The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-02-21
How 1t Feels to BE a Burglar.

/ ing the heinous criminaiity of house
breaking and rObbing, the matter OF
| fact and business treatment which a
professional craftsman gives to his
| hagrant operations is quite appall-
ing. The interviewer at once feels
that he is in the presence of person
age who is more than an outlaw. He
dwells in an entirely different realm of
/ thought and activity All of his finer
| instincts and qualities of mind and
moral sense are either entirely uprooted
/ or held in strictest subservience to an
! iron and sin-hardened will The man
before YOU has no moral sense. He
/ takes manifest pride in what every
/ right-minded and true man loathes and
repudiates.
''How do you feel when you are alone
In house at midnight running such
! terrible risks?" asked reporter of 4
well-known burglar.
There, now, you have got as much
nonsense into that question as they
usually do. In the first place, midnight
il not the usual hour when a house is
worked. Things are not so quiet gen
orally as they are two hours later. And
then, II 1t were midnight, what of it?
Midnight, except to towards, is no diff
ferent from any other hour, only as it is
a great deal safer for those like us.
Alone in house? 1t is little shaky
at times, but generally safe enough; but
that isn't the way house is generally
worked. There should be two. and
three are better. Terrible risks? We
don't think of it in that light There
is something always fascinating in the
risk, and it isn't considered objection
able. What do we think? How do we
feel? Now, look here, there isn't much
time nor occasion for thinking and feel
ing outside the job to be done. Your
sentimental chaps don't want to be
prowling about nights on any of these
delicate 'rackets.' The man who is
going to stop in bedroom of strange
house at two O'Clock at night, to consult
his feelings had better keep out of that
bedroom. The man who proposes to
enter this profession wants to run slow
On the thinking and feeling line, eS-
pecially when on duty. Those parties
who are farthest away do most of the
feeling over what they call burglars. "
"What precautions are generally ia
ken when house is to be worked?"
''That depends upon how many are to
do the job. If there are two or three
in the gang one man will generally
gather in the swag and work the rooms
while one stands in the lower halls and
another keeps watch outside"
'.How is it when there is only one on
tho iob?"
''In that case a shrewd 'un goes slow.
Most of these paper accounts are of
rackets by green 'uns, so careless and
nabbed. In nine cases out of ten
where man gets caught it is his own
fault"
at seems to me that the majority are
not up to your high standard of the
art"
perhaps not, but when man goes
1t alone in q house he should be mighty
careful. That don't mean that he
couldn't be bold. for it's just
boldness that people don't count on.
They don't get ready for it. You
should always be sure of two ways to
get out, and to get out easy, too. You
90 into the most risky room after the
others have been done. There are some
Jobs where you can't help waking the
folks, and then they must be kept still,
anyhow. Here is the most delicate
point of working house, and one must
keep his head on his shoulders"
''But, again, want to know how q
man feels?"
''Well, if everything goes smoothly,
it's mighty fascinating going through
a house, especially if there are two or
three 'supers' and leather or two to
rake in. 1t acts like tonic. 1t braces
mans nerves all up. He feels differ
ent from what he does any other time.
| don't suppose good 'un is ever much
afraid, but he's mighty anxious. and he
feels that every power in him must do
its level best, and not go back on him
once. The fact is, it's all out of the
usual run of human experience, and
somehow he feels at first that his is 4
different world, and because he feels so
he likes it. After awhile he finds these
rackets to be the only real and satisfac-
tocy life to him, and he follows it, not
because it's the easiest way to get
money, but because he's somehow heli
to it, and can't take to the common
ways of men. l tell you that man
who has got well worked into this pro-
fession is untitled for anything else.
It's his trade, and there are good
many reasons why he can't learn an
other, especially with all the world down
or him.
.'Do you mean to say that you enjoy
the risk and danger of being in house
in the night?''
There YOU are again. I tell you
that generally the risk is not in the
house; that comes mostly after you get
out of it. In the house the chances are
in the operators favor; when he is out
of it afterward, the chances are often
the other way"
II should not think there would be
much zest or excitement in midnight
tramp through dwelling"
at is not the zest, as you call it, that
invites a man, but there is something
about this getting the better of
all precautions and laws and fn-
genuity that is fascinating. although it
is true that good many of them do it
for the money alone, and don't at sill
relish the way of getting it. Mind you,
a good deal am telling you l have got
from others who have followed the bust
ness long time 1t isn't all my own
''When house is to be worked is
there a regular plan of operations ar
r&nged, or do you trust to eircum-
There is a right way and a wrong
way to do everything. Aside from
that. man must trust to his wits and