Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-12
Something About Criminals.

York Sum.
 ''It is mistake to suppose that European
 criminals are superior to ours in adroitness
 and boldness. Our bank burglars are ahead
 of their English rivals, and so in almost ! every other branch of criminality- Some l novel things done on the other side of the l water have given rise to the notion in some peoples minds that the European crimi. nals have more originality than ours. One oi
 their qusersst and most novel tricks was the
 clock work dodge for burglary. That was | operated in Belgium, and, believe, in Paris.
 Jewellers were the victims. A man would go ! into a jewellers store, buy some expensive ! things, pay for them, and take them away. | He would return the next day, and, saying | that he was afraid to trust them to the keep l ing Of his servants, would ask permission to leave them temporarily in their box in the | jeweltr's safe. That being accorded, he would | return a third time. making more purchases, l put them all in the box and take out some ar ! tlcle. In doing so he would set in motion 8 l concealed clook-work in the box, which at & | given hour of the night, would strike a ham, msr ugon esp, fire mass of dynamite in
 the box and with the explosion rend the ! safe. Of course the burglars would have ! their preparations made to be on hand when | that occurred. That was ingenious in its way, but requiring infinitely less skill and ad-
 dress in effscting than hundreds of devices ' our rascals have employed, and could never be played on our Yankee jewellers The ] French have been said to be ahead of us in | obtaining goods and money by false preten- sss, but where does the world afford such 6 brilliant record of achievements in that line as Is set forth in the history of New York sav- ! ings banks?
 "Confdeuce men must have polished de- meanor and an address capable of imprsssin s ! their intended victims ready adaptability in taking advantage of opportunities, and in gsnuity in striking out novel fields for their peculiar enterprises. They may and frequent ! ly do become forgers or oouutsrfsiters, but hardly evsr burglars It is not because they I lack the requisite of courage, but bscause craft is more esteemed by them than force But talk about nerve there can hardly be a 'neryier thing than walking into bank in the open day, laying down forged check and de- manding the moAcy for it, knowing how keen Iy the bank is protected and how sure and se- vere the punishment of being caught will be- In fact, there is not one of the principal walks of crime that docs not require 0 good deal of cool courage"
 "When you speak of the principal walks of crime, you suggest the idea of classifioa- ton of criminals by their respective methods. How far is that possible ?"
 Mot at all. with any accuracy or to any considerable extent. In 8 general way you may say there are burglars, forgers, counter feiters, confidence men, hotel thieves, pick pockets, sneak thieves, general thieves, aud OAoeoSo would be almost as numerous as the persons employed in them. Take hotel thieves, for instance. There are those who work in the morning only, others who work at night. others who do nothing except in the afternoons, and then each of these subdivisions have other distinguishing peculiarities 1n thelr methods of procedure. The hotel thief sometimes takes desperate chances. There was Jo Butts, one of tha boldsst of them, who is doing time now in Boston. He is Q thin, fine-looking fellow, six feet and two inches tall, with very long arms and legs. In 1866 or 1867 he robbed, in ono night, twelve rooms on the sixth floor of the St. Nicholas Hotel, by passing from one window to another, on the front of ths house, at that giddy height. Usually he operated by going through transoms, but that was not practlca- ble there. In the last room he entered lady was in bed, but wide awake, and she asked him what business he had there. He did not wait to explain, but just stepped out on the window ledge, and so back, on the route he came to the room whence he started, which was occupied by an aceomplice, and before the lady could summon call boy, and he could call a clerk, the thief was far away. The hotel thief must be always ready, and have his wits fully about him for any unex- psctsd emergency.
 t'In Congress Hall, Saratoga, few summers ago. hotel thief slipped into room in the early morning, just after he had seen an old gentleman go out of the door of the room and down the corridor. While the thief was gathering in the uDconsidered tri1ss on the bureau the old gentlemans son, who was in bed in the room, awoke and demanded what he was doing. The fellow had been watching him in the mirror and saw his eyes open; so when the young man looked up the thief was quietly arranging his necktis at the mirror with an air of easy unconcern. Turning with apparent surprise, he exclaimed, Why, good heavens I have got into the wrong room. l had just been out, leaving my chum in bed, and came back to arrange my collar, aud here I have stupidly blundered into another per sons room. beg your pardon; thought sorry-I-, and, having bowed himself to the door while speaking, he vanished. And when the young man got up he found that his diamond studs and watch had also vanished. Later in tho day the thief was captured at another hotel. That was Jim Stanley, a well known one of his class. Not infrequently these hotel thieves show great deal of ingenuity in getting into rooms. The Fremont House Boston, had transoms over it's room doors too small for thief to crawl through and 8 bolt on the inside of each chamber door. One night hotel thief went through whole row of those rooms, by bor- ing hole iu each and pulling the bolt back by means of some instrument. The new kind of independent double locks are the best &c., eurity yet found for hotel room doors. Bolts are easily beaten Sometimes the hotel thief will secure 0 room, draw the screws of the bolt sockets, and smooth them down 50 as to pull out easily, and thus give him access to rooms whom they are occupied by other guests.
 ''The class of thieves devoting themselves to the second story racket have to be bold fellows, not 50 daring as burglars, of course, but still possessed of much pluck. They learn the habits of families in houses they propose to plunder, and then, while the family is at VII ali fha n the front door to the second story window, enter there and rapidly go through ths rooms, taking everything of value they can reach, and departing as they came. They are ai- ways young fellows, athletic, agile, and gen orally are desperate characters. Most of them are good looking, and they aim to get infor- nation of the habits of the families they mark for robbery by forming acquaintance with the nurses and servant girls either at the area gates or in the parks, whom the girls arc sent out with the children. Troy Dennis was one of the boldest of this class, aud came to his death while practising his nefarious work. He had just robbed one house in Madison avenue, and was climbing up to the second story window of another when the ill-secured coping over the door fell with him, and in some way, as he and the stone came down to- gsther, his head was undsrmost, and was crushed He lived only until he was carried to Bellevue Hospital. That famous robbery of Moore, the gunmaker, of $200, 1000, was perpstratsd in that way by Troy Dennis and O. Carr. Carr committed suicide by taking poison on 8 Sound steamer"
 "What is the most dangerous criminal"
 ''That depends on how you mean danger ous If you mean dangerous to those who attempt to interfere with him or who seek to arrest him, your third or fourth-class burglar, the ignorant brute who relies only on force. and has morbid dread of arrest, is the worst. But if you mean dangerous to the communi- ty at large, by reason of his greater capacity for crime and ingenuity in evading punish mont for it, by all odds your sober criminal, to whatever class he may belong. is the worst You will find at the top of ev- cry class of criminals @ few who drink nothing stronger than seltzer water, if they even go as strong as that, and they are the terrors. There was William Gray, the bond forger, who was brought back here from Europe by Captain Ksaly year ago last July. His father was for years chaplain of the Uni- ted States Senate. He was well educated, had the most charming manners and apparently correct life, and he never drank even sip of wine. That was how he came to be at the head of the most expert band of forgers in the land The forgers, Roberts and Gleason, were
 Tk.- Ill., H-,A