The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-17
PASSING or THE SANDBAG.
Shrewder Criminals Avoid Such Feionie:
Becansc IBprofitabie.


From the Chicago Chronicle.
Sandbagging is lost art II has
been succeeded by the hodup. For
years it fiourished. just how many
years 1t is hard to say Then came the
gradual change, in which it was sup
planted by the modern methods fol-
lowed night after night in Chicago
streets.
No border town of the frontier ever
saw holder acts of highway robbery
than are committed every night in
Chicago. The sandbag. the cat-like
tread of the thug. the sudden, swift de-
scent from behind upon the nnsuspect
ing victim. the blow which felled but
did not kill. all these are gone. In
their places have come the robbery at
the revolvers point, the stand and de-
liver OF the good old days of Jack
Shepherd. That bold robberies OF this
nature might be performed on the lone
highways of rural English communities
100 years ago by a robber mounted on
a swift horse is not at all surprising.
But that the Identical plan. minus the
horse, lacking all the picturesque fea-
lures, could be successfully followed in
the heart of a great city seems aston
| ishing. Yet the fact remains that 1t is
done, and that only in occasional in
stances are the robbers captured.
1t required considerable skill and
dexterity to weld n sandbag. To stick
up man with a big revolver requires
nothing but q certain quaiity of nerve.
1t does not take bravery, for your
holdup man as rule is an arrant COW
ard when he is cornered. Whatever
sparks of manhood he might have left
in his degenerate soul fees when he be-
gins to realize how easy il is To secure
other peoples money with the power
full aid OF n revolver. Taking a lone
pedestrian unawares IN dark street
and showing a revolver into his face
does not require any more courage than
does the shooting OF dog that has
been tied to tree.
The Sandbagger, OF course, also took
advantage Of his victim. lie lurked IN
an alley or in dark hallway, i'm the
space between two building or any 9th
I er convenient shelter, clutching in his
hand the billy or sandbag With which
he was preparing to do his work. After
he espied his mark" walking brlshly
toward him. unconscious OF the danger
lurking there in the shadow. Closer to
the wall the footpad crouehed. waiting
the passing of the man whom he VAS
To attack Suddenly. as the dark figure
of the pedestrian moved past him, he
stepped forward with the silent tread
which gave him the name of "footpad :
and brought down the billy with crush
ing force upon the head Of his victim
If a sandbag was used the blow Was
usually struck directly between the
shoulders and the result WAS as in
Simultaneous and certain Down
dropped the pedestrian without cry.
unconscious and bleeding, and in an
instant his pockets We're rltled and the
robber was fleeing silently through
dark alleys and unfrequented streets
To some saloon where he would be safe
from capture.
In this work there was little risk
The victim never saw his assailant
and identification was impossible
| There was no noise of shooting. no out
cry, nothing to alarm the police and
set them on the trail of the robber
Only the next morning, or hours after
the assault, someone stumbled over the
PROSTATE body of the unconscious man.
with pockets turned inside out and val
uables gone, and there was n brief
mention in the newspapers that some
one had been "sandbagged and robbed"
and the police had nothing whatever on
which to work.
But unless the sandbagger was an ex-
pert he sometimes got the worst of it,
If his blow was not delivered at exact
~ the right moment and with enough
force to instantly stun his man some
times there was a fight in which the
thug was worsted. II took quick eye
and a strong arm To strike down a pow
erful man and put him hors du combat
ut a blow. Gradually the criminal fra
ternity returned TO the original prinei-
pies and drifted back to the stNie Of
robbery of the European bandit in the
mountain Businesses who fobs tour
lists at the point of a gun or the far
Western desperate who holds UP stage
coaches or trains. He took all the ad-
vantage into his hands and began the
old fashioned holdup which has today
terrorized thousands who are obliged
TO walk abroad at night.
In a holdup ii would seem that the
robber took no chances. 1t would ap-
pear to the man who reads with his
morning coffee about an attack on some
belated pedestrian In fashionable
neighborhood how two men suddenly
sprang from the shadow of a build
ing and confronted him with drawn
revolVers, at the same time command
ing him to throw up his hands and re-
main silent on pain OF death that
there was no chance for the citizen
as against the thief; that the robber
had such an immense advantage over
his victim. surprised and gasping in
front of a revolver that the holdup bus
mess for such It has come To be, would
be easy and comparatively safe.
But does it pay? Is there sufficient
recompense in II for the chances which
the robber really takes Of arrest, of
imprisonment. vi hGFhH sAiAVt
the holdup, of death even at the hands
of police officers? Secretary Gage
declared few weeks ago that the aX
erage amount OF money In the pockets
Of the American people was about 81
per capita. The holdup man often gets
20 or 80 cents from promising looking
subject. Occasionally he gets as many
dollars but the fact is that the amount
of money stolen often swalls mysteri-
ously by the time the complaint is
made to the police.
Is there enough in it to pay for the
risk? Police officials of long expert
ence say that the holdup men now op-
Grating in Chicago are cheap guns.
young inexperienced hoodlums or pov-
erty -strirken hoboes driven to reckless
acts by hunger This statement is
borne out by the facts adduced when
arrests are made in holdup cases. No
old-time crook. no men with police rec
ords have ever been arrested for hold
ups The man who was killed by a
policeman few weeks ago while rob
/ II nj