Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-03
BURGLARS, YOU CAN COME ON.
Vaults Londed With Booty, but EIec-
tricinns Have Rugged Up Scheme
Which Defies Expert Burgling.
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
At the Fifth Avenue Bank and Safe De-
posit vaults Fifth avenue and Forty
fourth street preparations are in progress
to give burglars and cranks a warm recep-
ton. This bank is the depository of valu-
ables of the Four Hundred. 1t attends
especially TO the wants of women and to
owners of flarge estates who preferto trans
act their business uptown. Prosperous busi-
ness has made the bank shareS-of which
Russell Sage holds a large number-worth
$3.50 each. next in value to the Chemical
bank
The bank has determined to spend some
of its enormous surplus in protecting itself.
Expert electricians have designed most
fearful and wonderful system of burglar
alarms. Suppose some green burglar tried
to get into the safe deposit vault any
night. Every window and door is connect
ed with burglar alarm companies. So, also.
are all the stairs leading to the vault, and
certain squares in the flooring. If the burg
lar We're lucky enough to escape all these
pitfalls he would find himself in front of
the vault. 1t is to be assumed that he has
got beyond the watchman by bribery or
more primitive methods.
In front of the steel door of the vault is
n frail wooden affair. which appears to be
held in place only by a rough piece of
wood, a makeshift affair altogether. II the
burglar kicks the stick away the door
alarms in the building and outside start
ringing like mad and all the policemen
and watchmen in the thickly populated
neishborhood are notified.
But this is not all. a spring gun is cum
ningly concealed in the side of the wall.
When the door falls out it pulls the trigger
and a charge of buckshot sweeps the front
of the vault. 1t would be a lucky man
whom it left alive or uniujured for the
police to take.
But imagine n day holdup, such as hap
pened to the Bank of New Amsterdam last
spring. Two or three men strolled quietly
up to the paying teller'S window. One of
them suddenly pulls q revolver and COM
mands the teller to hold up his hands. The
other two dash for the vault downstairs.
The teller, sees that the man has the drop
on him and obediently elevates his hands.
But he does not have to hold up his feet.
and he can use them TO great advantage.
With one foot he presses an electric button
which locks the door of the vault by a time
lock. At the same time it locks the door
of the steel grating in front of the vault,
putting 1t beyond the power of anyone, but
the cashier and himself, each with key,
70 open even the grating, while the vault
inside is securely locked for hours.
The other foot is meanwhile pressing an
other button. This starts very large
electric gong in the middle of the room,
which makes as much noise as the dinner
gong on n Sound steamer. This is the sig
nal for the clerks, porters, and guards.
Every clerk has under his desk loaded
revolver and Il large and efficient club.
The thirty or forty clerks grab their
weapons, the guards snatch their Win
chester rifles from a convenient stand, and
proceed to annihilate the intruders.
The desk of the president of the bank is
similarly equipped. If any World reader
happens to be in the bank, hears the gong
go off, and sees the armed force of en-
ployes rush forward with menacing looks
let him not think he is to participate in
wild Western fight 1t is simply the presi-
dent taking Il notion to have a burglar
alarm drill. 1t is not recorded, however,
what effect these drills have upon the
minds of nervous old ladies.
The bank people consider that they now
have absolute protection. But the Confed-
Grated Society of Burglars is an enterpris-
ing and Industrious body of men. They
have always been able to keep in advance
of the times, and it remains to be seen
what answer they will make to the new
ideas put forward in recent years by con-
structors of burglar-proof vaults.