Show FEV TRAINS HELD UP Extra Precautions Employed by Express Ex-press Companies Have Effect Chicago News In the year 1S93 there were 33 railroad trains held up in this country by imitators of the James and Younger gangs says the Cincinnati TimesStar The next year the number was 34 It was 49 in 1893 and last year dropped to 23 In the last seven years there have been 183 trains held up or wrecked for he pur l > i > 5e of robbery The number of persons per-sons killed in the perpetration of this train wrecking or holding up crime erh edu v as 73 the number wounded 58 The ttnallness of the record for 1896 may he partially accounted for by the fact that passengers and crews have recently I fallen Into a way of fighting train I wrekers There were several instances In 1896 of deliberate plans having been made by railroad officials to trap train I I roWhers and kill them and the plans wtrt successfully carried out a fact I which proved decidedly discouraging to the train robbing profession The I mortality in 1896 was four among passengers j pas-sengers and 23 among trainmen j o frequent and so desperate have i been many of these efforts at train I robbing that the idea has become more I I or less popular in Europe that railway travel in the United States is about 1 as dangerous as is travel in private conveyance In the brigrnd districts of Italy and Sicily and it cannot be dnied that there is considerable justification I justi-fication for the prevalence of this idea It is not many months since three or four beardless boys were sent to the Penitentiary from Rome N Y For the crime of train wrecking But terms in the penitentiary are not regarded as an adequate punishment for this monstrous crime and so the penal code of the Empire state has recently been revised placing train wrecking among the capital crimes Hereafter any man in New York state found guilty of train wrecking will suffer the same punishment as does any man found guilty of murder in the first decree de-cree An idea of the magnitude of the danger to railroad travel in the United States is prevalent on this side of the Atlantic and it finds voice in the elaborate arrangements for defense made by the several express companies of the country in their cars devoted to the transportation of valuables The interiors of some of the express I cars have the appearance of veritable arrenals In fact some of the cars are Called arsenal cars They have a but let proof room located in the center They are built of steel one and one half inches in thickness The doors leading into either end of these compartments com-partments are punctured with peep holes through which a gun can be ranged and fired On either side is a steel projection a foot wide extending from the level of the window sell to The roof At each end at the side of this arrangement a porthole is provided pro-vided so that a rifle may be used to I sweep the side of eep the train front or rear or to shoot from a side hole in any direction from this bomb proof I These are only some of the many fea tures of the ideal arsenal car that has come into use on account of the frequency fre-quency of train wrecking and train I lobbing These precautions have been thought necessary by the astute man I aKi > 01 me express companies Meantime the United States govern ment that is engaged in transporting uables in mail cars has taken no I such precautions to protect the proper ty intrusted to its care To be sure the recently constructed mail cars have no door at each end accessible to the train robbers but they have doors on the sides to which an expert robber can find access and where the rail way mail clerk could answer and does answer frequently a summons to open Millions and millions of dollars are every week sent through the United States mail in these I unprotected mail cars If the train is held up if the robber I succeeds in finding his entrance to the railway mail ear and the valuables from the United States mail bags are rifled the owners have no recourse The government refuses to be responsible It Is probable that to this lack of re I Y sponsibillty the governments laxity in taking necessary precautions against train robbing may be attributed The express companies recognize their responsibility re-sponsibility and prepare themselves accordingly ac-cordingly The government seeing satisfied sat-isfied to trust to luck and unfortunately unfortu-nately the patrons also of the United States mail service trust to luck The fact that the warm and fatal reception given robbers last rear reduced the number of train robberies and train wreckings it would seem ought to be accented as a reason why the government govern-ment should take as radical measures I as have the exoreas companies A j i knowledge that mail cars like express i cars were little else than moving arsenals i ar-senals together with such drastic measures as have just been adopted in New York state wOuld go a long way I toward making train robbing in America Amer-ica an almost unheard of crime |