MILLIONAIRE GAGGED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13396, 26 January 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

MILLIONAIRE GAGGED.

BEATEN BY ARMED BURGLARS. Xkvv York, December 5.--An alarming epidemic of robbery with violence which lately prevailed in the wealthy residential sections of the exterior has now shifted, with the opening of New York's social season, to the heart of the fashionable quarter of the city.

An incident early this morning, when a millionaire financier, asleep in his mansion, was seized, beaten, gagged, and robbed by armed burglars, who escaped with large booty, while the alarmed neighbours were shrieking for the police, illustrates the strange anomalies of life in the States. The President at Washington is advocating laws for making wealth pay the Government ransom for protection,' while every day brings proof that the forces of the law are insufficient to afford it security. The President is lamenting that the National Government has insufficient power to deal with predatory wealth, while the police of New York are proving unable to deal with predatory poverty.

Throughout the summer the mansions of the Long Island millionaire colony have been plundered by a gang of burglars using an automobile, and the police are helpless. Now, with the winter begun, similar crimes axe going on daily undetected in the city. The other day a rich man was "held up" and robbed of a large sum in the open street within sight of Fifth Avenue, and several houses) in the immediate neighbourhood of that of Mr. Asiel, this morning's victim, have been robbed. Bobbery with violence is so common that it almost passes unnoticed.