| Show CTCCT1VES — GeorgeBarton The Blue Bordered Banlt Motes Howd curious std§c todch robbery was solved by Captain James Nish ofrne Edinburgh Mice force COPYNCNT (St! BY 9 CHAPMAN HIS Is a story of the roman- ground to help the lady and gentletic days of the stage man out of the coach coach Nish a that time Captain James It tells how the shrewdness of a quiet was connected with the police departmodest He was a shrewd Scotch detective ment of Edinburgh Scotchman who solved the mystery of one said little and thought much He had earned a reputation of the strangest robberies as a careful painstaking officer He of the day and succeeded eventually In landing a trio of smart thieves be- possessed also a trait that is not suphind the thick walls of an Edinburgh with bis counposed to be common prison trymen — a sense of humor At the time Queen Victoria occupied So Captain Nish was put in charge the British throne the Prince Regent He of the Prince Regent coach case coach running between Glasgow and first made a careful investigation of was one of the most popuEdinburgh the vehicle He went about his work of lar means of transportation in Scot- systematically kind the He found land Those who proposed saw that must have been used in makmaking the journey found It necessary to book ing the hole between the coach proper their passage many( days in advance and the boot After that be made a Besides the persons who declaration: occupied “This Job was not done by a carplaces On the inside and outside of the coach the line also carried mail and penter" “Don’t you think so?” asked an ofexpress packages One morning a box containing notes ficer of the company and gold to the value of J30000 was “No I am certain of it Moreover deposited with the driver of the coach I am satisfied that it was not even with instructions to guard it very done by a mechanic” It was from the Commercarefully “Why?” cial bank of Glasgow' “Because it has been bungled to the main It is headquarters of that institution in the work of a man who has not been The to handling tools” accustomed driver after receiptEdinburgh After that he obtained a full deing for the valuable package which was in reality a tin box put it in the scription of the missing notes To boot of the coach This boot his great joy he found that' they had was a large wooden enclosure on the one characteristic that made them notes side of the vehicle used for the purfrom most that of the different were In circulation at that time pose of carrying valuables of all sorts to The driver locked this box and They had blue borders make assurance doubly Bure put the So Captain Nish went from one end of Scotland to the other looking for key In his pocket On arriving in Edinburgh the coach- commercial bank notes with blue borman who had driven the last stage of ders In this task he was assisted by For quite the journey and who had received the a number of other officers his predecessor alighted a while their labors were without rekey from and opened the boot The tin box was sults It seemed as though all of the were of thistles in the notes there but it had been rifled Every country and the without blue borders penny of the paper money its But Captain Nish was p man of gold had been abstracted from extraordinary patience Most Scotchplace The two drivers had been with the men are He haunted the company for a number of years and of the university city and visited the of resorts where crooks are wont to con- them 0 one suspected having 0 “Of course it is” said the captain have you got?” “I have a note with a blue border and what’s more it’s one of the missing- bills" The detective could scarcely retain He turned to his his “what host with great intensity “Where is it?” The landlord pulled out a bill and exhibited It to the police officer There could be no possible doubt about its identity It was one of the notes that had been taken from the tin box that was carried by the Prince Regent coach on that eventful evening more than a month before "Where did you get it?” asked the officer “I received it from George Grey an old soldier who is in the habit of coming here in the evening" The next step on the program was to locate George Grey That was not a difficult matter because at the same time on the following evening he was at his accustomed table at the “Pump Handle” calling for his glass of hot grog (He was delighted to meet Captain Nish and had no hesitancy whatever in telling him where he had reHe said ceived the blue bank note that on the previous Sunday he had He taken a walk into the country described his trip with much Finally he said he reached a field and was surprised to see an of old dress lying behind a clump bushes Being a curious person he picked it up Naturally he examined it and he was amazed to find that it contained several of the blue bordered notes "Where did you find the dress?” asked Nish “I found it within a few rods of Airdrie on the line of the route that is traversed by the Prince Regent coach” “What did you do with the dress?” “I brought it home” laughed the old man "you can never tell when these things will come in handy I am an old bachelor but if I should happen to get married it might bd Just the thing for the old woman” That very night Captain Nish visited the lodgings of the old soldier of He made a careful examination the discarded dresB and was gratified to discover that it had on it the marks The of a Glasgow dry goods merchant first train out the next morning carHe found the ried Nish to Glasgow dry goods merchant without any difficulty and asked him if he recalled of a dress that description selling The merchant said that he had sold several but the last transaction that he remembered was with a George Gilchrist who was the oftner of a livery stable in that city The detective went immediately to Gilchrist’s place He took several officers with him On the way he mapped out his plan of Gilchrist was in his ofcampaign fice “My name Is Nish” said the officer con“and I came here on business nected with the police” “What is it?” asked the liveryman horse?” “A stolen languidly “No sir" retorted the detective sternly "It is stolen bank notes" “Ah that Is more Interesting” “Much more so” was the rejoinder “It concerns the blue bordered bank notes that you stole from the Prince Regent coach!" Gilchrist turned all colors and trembled but he denied the soft impeachment "That won’t go” cried Nish "you’re my prisoner” In the meantime he had his officers make a careful Search of the house and as a result of that they found in bureau drawers money concealed and other receptacles When he was with the evidence of his confronted crime Gilchrist made a complete confession and the story was as interesting as it was unusual Gilchrist admitted that he was the The anything to do with the theft Under gregate He did not confine his in- moving spirit in the robbery He sight of the coach passing on its way it was a mystery vestigations to the underworld the circumstances alcalled at the Inns not to be solved by ordinary methods big and little of between the two cities and filled He even went to the ways with valuables had aroused his that the Edinburgh It was soon determined He knew that on this parstolen from county fairs and failure to get the cupidity money must have been the inside of the coach for it was clue he was seeking only made him ticular Journey the boot of the coach would contain the commercial bank cut more determined than before Needfound that the boot had been Vhey with the blue borders away with a knife An opening had less to say the captain and his asso- notes one five and notes been made into it by piercing the ciates did find eventually some few were bank notes that had blue borders but respectively and he felt that he would woodwork with a brace and bit After that a section of the side had been these particular notes were in legiti- have no trouble in putting them into What the detec- circulation Accordingly he selected cut out by means of a saw The mate circulation and they held a meetimeans by which the theft was accom- tives wanted was the money that had his colleagues But who been stolen from the boot of the ng- at his livery stable and prepared plished was quite apparent coach were the culprits? Fortunately it was possible plans for robbing the coach He had at the booking of- to trace these notes by means of the a number of assistants but the chief An investigation forth numbers printed 'In their corners A ones were his brother William Githe Information fice brought fellow that all of the seats for that day had description of the missing money had lchrist and an unscrupulous Four of these been published in most of the Scotch named James Brown been sold In Glasgow and in fact had been The first step in the scheme was to newspapers were issued in the name of a Mrs Johnson and two of them in the name telegraphed to London Also handbills purchase the six inside seats of the Yet in spite of the were posted In public houses They coach so that they would not meet of a Mrs Gordon fact that the seats had been sold a called on the ‘public to assist the au- with any interruptions On the day the coach had start- thorities in locating the thieves and appointed Gilchrist and Brown travday in advance eled on the outside of the coach and ed on its Journey without any inside their booty few miles It is a long lane that has no turn- made themselves agreeable to the passengers whatever was ing Late one evening Captain Nish driver As already stated the inside of outside Glasgow the coach but no one hailed and a man and a woman were was talking to the proprietor of a seats had been engaged After the taken up- They traveled to within famous public house in Edinburgh appeared to claim them coach had gone about three miles known as the “Pump Handle" Durthree miles of a place called Airdrie who the from Glasgow There were George Gilchrist where they alighted ing the course of the conversation woman was one a of and who as turned detective boniface and and to disguised the outside passengers an was assistant accompanied by these with a courtesy unusual in that said frankly: and was given “I suppose it’s my duty to assist hailed the conveyance part of the country had alighted from seats on the inside The two thieves down to the th authorities?” his seat and jumped the situation in their own They started to work knowing that their pals on of the eoach would keep engaged George Gilchrist who was the more clever of the two inside thieves began his operations at once He ripped and after that oft the cloth lining made a hole with a brace and bit in the wooden part of the coach After making this hole the thieves produced a little hand saw and made a the interior of big opening between the coach and that of the boot which contained the tin box This was Then they got opened with a chisel out the two parcels of notes and a which they presumed conpackage tained gold After that the empty box was put back in its place shut down and everything replaced as it had The thieves been found originally concealed the notes and the gold in their pockets George Gilchrist put on his shawl and bonnet again and at a signal from above that the poast was clear Gilchrist and his companion hailed the driver stopped the coach alighted and walked away until they came to the clump of bushes where Gilchrist took off his female disguise and resumed his own clothing The trial excited widespread interest Public opinion was divided The offense was considered a grave one but the cleverness of the thieves seemed to mitigate the gravity of the Alcrime in the eyes of the public though all of the men concerned in the robbery were placed on trial only convicted He George Gilchrist was was sentenced to death which was the usual penalty for highway robbery in those days the theft of the Prince Regent coach being placed in the catalogue of crimes of the highHowever Gilchrist made imway portant disclosures to the police by which a great portion of the stolen and for this the money was recovered capital sentence was commuted to transportation for life But even today in that part of Scotland the people talk with wondering delight of the famous robbery of the bank notes or empire which is in the Same class in the annual product of its diamond mines The British empire divides with the United States the ownership of the greatest falls in the world at Niagara and Snares with this country the most used artificial waterway of the world— the ship canals at of Sault Ste Marie Now that the cutting down China's population by about But the other side of the account Is until from the estimates current Vast as the interesting likewise this summer has placed the British British empire is it fails to take first empire easily first in the world in place In many things which might be area and the number of its inhabit- expected to fall to so enormous an ants it is interesting to note a few aggregatfon of countries In different of the other parts of the world Britons It has not the largest bank for inpoints of distinction which can claim for their vast realm Its stance or the grandest university It' is not first in the production of any bigness is The British empire has the largest grain except perhaps rice Nor does It in- it lead the world in the manufacture city in the world— London cludes the most populous country — of iron and steel or in railroads The India It contains the greatest wealth city is not under the amassed under any one flag It has British flag nor is the highest buildthe largest navy and is foremost in ing or the largest cathedral There are many other points in merchant shipping It has the first which one or more smaller countries port of the world— London surpass the greatest of empires But The British empire divides with the United States the possession of there is quite enough under the flag the largest lakev in the world — Supe- of Britain to give point to Mark rior It Includes the deepest river Twain’s witticism— “The English are the Saguenay though not the largest mentioned in the Bible: ‘Blessed are for they shall Inherit the It is entitled to a half Interest in the the meek ” highest mountain of the earth — Mr earth’ Everest in the Himalayas The British empire has the greatTragedy Due to Poverty est of the world’s gold fields — the A sad tragedy through poverty was Witwatersrand in the Transvaal witnessed recently by a number of The largest ship in people in Paris South Africa A poorly dressed the world sails under the British flag man leading a girl of five years by The foreign commerce of the hand walked slowly to the center is far In excess of the International of a bridge He then picked the child trade of any other country up and kissed her with the tears rollMuchthe largest island in the ing down his face and threw her over world— if Australia is not too big to the parapet into the river Before any— be considered an island is a part of one could stop him he leaped over the the British empire It has the great- parapet-an- d fell into the water near est fur preserves in the Canadian her Both were carried away by the northwest No other nation has so current and the bodies were not remuch capital invested or loaned in covered Inquiries revealed that the foreign countries and none derives so child was his daughter and that the large an Income from that source tragedy was the result of unemployThe British empire leads all other ment countries in cotton manufactures of cotthough not in the production Contest ton It possesses more sheen than The man who was passing in the any rival and more cattle likewise baseball grounds paused interestedly If the domesticated buffaloes of InCalled the Californian “What’s that row about over by the It has most of the dia are Included A hotel in Los Angeles Is much fence?” he asked of an undersized fancied as a center for tourists and elephants used in the service of manspectacled lad who was looking on kind and all other countries are from because of general visiting the mana safe distance” eclipsed in the production of ostriches agement has never driven outsiders “Sir” replied the boy sedately “you' and in the feather crop obtained from have away from the big chairs in the lobby no doubt heard of the age old One was the appropria- those giant birds conflict between the haves and No other empire or state in the tion of newspapers If a man left his as to contains many large cities get a world paper behind while he went "Yes" returned the puzzled inquircigar or answer a telephone call that — from 100000 population upwards — er "but what—” as the British empire It is not first paper was missing on his return “Well this is merely a little skirmin cities of 1000000 however if questioned at all The suspect popu- ish between the and The annual growth would always insist stoutly that he lation or more — Life same the immense of empire in popubad just bought it lation is greater than the increase in Bill Tuller of Chicago saw his paReverse Order The per in the possession of a stranger in any other country the "There are times” remarked The British empire Is first among retreat whom he flagged the nations in fisheries and foremost general “when we do not care to have “You have my paper” he said The total tonnage of the army in what is usually considI Just in shipbuilding “You are greatly mistaken ered trim” best the its ports is without a parallel in any paid for it at the news stand" “When is that?” asked the surprised was In panto- other realm Tuller’s It is nearly certain that the Brit- visitor mime and artistic He took the pa"It is not desirable” answered the per from the stranger’s hands and ish empire grows more rice than any “from a courhas an sententiously It other and country title general date the undisputed pointed to line ageous point of view to have it ir It was the New York Herald of the but evil supremacy In the production ’60s of opium There is no other country good running order” now hands had the outside the driver In the First of Empires |
