The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-25
sAFE-CRACKING AS A PAST ART.
Safe-Mnkers Ahead mt Present in
the Competition.

the Competition.
From the New York Evening Post.
1t is declared at police headquarters
that the notriety obtained the other
day by Yonkers burglar by means Of
a supposedly brand-new electric dark
lantern was not wholly deserved. For
at least five years. the police say, this
lantern has peen on the market, and
has been in very general use by the
more progressive class of burglars. In
looks this device resembles a diminu-
tive police billy. The electricity is gen
Grated from a dry battery in the butt
of the lantern, and is thrown into a
tiny incandescent bulb at the other
end by means of a grass ring. BY
twisting this ring half round the stick
the light is turned on or off at will.
In connection with this discovery 1t
may be interesting to learn that safe
cracking is becoming lost art. Not
only do the police boast of this, but
the best of burglars sadly acknowledge
it. One day recently in the Detective
Bureau at Headquarters one Pat Cody,
a member of the old heroic school of
craftsmen and a past master in the
art of solving burglar proof locks and
combinations, conceded not without
feeling that there was no longer any
thing doing" Cody is the inventor of
a "vest-pocket burglars outfit" that
has yet to be equalled for compactness.
The entire set of tools, consisting OF
drills, jmmies, and fuses to the number
of thirty or forty, can be contained in
a travelling medicine case. In the same
envelope with the photograp OF Pat
Cody-which the police say they will
always cherish-there is sample OF
this outfit which was obtained Surrep-
titiously and without the inventors
consent. That it was made by ma
chinist of more than ordinary ability
is shown in the skill and delicacy with
which each instrument is fashioned.
The threads on some of the smaller
drills are as fine as those used in the
bearings of a watch.
In the presence of this old-fashioned
burglar one of the central office detec-
tives explained to a visitor the reasons
why safe cracking as fine art could
no longer exist. He gave all the credit
to the inventors and manufacturers of
modern burglar proof vaults and the
burglar concurred in all
his remarks. 1.-The safe-makers have
become too skillful for the safe break
ers." the detective declared; there is
not a bank vault constructed nowadays
that could not withstand an over-Sat-
urday- and Sunday assault upon it.
There amt a man living" added
the burglar. that's got enough Sun
days coming to him to even make
start on one of Them
The visitor noticed that the burglar
did not use the term crib"
"In't 1T professional to call them
'cribs?' he asked The ancient cracks
man and the detective looked at each
other and smiled.
1.-THE boy burglars say crib" explain
ed the former.
"Out West and in the South" the Of
fcer went on, where the banks are
either too poor or too shiftless to put in
modern safes, there is still field open
for cracksmen, but it is on a limited
scale"
"The pickings won't pay care fare"
the burglar.
"For those small jobs" the detective
resumed, IAN implement known as the
Cody drag is used with the best re-
Suits. This method consists of drilling
a hole or several of them, through the
door of the safe or vault; these holes
are threaded. and a long screw with
block between the door surface and the
screw head is twisted into the holes and
turned against the inner lining until
something has to give. 1t is the same
principal as lacking up car"
"In small towns" explained the bur-
Clar whose device bears his name, the
drag can be used where dynamite and
a fuse would be like a cannon announc-
ing your arrival. It's quicker and
tidier."
Nowadays" the detective resumed,
those who are ambitions to pull Off
a big job must resort to their wits
rather than to brute strength. The pen
Is mightier than the jimmy In banks,
Ii would SEEM"
1t may be added that the old-fash-
Ioned burglar was In police headquar-
ters 10 be 'Iooked over" by some of the
newer members Of the detective bu-
reau