The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-06-22
A SCHOOL FOR THIEVES.
BOYS AND GIRLS TAUGHT TO
STEAL BY MODERN FAelNs.
London Criminal Classes Do Not
Hesitate to Instruct Their Children
In What They Fear to Practise
MISUNDERSTANDING Boy Burglars.

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
offences, or II they are tolerant
policeman Is moro often than not in.
clined TO look with lenient eyes on a
misdemeanor that in an older person
would mean immediate arrest, by box.
ing the ears Of the tiny culprit and
letting him go.
The recent remarkable series Of
housebreaking cases in the En-.
field district, 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 conclusively that the criminal
classes do not hesitate TO teach chill
dren to do what they fear to practise
themselves.
The Scotland Yard authorities know
that many criminals, too old now TO
commit various crimes with impunity,
TO all lntents 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
learning the secrets .. the craft"
The first thing the master" does is
to examine the would.be probationers
hands. The "thief's mark" must show
up strongly upon both. or the boy or
girl is not worth the risk of train
ing. Even if the child has clever, light
fingered parents, and the "thief's
mark" is absent from its hands, the
trainer will have nothing to do with
the case. lie does not believe in q
child inheriting its parents evil pro-
pensities.
Girls are mostly taught pocket-pick.
ing and how TO steal trlfles from shop
show cases. Members of both sexes
are well drilled In the art of unblush.
ingly telling lies. They daily rehearse
"hold-ups" by imaginary policemen.
The trainer, of course, acts the latter
role, and instructs the young idea how
to invent plausible excuses at a Sec
onds notice.
The girls are Tie sharpest at this
game, and very sell' m get caught.
A trainer will never have anything
more to do with L child that has-once
entered a reformatoTy. The clergy
man there has generally worked on the
youthful conscience, and ever after
fits Of repentance 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
IL any to those on the first.
Accordingly the juvenile Bill Skies
is provided in the early days of his
training with a Io.foot silken rope
tied in knots a foot apart. Fastened
at the end is strong but light steel
hook. The boy is required to practise
with this rope, throwing 1t in much
the same way as a lasso would be up
to window sill six OF more feet above
him, SO that the hook holds to the
| stone.
When the lassUing Is acquired to
the trainers satisfaction, the lad is
iext required to shin up the rope with
Mt disloIging the hook from the sill.
This requires a great deal of practice,
md many are the falls endured. AS
lhe height is seldom more than 10
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
boy of tender wears late at night
disarms any suspicion an alert police
IAN might have II the boy were seen
'alking through a street alone.
Once at the back of the house the
py, quite at his leisure, makes an in.
pection of every window on the
round floor. II ore opens readily
he enters by it, If not he surveys next
tier, and in nine cases out of ten dis.
covers that the bathroom window is
partly open. That is sufficient. From
side pocket he draws the coil of
silken rope, and couple Of minutes
later is standing inside the little room.
The juvenile burglar is instructed
to make his entry by a bathroom
wherever possible because there Is
always n risk in villadom of any or
every room being occupied as bed.
room, and window opening with
sleeper in the room would nearly al.
ways insure an alarm being raised.
Not long ago I remarkable thing
happened at villa on Brixton Hill.
When the. people awakened in the
morning the house was in perfect or.
der; every window was closed and
fastened, every door was bolted. Yet
every ones pocket had been rifled,
ortinIa of ia,uaIry hod haap tal