The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-04-19
AN EX-BURGLAR.
He Confesses to a Few Points from His
Past--All About Locks.
How Men sleep--A Close CaIl--DOgs as a
Protection.

cleveland Voice.l
Down in the south end of the city, on
a little side street, stands weather
beaten shop displaying a locksmith's
sign. Here has dwelt in seclusion for
many years a white-haired little man,
for whom everybody has kind word,
whom little children love, and to whom
every half-grown boy who has toy or
tool to mend goes without hesitation or
fear of repulse To the neighbors this is
the sum in gross of the little man. If
hint were to be given them that his had
been a life of wild adventure, of crime
and punishment, it would be met with
disbelief and instant denial. Yet,
thirty years ago this man was one of the
most daring and notorious cracksmen in
the country.
The story of the change in his life is
simple one. While he was still a young
man, though old in crime, his wife and
child, whom he dearly loved, and who
had no knowledge or share in his wicked
life, both died He himself was i'll for
weeks following, and during that time
life presented itself to him in new
aspect. AS soon as strength returned to
him he put New York and temptation
far behind him, and in the newly open
ing west took up again the trade he had
learned in early bOy-hood, and which
had led him as he developed unusual
skill, into the life of cracksman and an
outlaw In some way in after years he
had drifted into Cleveland and taken up
his abode, content to spend the last years
of his life in law-abiding quiet, and in
earning simple living through his skill
in all kinds of mechanical contrivance.
The outlines of this story had come to
the Voice man in a roundabout way, and
hoping to know more OF the man and
his life, he, one day last week, armed
with pencil and clip, seated himself in
the tiny working-room Uttered with all
kinds of tools and locks, from the SIM
plest to the most complex and intricate.
A general conversation on the subject OF
locks was opened. The little man was
full of information. The study of locks
had become an absorbing passion with
him. A new lock was to him what a
new equation in algebra is to the mathe-
matician-a delightful possibility, full of
unknown quantities, which it is his de-
light as well as his task to evolve.
eyes" he said, in answer to the re-
porters suggestion, Il suppose there are
few locks that ] couldn't pick almost at
first sight. l know there are none that l
couldn't unlock after little study. You
see lock, like anything else, is made on
certain principles, and when a man I'M
derstands the principles it's easy enough
TO understand the variations that produce
the different kinds OF locks"
"You understand locks so well you
would make a capital cracksman," haz-
arded the reporter, not feeling sure of
his ground. The little man shot a quick
glance at the reporter, but made no
answer. 81 suppose is it necessary" the
Voice man continued, that the man who
makes it his business to break locks
must understand their mechanism very
thoroughly"
eyes, he must" said the little man,
sand he does Why, there isn't any
where lock so intricate but that some
crack is equal to it.
even bank lOcks?"