The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-26

be a burglar And then Burns goes on to
say: And see his lordly fellow worm the
how much easier II is to shove in (break
into) the lOrdly fellow worms mansion
than to have your feelings hurt by him!
But listen, now:
" If I'm designed your lordling's slave,
by natures law designed,
Why was an Independent wish e'er planted
in my minu2
That's Burns again. What was that
Independent wish2. Doesn't It sound as
if he meant laundering after burglary?
" The poor, oppressed honest man had
never, sure been born
Had there not been some recOmpense to
comfort those that mourn.
Burns once more. What's the recon-
pense that he's talking about? Burglary.
I'll bet you! Burns was a rebel against
society-and l think he was a burglar at
heart. He had not opportunity He had
the courage of his convictions, but had no
chance of putting his convictions into
courageous practice.
Convictions? Yes, I've had q good many
of them, and I'VE had the courage of
them, too-have always taken my medi-
cine. But say, 1 don't think that's very
good joke"
l agreed with him. 1t really was not
good joke-it sounded London-Punchy. Az
ter receiving my quasi-apology with a con-
descending smile, the Burglar, in fulfill
mmt of an old promise to me, began the
narration of some Incidents in his life.
II did not consider myself to have been
regularly graduated in my profession"
said he before / reached the age of p or
20; but when / was scarcely II l was good
assistant to the mob professional burg
lars). L was one of the kids that the pro-
fessionals liked to get hold Of, and l work
ed with some of the best. Good boys are
always in demand by the old hands. They
use them for getting through windows
like YOU read about in oliver Twst-oh,
and for all sorts Of tricks.
81 did a god deal of early work with
men other than my father-some of them
as old as my. grandfather. and they
thought me clever at 1t. This WASH [ burg
larry. however 1t was what we used to call
working the hotel rooms l would go into
a hotel as an errand boy and would get
up stairs to some Of the rooms. Oh, YOU
couldn't very well work it now, but this
was about thirty years ago. The man | was
with would watch till came down.. /
would bring the swag, whatever it was,
and if we did the trick successfully I'd get
whatever the man saw mt to give me.
never knew the value of the swag-had to
depend entirely on him.s He would know.
You bet he would, and he would shell out
perhaps a few dollars and would take all
the rest.
too glad to be useful TO an experienced
man without raising any questions about
pay or about the division Of swag.
Il took TO basement work and then to
cellar and coal chute work. and next to
fan-light work, where l got caught, and
after that l went into the second-story
Life around the Eighth ward, where
was born. was pretty lively in thosefdays,
l can tell you. Tell you one thing, though,
never stole a cent or the value of cent,
never a cents worth, sir.
81 was a small kid when / was first ar
rested. 1t was my habit to frequent the
baths at Battery park and go through the
clothes Of the bathers. That's a common
enough practice at Concy Island now dur
ing the season. But sometimes clothes
and ali are taken away Of Coney Island.
and that's what l call mean. I'd never
do that when was at that game There
might he some little bit or odds and ends
that might attract me, a necktie or so,
but I never left the bathsrs without any
thing to put on. Still, when they went
in to dress they wouldn't gen rally find
much left exceDf clothes. NV method was
always thorough. / empted every
pocket 1 was arrested, but was turned up
discharged.
Then / advanced in the business. /
went along for year, working mostly
for the mob in Brooklyn, New York, Jer-
sey City and Hoboken.
Then a gang of four of US, all young
lads got together. ] was the leader. One
day we stole a horse and carriage from in
Broadway and Bond street, down about
where the Grand Central hotel is. The
same day we crushed in (broke into a
place on Twenty-nnth street and came
big a days work One thing at a time
should be the crooks motto. Il was our
clear duty to have got clean away with
the horse and carriage before undertaking
anything else. but we thought they wOgili
come in useful for our ether scheme. Hal
hal IL was amusing how easily we lifted
that horse and carriage. We just jumped
in and drove away, and nobody said boo
We felt mighty big, we four We took a
nice drive around Central park then we
drove down 10 Twenty-efghth street ana
tied up the carriage before ST. Stephens
church. Then we went up TO DO the lob
in Twenty ninth street. The family was
IN the country and there wasn't even n
hOusekeeper in the house. We got in BY
the fanlight over the top Of the outer old
fashioned basement door where they
have mostly iron gates nowadays (which
By the way. are not half the protection
that most people think they are)
II got over the door first Then we took
a brick and smashed ia a panel OF tho
basement door proper That brick was
the only burglars tool we carried that
trip. and lucky for us.
THE rest was easy, as far as we got
We had free run ~ he house We man.
aged 20 sneak three silk dresses around
20 our carriage On TNFnfy-eehtb street
and % stow them away ~ ID under fhe
sect Yes, We had everything our own
N1y and W. were feeling bully when "a
giIl lg fne reTf house apfed na ana aava
the alarm aiaae es muet fuss. sbe dia ~
m He had been "a lof ~ fuffhroafa ana
fl.aH. end Der snFafehiDr raiefd iff