Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-04
He Confessed to Having Com
 mitted 39 Burglaries.
PROPERTY WORTH se5, GOO

Former Waterbury Lad Will Not Re-
 new Old Acquainta for Long
 Period of Time Was Perfectly Cool
 When Brought Into Court This
 Morning and Apparently Did Not
 Mind His Long Sentence of Twenty-
 Three Years.
 It will be very many long anal weary years before Harry Brooks, who was formerly employed as gro cer's clerk in this city, will be. able tol pay visit here to renew his old ac-l quaintances Harry was generally conceded pretty bright youth whilel employed here, but he was possessed4 more or less of the habit of usings sharp practices in many of his trans-{ actions. Still, many people in thisa city were surprised when he was ard rested some weeks ago in New York on the charge of burglary and whenl he was dubbed with the title of
 Gentleman George Robinson" Those people could not realize for a timef that the genial Harry had turned into4 the notorious burglar for whom fhe4 police of New York and other placesI had been on the still hunt. They could 1 not bring themselves to believe fhat} he might be apprehended for somel slick confidence game, for he was al slippery sort of chap, but to be fhe { notorious burglar. tsGentIeman5 George was something beyond their comprehension.
 When he was arrested, however. and he saw that the net had closed around him. he made haste to give full and complete confession. And such a confession. if surprised even the old detectives on tl,e New York police force and astounded the. people in this city who knew him we'll His confession told of thirtyx nine burglaries successfully carried out, and when asked to foot up the amount of goods taken by this long list he estimated that he had stolen about $65,000. Last Wednesday he pleaded guilty to the indictments charging him with various burglarles. and he was then induced to tell his story and he did so. It was no wora- der that the detectives were surprised. and some of the old timers now serving sentences in Sing Sing would probably blush with shame to think that they were so much outdone by compara- lively young chap. k
 When brought into court in New York to-day to receive his sentence he showed but little traces of his Hose confinement since his arrest He was perfectly cool when placed at the bar. and when the sentence of twenty-three years was doled out to him by the pre- siding judge he never f1inched He must have realized that twenty-three years taken out of his life was really his death sentence, but he was the coolest of those present and took his punishment as cooly as though it were but twenty-three days he was getting on the Island.
 Harry Brooks had many good opporS tunities, but he was a young fellow when in this city who loved the fast and gay life. He needed money to keep that sort of an existence up and that was probably what drove him into the burglar career. Twenty three years from to-day if he is alive he will be an old man and his usefulness will have passed away. He had good time while those 'burglaries were being committed and perhaps be fully expected at some time to be caught, and knew that when that time came his free life was at an end. He has, disappeared behind the prison doors perhaps forever and thus ends the ca- reer of a former clerk in this city who had more than his usual gathering or friends and acquaintnnces.