New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-06
PEVIVAI IN ROBBERY.

sert Island is in some respects an Improvement
upon the affair which made such sensation
among the White Mountains last summer Ii
the later operator is not the same person who
was so brilliantly successful on the Glen
House road In 1881, he seems to have studied
the methods of his predecessor, and to have put
to profitable use the discovery made by that
enterprising highwayman of the general help
lessness of the average summer-boarder IN tho
presence of a loaded pistol. In the White
Mountain case the robber chose for the scene
of his exploit long valley-rOad, bordered on
both sides by steep hills and close thickets J;
the spot where he lay in ambush was five or
six miles from any house, yet coaches, pleasure
parties and pedestrians, as well as traffic
wagons, were frequently passing, and
at the time of the robbery two
passenger coaches, going in oppO-
site directions, were due at that very
place. In point of fact the coaches did arrive
while the pillage was going on, and one of
them was attacked and would have been
plundered if the -robber had been able to hold
the horses Hero everything seemed to he in
favor of the safety of travel yet one masked
rufiian was able to stop a carriage, take the
money and jcwelry of a gentleman and his
wife while n stage-load of passengers halted
and looked on, and-mOre remarkable stlll-to
escape through the difficult woods with pur-
suers close upon his track.
The Mount Desert robbery was still holder.
single highwayman arrested buck board
party, of two gentlemen and number of la
dies, and relieved them of watches and
largo sum of money. In this as in the former
instance there seems to have been no resist
ance Some of us wonder, perhaps, that
submission should have been so prompt;
but undoubtedly the victims carried no
weapons, and with a revolver confronting
them what could they do Surprise and a
pistol were too much for them. The noun
tain roads in Mount Desert are comparatively
lonely, but i'll the summer season no part OF
that picturesque region is really solitary, and
an adventure with fo0tpad is about the last
experience visitor there would look for.
Moreover, apart from the notorious fact that
the frequentcrs of that resort are an active
class, addicted to rambling in large parties and
in COUPLES all over the hills and daes at all
hours of the day-and for many hours of the
night. tOo-a prudent thief might be expected
TO take account of the circumstance that
Mount Desert is an awkward place to get away
from. Small islands are not favorable for
operations in the line of highway robbery and
although there is Il causcway connecting re-
mote end of Mount Desert with the main,
portal so easily watched would not suit a
fugitive.
The revival of Turpinism will have most
unfortunate effect upon life at some of our
summer resorts. Pedestrian excursions will go
6.,I,i will ha para
perilous to the fisherman than to the fish.
Young ladies will no longer venture with
sketch books beyond call of the house. Maidcn's-
hair fern will grow neglected i'll the shady
places. The Sapphire Pool, the Syren's Cave,
the Lovers Bower, the Crystal Cascade, the Gar
net Gorge, and the other wonderful spots which
abound in the neighborhood of all we'll
lated summer hotels, will become melancholy for
want of visitors. Even the beautiful blackboard
Will bound no more over the mountain ruts.
There will be no more rambling in pairs about
the woods. The young men will apply them
selves to billiards and lawn-tenns and all the
girls hereafter we fear will be piazza girls. We
shall miss the brown cheeks and elastic
step with which they used to come
back from their holiday in the forest
and mountains. And if some effectual
safeguard cannot be found against such
outrages as have disturbed Mount Desert,
the White Mountains and, we should add, the
Adirondacks, hotel-keepers will lose great
deal OF custom.
The suggestion that the summer-bOarder
should always be armed to the teeth when he
takes his wife and children driving, or that Mr..
Noodle, going out for perfectly lovely stroll
with Miss Pecllsnli, should put a pound of
French candies in one pocket and self-cOck
ing seven-shooter in the other does not COM
mend itself either to heads of families or to
udicious landlords. So general n distribution
of firearms among the inexperienced would
lead to results unpleasant to contemplate. But
the safety of most of our vacation resorts-of
all those, at any rate. which, like Mount De-
sert and the White Mountains, embrace a num-
Der of hotels within somewhat restricted
area-might be amply secured by the
establishment of sort OF police
patrol at the joint expense of all
the hotels protected by it. The town authori-
ties can hardly be expected to assume the
cost of such force, but the hotels would find
their profit in it. Although the country to be
guarded would often be extensive, the task of
watching it would not be hopelessly great,
since in most cases the avenues by which these
resorts can be reached left are few. The
creation of an active rural police, trayersing
the roads and wood-patls, hating suspicious
persons, and enforcing the tramp-laws, would
probably be enough to convert the highway
men to some safer kind of rascality.
LITERATURE ron THE PRAIRIE
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