Year: 1874

TIE REVIVAL or BRIGANDAGE.


Kidnapping and brigandage are generally
regarded as obsolete. The advances made Of
late years in the means of rapid communica-
ton, the facilities for pursuing and rescuing
captives and furnishing captors and above all
the wide publicity attainable by means OF the
press, which surrounds every such attempt
with hosts of volunteer detectives, have joined
to make this one of the rareSt of crimes.
Even in thnly settled and ill governed dis
tricts like Southern Italy, the pursuit has ceased
to be lucrative, and the frightful instance of
it in Greece four years ago, by which sever9f
members of the British Legation losS the'r
lives, promises fairly to finish che record OF
brigandage in its classic bone. For while the
enormous sum which Che brlgand5 OF Marathon
were to have received i'll exchange for Their
prisoners was enough to excite the cupldlty
of thousands Of the adventurous mOuntaineers
Of Thessaly and Epirus, the tumult raised
throughout the world by this performance was
sufficient to convince even these Ignorant rob-
Der tribes that their lives would be worthless
after repetition of such exploits. They would
have been hunted like wild beasts to their
death.


1t is a proof of hopeless decentralization in a
Government when human beings can be kid
mapped and their captOrs escape unhurt. The
worst sign we have as yet seen OF the social
condition of Spain is that there appears to be
something like a revival of brigandage In Its
mountains. A century ago, nothing was COM
moner than the capture of travelling party
for robbery and ransom. One OF the heroes OF
modern Spanish romance Is that redOubtaDle
cheftain Jose Maria, who it is said robbed
with such grace and distinction that English
miladis were heart broken when their ransoms
arrived But this was not so far distant from
the time when the English highway was infested
with robbers, and the Forest of Bondy was the
haunt of French bandtti. OF late years it was
hoped that Spain, like all other countries. had
freed itself from this pest. Shortly after the
murder of the Englishmen in Greece there
was great excitement over the seizure of two
English merchants near Gibraltar. They paid
large ransom, and of course applied to their
Government for indemnity There was shrewd
suspicion that they and their robbers were
old acquaintances, and the whole perform
ance was q scheme to extract money from the
Spanish treasury. But if that were true, the
scheme miscarried. 1t happened at that time
that blood was more plentiful in Spain than
cash, and the authorities sent out detach-
ment after the gay rovers, who put so much
celerity into their work that the brigands were
killed and the money retaken before the For
eign Office had time to ehaiier over the de-
mand for indemnity. The present case may
resemble that former one, though it now





Arthur Haselden of Linares. is reported as
captured by band in the Sierra Morena, the
scene OF Don Quixote's amorous melancholy,
and held for ransom. 1t is greatly to Mar
shal SeTano's interest that he shall investi-
gate this matter and do what is necessary to
save the Englishmap alive, if he desires re-
c0eEition from other nations beside that SO
ably represented by Gen. Cushing.


The United States would perhaps do well
not to complain too loudly of brigandage in
other countries until the authorities of Phila-
delphia have gained at least some clue to the
fate of little Charlie Ross. A child has been
kidnapped in broad day, and ever since the
afflicted father has been in active correspond.
ence with some unknown criminals for the
return of his boy. To this hour there is
nothing to indicate who the stealers are, who
the unknown correspondents are, whether
there is any connection between them, or
whether the latter are not merely preparing
an independent plot to extOrt money from the
fathers sorrow. A notorious rascal has been
arrested on suspicion of writing the letters
but even if he wrote them it by no means
follows that he knows anything about the
roi cIn tha Il
potence of all the appliances of civilization
when confronted by cunning and audacious
crime. 1t is no eXaggeration to say
that, in addition to tho police of
Philadelphia and those of other cities
who have been informed of the case and re-
auestcd to assist in it, there arc thousands of
people all over Pennsylvania and adjoining
States eagerly anxious TO aid in the rescue of
the stolen child and the punishment of the
miscreants who have Kidnapped him. But all
this mass of sympathy and will is as yet use
less against the vulgar adroitness of one or
two thieves. II is painful to think of the
probable result of the hunt. If the child is
still alive, his captors must have already re-
lnquished all hope OF making money out of
him. and his life remains hcnccf0rth merely
an embarrassment for them, unless they have
him now in some place 80 safe that they can
defy pursuit, and wait until the hue and cry
is over to commence negotiations again with
the stricken parents. 1t is hard to suggest a
remedy for misfortune like this-in some
sense O public one. for no mother in the
Quaker City feels so safe in the possession of
her child as she did q month ago. We eau