The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-06-05
EPIDEMIC OF
BURGLARIES IN
old LONDON
CLAIMED THAT POLICE, WHILE
OFF DUTY, HAVE JOINED IN THE
WHOLESALE ROBBERY OF
HOMES, WHOSE OWNERS WERE
AWAY ON vAcATIoNs-MA
ARRESTS HAVE REEN4naADE.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS


London. June A nswsboy saw a
man scale u stone wall the csner day
From this trivial circumstance have
resulted disclosures OF an alliance be-
tween certain uniformed members Of
the London police force and thieves and
highwaymen under which the police
nave not only aided the thieves, but
have actually turned thieves them
selves in their hours off duty.
Almost every London Householder
has been in the habit OF calling I'D
the police department on The eve of his
vacation to ask him to guard his un-
occupied hcme. Consequently, the de-
iartment has an enormous HIST of un-
occupied houses. The numbers Of these
houses are given the members OF the
force with instructions to watch for
burglars.
Recently there has been an. epidemic
of burslaries IN the; outlying residential
section of the city. Practically all the
,coted houses were homes OF persons
away on vacation who had notified the
department of their plans. Very few
of the burglars nave been caught: In
fact, the patrolmen on tina beat where
the burglaries occurred invariably re-
ported that they had seen no suspected
characters in the neighborhood- To
make the problem still more difficult.
the burglarbes were seldom discovered
until weeks afterwards when the own
ers returned home
-
the thief ridden section OF the suburbs.
saw d man climb over the wall OF a
large garden surrounding a mansion
that sits back well from the roadway
He had read Of the burglariess his
suspicious were aroused and he sum
mcnci The nearest policeman, having
telephcned already TO the precinct sta
ton Within few minutes a Gordon
of boobies and detectives closed about
the mansion.
Three burglars were captured, red
handed. OF the trio captured two were
found to be policemen, one OF them,
indeed, the man who did police duty
eight hours a day on the beat where
the mansion was located. The news
boy glimpsed the escaping burglar and
asserted that he. too was 81 policeman
The third prisoner was q notorious
thief.
Since the arrest Of the burglar-po-
licemen an investigation has revealed
that the case is by no means excep-
tional, and that the immunity from ar
rest enjoyed by many London burglars
is due to a widespread alliance with
the police. Reluctantly, the Lon6oner
is abandoning the old custom Of noti-
fying the police when he expects to
take vacation. Instead. he is adopt
ing the American habit OF joining with
his neighbors in employing a watch
man. The first instructions given the
Waterman are to watch the police.
1t has not yet been necessary to en-
ploy someone to watch the Waterman.
likely that the Londoner will dispense
with his vacation altogether. i
All Great Britain, apparently, is try
ing to invent a perpetual motion ma |
chine-only Great Britain calls 1t a
'seif-moving engine" The past year |
has ripened a crop of one a week. The |
wires and bones of models may be |
found bleaching in hundreds on the |
shelves of the patent office. 1t goes |
without saying that not one shows the |
slightest inclination to move itself.
Varied and often pathetic are the |
histories of the inventors. Not a few |
of them have spent the years OF their |
prime in the chase of this unattainable |
thousands of pounds IN the quest; still |
others have trailed the quarry into the |
insane asylums. If all the wasted en- |
ergy spent in seeking the solution of |
this problem had been converted into |
the beaten channels of endeavor, the |
patent office officials believe there |
would be few problems of mechanics |
left today unsolved.
Professor e. C. Green of the United |
States department of agriculture Is in |
London preparing for n three years
stay in the interior of Brazil, where he |
hopes to teach the natives how to raise |
cotton. Professor Green has been |
loaned" to the Brazilian government |
by Washington, and in his moments of /
leisure from teaching cotton growing |
he will collect various botanical and |
geological specimens for the American |
government.
He believes that Brazil has the pos |
sIhility of becoming the greatest cotton |
growing country in the world unless |
unknown ingredients in the soil make /
it's cultivation on a large scale I'M |
practicable. This is what Professor |
Green will try to discover, for he is |
convinced that climatically there is no /
reason why Brazil should not raise |
cotton: also he believes The best quality |
can be grown there as soon as the 1
growers understand the latest methods |
of cultivating Ii.
At the present time the country is /
producing 10000 bales yearly. not |
enough to keep the mills of Rio ia
neiro supplied.