The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-06
EASY TO PICK LOCKS.
TIT NO TROUBLE Ar ALL TO THE
 EXPERT BURGLAR.
Ordinary Looks Yield to His Skill ~ Once and the Others Arc Easily Per- sunded-How Skeleton Keys, Picks and Blanks Arc Used.

sundcd-How Skeleton Keys, Picka and Blanks Are Used.
 When the householder gets ready to turn out the gas for the night prepara- tory to turning in, he makes the rounds
 of the house, turns all the keys to as- sure himself the outer doors are locked and goes to bed confident that no burg
 lar can get in unless he saws hole in
 the door. But the householder is mis-
 taken. Nothing, unless it be an open
 door, gives an expert burglar less trou-
 ble than the average lock. Picking a
 lock has come to be such a fine art that
 there are only a few locks, and those
 especially made to order, which cannot
 be picked by a man who knows his bus
 mess. Some people think they can fool
 the lock picker by leaving the key in
 the lock on the inside, so the burglar
 cannot insert a skeleton" 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 d 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 be-
 low the notches and turn it easily and
 silently.
 But that is not lock picking That is
 childs play. To open a door which has
 been locked and from which the key has
 been removed is ad ifferent proposition,
 but old policemen declare there are very
 few if any doors on ordinary dwellings
 and fiat buildings which are secured by
 locks able to resist the advances of the burglar. What are known as skeleton"
 keys are made like ordinary doorkeys,
 only the guards, which in regular keys
 contain several notches of different depths, are very thin and delicate. Tn 8
 bunch of these keys each one has 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 the proper tumblers in the lock and shoot the bolt back Where the old fashioned rim" locks 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 dis covered that almost any old key he bor- rowed from the neighbors would turn the bolt. A buttonhook will usually do it. Any slight projection on slender rod which will raise the simple tumbler in the lock will allow the bolt to be re- moved.
 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 the two key holes are bit more intricate in their mechanism and are likely to hold the burglar a moment or two longer. But they will eventually yield to the gentle of the expert lock picker When several skeleton keys have been tried and none is found to be the proper one. the picks which give the art it's name, are introduced. These are slen- der bits of steel with one end turned up at right angle, resembling a but tonhook with the "hook'' strengthened out to form an l.. The long end in the hand of the burglar Is 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 the dooor is open.
 There is scarcely a lock in town on which an expert cannot perform this is, of the common variety of locks which can be opened through a keyhole from either side of the door With spring locks-or night latch" locks, as they are called-the work is bit more difficult sometimes and is more often performed with a skeleton key than with picks. The expert bur slar is provided with pocketful of | night latchkeys cut from steel or iron blanks and each one having notches shade different from the others In the | 'heaper grade of night latches one of hese keys is almost certain to prove l l duplicate of the one on the key ring | if the householder snugly asleep inside | n perfect confidence in his lock.
 And after the house has been robbed 1 md non one disturbed the folks say:
 "I can't see how they got in, for the ! loor was locked, and we found it locked |, his morning"
 The wise burglar takes care to close he door behind him so as to avert sus- ,icion as long as possible.
 Not all of the lock picking is done by | however. Some of the most | xpert men in that line are practical ocksmiths and employees of the big "a afe-making firms, who have spent ears in peering into locks and devising methods for making them proof against Il attacks save those of the keys in- ended for them Thesbattle constantly aging between the makers of high ower shells and the makers of armor late is no more steadily waged than hat between lockmakers and burglars that is, makers of locks which cost a arrel of money and are intended to uard. .valuables. The so- called burglar roof safe of 20 years ago would be aughed at by the safe blower of to-day. The time lock doors of safe deposit ault, with their ponderous cranlSs and crew thread mechanism, are the high st type of the lock experts art. They re supposed to be absolutely proof 1 gainst everything except earthquakes nd properly applied dynamite. But hen they get out of order and refuse