Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-07-10
TRAINING CHILD BURGLARS
Newest Devices of the Modern Grim
inal Schools-Reasonf for
establishments.

1t has long been known that the
modern thief or burglar trains
children very carefully for nefari
GUS work. Only the other day
trainer of young thieves was sent
to prison, and such cases are con,
tinually cropping up, says the
London Mail.
Most ingenious are the methods
practiced by professionals" to
teach their pupils the art of bur
glary. Mere youngsters make ex-
cellent subjects; and as it is OBJ
viously of Importance not to make
a noise when "burgling," the lads
are now taught to slide face down.
ward on the balustrade. 1t has
been discovered that, in order to
accustom them to this mode 'ot
descent, special spiral-shaped
balustrades are sometimes con-
structed, and before the pupil is
pronounced ''finished" he must be
able to slide down a variety OF
these balustrades "like creased
lightning"
Another common practice
among the "burgling fraternity is
that of getting orders to view
empty houses from various house
agents. A number of clever bur
glaries are worked this way.
Dressed up as country squire,
the master" visits numbers of
house agents, gets orders to view
certain houses, generally in ter
races, as there, if he has plan OF
the interior of one house, he has u
''key" to the whole terrace.
He accordingly looks over the
house, gets a plan of the interior
and quits. A few days afterward
his pupils enter the empty house,
and, making their way along the
roofs, enter whichever house has
been selected. In the meantime
the esquire" patrols the house out
side, looking respectability per.
sonifed, and when the coast is
clear he signals, usually by strik
ing matches, so that the boys in
side know whether they can safely
come out with the spoil. One
match means "all's well;" two
matches, danger.
A well-known Scotland yard
official short time ago effected d
clever capture in this way. He
noticed a man, pipe in mouth
walking up and down a street ii
the west end of London and con:
tinually striking matches to light
his pipe. Strange to say, however
no smoke emanated from the pipe
and thinking something was
wrong, the detective concealed
; himself and awaited develop
ments. A few minutes later the
man struck another match. anG
in a trice a boy about II years OLD
| came out from the front door of al
unoccupied house, bearing on his
shoulders a sack with sticks ot
wood protruding from the end.
The detective ''smelled a rat
and at once detained the lad, il
whose sack, under the wood, wa:
found over $4,000 worth of jew
els. The country squire" endeav
ored to make his escape, and the
boy protested that he had neve,
seen him, but it was afterwari
discovered that the bucolic gen
tleman was a weIl-known ticket
of-leaye man.
AS a general rule, old pena
servitude men are the founders O.
thieves schools" Realizins
that, as they are too well knowI
to the police, their chances of con
tinuing a felonious career in {
successful manner are very slight
they have perforce to procure un
derstudies.
Accordingly, by enlarging on
the profits accruing from bur.
glaries and pocket-picking, they
have little difficulty in getting
hold of boys with evil propen.
stiles Weeks and weeks are thep
spent IN instructing the novices
In their new trade. The initial
lessons are generally devoted to
the art of picking pockets.