Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-08-22
CLOSED SEASON FOR
SAFE-DLOWERS ENDS
Now Is the Time When the
"Yegg Man" Goes After the
Country Banks.
is BEGINNING TO WORK
He Has a System, and is Usually in
League With Some Chicago Saloon
Keeper Who Acts as Finan-
cial Backer.

Chicago, Aug. 17.-"There is a season
for everything, and this is the season
for the 'yegg men," said u man in
formed about the operations of this
| class of criminals. Although ii Is not
generally known, the 'yegg men,, as the
safe-blowers who work the rural dis
tricts are technically described have
their w times for work, just as other
| people have, and they are just egln-
ming to get out into the country, where
you will heal from them soon.
I'm the old days safe-blowers Of the
better class-I mean ban robbers
were generally expert mechanics from
eastern safe factories or machine shops.
1t was n case then Of drilling into a
safe before getting il open; but with
the increased use OF high explosives the
expert safe driller has disappeared. and
| in his place has come the nitro-glycerin
operator, or 'yegg man
THE yegg man is generally a plain
young tough who hangs about a Chi
cago saloon six months In the year and
works at his business the other six.
In the spring and summer he gets his
drinks and board from the ~saloonkeep-
err, who stakes him when the fall
comes and the nLshts get long. and who
shares In the yegg mans profits.
Summer Is a poor time for the bank
burglar TO work, because the nights
| are so short and people are stirring
about so much. II Is when the days
| grow shorter and the nights colder that
the egg man HES himself to the coun-
try, where he keeps busy until the
first fall OF snow makes his tracks too
plain for convenience.
Have Great Success.
although lacking in artistic finish,
tho Napu mon ire wonderfully success
full at blowing bank safes because un-
der the fine system under which they
work. Usually the s~aloonkeeper sends
out n smooth looking bartender or
hanger-on. who locates the town, Sc
cures diagrams and dates and actually
routes the safeblowera
almost without exception the men
who really do the work never see the
town until the night they get the
money. Most always they drop of the
train thirty miles from the place and
walk the rest of the distance, cooking
their meals In the woods and keeping
out OF sight. No one sees them before
the safe Is robbed. and probably no n
sees them afterward. For they know
Just where to go TO steal a horse and
just what direction to take, and, In
short, they are prepared to make a
quick getaway
IF their first haul is good they gem
orally go back to Chicago and blow in
their share. If the returns are not
large. they follow the original pro-
gram.
They are able to get away more
often because. although a nitroglycerin
explosive generally arouses the neigh
borhood, few healthy men are willing
to offer themselves upo the altar or
law and order. A little careful shooting
on a dark night by determined and
desperate men generally allows the
safe-blower to get out of town, after
which IL Is next to impossible to iden-
tify them.
1T is evident from the reports from
Sioux Falls and elsewhere that the
yegg men are getting out of Chicago,
ready to work, and that they Will soon
be heard from In III wheat country,
where the mi are loaded up with
money TO move the crop.
These yegg men, however, are not to
be COMPOUNDED with the local talent
which has recently been operating on
the East Side. They would scorn to
be classed with plain safe blowers who
rk retail stores"