The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-06-23
FORMER SAFE
BLOWER NOW
HELPS CROOKS
Harry Haines, Slickest of
Cracksmen, Becomes Big
Religious Leader
BY GENE COIN
NEA Service Writer

New York, June 23.--Down in the
Bowery's streets of furtive men they
need no introduction to the steel
eyed, wiry-bodied little man in the
brown business suit.
They knew him when"
Over his head hung prison SEN
fences aggregating four average life
times. Hidden away in various places
was good fortune in cold cash,
Gifted" in some of the country's most
spectacular safe jobs" He could
have taught even Gerald Chapman l.
thing or two.
Crookdom lost it's slickest safe
crack when Harry Haines went
straight"
With all his intelligence, his super
knowledge of locks and combinations
and safe doors, Haines had found che
crooked trail short one with an
abrupt ending.
And that is why you'll find him
today in the Bowery Y. NJ. G. A. in
we'll pressed business suit, his shoes
carefully shined, his gray streaked
hair neatly brushed, his face clean
shaved, his mind fresh and his heart
free.
at literally pays to go right, even
if being good results in what may
appear to be the humblest Of circun-
stances" he says. Even a halfway
job is more profitable than a Grim
malls game. A crook never has mon
ely long. It's a milestone around his
neck and in one way or another it
sinks him. Going right has moral
and spiritual value, but it also has
business value and that's what every
youngster should think about when
he contemplates going wrong"
He is spending the rest of his life
trying to tell the Bowery drifters
what he learned from years of the
most varied experience. And the be-
ginning of his story is always this:
There is no such thing as a man
who has gone too far for reclama-
ton"
Across his path come scores of
men who had heard of him in the
underworld, some of them dope
number specimens that he is able to
help. But the largest group and the
group he is able to help most is COM
posed of homeless men of the me-
tropois. They are not crooks-just
temporarily out of luck and friend
"
which criminals are made unless
Harry Hanes shows them a letter
way.
Harry ITaincs can appreciate
their point Of view, giving them
traight-from- the-s shoulder facts.
From the platform or in a quiet
corner he tells them his story with
the Scotch burr buzzing through his
words.
81 ran away from Scotland when
boy and went to sea- he relates
Coming to this country stranger
from first cabin gained my conf
dence. He said he would look after
me. He got me job as office boy
III one of the big safe companies.
And then, one day ] learned that
was being coached by the head of
the biggest crook ring in America.
He was training me from the bot
tom.
While employed at the safe COM
pany ! was to steal blue prints of
safes, | was to learn the combina-
tlons and study the locks and report.
Before long | knew safes inside
and out and l was pointed to as the
smartest beginner in the game.
I'm the years that followed there
was no part of the country in which
] didn't work, no underworld where
| wasn't known, no safe job too big
for me.
"The years went by and my repu-
tatlon spread. 1t got so that | would
be called in on big Jobs. They would
send me from one city to another
The cops of the nation were looking
for me. The Bowery became my
hang-out. l had made political
friends through election dealings of
the old days.
FINALLY must have had something
like $25O,OOO in loot. But, like the
rest Of the underworld, had learned
booze and dope and they We're get
ting me. The bosses of crookdom
knew it. They spent big money on
cures. And did Jail time, but never
got off the stuff. Nothing would
have done any good if l hadn't hap
pened to pass place where Saliva
ton Army band was singing one
night. That set me thinking. There
was a spiritual and moral regener-
alton. l gave God chance and got
on the right trail at last.
went to Teddy Roosevelt. He
was then just swinging into the
mayor contest. laid my whole
story before him. had something
like 26O years to serve in prisons.
Teddy looked at me completely non
plussed. Finally he said that if 1
really wanted to go straight he would
help me. First | would have to give
back every cent had stolen and then
| had to take such medicine as the
law wanted to give me. But he prom
ised to help.
We'll, l gave back the money and
went to Jail for a 15-year stretch.
But | had found the cure-it was in
the freedom of heart and mind that
! came with the birth of religion.