St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-19
READING THIEVES.
Confidence Wen Who LOiter i'm Hotel
Heading Rooms.

kSS1uenS kSOOENS.
New York Star
There is hardly an hour in the day that
well-known thieves or confidence men can
not be found diligently porting over news
papers in the reading rooms of the leading
hotels. This is one of the greatest nusances
with which hotel proprietOrS have to
contend. But it seems impossible to pre-
vent it entirely, as it is exceedingly difficult
to discriminate between a gentlemanly
looking crook and the guests. The hotel
detectives are constantly ejecting those UNI
welcome people from the hotels, and not
unfreQuently, by mistake, prominent men
consider themselves insulted by the detect
ives Scruti ny. The reading rooms of the
leading hotels are really as accessible as
public libraries. Particularly is this the
case at the Fifth Avenue. the Windsor, and
the Grand Central, which have very large
reading rooms. where the newspapers of
the principal cities are kept on file.
Now that the spacious public reading
room of the Cooper union has been closed
on account of repairs there is really no
public reading where papers are kept
OH file except at the Y. NJ. G. a. While
the thieves could easily go there to read
the papers, the peaceful and religious at
moSphere of the place does not agree with
them, and they prefer going to the hotels
at the risk of being kicked ont. Hence
the readingrooms of the hotels are practi-
cally public lounging place. and patron
of hotel often has to wait for hours for
these men to get through that he may get
paper. Another objection to these people
is that they mutilate the papers.
1.-THE intelligent class of burglars and
confidence men," said a well-known detec.
tive, read the leading newspapers of
the country almost as carefully as the eX-
change editor of a daily newspaper. 1t is
one of the most necessary parts of their
business iu order to be successful The
crook is invariably Oh the go-to-day in
New York, to morrow in Chicago, and
few days later in San Francisco. He also
has pals scattered all over the country, and
in no way can he keep track of them better
than by reading the newspapers.
Should an important robbery take
place to-day in Chicago, naturally the
police are on the alert. and the
professional thief could not do better than
give that place wide berth for the next
few days. Were he to go there he would
almost certainly be arrested Oh suspicion.
In order to keep from falling into SHARES
they read the criminal news of the various
cities. These thieves, as general rule, are
organized. If goods of great value are
stolen here. invariably they will be sent to
another city for disposal. The thief may
be arrested after shipment, and his accom-
plice will have no other means of keeping
posted except through the mails.
''Some valuable diamonds were recently
stolen in Buffalo. A man was arrested on
suspicion, but none of the stolen property
was found in his possession. 1t was be-
iieved that they were sent to Philadelphia
to be disposed of by pal, but there was no
way of positively tracing them. These
suspicious were published in the Buffalo
newspapers as ii they were true Then
the police of Philadelphia were notified by
the Buffalo authorities to watch for the ac-
complete. Detectives watched the public
readng-roomS of the Quaker city, and at
last lSpotted a young man who seemed
to display all eagerneSs for the Buffalo
papers. They watched to see what he read,
and saw that he fairly devcured the ac-
count of the diamond robbery. He cut the
article out of the newspaper, and slipping
it into his pocket, stole from the room,
From this the detectives were convinced
that the man was implicated. They dr.
rested him, and from papers found in His
possession the diamonds We're recovefed
and both men convicted. 1t is a common
thing when thieves are arrested to find
newspaper clippings in their possession
which lead to the discovery of important
robberieS."