The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-12-23
SCHOOL FOR THIEVES.
AN ENGLISH CONNECTS WAY or
TEACHING BY EXAMPLE.

Showing Them Conciusively that the
Way of the Transgressor Is Hard-A
Backbanded NIethod-Tear' Shed by
Young Repro5at,s.
An lglish ex-convict tells this story to a
reporter concerning school for thieves
which he has the reputation of keeping:
ooh, it isn't a school at all, he replied,
with laugh, 'and it is all nonsense calling
it one 1t got the name of being one a long
time ago, and it has stuck to it ever since. 1t
became known that used to have lads up
here of evenings, and | was waited upon
| by police inspector. i have come to warn
you, says he that we have information that
you keep school for the instruction Of
| young thieves If it is so You will have to
| put stop To it or you will find yourself in
| your old quarters All right says |,
| you shall come and hear for yourself what
it is teach them There would be lot of
good in that says he; there would be
rather short attendance if it was known that
| was to be present Besides, if they did
come, you wouldn't be such fool as to give
em their Urinary lessons l said says l:
That you should hear for yourself, not that
you should be seen, if you wouldn't mind
passing an hour this evening in that back at
tic; there is only thin partition between it
and this one, and lots of chinks you can peep
through. You can satisfy yourself and no
body but you and me need be any wiser
A BACKHANDED WAY.
"And the inspector agreed to the plan, ard
came and slipped into the back attic at the
time mentioned, and there he staid till the
entertainment was all over and the boys had
gone. And then he came out and says he:
1 shnn't trouble you any further Jerry. 1t
is rather backhanded way you have got in
getting at them, but it is better than no way
at all And he civilly wished me good
night, and haven't been interfered with by
the police since. And so it is what may be
called backhanded way" continued Mr..
Duff, "and it isn't, pr'aps, respectable way,
and it might be objected that there is under
handedness and artfulness in it; but what
odds about that so that good comes of it? 1t
isn't reading and writing that 1 teach them.
am far too ignorant man for that tell
them stories-Stories of my life in the differ
ent prisons and of the crimes that got me
there That was the bait that l held out to
them when l first began to put the plan |
had long thought of in practice. They were
too young to know anything about me them
selves, but they had, no doubt, heard all
about me from the older hands-and there
are plenty Of them living about here-and
they were proud of the compliment when |
asked them to come up to my room, smoke
pipe and hear me spin yarn concerning my
life and adventures. And having been in
the crooked way ever since L was Is till | last
left Portland, when | was 80, you may
guess, and having a good memory, had
plenty of stories to tell.
"But the stirring adventures and the
dare devil deeds, which, of course, they
liked to hear about, was only the sugar the
pill was coated with What l wanted them
TO understand without making too much Of
it was that for every sixpenn'orth of pleas /
ire obtained by crime it always, sooner or
ater, meets with a pounds worth of pun
shment. 1t don't do to press this view of it |
TOO hard on them, OF they will at once think |
you are gammoning. The way is to put it so
that they find it out for themselves They |
make their comments to that effect |
when l have finished story | lave been tell
ng them. We'll, after all, Jerry, you didn't
ret much of pull. You paid pretty dear
or what you did get, Jerry To which l re-
,ly: Il never did get the pull, and l always
,aid dear for what got. l had twenty-six
ears of it, and eighteen of these were spent
n prison, and, after az, here l am, making
ootstools at two pence ha'penny each, and
working fourteen hours day to earn enough
o buy me bit of victuals and pay my lodg-
ng, and tell you | never was half as happy |
II all my life.
LESSONS OF EXPERIENCE.
at isn't only of my own experiences tell
hem," continued Jerry the schoolmaster
while was at Dartmoor something went
wrong with my insides, and | was put in the
as nurse, and was there eighteen
| know lots of stories that the |
being there sick and brought low,
nave told me, some of the men being the most |
wicked and desperate; but it was always the
anne tale with them when it came to the last |
They are the yarns, as they call them, they |
ike best to hear, though perhaps you
wouldn't think it, But it is fact The
worst young reprobates will go to the play,
md shed tears over the affecting parts of a
piece that pleases them, and go again and
again to see it. I've had them pipe their eye
lere many time when I've been telling them
If dying prisoner-a young fellow, perhaps
and of the tender messages he sent to his
mother and those at home
"And, what is more to the purpose" said |
Jerry Duff, proudly, and with something
very like tears glistening in his own eyes,
I've had many a one come creeping back
lere, shy and ashamed like, when the others
we're out of sight, and wanting to know if l |
Knew any mere stories like the last, and, if |
20, would mind telling him all by himself |
md on the quiet. never say nay, you may
depend, sir. They are the fish am angling |
or in my backhanded way. They are rare,
'ut when they do bite they are worth land
ng." l could do no more than agree, and as
have already said, l shook hands with Jerry |
duff, anil wished him better luck with his
tory telling. Telegraph.
Coal Dust and Seaweed,