Large Theft of Silver and Old Brass Some time between the hours of one and six in the morning of Wednesday, Mr. Ed: Page's house, 17 Yates Road, was broken into by a gang of burglars who made a clean sweep of a great quantity of valuable silver and some pieces of old brass in the dining room. Mr. and Mrs. Page had been to the theatre and Dr. Bryson, who is living tempora arily with ' his father-in-law, Mr. Page, had been out late at a case and was very tired. Consequently everyone in the house was sleeping-so soundly that they were not) disturbed by. the burglars, who must, nevertheless, have made al good deal of noise.
The burglars appear to have first tried to get in through a small window at the side of the morning oom, but after knocking over and smashing a flower-pot, they gave up this attempt and went round to the verandah to try the shutters. In one of these, unluckily, the bolt} had not caught properly' into the bottom socket and the burglars were thus able to force the shutter open. They then removed one of the panes of glass, not with a diamond, but by cutting away the putty all round, and then opened the window easily enough.
They showed considerable knowledge in respect of what they chose, taking only the old brass and leaving some more modern pieces. They also took three silver tea sets, spoons, forks, bowls, mustard and pepper pots, ete., in fact every single article of silver in the place, to the value of several hundred taels. Curiously enough, they did not go into the drawing room alongside, where some things, or-dirianly kept in the dining room, which had been used by Mr. and Mrs. Page on their return from the theatre had been left. The burglars also took the table cloths, rugs, ete., and then cut down the dining room curtains and wrapped up their plunder in them, as a convenient means of carrying it away.
From this fact and from the numerous finger prints left about the room they are believed to be the same gang which raided a house in Love Lane about Christmas.
Mr. Page is fully covered by insurance so that the pecuniary loss should be little or nothing. But, as usual, it is the associations of the things stolen, many of which he had had for years, which make the loss so distressing; and with the silver, at least, which will no doubt be quickly melted down, it is to be feared there is little chance of any recovery.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.