The Washington times., 1938-01-10


so heavy on no investment? You
60 out with a blackjack and q
choo choo and you come back with
a load of coal and a couple ot
plates.
What, Who's talking about the
coal business or dishes? didn't
say anything about either of them
What 1 just said was. you go ou'
with a blackjack and pistol ano
you come back with diamonds OF
q couple of purses.
Sure! That's thieves patter
We got to talk like that in case
there's a matey-Oh, a dick, detec
tlves to you!-around.
How do 1 explain being here IN
the can. if crime pays? Well.
Just happened to get a bad break
And at that I'm only taking a nap
I'm only doing six months.
1 could have been hash Drowned
or even sealed. Oh, all right
From now on, III talk kids
English. 1 said I could have got
a long or even a life sentence.
ANOTHER ANGLE
But, taking it from another
angle, 1 wouldn't be here if 1t
wasn't for one of those guys with
out the gift of trying to be a crook.
Sure.
Emil his name is and he's a nice
punk. He was always legitimate
until he got the yen to get married
to a swell jane.
He was a mass-one Of those
guys that massage you in a Turk
ish bath-until he lost his job
only a couple of weeks before they
were going to get hitched.
And then she got fired from her
position as maid to some Park Ave
nue. debutante. So there they
were.
This Emil is an ambitious punk
He covers every want ad printed
in the papers. But no dice. He's
still got couple of smackers left,
so one night he drops into a bar
and grill to console himself with
a beer and he meets me.
I size him up because got a
Job in mind. I'm rubber band,
you see. I don't stick at any one
line. I do second story or loft
work. vary it with a stick-up
once in a while.
Well, this is a loft job and
need a little guy to climb up and
do the unfastening on a window
about twice as high as your head
Did I tell you how the guy was
set up? No? Well, he's small ano
slender and kind of pale.
So 1 asks him if he ever think;
of turning a dishonest penny anc
he gets so choked that he nearly
falls down. But after a while.
get him interested because I'm a
pretty good talker.
And before we part that night
I got his promise that he'll give
stealing a try. We made a meet
for a week from that night be-
cause I figured the loft job
wouldn't be ready before that.
I didn't see him at all for six
days. Then he came into the same
bar where we had met. And he
was different. He was paler but
he looked kind of dangerous.
He wore his hat on one side of
his head and when he laughed, he
twisted his mouth as much as to
say, I'm a tough baby so what's
it to you?"
After a while, he told me he'd
done a job all by himself and
come away with it swell. He'd
gone into a place and knocked a
guy off for thirty dollars he found
in his pants. I asked him if the
guy had got a look at him. Yes,
he said, because they talked quite
q while.
He said the guy was a kisser "a
1awyer) and he warned Emil that
crime didn't pay. He told him he
was too good boy to get mixed
up with criminals and to go
straight it he could.
PLANS JOB
If It was anybody but Emil that
told me that, I'd have said he was
a liar. But you could tell by look
ing at Emil that he couldn't lie. I
got to planning the job with him
for the next night.
Every time I came to a place
where I had to do something. Emil
would say, Why can't 1 do that?"
He wanted to do everything. not
to be a big shot but just because
he was an accommodating guy.
He proved it that night A lady
knocked her beer over. She was
sitting in a booth with guy and
the beer rolled all over her lap.
So Emil runs over to the booth
with a towel and he starts Swab-
bing her dress. And the guy fig.
ures Emil's trying to make her and
tells him to get the hell out Of
there.
But Emil pays no attention and
the guys starting to hang one on
his chin and I have to walk over
and join the party.
Listen, heel" says to the guy
"One swing out of you and you're
old wax. This little fellows my
pal"
well, what's he making passes
at my puss for?" he says. Shes
a sucker for a man that's kind t.
her when she's plastered and this
guy must know it. Get him away
from here or I'll Stiffen him"