BURGLARS TRAGIC FATE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 30, 29 July 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

BURGLARS TRAGIC FATE

CAUGHT IN A SKYLIGHT. The New York journals, like those of all highly-civilised cities, print the news of the world, but the other day the chief space and the biggest headlines were monopolised, not by events of international or even national importance, but by the tragic death of George Tanner, a released convict, who passed noisily away a week before. Tanner was released from gaol in April, and a few weeks later was about to resume his occupation as, a professional burglar. He had climbed to the roof of a New York residence, occupied by Mr. Elias Surut (a wealthy importer of Persian rugs), tied a rope round the chimneystack, and was about to lower himself into the top storey of the house, which was empty, when a very heavy skylight, which he had lifted up for the purpose of making an entry, suddenly collapsed with a bang. The result was that the burglar's neck was caught, as between the teeth of a rat-trap, And he died from strangulation, his head showing from the roof, and the body dangling lifeless inside the house from the skylight. AJjig revolver was found in the man's hip pocket, the soles of Ins shoes were of rubber, and amongst other professional equipment was a bottle of chloroform and a sponge. Mrs. Surut, on returning to New Yorkseveral days afterwards, saw the body and promptly fainted. The police in-', vestigation established Tanner's- iden- ' tity and criminal record, and the police inspector naively remarked that it was a clear case of the biter bit.

The American editors, who "splashed" Tanner's death as the greatest item of the day's news budget, are not blamed by New Yorkers as pandering to sensationalism at the expense of events which, from the European standpoint, seem infinitely greater. To tell the truth, New York lias more burglaries than any other civilised city, also more burglaries that are undetected, and 113 statistics show, moro burglars are actually arrested and charge, but escape piimshniont. Tins is the real reason why the interesting death of Tanner, "caught with the goods on him," affords the topic of general comment and congratulation 111 the American metropolis today.

In several suburbs of New York it is the rule, not the exception, for a householder to retire for the night with a loaded revolver in his bedroom. Reference is made to one suburban road every house of which on one side has been burglariously entered within the* ast few years. The sale of firearms t» private persons has been, and continues to be, enormous. While Americans rejoice at the manner of the death of the late burglar Tanner, the metropolitan newspapers take occasion to lament the increasing number of burglaries, and in this connection London is regarded across the Atlantic as the safest big city in the world, and excites much natural envy.