The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1897-02-18

dar," and in other memorials of IA
nous criminals, shows that though
Jack had no s~crupu,GuS o. i22t;ons to
highway robbery, if circumstances
were convenient, yet his p tn"nal &C.
cllpation, and that by which ~ made
his living, was the less rumH'tic one
of burglary or house breakiEG. lnGeed,
his exploits Oh the highway wee not
attended with such brilliant success
or such large profits as to Iced him to
follow that line of business exclusively.
For instance, his first attempt pro-
duced only the paltry sum of two shil-
lings and siXpence! He stopped Il
coach, out a lady's maid was the sole
occupant, and half Il crown all her
worldly wealth, and even this trifiing
sum he could obtain only by threaten
ing the attendant footman with a piS-
tol, and thus putting an end to his gal
liant defense of the lady. His second
essay was not much more prosperous.
He stopped a gentleman on the Hamp-
stead road, who was returning in Il
cheerful and elevated condition from
some convivial party, but 3 shillings
was his sole reward. Even a stage
coach which he CALAMITY assaulted
next day furnished him with only 20
shillingS.
The real genius of Jack Sheppard
found no scope in the commonplace
Money or your life method of rob-
berry; it was in burglary that his war
velous skill i'll breaking bolts and bars
II picking locks had full play. Dur
ing his residence in Wych street. where
he was a~pprenticed to Il carpenter
named Wood. he used often to stay out
till Il late hour drinking in neighbour
ing taverns; but bolts and bars were
nothing to him and, however carefully
he was shut out at night, he was al
ways found comfortably in bed next
morning. Stepney has the honor of be-
ing his birthplace. His father died
when he vas quite a child, not, how
ever, in the sudden and ignominious
manner suggested by Harrison Aims
worth, for he was an honest and hard
working carpenter. Jack went to
school for Il short time in BiShopgate
street and was a%pprenticed to Mr..
Wood through the kindness of a friend
of his mother, a Mr.. Kneebonc, n lin
en- draper of Drury lane. There he
maintained a good character Tor about
six years, but in the last year of his
apprenticeship he took to f%requenting
a disreputable ale house. the Black
Lion in Drury lane. This was a favor
lite resort of the thieving fraternity, no.
tably Of members of Jonathan Wild's
formidable gang, and there Jack made
acquaintance with such disreputable
( characters as Joseph Blake. %nicknamed
Blueskin and Bowling James Sykes,
more appropriately known as Hell and
Fury. There, too, he made friends
with Edgeworth BeSS, who became his
| Communion in mnnu of biS rnhhorias
and assisted him in many of his es-
capes. He soon initiated his friends in
their business of plundering the public
and took advantage of his admission
into houses as a carpenter to do re-
pairs to carry off any portable prop
erty on which he could lay his hands.
The natural result was a quarrel with
his respectable master. Wood. whom
he finally left ten months before his
apprenticeship was out. He then took
to robbing right and left, but it is not
for his robberieS that he is celebrated,
but for his marvellous escapes.
He first got into trouble over a burg
larry in Clarke street, which he had I'M
dertaken in company with his brother,
Thomas, who combined the occupation
of carpentry and house breaking. Jack
was captured through the treacherous
devices of He'll and Fury who lured
him to an eating house in Seven Dials
to play skittles and then sent out for
a constable. He was promptly impris-
oned i'll the upper part of the round
house of st. Giles which was two
stories high but the next day the
Waterman found that the bird had
flown. With the assistance of a razor
he contrived to break open the top of
the round house, and. twisting his sheet
and blanket into a rope, had descended
in safety.
He was not very long at liberty.
Stealing Il gentleman's watch in LeiceS-
ter Fields, he was stopped and cap
tured, though he was ingcniously shoIt-
ing stop thief!' with all his might.
EdgeWorth BeSs was also arrested on
suspicion and the two were placed in
a strong ward Of the new prison in
Clerkenell. The free and easy manner
in which prison discipline was then
conducted is apparent enough. for Jack
was Immediately supplied with the nee
essary implements to effect his escape
by friendly visitors. After filing an
iron bar from the window he and Bess
managed to let themselves down into
the court yard. twenty-five feet below
and then to scale a wall mo&e van