The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-02
CRIMES ELECT ARE
 THE BANK ROBBERS
Some of Them Are Very BrighI
 Fellows
THEY TRY MANY SCHEMES
Tale of the Flourishing Barbershop and What Happened to Bank Beneath-Robbers' Haley
 on Days Are Past.

 New York, October 1.-"Although by no means sufficient to be described as an epidemic" said an old bank official the other day. ..the number of safes that have lately been broken open in stores and offices are enough to make the old fellows in the banking pusIness recall a type of criminal who used to occasion us a good many uncomfortable forebod- ings for our own strong boxes. Nowa- days, however, the bank burglar is prac- tically ancient history so far the cities and larger towns are concerned.
 The bank burglar, during the period when he flourished most abundantly and successfully, was undoubtedly one of the cleverest of Ill criminaIs-a very aristo- crat of crime, in fact, who had little personal association with less important and capable law-breakers. In working to gain dishonestly a large sum of money at one fell swoop he often proved his ability to have made an honest living if he had been contented with slower progress. for many of the famous bank robberies in the last half of the nine.
  tors could not only "crack a crib'' suc- cessfully but could build up a good busi- ness in some legitimate walk of life sim ply as a means of concealing their real purpose. If a bank had rooms to let either above or below the vault 1t was dangerous business to let them, however seemingly honest and industrious might be the prospective tenant.
 Some of the stories of bank robberies that may still be remembered by news paper readers of hardly more than two decades ago read like fiction of the most sensational character. They are, however, actual criminal history and af- ford many picturesque examples of the fact that truth it sometimes stranger than fiction. Take, for example, the tale of the man who opened a barber shop which runs in this wise:
 Opened Barber Shop.
 A stranger in town once appeared be- fore the cashier of an eastern bank and announced his intention of opening a barber shop. He had noticed that the institution had a couple of rooms to let In the second story and wished to hire them, using one as shop and living in the other, an arrangement that the bank saw no reason to object to. In due time the barber shop was not only opened but prospered. The barber felt he could afford to invite his two brothers to come HnQ Ildke nlIu d NlSlI, dIQ LQe DTOlHeIS took lodgings near the bank, and spent their evenings regularly in the industri- ous barber's company.
 About the same time another stranger, also friend of the successful barber came to the city and took lodgings in a hotel opposite the bank. He soon form ed a habit of crossing the street of a summer evening and sitting on the bank steps with the regular watchmen. And he was surprisingly agreeable compan- lon, the new conner; evening after even ing he told the watchmen stories and sang them songs that kept the whole par ty in a gale of merriment. Meantime the barber and his two Brothers, under cover of this outside diversion were slowly cutting their way through the wall and into the back of the vault that stood next to it. The job was long and tedious-nowadays it would have been im- possible. for so important valut would not back up against any partition wall whatever; but when it was finished the rogues were many thousand dollars richer, to say nothing of what they had made honestly by shaving their patrons among them some oe the officials of the very bank against which their secret abors had been successfully directed
 In another famous robbery, conducted along much the same lines, the thieves lived. for several of the months that are spelt with an R, as peaceful oyster deal-
 
 harmless bivalves in the basement of the banking building and directly under the vault. In another case 1t was a dentist Instead of a barber who hired rooms over the bank and even filled teeth for some of it's unsuspecting officials, thus, one might say, restoring in advance some of the gold which he and his companions later successfully extracted from it's sup posed strong boxes. And in yet another Instance, the room adjoining the vault was turned into a shoemarker's quarters, where the disguised cracksmen cheer fully cobbled all day and then spent a portion of each night slowly worming their way into the bank.
 Despite the great number of successful burglaries of this kind-and from about 1860 to the last decade of the century they were almost too numerous men, tion-the number of unsuccessful at- tempts was very much greater The bank robber was not always as smart as he thought himself and he by no means in- variably succeeded in opening safe even when he had all night to do it in. Some .. times the safe foiled him; more fre- quently the gang was interrupted before It had been given a flair chance'' al the vault at all; and at other times the sound of the explosion made in blowing off the lock. or bursting steel doors in aroused outside suspicion The story is told of one gang of robbers who so com pletely misjudged the amount of explo- sive necessary to open a safe that they not only nearly wrecked the whole bank building itself but woke up everybody in the neighborhood. Tn the great majority of cases in fact, the burglars were un- successful although, as in other profes- sions the most expert among them made comparatively few failures.
 A Picturesque Robbery.
 One of the most picturesque of Amer ican bank robberies occurred in a good sized eastern city where, even if off, cials were still as gullible, the modern safeguards of bank vaults. to say noth- ing of the practical and moral value of such institution as the Holmes Patrol or the Bankers Protective association would nowadays unquestionably prevent similar occurrence. In this case the cashier was approached late in the after noon by stalwart policeman who de- manded an audience in the name of the local chief of police. Naturally the au- dience was granted and the stalwart or hcer explained that the authorities had discovered a proposed attempt to rob the hank that very night. The robbers. how sver. were unknown, and it was desirable 10 catch them redhanded: to this end the chief suggested that detail of his men he secretly admitted to the bank. just af- fer sundown. and concealed there until the robbers entered and began operations.