The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-03-07

pears 10 be the most completely
crushed victim Of capital combination,
says the Boston Transcript. He has /
yielded to the inevitable with the Ia
talistic philosophy common to his kind. !
The days of the professional in my I
line" said John ). Brush, dean OF /
American bank burglars. as he entered 7,
Sing Sing for q five years term, are I
ended. The current number of the !
Financial Age shows that a modus Vi +
Vendi. something in the nature of an
armed truce, tacit ana informal, but
perfectly well understood, exists be- {
tween the fraternity of bank burglars
and the American Bankers associa-
ton The report of that association, :
in the Financial Age, declares that no
professional burglar or foTger win /
knowingly attack member of the as
ISOLATION.
OF the fourteen burglaries committed
on members of the association during
the year just ended. only one was COM
mitted by a PROFESSIONALISM other
thirteen by wandering tramps C'Yegg-
men, the associations annual report
calls them), not sufficiently intelligent
to know about the A. 3. A. "At Prince
vile, Ills., says the associations re-
port, burglars who had entered the
Auten q Auten bank with heavy tools
stolen for the work accidentally dis
A. 3. A.. and, placing it upon the pay
ing teller's counter, abandoned the job
at once And when a burglar discoV-
ers that he has unwittinSly come into
conflict with the a. p. A. he at once
adopts the policy OF the coon TO Davy
Crockett, exacting only such conces-
sions as he can in the way of light
sentence.
Attitude of the Burglar.
This attitude of the burglar. even il
not inspired by wholly benevolent mo-
tives, Is, nevertheless, a very handsome
one: and all that the burglars ask in
exchange is that the members of the
association keep their membership
signs conspicuously posted where bur-
glars can see them and be warned. The
same men who dropped their tools on
discovering an a. 3. a. sign at Prince
vile, Ills, says the annual report.
subsequently successfully attacked
the safe of the First National bank OF
Abingdon, Ills. a member of the as
social ton, whose sign they did not see.
When the collective power of the asso-
citation pursued and caught them, the
remark Of the burglars was, why
don't you put your sign where man
can see it?" And one feels there was
justice i'm their indignation. The asso-
bers throughout the country. with spe-
cial information and precautionary adj
vice. urging them to keep their MEM
bership signs prominently displayed at
the paying teller's window. Several re-
quests to replace lost signs with new
! ones followed the issue of this circu-
I lar. and a notable instance of the need
of 50 doing occurred when a band who
had been active in safe robbery in sew
I -, -k,E l. III.
/ far as known, upon a member OF the
/ associatiOn-the First National bank OF
/ Irwin, Pa. For some time prior to the
attack this bank had been without its
membership sign, which had been with
( out its membership sign. which had
! been broken and never replaced. on
/ the night Of Dec. S its vault was blown
| open and robbed of $3.50 in loose cash.
| together with stamps and bonds placed
with the bank for safe keeping.
Not So in Old Days.
1t was not so in the old days. A bold
and def adventurer could crack a safe
/ at midnight, put a hundred miles be-
! tween himself and his enemy by bank
| ing hours in the morning, and the sub
sequent contest Of wits and slipperi-
ness and daring, between a single bank
and a single burglar the burglar usual
/ ~ won No one bank could afford to
! spend more than a few hundred dollars
at most on Il burglar hunt. Once the
thief got more than few miles away
/ he was reasonably safe In those days.
! with a rather low element of risk, bank
! breaking was an attractive and profit
I able occupation for reckless spirits
/ But now the safe cracker is pursued
J by not only~one, but 1000, banks. So
] small a sum as $40 a year from every
member of this association makes a
/ fund of $4,000 TO hunt burglars. The
1 A. =. A. is as much at home in Arizona
! as in New York. Instead of the mea-
! ger reward that single bank could
/ offer, there is an unlimited fund for
| the pursuers to draw upon. During
] the year just ended the A. b. a. spent
/ SSS. 1886 in the detection of burglars
| The association employs the Pinker-
ton detective agency all the year round.
( Its instructions are: spare not money.
! spare not time; get the man." To this
| the PinkertOn agency adds the injunc-
/ ton, Spare not human life Last
year one Pinkerton man was murdered
| in the performance Of the American
! Bankers associations work. The bur
! glar. forger. thief or petty swindIer
/ who takes so much as a single dollar
/ from a member of the A. B. A. thereby
sets in motion a relentless pursuit, or
| SdlllLeO, SySLtIldLlCs DuSlneSS-llke. WITH
unlimited patience. broad experience
! and expert knowledge of burglars. The
! y. 3. A. never gives up. it has today
/ men still on the trail of the gang who
at noon on Sept. 49, 1900. held up
/ Nevada bank and took $50, 617 The
| most highly cOlOred picture OF royal
vengeance and espionage that ever
thrilled a historic novel reader falls
/ short Of the war which the a B. a
wages on the criminal who molests one
! of its members.
An Instance.
Some months ago, the National Bank
Of Union. Missouri, telegraphed the A.
b. A. headquarters that burglars had
attacked them. The PinkertOn agency
at st. Louis was warned and within a
few hours their detectives were on the
scene. The burglars had been of the
! most desperate character. They made
no effort 10 conceal the noise of the
nitroglycerine they used, ard when a
nearby resident looked out the window
! TO see what was the matter they shot
MIN, with vOlleys Of bullets. One burg
lar kept the entire town frightened
and under cover. while the other
| worked over the safe For a long time
| the Pinkerton men failed TO find any
clue. Finally. Detective Schumacher
tlearned that ar unknown man had been
| lettering about the town several days
! before the robbery and when last seen
had walked away in the direction Of
| stanton. At Stanton il was learned
NnaaH