Preparedness Against Bank Burglars 



The military 

 force of a peace- 

 f ul Chicago 

 bank waiting for 

 the lone burglar 

 to appear. These 

 men were put 

 through a course 

 of target-shoot- 

 ing to be pre- 

 pared for holdup 

 men who had 

 been molesting 

 the bank and its 

 neighborhood 

 for many weeks 



PREPAREDNESS for war was not 

 nearly so important and timely 

 a subject with the bankers of 

 Chicago recently as was preparedness for 

 gunmen. For weeks there was an 

 t[)idemic of holdups in the city. In the 

 iieighl)()rho(jd of one bank, the Lincoln 

 Slate Hank, masked bandits ijwarmcd at 

 all hours of the da\', \ictimizing no less 

 llian fifteen patrons of the bank in a 

 single week. With the police seemingly 

 liclpless to cope with the situation, the 

 bank took steps to protect itself and its 

 depositors. 



The entire clerical force was mobilized 

 in the basement of the building one 

 morning and the hrst lesson in a course 

 on how U> shoot bandits (jn sight was 

 given. Each man was supplied with a 



revolver, a pistol range was erected, and 

 target-practice was held. After the men 

 were told to keep their eyes open when 

 they shot and point the gun at the target 

 instead of at themsehes, they displayed 

 marked proficiency with their firearms. 

 After a week of practice there wasn't 

 a bandit intrepid enough in all Chicago 

 to venture a visit to the b.uik. Indeed, 

 the preparedness campaign became such 

 a success that the holdup men forgot all 

 about the bank and the surrounding 

 neighborhood and migrated to other 

 puts. In time the clerks became such 

 crack shots and such confirmed militar- 

 ists that the\- almost regretted ihc fact 

 tiiat they didn't have an i)pporUinity to 

 substitute a gunman's heart for the 

 nuuh maligned bull's eye. 



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