Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/36

Rh "Beginning with the robbery of two wellknown and wealthy Americans at Winchester just twenty days ago, the list rapidly swells with the repeated outrages perpetrated upon our visitors at Chichester, Canterbury, Rochester, St. Albans, Oxford, and a half-dozen other towns popular with Americans, including Norwich, in our neighboring county of Norfolk, from which we received word of the last robbery only two days since.

"The recapitulation of this list startles us, not only by showing the astonishing succession of the crimes, but by pointing out a most alarming condition. For from the first crime committed at Winchester twenty days ago to the scandal of the Royal Arms here at Ely last night, the cathedral towns of England—and the cathedral towns alone—have been the places of these repeated outrages practised upon our American cousins.

"However, the explanation may not be far to seek. As all Englishmen must know, the tour of these cathedral towns has been for 18