Year: 1879

Are professional criminals often
good workmen with toolsg"


"Tou can hardly call them fine
workmen. Nor are they generally
very strong men. Almost all the hard
labor they get is when they are sent to
prison at hard labor. There are GER
tain burglars, however, who are sharp
enough To open almost any safe. In
point OF fact there is no such thing AS
making safe which burglar cannot
open. They have an apparatus which
Will rip out the whole front of any safe
that can be made. Ii consists of am up-
right, which is screwed into the floor,
and on this they get leverage with a
lever which has an edge as sharp as a
razor and will go into the minutest
crack. That machine will tear out the
whole front of a colossal safe, A case
was tried In England some time ago.
\ man sued safe maker for selling
him an alleged burglar proof safe which
was afterward robbed. The safe
maker proved in court that no safe
| could be made which could not be pried
open.


"What time do thieves generally Sc
lcct To rob a bankg'


"They generally want all the time
they can get, as IL is long Job to drln
through thick steel doors. Thieves
generally commence Saturday night so
they can have all night and next day.
ana the following night to work In.
They hardly ever go at a safe until
their stool pigeons have carefully piped
all the people on watch for weeks and
weeks, and know their habits, when
they visit the bank. Not long ago. a
bank In Brooklyn, near the ferry, was
marked for robbery and the thieves got
IN the bank Saturday night and were
at work there Sunday, when one of the
bank men unlocked the bank door. He
didn't see the thieves, nor even suspect
their existence. He was going to
church, however, that morning, and
when he left the bank, walked very
rapidly in the direction of the station
house. Thereupon the Grow or the
accomplices of the thieves outside, gave
them the signal OF danger, and they
dropped their tools, and went out of
the bank In haste. On Monday morn


ng. there was seen all their apparatus
and they were just on the point of get
ting In at the money when frightened
off.


"Do burglars ever save their money P"


Occasionally you find one that is
very frugal, temperate and thrifty; IL
Is exceptional however. Mike Shen-
burn, whom | regard as the biggest
burglar In this country, is said to be
living snugly in Switzerland on the
money he derived from robbIng the
Ocean Rank more than ten years ago.
Jimmy Hope is In Canada. lie proba-
bly, has not much money, because his
son is a scapegrace who cleans him out.
burglars generally marry fast women !;
They have no opportunity To address a
lady of respectability, and often have
to take a woman Of the town"


DO the detectives generally keep
faith with each otherY"


THAT depends on the men know
some detectives who are the EQUALS I'm
honOr and fdclity of any man In the
world. There arc others Of considera-
bic reputation who are habitual in
triguers. T.ere was once In the Cen
trail Office a detective of considerable
newspaper notoriety, but extremely
soft. lie thought his bosom friend was
another detective now retired. The
latter found that the Police Commits
sioners were about to promote the other
man to his place In the force, and retire
himself into the patrol or common po-
lice body. Thereupon the man had an
accompIice take the soft officer to a ho-
tel near the police quarters and I'll him
up with lush. Drink.) While he
was there intoxicated, rare thing for
that man, the dishonest officer and false
friend sent a Police Commissioner
around to the tavern TO see the drunk
en- detective. Thereupon the latter
was degraded, and to this day does not
know that his supposed friend sold him
out.


Does smoke BIaoken Buildings.