The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-08-24

Organized Gang Of Negro Boys
Caught by Officers.
Then Sold Their Loot to Stores
on East Side.
Wholesale Capture Of Milk Bot.
ties Was Discovered.

Today, Ed Rooney. county probation
o11lcer and acting judge Of the juvenile
court finished the details Of . case
In which in the last week. he has hrok-
en- up q gang Of boys engaged in q
systematic business Of thievery OF
grain from cars. Rooney is still busy
running down the evidence against
store-keepers who regularly purchaaed
the boys loot and he promisea 10
make trouble for them If he can find
q way to do it. One small colored boy
has been sent to the state industrial
school north Of the city. Six others.
an coiored and ranging from to IL
years OF age. are at liberty under pa
role, the condition being that they
must report at home every night b.
fore 3 o'clock and that il any two OF
them are found together at any time
in the future they will be sent to ~
Industrial school without trial. Rooney
is withholding their names on the
theory that most of them will need NO
further punishment than the scare n.
ready administered.
While stolen wheat was their chief
article of traffic, Rooney has dug I'M
evidence which. added to their con-
fessions. shows they have regularly
robbed downtown barns OF feed ana
that they have done q wholesale busi-
ness in stolen milk bottles, selling
tnem by the case to q purchaser on
East Fourth street at the rate OF
cents each. One OF the boys con-
fessed the theft Of a Salvation Army
drum. 1t was found at q second -hand
| store at Third and Kansas avenue.
where 1t had been sold for s cents.
After a consultation among the
boys they asserted they had stolen
from box cars on the Santa Fe track
| in the last few weeks no less than
1880 pounds of wheat, which thew
had sold to one man, C. e. Crocker. =
groceryman at COL East Eighth street.
at the rate Of cent q pound. When
Rooney visited the Crocker store he
found a sack containing so pounds of
wheat which was Acknowledged to
have been bought from the boya.
/ Man IN HdAt5ess, Too.
I Agents of a local milling company
| are now ON the trail OF a white man
who the boys alleged il regularly. en-
gagged in the buetAeSe 81 robbine wheat
cars Their method consisted in bor-
ing holes in the bottom of cars they
found standing in the yards, waiting
| Until late at night to operate without
molestation, and filling their sacks from
the leaks thus made. Once in q while
! they pried off q board and let the grain
out that way. But 1t was the very bold
ness of their operations when stealing
from private barns that got them into
trouble.
Last Tuesday one Of the boys was
seen by an employee of a Topeka
lumber company as he entered the
barn of r. B. Mckee at 317 West
Sixth street. The lad carried a sack
which he proceeded methodically to
fill at the feed bin. He was turned
over to q policeman with the sack Of
feed still in his possession and when
turned over to the Juvenile court gave
the information which set the pfOba-
ton officer. on the trail Of the whole
gang.
But one IF the boys had previously
been in the custody of the Juvenile
court. 1t was he. Bennie Mcdonald Of
First and Polk street. who was sent to
the Industrial school. The others live
in various parts of Topeka all the way
from Tennessee town to the East side.