Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-09
sArErY ZOE OUR TREAsuREs

story with a Practical Moral-De-
lenses of the Treasury.
From tie Wear York NtiI- E1press.
one summer night, some seven or eight
years ago, the watchmau in an uptown
bank, feeling dry, stepped out and around
the corner to get drink. In his hurry
he forgot or neglected to close the win
dow at which he had been trying TO catch
4 breath Of fresh .air. He fingered o7er
his beer longer than he had intended. and
nearly an hour had passed when he shut
fed back to his post with pang of re-
morse as he Thought of the deserted bank.
Vain regret! He found it brilliantly
lighted, every officer from the President
70 the cashier and paying teller at his
desk. five detectives examining the safe,
a Guard of police outside and a small
army of reporters camping on the door
step, The policeman on the beat, finding
the window open and the Waterman not
within call, had alarmed his rOundsman
who summoned help from the Thirtieth
street station, whence messages were sent
n to police headquarters and to the near
A homes of the bank officers that brought
Fl these to the spot and the reporters on
their trail. Everybody thought a bur
glary had been attempted. That watch
A mans professional career was ended then
and there, and the morning found work
men engaged in envelOping the bank vault
4 in a network of electrical alarm wires de-
4 signed TO save it from danger of such a
mischance In future.
The Manhattan Bank burglary. occur
n ring soon after, gave an impetus to the
81 burglars alarm business, OF which it feels
the effect yet. There are comparatively
few banks and few jewelry stores or large
concerns in this city to-day that depend
wholly on the Old-fashioned Waterman
with his bulldog for protection at night,
q and fewer still that pin their faith to the
n old eXpedent of letting the gas burn over
night with the window shades up. The
experience with the Manhattan Bank
a where the burglars set one of their num-
q Der. dressed in the ianitOr's Jumper, to
n dust the windows and chat with the pO-
n liceman on the post, while the rest were
q working in the vault, and the subsequent
4 exploit of Brooklyn cracksmen, who set
e up folding screen, painted to resemble
the safe, in part of the strong box and
n worked behind 1t in security, showed how
easily these precautions might be made
useless. No such lesson was needed to
q Jeach capitalists the risk in trusting to
she honesty or caution of hired help. The
newspaper record of the daily exodus to
Canada is sufficiently explicit. The re-
suit was general demand for some agent
less cOrruptible than human nature to
n q" the watching. Wealth never goes
a-"uSging long, and speedily found 1t in
electricity.
Ilme.locks and combination locks have
mad their day-haVe it vet, for that matter,
i but confidence has been rudely shaken in
them by sundry circumstances of recent
occurrence. Naval officers were not the
only persons who watched with profess
slonal interest the suggestive results of
the recent test Of dynamite gums at An
hapoll5 that emphasized the peculiarly
local intensity of the force exercised by
the explosive. Burglars were quick 10
follow up the suggestion, and soon found
CUT that a two-ounce dynamite cartridge
exploded against the iron door OF "A safe
with time-lOck would, without doing
other damage to speak of, break or dis
lodge the handspring of the clock work
inside that works the lock. When the
spring ran down the door swung open of
It's own accord, as it would have done had
the mechanism been left to unwind itself
an the prescribed time without external
aid. Nothing could have smO0thed the
4 rough road of the burglar more neatly.
4 SaIe-makers We're compelled TO adopt the
n alternative of a lock which, when tam
pered with, shut itself hOpelessly against
the rightful owner as well as the thief
But cracksmen, who must be good me-
4 chauics, know how 10 overcome mere me-
n chanical obstacles. The safe or vault is
N not made that Will resist the continued
assault of experienced burglars who have
the time from Saturday night till Monday
morning to do their work in.
NO SAFETY IN COMBINATIONS.
To depend on combination locks to
guard vault is to depend on some ones,
or some two or three mems, honesty and
intelligence. One weli-knOwn President,
who carries the keys to millions about in
MS nOCknf fhnnUhf ut1ard with
especial care by having two doors, an
outside and an inside one, made in his
vault, and intrusting the combinations TO
TWO Of his clerks, neither of whom knew
the others secret. In both he Teposed
the tullesJ confidence, and it is probable
lh0t either would have let himself be
Il torn limb from limb rather than reveal
his secret to thieves. Fellow-clerks from
boyhood they were friends, and each
would have resented any imputatiOn on
tne others prObty as a personal insult.
Hence it came about naturally when the
warm summer afternoons brought long
lngs for COney Island to render irk-
some the duty OF staying late at the
Office that the friends should swap conf
dences to give each other a SHOW, more
natural still that they should continue
the convenient arrangement until one day
n jhe astonished bank President awoke from
ms dream of double security to ind II
. ohlt dream.
ELECTRICITY Is A GOOD WATCHDOG.
Electricity never goes TO sleep, never
\ goes 10 COney Island, and has no hand 10
oe brlbtd nor conscience to be- corrupted.
Against outside enemies it is proof.
Against plotting within nothing as yetin-
vented avails. Mr.. Fisb's Marine Bank
was among the first TO provide itself with
eiectrc alarms after the 'cracking" Of the
Mannattan, and EnO's was not lar behind.
Inc devices employed by eiectrcians TO
A convey warning OF threatened danger are
numerous, and some OF them very queer.
Ne burglar alarm that, connecting with
Tue uOors, windows and scuttle by visible
wires, rings a bell when the connection
~ Ofoken by violence, has been relegated
Utmost entirely TO those private houses
"1use owners or tenants sleep within
oa'l' There is a large pawn shop in this
wy That is fitted up with one of these
"laIlns, designed by the owner, who is OF
n au inventive turn Of mind. He always
FUSES his shop at night himself and sleeps
u'I the store. To a casual passer-by,
woo happens 10 glance into the office,
muerN enairs stand about the safe in con-
N tusloh, ~ ht bear the appearance OF
n"FlNE lu. .au deserted by party Of
. i'hhkeis. Okh uu iu "A hurry. But