The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-10-12
DOES THIEVERY PAY Z?
STEALING CONSIDERED FROM THE
BUSINESS STANDPOINT.

Other Means OF Bread and Butter
Getting.
From the NeIc York Recorder
When asked yesterday what he thought
Of thievery as a business, Supt Byrues al
lowed one Of those peculiar smiles to creep
over his face. do you know" said the
superintendent, II have often been asked
that question by ministers aud students of
sociology. There is no doubt that many
professional crooks have made fortunes in
the good old days OF long ago. However,
in considering this question these people cut
a'7ery small figure.
In the first place in most every instance
their iil-gotten gains went through their
hands Ike water. Men who steal for liv-
ing can never hold on TO their money. They
are by some magnetic power I've never
been able to fathom drawn to the gambling
table, aud their money melts away from
them before they fully realize what has
happened. Then they have to begin all over
again"
Out Of the large number OF persons who
steal to live or live to steal there are prooa-
bly, very few who have selected thleVery
from a business standpoint based upon the
Inquiry rs to whether the trade pays. In
otter branches OF business the question OF
profit and loss is paramount.
Supposed young man in casting MS eye
over be list of trades and professions in
order to select one that would be congenial
and profitable were to consider tnlevery In
a purely pecuIiary light, leaving out the
question Of morality, would he find that
thieves make money? A thief oan start busi-
ne with very little capital. 1t is purely
speculative calling. Is it possible for thief
10 MAKE enough money TO retire and live on
his income, and are the risks of failure
greater or less than the ordinary speculative
vocationss
The reports of the commercial agencies
show q large number Of business failures
every year In every branch Of trade. Doc
tors, lawyers aud preachers often fall by
toe wsyside, and after years OF study find
out that they have wasted half their lives
in the wrong field of labor. The same Ia
true of thieves. Many of them find out
that they would have been more successful
goes q thief is probably more successful
within certain limit than those who en-
gage in legitimate trade.
There is always the chance that a thief
will be caught, and if he Is, his career is
cut short for period depending upon the
number Of times he has been convicted and
the nature of the crime. This stoppage, in
comparison with the ordinary affairs of
business, is equivalent to the failures, and
the percentage OF thieves who are caught
and punished, the records show, is not
much more than the percentage of failures
in honest business
There are many Glasses of thieves and
some of them have a better oppor tunity of
making money than others. There is a wide
range between the petty sneak and the
bank robbsr but thieves, like persons in
every other walk in life, are gagged by
their talents. a. bank robber would not be
satisfied With the income of sneak thief
and the latter cannot hope to reach the
financial standing of the former Talent
in thief counts for just what it is worth
every time, and there is nothing in which
person will reach his level so quickly as in
r0guery. Ambitious men want to be at the
top in everything, thievery not excepted =,
and there are many instances in which
thieves have been actually proud of their
work.
A person who would adopt stealing as a
business simply for the money there is in it
would never get any lower in the scale of
roRuery than the pickpocket, This class of
thieves do not make fortune in a year, but
the pickpocket who is successful can make a
much larger income than the average clerk
The amount Of money picked up in this
line depends largely upon the victims Sc
lected, and the pickpocket who will only
rob drunken men, cannot expect to be re-
warded as we'll as the one who takes his
chances with sober well-to-do people. Take
Tim Oates, for instance. There are many
more expert pickpockets than Tim. but he
only pipes his trade in the most select cir
Giles. There are good and bad years In the
business, but an estimate of what Tim has
done in a good year will be fair average
of what can be made by piokpocket Tim
has put it upon record without giving
names, places and dates, that in year be
had stolen fifty watches, worth $50 each !;
fifteen pins. worth SIS; sixty pocket books,
worth $50 each, and lot OF miscellaneous
goods worth $1,000. This makes a total of
$0,S25, which is a very fair income for a
man who does not work more than few
minutes each day and some days not at all.
Some plckpocketS have made more than
this in year, but the majority will average
not much more than half this amount.
The next in line are the store and small
safe thieves They often make more money
In a day than pickpocket does Ia year,
and in some jobs more than a pickpocket
can in his lifetime, but the risk is greater.
A man who stands in the front rank of this
line is Billy Porter, who is abroad just now
Investigating the safes and jewel cases of
The nobility. Billy has always been on the
lookout for ten strikes, and generally got
them. During the fifteen years that he con-
fined his operations exclusively to this coun-
try, his income, including the time that
he was in Jail, vas not less than $25 coo on
the 500 900 mark. He has been very suc-
cessful on the other side, and in one haul
secured over 5000, 900 worth of diamonds
and lewelry. 1t is a very mean safe robber
who cannot pick up $4,000 year, and
those who go under this figure spend most
OF their time in jail on account of lack of
sArewdness and talent.
A bank sneak is fellow who maker a
Big pile of money in a second, and takes
big risk in carrying out his scheme, but,
Wthal, they get away more often than they
are caught. Nothing is too bold or daring
ior Rufe Minor, and in one tour of the
country, made in less than ninety days. he
TOOK from under the noses Of bank cashiers
over $4,000 in c)ld cash. While he
stuck to his own particular branch
ot trade his income would reach
on the average $4,000 year, and be would
network more than thirty days in the year
a. Ehat. There we're one or two stretches OF
I'VE years each when Rufe did some pretty
hsrd work for the state, but this he always
claimed served to keep bin healthy. All
l'e bank sneaks are not Rufe Minors, but
many 10 this line make as much in year as
'ne ordinary bank president.
lie poorest paid thieves, for the work
and risk taken, are the ordinary house
burglars, the knights of the dark lantern
and Jimmy. A really first-class thief will
never engage in this business, and it is left
iur the men who have more narVa than