The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-03-30
DISGUSgED BURGLAR
Unjust Treatment by the News
papers Reformed Him.

. Nafla sIfra LHHtHHsL -. sH -4a .t
s.what am doing? Shocking oysters.
Been at 1t for three years now. ever since
I come home from Trenton remarked
the reformed burglar to the detective and
a reporter of the Newark Sunday
CALI"
Don't you find it rather monotonous
after your stirring life of former years?".
asked the reporter.
"Well, it might be to some people, I
'spose. bat It isn't to me, after three
years. eight months and nine days punch
heels out Of leather IN the prison shop.
with no variety except breaking a tool
once in a while. There is some variety
in shucking oysters; more'n you'd think.
In the first place there's the chance of
finding a pearl. havn't found one yet,
but you can never tell when ii VIII come
along. Then there's them litse oyster
crabs. You don't set them IN your stews
any more. Do you know why? It's be-
cause they're worth fifty cents a pint
to the fellows that shuek oysters. Some
oysters has more than others. l don't
mean that you ever find more than one
in an oyster. but that they come oftener
in oysters from one place than they do
from others. Then. there is a little vari-
T. III d WIN IA MI O pSAA
it's some fun to study the whiskers on
the she dhs an sRA the St a lg a 1%r Sriplstz.
Then, there's fat anu lean oysters,
yellow and blue oysters, round oysters,
long oysters. and SO forth. Oh, yes,
employed when he's cnopping and cut
ting, and there's always a chance of a
oysters as fast as you can open them.
A Teller that don't talk too much. just
sits up on the high stool and says
start in and oph for him. He don't
say how many he wants, and keeps;
you guessing. Sometimes maybe he'll
his tomach may be OFT of order and he
stops on a dozen. He always stops you
by holding up his hand jusl as you go
to pick up another oyster, Then he lays
down fifty cents or q dollar, wipes his
mouth and gets down from the stool.
He's good for ten cents when yon give
him the change. There ain mnca mo-
notony about thar feature. Tips dcAt
come often enough to be monotonous
at TIN fhe o W6RK 9 mnRE EXCITING
sit amt as exciting as the night work
I used to DO, but the returns are more
a while when you're careless with the
knife. or a scrap with a fresh customer:
satisfied. I'm getting, to be a regular
philosopher in my old days. I had lots
Of time to think and mighty little to
that turned me straight and not the
punishment. Most fello rs, when they get
out. remember the Imprisonment, and say
chances of going back 1t wasn't SO
with me-. | got used to living down there
on my third term and it didn't make
l made up my mind that there wasn't
much in the burglar business anyhow,
and when / come to think about it seri-
ar1S1V -hprp was so much TO disgust g
fair-minded man that it turned me against
IT. I didn't mind stealing. It WASN'T that
being lied about afterward and the cases
in which I didn't know wehther I was
being lied about or not. After making .
"P'raps if l hadn't done that I might
be a crack yet, but I think it was the
papers that did It. and l reckon they've
same way. I'd git into a niee-looking
house that was rented by a fellow that
dressed well and put on a 10 Of style;
his show was N the outside. Maybe
I'd get a filed watch worth eleven
sdoxars. a bogus diamond pin and seven
from a ninety-n.ne cent counter
A-d hGifontfit was a sham, but next
day I'd read Ia boy ! got 500 tb wolth ro 9}
watches. a set of diamonds belonging
10 the missus and a bis diamond pin be-
loging to the boss, and p'raps ned stand
On THE $500 He MISSED.
''That. sort of thing and the almost
invariab bic story thai I had missed find
ing $500 in a bureau drawer. after turn
ing everything over, was what made me
shake the business. Then there ives
another thing that made me sick. It
was the story that there were three bur,
glars, and they used chloroform, and
were shot at by the owner of the house.
One of them was always hit, too, ana
drops of blood were found where bis
companions dragged him away. Railways
worked alone, and was never shot at.
After I'd gone, p'raps, the. sucker that
occupied the house might have fired a
couple of shots into the air to scare up
a copper, but he never got a shot, at
me. no, stree. l Just gave up burgling
because the papers didn't report the
business in a fair way"