The Portland daily press., 1900-10-11
Was No Money in the
Till.
Burglars We're Frightened
Away by Two Hen.


night when the bookkeeper for S. A.
Shilling & Co., lobster dealers, whose
place Of business is on the south side of
Commercial street, nearly opposite the
Custom house, locked up the Office,
turned out the lights and started home
through the rain. The bookkeeper is the
son of Mr.. SIX filings, and when he left
the shop there were very few people on
Commercial street, and those who were
abroad were hurrying home through the
falling rain as fast as possible. The
bookkeeper could not have been ont of
the Office more than few minutes when
the side window which opens on a little
pier on which the shop is situated was
forced open with a chisel. Three men,
yet unknown, climbed in through the
window and began to drill the safe which
stands In the Office near the window
looking out on to the street. They bored
hole through the top and middle of the
safe and then poured enough powder in
side Of 1t to fire a thousand pound pro-
jectiIe long distance. When all was
ready they set fire to the fuse au1 got
out OF the room. The explosion which
followed was a loud one and was heard
some distance away. Nothing was used
to deaden the sound Of the explosion as
is usually dons by professional safe
blowers. The entire job seems to have
been the work OF amateurs.
Mitchell Blackburn and John Herbe rt
board nearly opposite the SkilIings lob
ster shop. They heard the explosion and
ran across the street to see what had
happened They saw that the window
looking out onto Commercial street was
shattered and that smoke was coming
cut into the street through the holes In
the glass. They proceeded to look into
the matter at closer range when a re-
volver was showed out OF the window
almost into their faces.
"Get the hi out OF here or Will blow
your block off, growIed a deep voice
inside the shop and the men stood not
upon the order Of their going, but ran
across Commercial street. Then three
men were seen to come through the side
window of the shop and go down Com
merciaI street on the run. One Of hese
men was described as being about six
feet tall, Weighing about $50 pounds with
small dark mustache, a black SLOUGH
hat and dark overcoat. Blackburn and
Herbert did not get good look at the
other two men and could not given any
description of them.
PatroIman Madden and his partner
were down on Franklin wharf where the
Boston boat was getting ready to leave
her dock. Some one ran down and told
the officers Of the safe blowing and they
hurried to the spot as fast as they could
but by this time the burglars had disap-
peared. The police officers after COM
municating with headquarters. got into
the shop which was filled with powder
smoke In the small office they found
things in pretty bad shape. The safe
door had been blown open with such
force that it had cut into the end drawers
Of an oak desk and left mark there
some inches deep. A bottle Of Ink which !
was on the top Of the safe had been
blown against the wall and the floor and
wall about the safe was. covered with
ink. The steam pipes had been carried
away by the force Of the explosion, the
glass in the windows shattered and the
floor was Uttered with papers and books. |
Within the safe nothing had apparent |
" bsen. disturbed. There had been no
attempt made TO force open the compart- |
ments IN which money is usually kept,
because the burglars had been frigh tened
away before they had time to make
much OF an investigation. There was
no money in the safe anyway. It never
has been the custom Of the firm to leave
any money in the safe or about the
premises during the night. The joke Of 1t
all was that until few days ago there
was a tag on the door of the safe which
read something like this:
'This safe is not locked and contains
no valnables. Turn the handle a half
turn to the left and the door viii open. -
For some reason this tag had been torn
OF few days ago and had not been
replaced. With little Investigation the