The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-10

of the door was thoroughly disintegrat-
 ed. The bottom of the safe was al
 most blown out, and upon examination
 it was shown that in a few minutes time it could be entirely removed by the
 use of wedges. After @ few minutes
 @ second charge, one almost inhnitesi-
 mai in size, was introduced and fired.
 The bottom of the safe and the bottom
 of the inner steel chest were entirely removed in less than an hours time.
 From the beginning, until the first
 charge was fired, thirty minutes elaps-
 ed The entire time occupied in get | ting at the contents was one hour and
 tWenty-seven minutes. This safe was
 built for the Bank of Genesee. It is perhaps needless to say that, since the day that Mir. Rodman assailed 1t, it has held no Valuables.
 Cracksmen nowadays do not appear to be in the least afraid to handle high explosives. They do not do it as Well perhaps, as a person would who had no fear of interruption at his work, but they do succeed in handling it well
 enough frequently to avoid rousing people, and to enable them to get what
 they are after-gold. The robbery of
 the SOmanauk bank at Somanauk, H.,
 netted the cracksmen 5000, and there
 was nothing but scrap iron left of the
 safe, which was one of the guaranteed | absolutely burglar-proof kind. It was
 d lamlnated structure, with an outer door four inches thick and a burglar
 chest door three inches thick. It had all sorts of modern improvements, and
 looked like a tough nut to crack. In vestigation by an eXepert showed that
 two charges of ro-glycerine were
 used. One blew open the outer door
 and the other demolished the inner. Persons sleeping within forty feet of the
 safe were not awakened by the eXplo- sions.
 The Franklin Grove bank of the town of the same name in Illinois had within its walls another absolutely burglar proof safe. The bank now has part of
 the safe and the burglars have $25,0O0
 which it contained. Nitro-glycerine was introduced into the joint at the top of
 the safe door, its discharge removed
 the door bodily, and of course instant
 aneously; the inner chest door was re-
 moved in the same way. From evil dence obtained immediately after the robbery the bank officials arrived at the conclusion that the time occupied in committing the burglary could not have
 exceeded one and one-half hours. Peo-
 pie in an adjoining building slumbered undisturbed through the night of the burglary.
 Photographic views of bank safes that have been burglarized have been sel- dom seen, because safemakers are shreWd enough to suppress all facts by
 getting possession of the burglarized safes and consigning them to oblivion. When a bank safe is robbed the maker of the safe is immediately notified by telegraph. He responds by sending an agent, and wires the bank to allow mo- body to see the safe until the agent ar rives. Usually the bank officials fol-
 low these instructions, and consequent ly in nine cases ont of ten all informa- ton in regard to the methods of the burglars is suppressed
 Electricity has caused so many me- chanical revolutions which have been of incalculable benefit to mankind that perhaps one cannot find fault with it
 now that it has opened a way for easy bank burglaries. Other methods of at tack We're met, and though the con struction of safes did not keep pace with the skill of the assailants, save
 in one or two instances, it may be that i the thousands of dollars expended for | thick walls and tempered metal may
 be more effectively employed in buying safeguards to put around the vault and the gold, silver and bonds which it's | walls enclose.-Chicago Tribune.