Connecticut western news., 1882-07-19

American Indian in the open field. like other nomads they are valiant in ambush and can produce havoc, but hey do not love modern artillery.
 TILL TAPPING EXTRAORDINARY. Stealing $2,OOO with String, a Lead Plate, and bit of Shoemakers'
 Wax. \ A unique method of theft was acci- dentally exposed in the State National Bank Tn Elizabeth, N. J., and the jan itor, George Washington Alderman, alias Bennett, who was arrested, ad- mitted that he had stolen more than E, 900 in the past two years.
 Edward Sherwood, the former paying teller, strictly honest young man, tould not make his accounts balance. Dn July Is. 1881, he was short $2O0; pn September 19 he was short $34O on November 27 he missed $320, and on January of this year he was short $18O. He could not afford to lose the money, for which he was personally re- ponsible, and he asked the bank people to relieve him, Joseph Mcclure, the bookkeeper, brother of the cashier, also offered to resign. He and Sher- wood had stood together at the same desk, and the cash had been taken dur ing business hours, only from the drawer under Sherwoods desk. Chief of Police Kaon was satisfied that the thief was employed in the bank, but he could not esten the crime upon any one. Sher- wood and young Mcclure were, by their own request, relieved from the positions of paying teller and bookkeeper, and Charles Halsey, a member of the Con- mon Council, was made paying teller, F'rank Newcombe taking McGuire's place. On January Is last, just one week after Sherwood's last loss, Halsey was unable to balance his accounts within $48O, the largest loss of all. On June 10 he missed 1850, ant he and the bank officers, as we'll as ex-Chief Keron and William D. Jenkins, the present Chief of Police, were puzzled.
 On Monday morning last Frank New combe heard light "tap-tap' in the drawer under the desk, and at first he thought that boy who was leaning on the counter had rapped with his fingers. On hearing the noise second time he saw something move in the drawer, which he quickly shut, and, thinking that a mouse was in the drawer, he de- cided to remove the bank bills. Then he discovered that his sudden shutting of the drawer had broken finely woven fish line, and in the drawer was bit of lead weighing two ounces and shaped like the flat seal used by customs off, cers, On the lower surface of the lead was piece of shoemakers' wax, and fastened to the wax was $40 bill. No less than thirteen bills, aggregating $26O, had been taken from the $50 and $2O pockets of the drawer since the money had been counted half an hour before. Janitor Alderman, who was known in Elizabeth as George w. Ben nett, confessed his guilt when he was arrested. He was soldier during the 1 late war.
 Ackerman's method of abstracting the money was novel and ingenious. In the foors under the cash drawer IS an old gas pipe hole, through which Alderman had passed the fish line from the cellar to the drawer. Into the bottom of the counter, directly over the centre of the drawer, he had fastened screw ring or ''dead eye," and another was turned into the face of the counter so bl,sse~a cord running through both would work at right angles to itself and without sound. The thin piece of lead was fas- tened to the end of the string that passed through the dead eyes into the drawer. and the contrivance was so arranged that by pulling on another string the lead could be lowered on the bills and then pulled through the slit between the drawer and the counter. Once out side of the drawer, it was easy to draw the lead and the bill down to the cellar through the old gas pipe hole in the floor. There was nothing in sight and nothing could be seen by anybody in the bank. The trap was arranged by Alderman on Sundays or evenings, when, as janitor, he had access to the bank. During business hours he went to the cellar, and, guided by his ears, pulled the string that let the lead drop on the bills in the drawer, and then pulled the string which drew the lead and bill out. He could hear. when the paying teller quilted the desk, and therefore he could work the drawer with little fear of de- tection.
 Bennett restored $332 which he had placed. on top of @ wall in the cellar. Bennett's real name is G. W. Acker- man, and under this name he served in the navy. He had been janitor of the bank for five years, and had a good reputation. He received no pay, but was given the rent of small house in the rear of the bank. He was believed to make his living by working at his trade of painting. Investigation shows that he did very little work the past year, but spent good deal of money. He bought piano, yacht and gun, and lost money ill starting fish market at Elizabethport. When his wife asked him where he got so much money she received abuse in return. He was take n to Newark and brought before United States Commissioner Whitehead, who held him in $2, 500 bail to answer before