The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-04-19
ART OF LOCK PICKING.

ART OF LOCK PICKING.
When the householder gets ready
to turn out the gas for the night pre-
paratory to turning in he makes the
rounds Of the Iluusr. tulns all the keys
to assure himself the outer doors are
locked, and goes to bed confident that
no burglar can get in unless he saws a
hole in the door, says the Chicago
"Cronicle But the householder is
mistaken. Nothing, unless it be an
open door, gives the expert bur-
glar less trouble than the average lock.
"Picking' lock has come to be such
fine art that there are only 4 few
locks, and those especially made to or
der, which cannot be picked by man
who knows his business. Some peo-
pie think they can fool the lock picker
by leaving the key in the inside, so
that the burglar cannot insert "skel-
eton" key. This only makes things
easier. The man who knows how and
has the proper tools can turn key
just as easily from the outer side of a
door as though he were on the side
where the handle of the key projects.
A slender, strong pair of steel pliers
properly applied will clutch the little
end OF the key which extends below
the notches and turn it easily and s.
lently.
But that is not lock picking. That
is child's play. To open door which has
been locked and from which the key had
been removed is a different PROPOSE
tion, but old policemen declare there
are few, if any, doors on ordinary
dwellings and fiat buildings which are
secured by locks able to resist the adj
vances of the burglar. What are
known as Skeleton" keys are made
like ordinary door keys, only the
guards, which in regular keys contain
several notches of different depths, are
very thin and delicate. In buch Of
these keys each one has a guard just
a shade wider or longer than the next
one, and the burglar tries them one by
one until he usually strikes one which
will do the business, raise tue proper
tumbler in the lock and shoot the bolt
back Where the old faahion lin
locks are used, the sort which are
used, the sort which are screwed to
the door and are now found only in
very old frame buildings, or in the
cheaper class of hotels, this is easy.
Any one who has ever lost the key to
one of these locks must have dlscov-
cred that almost any old key he bor
rowed from the ncighbors would turn
the bolt. A button hook will usually
do it. Any slight projection on a
slender rod which will raise the SIM
pie tumbler in the lock will allow the
bolt to be removed.
But .mortise" locks, the variety in
use in all modern buildings, which are
fitted into the edge of the door and
leave nothing showing but the brass
plate on the edge and two keyholes,
are bit more intricate in their mech
anism and are likely to hold the bur-
glar a moment or two longer. But
they will eventually yield to the gen.
tie movements of the expert lock pick
er. When several skeleton keys have
been tried and none is found to he the
proper one the "picss" which give the
art its name, are introduced. These
are slender bits of steel, with one turn
ed up at a right angle. resembling a
UuCCOIluOOk Will luc uOOk SLTalSH III
ened out to form an L. The long end
in the hand of the burglar is SO slender
that several of these can be inserted
at once into the circular part of the
keyhole, and they are put in one by
one, each one raising tumbler and
holding it up until the proper number
OF tumblers are raised, when the bolt
moves back and door is open.
There is scarcely lock in town on
which an expert cannot perform this
trick-tLat is, of the common variety
of locks which can be opened through
a keyhole from either side of the door.
With spring locks-or might latch"
locks as they are calied-the work is a
bit more difficult sometimes, and is
more often performed with skeleton
key than with the picks. The expert
burglar is provided with a poeEctful
of night latch keys cut from steel or