The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1907-11-15
IS. BEING
STOLEN FROM
MERCHANTS
Packages are Opened and Por.
ton of Contents Taken
EVIL HAS BEEN INCREASING
Fruit, Candy, Crackers and Liquors
Subject to Toll While Being
Brought to Town.

An increasing amount of theiying
OF freight belonging to Bennington
merchants is in progress somewhere
between the point of shipment and the
different places of business up and
down Main street, and as yet the rail-
road officials have been unable TO put
their hands upon the guilty parties.
Pilfering OF a small nature is feature
of business from which the merchants.
have never been absolutely free, but
of late the losses have been larger and
the indignation of the merchants has
increased accordingly Anything that
is eatable seems to be classed as free
plumber and package after package is
broken into and portion, sometimes
not very large. but many times of suf-
flcient amount to make good hole in
the profits, is taken.
Fruit has been apparently subject
to toll for a long time. Boxes of
oranges. showing that the package had
been tempered with and few missing
are frequently received. The loss
is so small that il hardly pays the
merchant TO make complaint and
numerous instances OF this nature
have been allowed to pass with only a
little grumbling on the part OF the re-
cipient
Candy is another article that Is re-
garded lightly by some parties who
come in contact with the railroad, and
If the pilferers only took a little to eat
the merchants who deal in that class
OF goods would probably charge the
shortage up to profit and loss. kick a
little and forget it, but when, as was
the case with T.. b. Hart, shipment
| is found q pounds short the toll be.
comes larger than the portion re-
ceived by the dealer. Within a month
Mr.. Hart has lost s pairs of fine shoes
six cans OF beans and two cans of
| soup.
Thos J. Morrissey of North street
| has found that his freight comes in
contact with parties who are not only
hungry but who believe in cleanliness,
for they not only take his sardines
| and crakers but recently they lifted a
whole box of soap.
When l., Corsigilia finds that his
! fruit is shy an orange or two or a
! handful grapes he protests vigorously.
| but when he opens box of high grade
sardines and finds that seven cans
! have been extracted he puts in a
claim for damages.
r. b. Patterson has lost fruit for
! some time but of late his fancy crack
ers have reached him with a shortage
so large that he is determined to let
the railroad company have the whole
of the next consignment If it reaches
him in the same shape.
A. c. Lmarre & Co, complain par.
ticularly of the thefts of crackers and
cookies. The top row in the tin box
es is frequently missing as the glass
| front to each package can be remov-
ed to admit the thief's hand If the
glass cannot be moved ii is often bro
| ken.
Liquors are frequently held up in
transit. A barrel of whiskey fire.
quently reaches the dealers here with
tigation will disclose that one of the
hoops has been pushed toward the
head, that a nail has been driven
through a stave and through the hole
thus made a quantity OF the liquid has
4 been drawn. The hole Is then plug.
/ ged with a small piece of soft wood
and the hoop forced back into place
One liquor dealer on two different in
stances has had three quart bottles Ia
ken from cases and during the summer
he frequently lost bottled beer.
The railroad officials are not only
/ making every effort to trace the thiey
ing to its source but have promptly
paid the claims that have been pre-
scented. 1t is evident that most Of the
thefts are committed somewhere be
tween Bennington and Troy and the
/ guilty parties are bound sooner OF
later, to be detected and punished.