The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-08
MEAN THtEVING.
4 stsIish Thief who Stole Contributions
to the Poor.

to the Poor.
30 you know the lowest-down trick
ever heard OFF" inquired detective
whose engagements give him as much
has IN New York as Chicago A mega
tive answer was Ese8e, with considera-
Die curiosity as to the reply Is would
elicit
well, SIR" continued the officer, 81
net 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, lowest-down man alive? OF course,
that wasn't the technical charge on
which | 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 blank warrant for this
fellow on a very definite and dis
agreeable charge-grand larceny, in
fact-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 a 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 filled every twenty.
four hours with nickels, dimes ano
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 a month or more before
Christmas these globes would occasion
ally be found broken by the collectors,
never more than one or two a night,
and always at different stations. | was
put on the job below Park place and
another man above. / spent two weeks
Ioafng 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 Oh 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 l decided to put in one
entire night at the Park place station,
for the globes there filled better than
at any other point. / went up with the
crowd bound for the last train, but
sneaked around behind a dirt-box and
didn't get aboard. All the rest did but
2ne. He was a young fellow, well
dressed, wearing a silk hat and a nice
Dvercoat, and carrying a shawl-strap.
He made rush TO board the train as
It pulled out, but just late enough tc
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 hall
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-strar
heavy piece of blanket and a 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-crackers 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-strap
around, and then l stepped out and
called him. He got five years. and he
ought to have had twenty. 1t was the
neanest sort of thieving that I've ever
come acoss in my professional career"
chicago Times.
The Indian chief, Lot, of the Lower