Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-12-24
MEAN THiEVINC.
A Stylish Thief Who Stole Contr,h,,
tn the pn1p

a oSyAsh 1hlet Who Stole
to the Poor.
do you know the lowest-down trick
ever heard OFF" inquired a detective
whose engagements give him as much
time in New York as Chicago. A mega
i've answer was made, with considera-
Die curiosity as to the reply it would
elicit
ven, sir, continued the officer, 81
met him on the platform of the Sixth
avenue railway station at Park place
two nights before last Christmas
had been laying for him for two weeks.
but no opportunity presented itself for
detecting his identity till then. Queer
Job, that, isn't it-laying for the mean
est, Iowest-down man alive? OF course,
that wasn't the technical charge on
which L wanted him. You can't arrest
a man just for being generally mean
and low-down and cussed, and if you
did you couldn't convict him.
mo, had a blank warrant for this
fellow on a very definite and dis
agreeable charge-grand larceny, in
1act-but his peculiar form of larceny
Just lacked being as mean as that of
the mythical gentleman who stole the
coppers off his deceased grandmother's
eyes
AT all the elevated stations in New
York, fastened by brass bracket
against the outer wall, in plain view,
are two heavy glass globes, with slots
IN the top. The yellow background
and the red cross of Geneva sufficient
~ announce their purpose without the
printed legend beneath. They are boxes
for the reception of voluntary contribu-
lions for the free hospitals of New York
city.
Now, along about the holidays,
when the spit of merriment and good
will breeds generous thoughts in every
soul, these little transformations boxes
gather silver very rapidly. The ones
downtown, below Eighth street, in
fact, are generally filed every twenty
four hours with nickels, dimes and
quarters dropped in by those of the
rushing throng who aren't in too great a
hurry to remember the unfortunate
sufferers in the hospital.
Now, for month or more before
Christmas these globes would occasion
ally be found broken by the collectors,
never more than pne or two n night,
and always at different stations. was
put on the job below Park place and
another man above. / spent two weeks
loafing around the stations, going from
one to another on the trains, and finally
assured myself that the theft occurred
about the time the last train went up
town at night / travelled on that last
train, getting off and on again at every
station, for three days but with no re-
suits. Yet every morning another globe
would be found broken and its contents
gone. At last i decided to put in one
entire night at the Park place station,
for the globes there filled better than
at any other point. i went up with the
crowd bound for the last train. but
sneake6 around behind a dirt-box and
didn't get aboard. All the rest did but
one. He was a young fellow. well
dressed, wearing a silk hat and a nice
overcoat, and carrying a shawl-strap.
He made rush to board the train as
it pulled out, but just late enough to
have the gates closed on him. Then he
asked the guard the time of the first
out train in the early morning, and
started as if to leave by the downtown
side-stairway. But he only went half
way down. waited till he heard the
guard retire to the warm office, and
came back. After careful scrutiny he
walked quietly up to the globe, nearly
full of silver, drew from his shawl-strap
p heavy piece of blanket and sort OF
big nut-cracker made of iron and nearly
two feet long. He first wrapped the
blanket tightly around the glass globe
in the brass bracket, then put the iron
nut-cracllers outside of all. squeezed
hard, and the heavy glass broke to
smithereens with hardly an audible
sound. He quickly packed up glass,
nut-cracker, cash, and all as it lay in
the blanket, strapped the sbawl-strar
around, and then l stepped out anG
called him He got five years, and he
ought to have had twenty. 1t was the
meanest sort of thieving that I've ever
come acoss in my professional career
Chicago Times.