The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1882-12-21
A Queer Profession.

/ 9lSBpAilG lAhlh oNANOh NthAf
last evening, an elderly man slipped,
| dropped bundle, and about fifty pecul- |
| iar tools were scattered about the street. |
"Thats jimmy" said bystander,
| referring to one of the instruments. and |
the remark. coupled with the suspicious !
/ character of the articles, induced q re-
porter to interview the man as soon as
/ he had gathered his bundle again.
"Why, Pm simply a safe-opener,n
/ said the stranger, "that's ALL You
might think was cracksman, but /
amt. Never heard OF itp Why, they're
in every big town. There's five of 'em
here in Chicago and many in the coun-
try. Sort of doctor, you might say
| You see, when a man out of order he
sends for physician, and you've got
horn doctors and COW doctors and all
kind of doctors, and I'm asale doctor"
And the old man laughed and tied up
his bundle
"a safe,'' he continued "is like
anything else. It's liable to get out of
sorts, and all the safe-makers have men
to put them to rights again. Some one
may change the combination and for
get the new one, or bolt breaks, or a
time.lock gets out of order, or thieves
try to blow the thing open. or-but it
all comes to one point, They cannot
open the safe. and so they send for me,
and | 90 with my tools. look at the
safe Just as doctor looks at sick
man, find out where the trouble IS and
90 to work at it. I've been at it over
thirty years. I've got about hundred
different tools, and they differ in weight
from less than one ounce up to twenty
! L.. l.. Il -
out to do Job in the country with two
or three hundred pounds of TOOLS Yes,
safe openers from Chicago go all over
the West I've been out TO Denver my
self to open one, and | know man
that went from New York to Mexico to
open bank-safe. There's safe
factory at Omaha now, and one up at
st. Paul, and they cut in on the trade a
little, but not much, There plenty of
work, and it S special branch of the
business, keeping men busy all the
time. We got over dozen safes in
town now t. attend to, and two or
three outside. Sometimes / can open
one in few minutes, and again have
to work hard for several days before ii
up at Des Moines. 1t took me eight
|
all to pieces. People don't under
, stand the combination business. They
/ should change the combination al
/, least every three months, for il
wears out quickly. Then when they dc
change, they should remember it. OF
! there will be trouble. More than hall
! of my work comes from people forget
! ting the combination. They don
/ want to write it out for fear some one
, would get it, so they commit it to mem.
! ory and get it mixed. | once had q
I case at Sigourney, Iowa, where bank
: er forgot, and You ought to see the
depositors around that bank when | got
there. 1t had been closed for two days
because the cash and books were in
i that safe, and they thought it was {
= case of break. | went at it and it was
n a break, for it took me two days tc
a get the door OF; then we found that nc
: one knew the right combination at all
: There was a county clerk out at Boone
4 Iowa, who locked up his Office Satur
i day, after setting new combination
4 and when he tried to open the SAFE or
4 Monday he could not | got thert
: Wednesday and found hundred farm
j, ers in town and the POOR clerk in thu
a hands of the men on his bond. They
q all wanted to know where the sum o
i $50, 600 was IL took me three da S
q but finally succeeded, and you angh
. TO see that clerks face brighten III
4 when the money was found untouched
a He swore he had the right comb nation
but when we got at il / showed him b
i was mistaken. The old time safes ar,
). easy enough to open, but some of thes
4 new ones-the burglar 10 es,' rs w
!, call them-are enough TO wear maj
! out. If o bolt is broken we dril
~ through and raise it. but some
times we have to destroy the who,
's door before we get in. | can open an
.. safe in Chicago in forty-eight hours a
, the utmost, and many of them in two o
4 three hours. Yes, sir, the burglars o
- casionally try to blow one open and leav
!, the work for me to complete, destroyin
the safe so that il won t work. | had
~ case down at Springfield several yeaI
q ago where the burglars left off wor
!. when they might have got about $1,000
/. if they had kept at it half an hou
Ia longer. They had all but one bolt ope
j when they either gave up work or wer
- frightened away. Time locks are nc
4. much protection against burglars The
i are principally designed to prevent dil
u u honest bank officials, cashiers, etc
~, ,e from opening the doors when they hay
az ~ no right to do so. A cracksman ca
% u deal as quickly with a tme-loek safe {
N N any other, and there is good deal {
Z, - trouble when the clock inside run
80 80 down or gets out of order Then yo
~ have to bore and drill away the doc
70 and it's a job. tell you. don't lik
= ~ 'em for that, though many of them al
y, in use just now. Yes, Pve had thiev,
~ ~ try to get me to work, but never dit
- | Knocked one fellow down. He q,
~ acquainted with me and it was 81
ha months before knew what he was u
~ ~ to. He used to talk great deal abol
~ my work and my tools and what sa',
had worked on. and finally he pr
as posed to open a safe upon Madisc