much distress ana want There prob
ably never we're so many people unemployed
aud destitute of the means of living here as
there are this winter. This is one of the evils
to which large populations are especially sub
iect in hard times. Few Of these unfortunates
can and fewer yet will migrate to points where
they will be sure to tind work to do, and until
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