G. Warden, formerly Secretary of the London and River Plate
Bank, and J. D. Watters, broker, were tried this week for' stealing 2116,000 worth of bonds payable to bearer from that. Bank. Warden surrendered after he had escaped, and pleaded. guilty, but Watters declared himself the other's victim. Both received the same sentence, twelve years' penal servitude, the Judge remarking on the terrible effects of their crime. We' imagine a poor man feels in losing his spoons quite as much as a Bank feels in losing capital ; but, no doubt, crimes offering great temptation and producing great social disaster require severity. That is the reason for the laws against keeping dyna- mite. The trial revealed, as we have pointed out elsewhere, the great difficulty of inventing precautions to protect bonds payable to bearer from theft by trusted depositaries. Warden testified in his evidence that he and the accountant of the Bank had each keys of the safe in which securities were deposited, the two sets. being evidently intended as a precaution against robbery. "I and. the accountant," however," used each other'skeys for years." The evidence is the more noteworthy, because there is neither charge nor suspicion against the accountant, who simply trusted. character, instead of trusting rules.
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