The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-21
BANK ROBBERS
Make Clean Sweep in the, Nc
LOuth Bank.
Blowing Open the Safe and TAX
ing So, 500.
THE ROBBERS ESCAPE
By Stealing Horses and Wagon
at McLOuth
AndDriving tOLawrence, Twelve
Miles Away.
ARRESTED AND LET GO.
One of the Burglars Caught and
Released.
They Board the East Bound q.
P. Train.
By Stealing Horses and Wagon
at McLouth
AndDriving toLawrence, Twelve
Miles Away.
ARRESTED AND LET GO.
One of the Burglars Caught and
Released.
They Board the East Bound ..
P. Train.
Special to the State Journal.

Special to the State Journal
MCLoUTH, Feb 21.-The bank here
was entered last night, the safe blown
open with dynamite, and $500 in cash
stolen.
The burglars stole a team and drove
to Lawrence, where they bought tickets
for the east bound train.
Not a person in McLouth knew of
the robbery until about o'clock,
About seven o'clock, when Rev. J. Fl.
Klein went to his stable to feed his
team, team, harness, and robes were
missing.
At the same time a neighbor, o. W.
Glynn, missed a spring wagon. Neigh
boring cities were at once given a
description of the team. and about
$50 the chief of police at Lawrence an
nOunced that he had the team in charge
but that he had not the thieves. The
thieves thought themselves hard pressed
there and jumped out, leaving the team
and wagon at one of the parks in North
Lawrence. A colored policeman caught
one of the men and then let him go, the
other took the Union Pacific train east;
Conductor Fisher being in charge of the
train
But the greatest excitement was caused
at o'clock. When Cashier Sleeper en-
tered the bank he found the window
blinds of the directors room open
and a blacksmith's hammer on the table;
he at once rushed into the bank room
proper, and found everything in the
greatest confusion. the floor being COW
cred with lime and papers.
The vault had been broken into, safe
blown open and the money gone. The
thieves, as there were probably two or
more, had been very deliberate
in their work. They had taken
the directors room, pried the sash,
and it was clear that they had carried
some large oak fence posts from
the Southwestern railway about a block
distant, eight feet long and six to eight
inches in diameter which they used as
braces in the hall.
Entrance was gained to the vault by
drilling a hole over the combination lock
and driving the catch back with punch;
then the drill was used and the sase
blown open. The thirty five
hundred dollars that was in the safe was
taken by the robbers.
The bank"will lose nothing by the
robbery except the damage to the safe
and vault, as the funds of the bauk were
insured in the Fidelity company. The
hammer that was found in the bank was
recognized by Rogers 81 Kenyon, black
smiths and wagon makers. short dis
tance from the bank. When they went
to their shop this morning they found
that the back door had been broken
open and three hamm ers and a brace
and bit had been taken from their regu-
lar places, but two hammers and the
brace and bit were lying on a bench
jnst inside of broken window, the rob-
bers in their hurry leaving the other
hammer in the bank. Two or three
strange looking men we're noticed loaf
ing around here yesterday who it is
thought did the work. The bank will
resume business tomorrow morning as it
is as sound financially as any in the
state.