Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-07-23
a rRAlN.Rosssns, PARADISE.
italian Railroads and the Experiences Of
Travellers on Them.

uk8It8U NotUO0Q0 0sa wv eARVst0UOO8 VI
Travellers on Them.
1t Is surely time that the attention of
the public should be called to the rob-
berries from baggage on the Italian
lines Of railway, which are now Of con-
slant, probably of daily. occurrence,
which must be committed by the
guards Of the trains or with their know
ledge, as no one else can have access to
the baggage In transit from one place to
another, which the Italian railway au-
thofities and the police hear of almost
daily, but of which no notice Is taken.
I will give few instances, writes Au-
gustus j. G. Hare, the eminent author
to the London Times. The well-known
Miss l.. s. has a residence both In
Rome and Venice. Moving last year
from the former to the latter. her boxes
were opened and various articles taken.
A small wooden box in one of her
trunks was forced open at the hinges.
1t mostly contained papers, which were
left, but gold piece of 100 francs was
found among them and carried Off. This
year the same lady moved at the same
time from Rome to Venice. She then
had her boxes sealed. On receiving
them at the Venice station. her servant
saw that they were sealed still, and did
not observe that the seal of one Of
them had been broken and replaced by
new "a finger) seal. On reaching
home 1t was found that everything in
tho hAv ha1 x,,vp
ransacked, and all the contents Of a
work box thrown out amongst the other
things. Several articles were missing.
The Venice station-master, Informed
ut once, said that he ''saw no reason to
suppose that the robbery had been CON-
mitted by one of the company's SER
wants."
Within a very few days of this, the
Countess Of Kenmare had her boxes
opened between Bologna and Venice
and various objects stolen. About the
same time an Italian princess, coming
from BOlonga to Venice, lost all her
Jewels In the same way. Mr.. Ralph
Curtis, resident Of Venice, had his
boxes opened and half his clothes
taken. Two valuable dresses were alb
stracted from the boxes of the Queen
Of Italy during her last journey from
Venice to Monza. A precious bracelet,
Inherited from Sir J. Outram, set with
large Indian diamonds, was taken from
the trunk Of Mrs. -, and when the
authorities were informed Of 1t, they
only expressed polite regret that any
one should have had "cosi poca delica-
tezza" as to steal her jewels!
A gentleman travelling on the line
from Genoa to San Reno, got out at a
small station. Before he expected, he
saw the train in motion. He had no
time to regain his place but jumped
into an open baggage van. He was sur
prised to see the look of CONSERVATION
with which a guard in the van and his
ceived that several trunks were open
and their contents piled upon the floor
of the van. He had presence of mind to
light his cigar, turn his back and look
as IL he had observed nothing. Other
wise, Mysterious discovery of the
body of an English traveller on a rail-
way line" would have headed a para
graph in next days paper.
Another crying evil is the state Of
Florence railway station. Always the
worst managed station In Europe. it is
now perfect bear-garden. Any one
can obtain access to the platform on the
payment of one sOldo, and Mt the time
Of the departure of the evening train
for Rome it is crowded by all the worst
characters in Florence.
On the evening Of March IL was
about to leave Florence for Rome.
From unavoidable circumstances l had
nearly f100 in my pocket, f70 being in
English banknotes. The money was in
an inner breast pocket of my coat, with
q great coat over it. l thought it abso-
lutely safe. had kept out enough
money for my ticket, lot unfortunate
ly my baggage cost more than l had
calculated, and to get five francs note
I was obliged to take out my pocket
book. 1t was safely replaced, but it
must have been seen then. There was
the usual crowd on the platform, and
great confusion when the multitude Of
travellers, penned up In the waiting
room, were let out into 1t. l put my
handbag to keep place in an already
crowded carriage, and then went to
look for something better, but failed to
find It. Returning to the first carriage,
/ found two men on the step, who, with
loud Italian vociferation, rudely oppos-
ed my entrance-"YOu cannot come in
here, this is not your place." ETC., and
they pushed violently against my chest.
I contended that my handbag
was already in the carriage and my
place taken, and eventually got in, the
men pushing against me to the last, and
then disappearing. Immediately the
train was in motion, l found that in
those pushes my inner pocket was torn
out, and my pocket-boOk and money
gone.
l telegraphed back to the Florence
station from the first stopping place,
and wrote to all the authorities at Flor
ence. Two days afterwards was sum-
moned to the Roman railway station
and had the usual silly examination
(afterward six times repeated on six
different days at different Roman police
offices) as to my exact age occupation,
and place of birth, the Christian name
of my father, etc. Then was asked
IL should recognize my robbers II l
saw them. OF this felt doubtful, as
on the March evening on which was
robbed it was already almost dark.
But the police official said: "A group
"a 1900, x,.sIl nov,,o into tho apd nf thio