The Copiah signal. (Hazlehurst, Miss.) 1882-1883, 1883-10-25
4 Queer prefesstsn.

= N
Stepping from o Randolph street 90
last evening, an cldorly man alippe4
dropped n bundle, and about fifty psoul
far tools were scattered about tho strses
/, "Thats Q jimmy" said bystaudets
referring TO ono of the Instruments. sn<
the remark. coupled with the susplcloui
character Of tho articles. induced ~
porter to interview the man as soon e
he had gathered his bundle again.
"Why, I'm simply . safS-openes,."'
said tho stranger. "thats all. You
might think was q cracksman, but
amt Never hoard Of itP Why. they're
In every big town. There's i've Of ZEN
hero In Chicago and many In the ooun.
try. Sort Of q doctor. you might say.
You 500, when man : out Of order fl
sends for o physician. and you've gol
horn doctors and cow doctors and oil
kind Of doctors. and I'm asafe doctor." /"
And the old man laughed anil tod up
his bundle
"A safe" he continued, .sis ukt
Anything clss. It's liable to get out II
sorts. and all the safc-makers hare men
70 put thcm to rights sgain. Some one
may change the combustion and for.
get the new ono, or . bolt breaks. or Z
dime. Jock gots ont of orrler. or thieves
try 10 blow the thing open. or-but II
III comes 10 one point. They cannot
open the sac. and so they send for ms,
and l 90 with my tools. look at the
safe Just as q doctor looks at d sicl;
man, lind out whcro tho trouble 10 mud
90 to work at It. l'va been at II ovcr
thirty years. I've got about hundred
different tools. and they d;fferin wolght
from less than ono ou,co up 10 twenty
or thirty pounds. Sometimes / start
ou. To do q job In the country with two
or throe hundred pounds OF tools. Yes,
safe openers from Chicago 20 all over
tho West. I've been ont TO Denver N.Y.
Golf 10 opon one, aud l know man
thnt went from New York TO Mexico To
open a bxnk.safc. Thercs safe
fact ~ at Omaha now. and ono up nj
ST.. Paul, an thcy cut in on the trade 4
little, b. { not IN ch. Therss plenty oi
work. and It special branh Of the
business. keeping men bu.y all the
time. I've got over \ dozen safes In
town now t. attend to. and two or
three outside. Some imes I can opcW
one In few minutes. and again have
to work hard for sssoral days before II
opens. The hardest job ever had wss
up at Des Moinss IL took me eight
days, and then had to break the safe
MI 10 pieces. People don { under
stand the combination business. They
should change the combination at
least every three months. for ,t
wears ont quickly. Thcn when thcv dn
change. they should remember u. or
there will be trouble. More than halt
Of my work comes from people forget
ting tho combination. They don /
want to write II out for fear some ono
would get Il, 30 thoy commit II 10 incm.
ory and pet II mIxod. i once bad .
case at Sigourncy,-lo Iowa, where abank-
Or forgot, and YOU ought TO geo tho
dopositors around that bank when 4 GIT
there. II had boon closed for two days
because Tho cash and books woru Ia
|, that safe, and thoy thought .it was .
case Of sbrcnk. ] went at Il and u wks
q break for II took me two days TO
get the door or; then We found that no
one knew the right combination at all.
There WAS q county clerk out mt Boono.
Iowa. who locked up his Office Satur'
dav. after setting new combination.
and when lio tried to open tho sac on
Monday no could not. / got there
Wednesday and found a hundred farm.
crs In town and tho Eoor clerk In tho
hands Of tho men on his bond. Thoy
all wanted to know where the sum OF
$50, 900 was. II took mo three da $,
but finally succeeded. aud you ought
to sce that clerks face brighten up
when the monev was found untouched.
lie swore he had the right combination,
but whom we rot at II showed him ho
was mistaken. The old time safes are
easy enough TO open. but some OF these
nrw ones-the burglar bo,cs. rs wo
call them-nrc enough 10 Wear pinn
out. II q holt " broken we drill
through and raise II. but soino-
times we have to destroy the whole
door before we get In. ! can open any
ssfa In Chicago in forty.eIght h0urs nt
the utmost, and many OF them In two or
three hours. Yes. sir. tho burglars oc-
cas'onally try to blow one open and leave
tho work for me TO complete: destroying
tho safe so that Il won I work. l had a
case down ut Springfield eeverr.l years
sco whorc ths burglars left on work
whom thcy night have got about $40, 900
II they had Kept at Il half an hour
longer. They had all but one bolt open
when they either gave up work or were
frightened away. Time locks nre not
much protection against burglars. Thcy
are principally designed to prcsent dis
honest bank officials. cashiers. oic..
from opening the door, when they have
no right to do 80. a cracksman can
deal ss quickly with o me-lock safe a
any other. and thorc is a good deal o.
trouble when tho clock insi,le runs
down or gets out OF order. Then you
have to bor- api drill ,wrr tho dow
and It's q Job. I tell you. ! don't like
'em fot that, though many OF them are
In use iust now. Yes, I've had thieves
try TO get me to work. but never did.
I Knocked one fellow down. he g9t
acquainted with me And u was six
months before know what nc was up
TO. DO used to talk a great deal about
nv work and my tools and what sases
I had worked on, and finally no pro-
| posed to open o sa.o upon Madison
Street. No, cir. I'll eat honest bread
or ! won't eat any. And thore's an
other thing about the same subject
You novor heard Of o man In my lino
doing any burglar work. not one; The
only thing approaching II, was IN that
Northampton bank-robb ~, and .hen
1 the safe man that was 10 the job was an
agent Of . firm, and knew all about the
saic, but he wasn't workman. liko mo.
No, wages mint what they ought to DO.
Only S3 q day. It's little enough for
men that can do tho work. but It's the
rate, and so there's no uso of complain
Ing. I can get thrco meals . day with
| II until thoy put mo IN tho little safe
under the ground. Chicago Times.
"u,pr James. tako these two cake