The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-02-06
BOYS LOOT RARE.
COIN COLLECTION
In Wanton Mischief They
Wreck Art Treasures.
BY LIGHT OF MAGIC LANTERN
Rich Curios of a Syracuse Clergy man
Ruined by Three Youthful
Vanda1S.

the Holy Land and what is said TO have
been the finest collection of antique
coins in the country, were stolen from
lonely house here in which they We're
stored by their owner. the Rev Jere-
miah Zimmerman. a Lutheran preacher
OF means, who has spent many years
between this city and Palestine.
The robbery was committed by three
lads, none of whom is twenty years old,
who worked by the light of a magic Ian
tern and went about the crime in such
ieisureIy fashion that they spent three
successive nights in the house without
detection.
One of them, Nicholas Cook seven
teen years Old was arrested in Roches-
ter when he tried to sell seventy of the
valuable coins at prices far below their
worth. He was held on suspicion. and.
the police say. made confession, impli-
eating two other young men of this
place, who have been taken into Gus
tody.
Destroyed China.
The three boys not only looted the
house OF everything they could carry
away which they thought they could
sell, but they destroyed F'Iorentine
china, Egyptian pottery and jars, and
other art treasures from Jerusalem
brutaIly, as if they had a special grudge
against the divine. They hacked with
knives rich mahogany furniture, smash
ed stained glass windows, and tore out
all the lead pipe IN the house, selling it
TO Junk dealers. Carpets from Turkey,
Persian rugs, Indian sf?awls. and other
gorgeous fabrics were slashed to rib
hons.
The young men apparently threw
themselves headlong into a carnival of
destruction, which apparently they en-
Joyed so greatly that they overlooked
dozens of salable articles of which they
doubtless could have disposed more cas-
ily than the coins Many of the
rarest pieces OF money were left behind
by the vandalsr in spite of the time they
spent on the work.
The Place Remote.
The sack of the house was made easy
for the lads because it was at a distance
from the preachers residence and be
sides Dr. Zimmerman and his family
Were out of town. The building was
used as a private store house by the
clergyman and nobody had occasion to
visit it except when he was in the city
Cooks confession, il is said, runs that
the three got into the house through a
window and CROPPED theiF way with
matches from floor to floor until they
stumbled across the magic lantern. It
apparently was not until the powerful
rays lighted the little museum that the
destructive impulse seized them, their
visit originally being for the purpose of
Stealing the lead pipe.
No admiration was awakened in the
youths minds by the sight OF the beau
1ifuI objects DIR. Zimmerman had spent
years in collecting. They fingered the
rich rugs carelessly as they would
handle ingram carpets. and tossed the
precious pottery about like common
kitchen ware One of them, in horse
play, threw q costly vase at the wall
and when it shivered 10 flinders the act
melted the others to worse mischief.
They did not rest until the last bits
OF china and glass We're broken. They
then took out their pocketknives and
set TO work on the furniture When
Was ready for the junk heap. they turn
ed their attention to the carpets and
completed the work OF destruction.
On the Third Night
All that was not done in one visit
It was not until the third night that
the young men did the last of their
smashing and slashing. Then they ran
across the coins. and whereas they We're
too ignorant to have an idea Of their
value the fact that they were money
appealed to them Filling their peck
cts with the output of the minis of
the Caesars, the Pharaohs and the
BabyIonian Kings, they shouldered the
lead pipe and slipped out of the house.
Coins that m ght have been used III
paying tribute 10 Belshazzar, irregular
discs Antony might have scattered in
largess among Cleopatra's women, fiat
pieces of metal that once, perhaps,
passed from Roman Golfers to the war
chests Of Hun or ViSigoth jingled with
modern coppers and nicfeis in the peck
cts Of the trio as they FASTENED away
from the lonely spot TO turn their booty
into legal tender
Slight consolation awaits Dr. thinner
man in that many of the coins sold IL
Rochester the police think, will be re-
covered and that part of his whole col
lection escaped discovery by the youth
full burglars. But he has lost more than
the three could repay If they spent tile
rest of their lives in honest work-which
the detectives say they are not likely
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