The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-11-17
SPORT ELEMENT IN CRIME. GREAT THIEVES WHO PLAY THE
 GAME JOY0USLY.

! Stalking n NhAh 1 Rob HimeIf-Exsample of the Trans
 mutation of GOld--MethOd by Which Big Haul of Diamonds Was Made. 1 Some there are who steal under pres sure of want, and there are many whose crimes cannot be attributed to any special cause whatever, but the de- predations of not a few are due neither to want nor to wantonnests. 1t is a love of adventure that gives this parti- cular turn to their activities. The un- fortunates who are driven to steal by pressure of circumstances find no pleas ure in their evil deeds and they would like to forget them as soon as possible. But just as the sportsman enjoys the anticipation of his sport, writes Sir Robert Anderson, late head of the criminal investigation department of Graphic, and delights in talking over his successes and even his failures, so is it with the criminal of sporting tendencies.
 My friend Frank White, so long the esteemed pastor of Talbot Tabernacle, Noting Hill, has told me of an ex- perience he had in a recent visit to America. He was invited to conduct the Sunday service in one of the large prisons, for in the 1ails of the United States religion is not 'laid on" off1- cially, as in England like the water and the gas. After the preaching he was asked to visit some of the convicts
 in their cells. One of the number was
 man of good education and of ex-
 ceptional ability.
 To find such man in such circum-
 stances was distressing and deplorable , and in talking to him MT. White sought
 to improve the occasion When he had finished his homily the prisoner asked
 him if fox hunting was still praetised
 in England. Yes" said my friend,
 distressed at what he took to be a
 broad hint to change the subject. But don't they get a nasty fall now and 7 then?" "Yes, but that does not stop the hunting" well, that's just like me-" said the convict i've had a
 nasty fall and no mistake, but l hope
 for better luck another time" I need
 not point the moral. It was not with
 a dangerous trade but with a danger ous sport that he compared his life as
 a criminal
 With convinced disciple of Hobbes e who ignores the Ten Commandments
 and suffers from no twinges of con
 science, stalking deer is poor work ir , comparison with stalking millionaire Il The brutal criminal who covets the
 rich mans hoard will murder his vic 2 tim and break open his safe with g Il sledgehammer. But that is utterly . unworthy of the sportsman. And the !, Dick Turpin of the present day cannot e take to the highway, like his prototype
 He must have recourse to modern f methods. I need not draw upon my n imagination here; for truth is strang. l. CT than fiction" and my memory vii V supply illustrations.
 r The hero of my first story rented z t bedroom near the railway station iron
 which the Dives he was stalking travel : led daily to town. Well dressed anC e well groomed, he took his seat in the r same compartment, attracting notic' n only by his apparent desire to remaii 7. unnoticed, while he dealt with the pa L. pers he carried in a handbag.
 . One morning after a few such journ
 eys he gave vent to his annoyance a | having forgotten his keys. A strange Vt c,ittfng ir, +ha nnnocita ,,arpar ,,oli+ol,
 offered him his bunch in the hope tha o he would find on it a key to open tn q bag. But none of them would fit tn lock. At the suggestion of the strange o (who, of course, was an accomplice.
 Dives then produced his bunch of keys
 and a few seconds suff1ced to enabl u the thief to take wax impression O Y the key of Dives safe. A few week a' later the safe was rifled and befor l. the crime was discovered the thief wa ~ across the Channel with his booty. III This trick has been often played bu ie the plot I am about to describe is ab u' solutely unique. The genius who plan p ned it claimed to have discovered tn
 master secret of alchemy; he coul
 double the weight of gold. One of ou
 great city houses, on being approache
 in strict confidence, offered him facili a 'io ties to test his scheme. But h yl Thought scorn' to treat a few hun io |, dred sovereigns; it would not be wort 4 his while to deal with less than G20,00 + Of counse, the merchants ran no risk a for they could take adequate precau -s, u, tions against pilfering or fraud Tn N fellow stipulated that no one but him = self should ever enter the laborator
 provided for the purpose of his exper
 ment, but he ostentatiously submitte to a rigid search after each of h
 daily visits.
 One Monday morning he failed to pl
 in an appearance, and when after a
 interval the laboratory was opened tt
 tanks in which the 10000 sovereigns ha been deposited were found to be empt How the gold had been spirited ava was a mystery which perhaps woul
 never have been solved had not tf sporting instincts of the thief compelle him to boast of his success.
 A letter posted in territory that kne
 no extradition treaty brought a fu
 disclosure of the plot. A.gentlemal
 ly' sort of letter it was, expressir regret at the credulty of his victim
 and congratulating them that the lo