Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-06-27
FEW TRAINS HELD UP.
Not So Many Railway Robberfes
 nR EOrmerIy.


 gangs The next year the number was 34. It was 49 in 1895, and last year dropped to 23. In the last seven years there have been 1S3 trains held up or wrecked for the purpose of robbery The number of persons killed in the perpetration of this train-wrecking or holding-up crime was 73 the number wounded 55. The smallness of the rec ord for 1896 may be partially accounted for by the fact that passengers and crews have recently fallen into the way of fighting train wreekers and train robbers. There were several instances in 1896 of deliberate plans having been made by railroad officials to trap train robbers and kill them, and the plans were successfully carried out, a fact which proved decidedly discouraging to the train-robbing profession The mortality in 1896 was four among pas sengers and 32 among trainmen.
 Sofrequentands so desperate have been many of these efforts at train-robbing that the idea has become more or less popular in Europe that railway travel in the United States is about as danger- ous as is travelled by private conveyance in the brigand districts of Italy and | Sicily, and it cannot be denied that there is considerable justification for the prevalence of this idea. It is not many months since three or four beard less boys were sent to the penitentary from Rome, N. r., for the crime of train wrecking. But terms in the pen- itentiary are not regarded as an ade- quate punishment for this monstrous crime, and so the penal code of the Elm ! pire state has recently been revised, placing train wrecking among the cap ital crimes. Hereafter any man in New York state found guilty of train wreck | ing will suffer the same punishment as does any man found guilty of murder in the first degree.
 An idea of the magnitude of the dam ger to railroad travel in the United States is prevalent on this side of the Atlantic, and it finds voice in the elab- crate arrangements for defense made by the several express companies of the country in their cars devoted to the transportation of valuables.
 The interiors of some of the express ears have the appearance of veritable arsenals. In fact, some of the cars are called arsenal cars. They have a bull let-proof room located in their center. They are built of steel 11% inch in thickness. The doors leading into either end of these compartments are punctured with peepholes, through which a gun can be ranged and fired. On either side is steel projection foot wide extending from the level of the window sill to the roof. At each end at the side of this arrangement port-hole is provided so that a rifle may be used to sweep the side of the train. front or rear, or to shoot from a side hole in any direction from this bomb proof. These are only some of the many features of the ideal arsenal car that has come into use on account of the frequency of train-wreclSing and train-robbing. These precautions have been thought necessary by the astute managers of the express companies.
 Meantime the United States govern ment that is engaged in transporting valuables in mail cars has taken no such precautions to protect the prop erty intrusted to it's care. To be sure, the recently constructed mail ears have no door at each end accessible to the train-robber, but they have doors on the sides, to which an expert robber can find access and where the railway mail clerk could answer and does an swer frequently summons to open. Millions and millions of dollars are every week sent through the United States mail in these unprotected mail cars. If the train is held up, if the rob- Der succeeds in finding his entrance to the railway ear and the valuables from the United States mail bags are rifled. the owners have no recourse. The gov ernment refuses to be responsible It is probable that to this lack of respon- sibility the governments laXity in taking necessary precautions against train-robbing may be attributed. The express companies recognize their re- sponsibility and prepare themselves ac- cordingly. The government seems sat isfied to trust to luck and. unfortunate ly, in many instances the patrons also of the United States mail service trust to luck. The fact that the warm and fatal reception given robbers last year reduced the number of train-robberies and train-wrecking, it would seem. ought to be accepted as a reason why the government should take as radical precautions as have the express com panies A knowledge that mail cars, like express cars, were little else than moving arsenals, together with such drastic measures as have been just adopted in New York state would go a long way toward making train-rob- ping in America an almost unheard-of crime.-Cincinnati Ti.aes-Star.
 A Laplander's Dress.
 The operation of dressing in cold