Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-10-16
honest business,

There are many classes OF thieves and
some OF them have better opportunity
of making money than others. There
is wide range between the petty sneak
and the bank rObber.
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 business simply for the money
there is in it would never get any lower
in the scale of roguery than the pick
pocket. This class Of thieves do not
make fortune in year, but the pick
pocket who Is successful can make q
much larger income than the average
clerk. The amount of money picked
up in this line depends largely upon the
victims selected, and the pickpocketS
who will only rob drunken men, cannot
expect to be rewarded as we'll as the
one who takes his chances with sober,
well-to-do people. Take Tim Oats, Tor
instance. There are many more expert
pickpockets than Tim, but he only plies
his trade in the most select
circles. There are good and
bad years in the business, but
an estimate of what Tim has
done in a good year will be a fair aver
age of what can be made by q picket
pocket. Tim has put it upon record
without giving names, places and dates,
that in a year he had stolen fifty
watches, worth $50 each; fifteen Plus,
worth SIS; sixty pocketoooks, worth $50
each. and a lot of miscellaneous goods
worth 1000. This makes total OF
S.. SOS, which is very fair income for
man who does not work more than
few minutes each day and some days
not at all. Some pickpockets 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 otter make
more money in day than a pickpocket
does in a year, and in some jobes more
than a pickpocket can in 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 investi-
eating the safes and jewel cases OF the
nobility. Billy has always been on the
lookout for ten strikes, and generally
cot them. During the fifteen years
that he confined his operations exclu-
sively to this country, his income, In
eludiug the time that he was in jail,
was not less than S25, 900 on the average,
and some years went over the SlOO,OO
mark. He has been very successful on
the other side, and in one haul secured
over 5000, 900 worth OF diamonds and
iewelry. 1t is a very mean safe roooer
who cannot pick up $4,000 year, and
those who 90 under this figure spend
most of their time in Jail on account OF
a lack Of shrewdness and talent.
A bank sneak is fellow who makes
a big pile Of money in second, and
takes big risk In carrying out his
schemes, but, withal, they get away
more often than they are caught. Moth
inc is too bold or daring for Rufe Minor,
and in one tour of the country, made In
less than ninety days, he took from un-
dor the noses of bank cashiers over
Sa0O oOO in cold cash. While he stuck
70 his own particular branch OF trade
his income would reach on the average
s5o. 600 year. and he would not work
more than thirty days in the year at
that There were one or two stretches
~ five wears each when Rufe nd some
pretty hard work for the State, out tnls
10 always claimed served to keep him
bealthy. All the bank sneaks are not
Rnfe Minors, but many in this line
make as much in year as the ordinary
bank president.
The poorest paid thieves, for the
work and risk taken, are the ordinary
honse burglars, the knights of the dark
lantern and Jimmy. A really hrst-class
,hisf will never engage in this business
md II Is left for the men who have more
nerve than shrewdness. They ire
onentlv take great risks Tor only q
small (amount of plumber. Stiil, with
All the drawbacks. there are some house
hnrglars kvho have pocketed snug sums
NJ money, and the average income wli'
rnn from $4,000 to $4,000 year: sam
perris. aids worcester Sam. IS cred
ited with making over 100000 year
IsS'' fve Wars. before the Dexter Bank
ircident IL Maine, since which time he