The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-07-14
LONDON SCHOOL FOR THIEVES.
How the Modern Fagin Teaches His

How the Modern Fagin Teaches His
Boys and Girls to Steal.
Daring crimes are often committed
by children in London. and only Scot
land Yard is aware of the fact.
Youthful offenders are rarely caught
in the act of committing even slight
offensess or. If they are a tolerant po-
liceman is more often than not inclined
to look with lenient eyes on misde-
meanor that in an older person would
mean immediate arrest, by boxing the
ears Of the tiny culprit and letting him
go.
The recent remarkable series of
housekeeping cases in the Enfield dis
trict, in which the father of an errand
boy was sentenced to six years penal
servitude for teaching his 14-year-old
son to commit burglaries, shows con-
clusively that the criminal classes do
not hesitate to teach children to do
what they fear to practice themselves.
The Scotland Yard authorities know
that many criminals, too old now to
commit various crimes with impunity,
to all fntents and purposes reform and
become respectable members of the
community. They open small shops.
and then in very quiet way hold
classes of pupils eager to pay for learn
ing the secrets of the craft"
The FIRST thing the master does is
to examine the would-be probationer's
hands. The thief's mark must show
up strongly upon both, or the boy or
girl is not worth the risk of training.
Even II the child has clever, light An
gered parents, and the ,thief's nark,,
lis absent from its hands, the trainer Will
have nothing to do with the case. He
does not believe in a child inheriting its
parents evil propensities.
Girls are mostly taught pocket-pick-
ing and how to steal trifes from shop
showcases Members Of both sexes are
Well drilled in the art of unblushingly
telling lies They daily rehearse
'hold-ups" by imaginary policemen.
The trainer, Of course, acts the latter
role, and illstructs the young idea how,
to invent plausible excuses at a sec
|onds notice.
The girls are the sharpest at this
game, and very seldom get caught. Al
trainor will never have anything more
to do with child that has once enter
ed a reformatory. The clergyman there
has generally worked on the youthful
conscience, and ever after fits of re-
pentance must be counted on to occur
at inopportune moments.
Boy burglars are trained in a very
simple manner. 1t is argued that most
people living in villas pay a great deal
of attention to the bolts and bars on
their ground floors but very little if
any to those on the first.
Accordingly the juvenile Bill Skies is
provided in the early days of his train
ing with ten-foot silken rope tied in
knots a foot apart. Fastened at the
end is a strong but light steel hook.
The boy is required to practice with
this rope, throwing 1t in much the same
way as a lasso would be up to a vim
dow sill six or more feet above him, so
that the hook holds to the stone.
When the lassoing is acquired to the
trainers satisfaction, the lad is next re-
CURED to shin up the rope without dis
lodging the hook from the sill. This re-
quires great deal of practice, and
many are the falls endured. As the
height is seldom more than ten feet,
and prior to this stage the boy has been
taught how to fall, only slight bruises
result.
The children in their first expedi-
tions are always taken and shown the
house that is to be entered in the day.
time, and instructed as to the best
methods of entry to the back.
Then late at night the instructor
takes the little lad to the crib and
from a convenient spot watches his
pupil disappear according to instruc-
.tions. The presence of an adult with a