Year: 1875

| -- INTO COAL MINE, 4
about mile from the mouth of the slope,
and hidden in one of the chambers. "Here
at least said the thieves cit is entirely
safe" But Subsequent events proved the
fallacy Of this belief The money was re-
gularly visital every day, and one fine morn
| ing it was discovered that other thieves were
on the trail of the stolen treasure. This
time it was the rats. They gnawed hole in
| the pillow-case and were chewing Uncle
Sans green-backs Maledictions were free
ly poured out on the rodents and notifca-
tion was sent out for full meeting Of the
thieves once more Each was afraid to
take charge of the money personally, and


the raid of the rats led them to conclude


that division should be made at once.


Accordingly while the other parties waited
outside two of the robbers entered the mine
at midnight, obtained the money and con-
veyed it back to the grocery store already
mentioned. As they were about to count
| it, they encountered


AN INTERRUPTION,


and they went up stairs into cold room,
leaving the money in cracker barrel down
stairs. The parties who caused the inter
ruption were three old men who came in to
sit down and smoke their pipes as custo-
mary in country stores. Presently they
| commenced


A DISCUSSION on CRACKERS
! in the course Of which the merits of good
and bad ones brought forth lively dispute
much to the annoyance of the men upstairs
4 who overheard the story, and who feared
every moment that some of the disputants
would 90 to the barrel, III which the money
| lay to take a sample cracker to sustain his
! argument. The thieves were afraid that
another division of the spoils would be ne
/ cessary to shut the old men up, but for
| tunately the cracker controversy was cut
short, by the Introduction of the Beecher-
Tilton trial much to the relief Of the rob-
/ bers. But the disputants were long -winded,
and no FIRE being upstairs the robbers were
! shivering with the cold, and one Of them
proposed to 90 down and "clean the old
men out They finally left, having ex-
hausted popular topics, and the thieves
trembling with the cold, descended and
warmed themselves by the stove. The
money was again removed from the crack
er-barrci and it was about 10 be counted
over again, when .-..--..--


ANOTHER RAP At THE DOOR
prevented it. The robbers on this occas-
ion thought they would not run the risk
Of another freezing, and accordingly those
! that were not known in that section Of the
town, pretended to be under the Influence
of liquor and one of them laid his head on
the knees Of his confederate, while those
who interrupted remained in the store


This interruption was caused by the wife
of the proprietor Of the store who came in
to get some potatoes which lay in the bar
rel next to that in which the money was
re-deposited and the thieves feared that the
woman would put her hand into the wrong
barrel, so they were again in agony, until
she left. --.-.. ---.---.


After her departure the door was lock
ed, and the thieves resolved that under no
circumstances would anyone be admitted
until they couuted their funds.


The money was counted and divided
without further interruption, and the party
broke up at the peep of day, each setting
out in different direction for his home
FINDING THE FUNDS.


One Of the parties set out for Bingham
ton, where he was captured week later,
and his share of the money found in stable
| Another was arrested on Saturday last at
his house, and his share of the money was
discovered in a snow-bank, frozen over, at
short distance from his house another
Of har thro,
| the instrumentaity of the third robber. it
being concealed among his friends The
share of the forth party was found in an
old earthenware jug in the cellar of his
| house.


There was subdivision Of the money
| also, into sums of fifty, one hundred and
! two hundred dollars, and a number of those
who We're engaged in the first plot for the
proposed night-robbery suspecting those
| who were engaged in the actual robbery
insisted on receiving their. share, and SO
black mailed the successful thieves, until
! their shares dwindled down to very small
proportions. ID


Ia addition to this the thieves began to
| steal from each other, and so succeeded in
mixing up the different shares until it be-
came complicated problem indeed to trace
| the actual sum in the possession of each
one. -T #


a'" TRACING THE THIEVES.


The manner in which the parties were
hunted down by the detectives forms an
interesting chapter in the history of this
curious crime. The first clue was obtained
from several of the sterekeepers who OBJ
served two Of the principal robbers in the
vicinity of the bank during. the forenoon of
the day on which the robbery was commit
ted. Tbese. were the characters that did
the outside watching. Their reputation was
welf known to be none Of the best, and an
investigation was at once set on foot by the
! detectives, which has eliminated so sue
cossfnllv. 4 careful surveillance of the