The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-02-01
BANDITS IN AUTOMOBILES
THERE'S AN Epidemic OF BANK
TOOTING IN KANSAS.
,roelod Robbers Have Looted Thirty
Ranks in Ninety Days, and Escap-
al With 100000 in Plumber.

cd With $1OO,OOU III Iluhuef'
Topeka, Kan.-Always up to
so+o and sometimes spectacular Kan
sos has a new claim to fame. The
Jan1,s If the Sunfower State are be-
:ur robbed by a we'll organized band
- motor pirates. Country bankers
ono frankly terror-stricken,' and the
of+v bankers are growing uneasy.
rormars with fat bank rolls are toss
ing in their beds. Men who have
n,+ their available funds into the
s,,,rding of little but ambitious
ao,,rtrv banks are wondering just
S,o[- soon their little safes will be
Tracked by the masked motor p1-
.o+oo Their fears are by no means
unfounded. S.. ..,..
- the last three months over 30
tarlys have been robbed within the
oonines of the state of Kansas. Over
$40 600 has been taken, and never
bo ALT has as yet decorated the
interior of a jail cell. Not a man
has been arrested, and the clues are
very vague and hard to follow. Kan
sas sherfffs, town marshals, detect
ives and chiefs of police are at their
wits end and the robbers continue
~ dart in and out of the state, raid
ino the richest and most available
hanks apparently at their own pleas
nra The authorities have banded
togather with the Anti-Horse Thief
Associations that are still found
over the state, and are vowing ven
gaance, but so far nothing has come
of all their efforts.
A meeting of sheriffs and police
men was held in Wichita during the
first week of January in an effort
TO devise ways and means for cap
turing the bold marauders. But the
black motor cars filled with masked
banditti still race along the prairie
highways.
Back in Their Old Haunts.
State Bank Commissioner Dolley
of Kansas has taken matters into
his own hands to certain extent,
and has called upon the governors
of Oklahoma and Nebraska to keep
their bandits at home. 1t is the con-
tention of the Kansas authorities
that these midnight marauders dart
across the state line into Kansas
from both Oklahoma and Nebraska,
rob a bank or two between dark and
daylight, and dash back across the
boundary, where the maddened Kan
sans dare not follow them. Okla
hOma and Nebraska resent the i'm
putation and the citizens of these
cOmmonwealths are calling upon
Kansas to remove the mote from her
own eye before trying to locate the
beams in those of her neighbors.
The bandits have undoubtedly
come back into their old haunts.
They are riding the same prairies in
motor cars that they once gallOped
over upon their cayuses. They seem
to find the change altogether profit
able and comfortable as we'll 1t is
safer to make getaway in a big
and powerful racing car than it is to
trust to horsefesh and stamina. 1t
is easier to carry away the "swag"
in a car than it is to put it in
gunnysaCk and tie it to a saddle
horn. Kansas has known bank rob-
bers in the old days. The Kansas
town is poor and uninteresting in
deed that has no story to tell of
the day the stage was held up
couple Of miles out Of town" or of
that other day when the Dalton
gang rode into town and held up
the bank in broad daylight" They
are able many times to show you the
exact spot where the cashier was
killed, or where some bold bandit
was left walloping on the prairie
when his companions were forced
TO gallop out of town.
Get the Goods Every Time.
The bandits who have come back
are possibly not so spectacular as
those OF decade ago, but they get
what they go after Motor cars as
means of marauding are new even
10 Kansas. But three-score raided
banks and few thousand depositors
can testify that they are effective
beyond the dreams of those more
dramatic hold-up men who dashed
INTO town on lean and rangy cow
ponies. Never in it's palmiest days,
When Dodge City, Caldwell and Cof-
IeyYllle were in their heyday, was
there such long list of robberies as
now.
The states of Iowa, Oklahoma, Ne
braska and Texas as well as Kansas
nave suffered from a regular cpl
uemlc of bank robberies during the
past few months, and as many as
uozen different towns in Oklahoma
nave had their banks burglarized.