The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-23
THE BURGLARS CLUB.

Tnere are many clubs In London ut
terly unknown to the general public.
Some of them seek newspaper notorie-
ty, and one constantly sees illusions 10
the doings of certain associations, the
dinners they indulge in, and that sort
of thing, but there are many other fra
ternites that avoid publicity as much
ss possible, and of these is these Is the
Burglars club.
The anne might induce one to think
that the occupation of its members
would cause them to desire the obscur-
!ty they seek, but this is not at all the
case. The Burglars Club is simply an
organization whose members are scten-
tifc young men who like to meet at
their Saturday night dinner and dis
cuss matters that arc Interesting TO
them, and sometimes rather obscure to
the unscientiflc guest. The club Is not
Of old standing, and it arose something
In this way About ten or twelve years
ago there was an association called the
Burglars Protective Association, and
the first members belonged, as usual
thing. to insurance societies that in"
sured against burglars.
The object of the association was to
tIlCOuIdBt eClcllliliS dc'SioStA'~''N 1890
went toward rendering burglary as DIFF
flcult as possible. At one time, when the
association was in funds, a circular was
sent round to various scientific men
and societies asking them to submit to
the association any new devices cal
culated to make it lively for the burg
lar on entering a house. There was
large response to tiiis invitation, ana
at one time the Burglars Protective
Association thought of holding an eX-
hibition in London, so that the public
might become accustomed to these in
genious contrivances, and thus in
duced to adapt them in their homes.
The president Of the association, how
ever, pointed out that publicity was the
very thing to play into the hands OF
the burglars, and that the object of the
association would thus be defeated. SO
the exhibition was never held, but
dwelling house in Bloombury was TAX
en-, where houses are large and cheap
when one considers how handy they
are to all places of interest, and In this
house were stored the various burg
lary-checking appliances. AS time went
on the association became larger and
larger, and it included many scientific
men who were interested in the de-
Vices stored in the Bloombury house.
But somehow the scientific and COM
,nercial elements in the association did
not mix tremendously, and so about
six years ago the Burglars Protective
Association became practically mort
bund.
The younger Of the scientists held
AZ IN take the
assets of the association and to use the
house which had been leased for a
number of years, as place for Satur-
day meetings Arrangements were
made with the association itself for
taking over the house and all it's con-
tents, and somebody suggested that
the new body should call itself the
Burglars Club" but this was voted
down, and the company Of men decided
to call themselves 1.-THE Scientific Re
search Club which name, 1t is needless
to say. never Caught on" and although
it ia the official name of the body, yet
each of it's members know 1t only as
the Burglars Club
suppose the elder members of the
club found there was precious little
scientific research, and good deal OF
eating and drinking, for one by one
they dropped off, and the club now
consists almost entirely of young men.
The house has been repapered, and re-
novated throughout, and made severely
respectable, with one room on the up
per floor devoted to the scientific APP
planes for the securing of burglars.
1t was about three years ago, SO I
was told, at about 3 o'clock In the
morning, at which hour the club was
supposed to be closed, that a real burg
lar entered the house by 3 back base
ment window, and to their great aston
ishment as we'll as his own, he came
lpon four men in one of the upper
rooms playing cards: they had shaded
lights so that no outside ray was visi-
BILE. and thus the four members evil
IDENTIFY hoped to delude the house COM
mittee and conceal from the club in
general the fact that they were break
ing the rules.
The four players simultaneously
thought the masked intruder was one
of their fellow members who had dis
guised himself as burglar, so they
sprang up altogether, upset the card
table and rushed upon him. He, fear
Ing capture, Hed uOWll lue SldllS WIN
the four pell nell at his heels. There
was wild struggle in the hall and at
last the burglar was pinioned and
thrown, while two men sat ON his pal
pitating boly. One lit light and an
other pulled off the mask, and then the
PLAYERS at once saw by the mans coun-
tenance that they had bagged real
burglar and not member of the club.
The two holding him down at once
arose, and the quartet apologized to
the man for their seeming rudeness,
and explained how the mistake had
xrisen. He seemed suspicious, but fol-
lowed them, when requested, with some
surliness into the dining room. They
organized themselves into an emer-
gency meeting of the club and elected
The burglar an honorary member, put
ling the name and the false address
be had given them into book,
while he added dignity to the signature
by affixing his mark.
Then they runmaged the club for
something to eat and produced few
bottles Of the best wine to be found in
the place Thus over the festive board
they pledged their visitor and wished