Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1875 — The Decoy Trunk. [ARTICLE]

The Decoy Trunk.

A new device to facilitate robberies at railway depots has, lately been successfrilly practiced on toe public. Some ingenious person it appears has hit upon a way by which a trunk can be made to steal another trunk and a portmanteau to annex to its fellow. In toe adventures of Sinbad the Sailor we are told how the merchants got at the precious stones in the valley of diamonds. The merchants threw down pieces of meat, which, fell on and absorbed toe diamonds’; ’ the eagles swooped on toe pieces of meat and flew with them to the upper aiy; toe merchants shot toe eagles with arrows and thus got at toe meat, toe eagles and the jewels. So we read the plunderers at the .railway depots lay a trunk artfully contrived on a smaller trunk; toe latter clings to toe former and toe owner of the larger carries both away. The decoy trunk is said to be fitted with a false bottom which goes up when it is laid on a smaller trunk, and with mechanism inside which does for toe innocent trunk what Polonins recommended to Laertes to do for his friend, and grapples it to its heart with hooks of steel. In fact the decoy do not know how better to., describe it—is made to perform an office like that of certain flowers .which suddenly close at the pressure of a fly or other insect within their cup and imprison it there. It would be well if the ingenuity of detectives kept pace with the 'progress in ingenious contrivances to perpetrate robberies at toe depots, where they are increasing so fast and have become such an evil of late. It is certain, however, that the dodge of the trunk will not explain all these robberies. In some cases valuable articles have been taken out and articles of the same bulk but less valuable put in. This sort of jugglery does not look like the business of the ingenious trunk. This trunk, in fact, means open robbery; but there goes on a good deal of pilfering which must be done by a less accomplished class of offenders.— Exchange.