OHAPTEK XXXV.

SCIENTIFIC BTOGLAES AND EXPERT CHACKSMEN — HOW BANK-
VAULTS AND SAFES ABB OPENED AND ROBBED — THE
TOOLS, PLANS, OPERATIONS, AND LEADERS OP HIGHLY-
BRED CRIMINALS.

An Important Profession — HigMy-Bred Rogues —Tlie Lo-wer Ranks of Thieves
^ Professional Bank-Burglars and tlieir Talents — Misspent Years —A
Startling Statement about Safes — Tlie Race bet-preen Burglars and Safe-
builders — How Safes are Opened — My.steries of tlie Craft — Safe-Blow¬
ing — How Combination Locks are Picked — A Delicate Touch — Throw¬
ing Detectives off the Scent — A Mystery for Fifteen Years — Leaders of
Gangs — Conspiring to Rob a Bank—Working from an Adjoining Build¬
ing — Disarming Suspicion — Siiadowing Bank Oflicers —Working through
the Cashier — Making False and Duplicate Keys — The Use of Higli Ex¬
plosives— Safe-Breakers and their Tools — Ingenious Methods of Expert
Criminals — Opening a Safe in Twenty Minutes — Fagin and his Pupils —
Taking Impression of Store Locks in Wax — Old Criminals who Teach
Young Tliieves.

THE ways of making a livelihood by crime are. many, and
the number of men and women who live by their Y'its in
New York city reaches into the thousands. Some of these
criminals are very clever in their own peculiar line, and are
constantly turning their lawless qualities to the utmost pecuni¬
ary account. Robbery is now classed as a profession, and in
place of the awkward and hang-dog looking thief of a few
years ago we have to-day the intelligent and thoughtful rogue.
There seems to be a strange fascination about crime that often
draws men of brains, who have their eyes wide open, into its
meshes. Many people, and especially those whose knowledge
of criminal life is purely theoretical, imagine that persons who
adopt criminal pursuits are governed by what they have been
previously, and that a criminal life once chosen, is, as a rule,
adhered to; or, in other words, a man once a pickpocket is
always a pickpocket; or, once a burglar ahvays a burglar.