The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-04-01
ONE OF THE FINE ARTS.

illBlWhy ROBBERY lell lnlO ulsfNpulc
in England a century and half since
in fact, since Dick Turpin and Claude
Duyall died, no very enterprising
highwaymen have shown on the
surface Of crime, until since the war,
A brood Of them have sprung up in
Texas, and although their operations
have been extended and important, yet
the unframed character of the robbers
is perfectly apparent, Nowhere in any
of the robberies in Texas has been
exhibited any of the finished completes
ness of the old masters of the profess
sion, who illustrated and adorned the
ranks of crime during the last century.
But practice makes perfect" we are
told, and if highway robbery doesn't
rapidly advance in Texas in skill and
completeness, then we will have prac-
tical illustration of the truth Of the
other adage, that "there are exceptions
to all general rules Within the last
few years, say three, we have had at
least dozen stage robberies. Every
district of the State has had its own
local trouble from this irritating cause,
and yet, until Lieutenant Lee Hail
made the haul the other day, south
of Austin no single robber of them all
has been apprehended, Indeed, the
utmost good fortune has always
attended these knights Of the road,
and it is easy to be seen that one or two
arrests will only add charm to the
fascination of stage robbing In fact,
the enterprising characters in the pro.
fession must have felt heretofore, that
the perfect impurity with which the
business could be carried on was fatal
to the esprit du corps which ought in all
cases to prevail among respectable and
tonish" robbers.
There is II grave wrong in our police
system somewhere Either we have
incompetent officers or not enough o
them. t is vital to the every true in
terest Of society that every case of THU
kind should be pursued with RELENTLESS
vigor until the perpetrators swing from
the best developed live oak limb acces
sible to the ministers of justice. N,
one can understand how it is that praC
tlcally no arrests have yet been made
but when one remembers the extraor
binary procedure the other day of
sheriff in one of our frontier counties
one is on the trail of the correct solu
ton. Either careless, cowardly or vena
local administration is at the bottom {
it all and this, when it is suppl,
mented by executive indifference @
disregard, soon develops corps of e,
+ perts as the News would say, from tn
plant material so plcntiIully foun
among the traditional horse and cattl
thieves, who have plagued and laughe
at justice for ten years in Texas,
A few years since man would pu
his brand on another's ycaling an
boast Of the act but he would nav
slain without mercy any one who ha
charged him with n theft Of any othe
species of property. The levcling pr,
cess has been going quietly but surel
on, until at this late day thief is i
no wise particular, and "all is fish whc
comes to his net, A "bunch" c
horses, stock OF cattle, an accessible
pocketbook, or a registered letter or
mail, sack, has its charms and its use,
Governments, to be respected, mus
be elective. To be effective, they mus
reward virtue and punish crime, and a
one must be caught in order to b
hung an active mobilization Of on
police forces must be had. 1t is liltl
early to commence the discussion c
work for the Sixteenth Legislature, bu
still it may be done, in view of tn
activity among the fine artists" witt
much evident propriety, even at thi
early day. A few more bank, stage an,
highway robbercs will prepare tn
public mind for some measure of re
form in this directions and although
the remedy is unpalatable, yet it will
be found very effective