Evening star., 1914-01-25

With the advent of winter crime in
Washington increased and some of the
misappropriators of the
Daylight property of others became
Rohberv unusually bold. In The
so""~AJ' Star of January 20. 1864.
is the following account of a daylight
robbery which startled the city:
Friday afternoon. about 3 O'Clock (the
news was not published until five days
later as Mr.. John S. Anderson, a mes
senger of the banking house of l.. John
son & Co., was passing the corner of
9th street, on the Avenue. having in his
possession S1.Ol5.J0. which he had just
received from the Bank of Washington,
two men approached him hurriedly, one
on each side The one on his right
asked where the 9Th street cars ran to
and from, Mr.. Anderson turned to
answer him, but. feeling some one rub
against him roughly, he turned in the
other direction to see who it was. The
man who questioned him then remarked,
We go the same way, matter which,
and both started and ran. Mr.. Anderson
Immediately saw that he had been rob-
bed of his wallet and money, and. rais-
ing the cry of Stop, thief" pursued
them. They ran over the Avenue to the
wagon stand and got among the wagons,
but MIR. Anderson overlook and arrested
one, who did not have the money, and
the other escaped. Mr.. Anderson turned
his prisoner over to Detectives McDevitt
and Clarvoe and Patrolman Brewer of
the third ward. who were soon on the
spot. The prisoner gave his name as
George Payne. and was confined in the
station house for a hearing. Sunday he
was taken out for an examination before
Justice Clayton. but the examination was
postponed until Monday, when the prose-
cutting witnesses We're notified by the
justice that the case was further post
poned till Wednesday, at O'Clock pm.
In The Star of the next day a brief
paragraph noting that when the case
not appear and the justice dismissed the
case the presumption being that the
money had been recovered.
Another daring robbery is reported in
The Star of January %, 1864. The cellar
of a grocer at the corner Of
Grocery 18th and L streets was found
r, broken open and four fir
AooIeu' kins Of butter, go pounds of
cheese nearly 400 pounds of pork, six
dozen tumblers, several kits of mackerel.
over 900 pounds of sugar sack or two
of flour and q quantity of liquor, the loot
altogether being valued at over 5000, had
been taken away. Not only had the
thieves taken all this plunder, but they
opened a stable across the street and
stole a horse and wagon to remove the
groceries; Several robberies of this kind
had occurred In the same neighborhood
within a few weeks, and the double crime
Just described brought the residents of
the second ward to the point of consider
ing the establishment Of patrol for their
own protection.
For some time during the winter of
1854 Washington was the scene of a
remarkable industry, con-
Kidnaping sisting of no less than the
u..- virtual kidnapping of negro
AecA uAIs' recruits for shipment
north, where they commanded higher
prices than in Washington. In The Star
of January %. 1864. is the following par
agraph:
..The pertinacity with which the bro
kers in recruits hold to their business
here Of spiriting away negro recruits from
the District is accounted for by the fact
that in some of the states-Connecticut,
for instance-the colored recruit counts
for as much to the broker as the white
recruit, and the pay for such recruits
amounts to the snug sum of 500 each.
or thereabouts in township, county, state
and United States bounties. An outcry is
made by the Understanding agents
that their business of picking up
recruits here has been stopped. But
they do not publish the fact that
in their own states an interdict has been
nut by the state authorities upon any re-
cruiting from abroad in the territory.
If this District does not similarly protect
itself by insisting that foreign recruiting
agents shall stop their work here 1t will
have time of it In filling up the heavy
quota allotted to it by the conscription.'