A CRIMINAL HOBBY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 201, 19 May 1908, Page 11

A CRIMINAL HOBBY.

Tho ■ double' life of- a .wealthy and - re-spected-^-man'has been disclosed by- the remarkable 'confession of Louis Wolf," a manufacturer, of Brooklyn (U.S.A.), who is in prison J for-a series of remarkable thefts. For years; Wolf lived in : the high . esteem of"-,his ■ fellow-citizens, who considered him the acme of ; respectability.' - When lie was arrested and charged with being a common pick-pocket,. his influential friends rallied to his rescue, and the polico released , him with fervent apologies for their blunder.' Wolf , was a -prominent 'clubman' and\had .a thriving business, but: despite this-he was arrested again; and now conho has'all his 1 ifo been a profes-' sional thief. When fifteen'years old ho fell into tho clutches of a. New.-York' I'agin and was educated in all the tricks of pocket-picking. At this nefarious trade ho 'proved wonderfully, apt, but after a career of crimo, chequered by several periods of imprisonment in; Chicago and St. Louis, ho returned.,toNov/ York with the firm : determination r'to bo honest. He established a rug ; manufactory with his ill-gotten gains, and thrived. About three years ago he became intoxicated, .ho says, by a craving for excitemorit, . which proved irresistible,, and though he did not need the money, returned -to his evil courses, robbing for the mero : fun of it. Ho mado in 'this avay, he says; ■ £2000 a year. _ '• , :"I ;roally desire nothing more than to be honost," declares Wolf, "but I. cannot resist the call of;'thc'wild inbrcd in me.!'; In astonished 'grief tho wealthy friends of tho prisoner have now abandoned'him to his fata.