WHAT BURGLARS FEAR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9304, 21 March 1907, Page 6

WHAT BURGLARS FEAR.

USEFUL HINTS TO HOUSEHOLDEES.

I know notning a btngla/r haibes so much as a nervous little housedog , writes a once famous burglar in the Penny Magazine. Creatures of this, kind have cost house burglars thousands of goods hauls. These little anin^R are set on hair-trig-gers, and put the whole house in an uproar at the slightest sign of danger. There are half-a-dozen, breeds of small dogs well adapted for seorvioe as burglar alarms, but not one of them is better than the fox-terrier. The hearing of this little animal is so sensitive that it is almost impossible to enter a house in which, one of these dogs is sheltered without arousing iib and the whole -household as well.

Other thi&gs being equal, a burglar will always pass a house lighted by electricity for one .lighted by gas. The reason for this is that houses lighted by electricity are mow wired in such a manner that the turn of a, switch ox the pressure of a button on the floor will illuminate another floor. Then, electrically lighted houses are much more likely to be equipped with, modern burglar alarms. Houses so wired are practically traps for the burglar. He may be working on this ground floor, for example, when some member of the household in a chamber above is aroused and fancies that he heairs someone moving about below. At onco the man of the housee Teaches for the eleohric switch, and. turns on the light for the lower floor, so that the burglar suddenly finds himself in a blaze of light, while the man of the house, a gun in his hand, is screened by the darkness.

Whenever possible, the front door is the point of thie ourgkir's attack. There are two reasons for this : Jb'irst, becaxise he can ring the bell there and make sure no one is at home; second, to be seen at the front door arouses no s-uspicion in the minds of passers-by or policemen. On the other hand, to be seen working around the rear window wouid, in iiteelf, insfcaMfly attract attention, amd an alarm would be given. A certain modem invention.' makes the opening of front doors comparatively an easy matter. This is a steel tool called an "L." When, it comes to manipulating a front door it is a wonder-worker. to this little instrument, «Jid the houseThe best of modern locks are vulnerable holder who relics on any lock operated by keys is bound to come to grief if a clever burglar gets after his house, _ The householder can place his whole reliance on bars, bolts, and chains, amd should take good care that these are of the most simple, effective, and substantial sort.

Many people seem to think that a burglar WU avoid a house that has a baby in it; but so far as my experience goes, this is a mistak?. In hundreds, if ■not in thousands of instances, burg-lams have been compelled literally to stop their work and rock the cradle. If a baby in the room seems to be ddsfruxhtd by his presence, the skilful burglar takes tha same method to sonthe it that the

practical mother or nurse would use. A cry from the baby does not necessarily mean an alarm, and if the burglar is able to quiet the little one readily, the chamoes are ten to one that he can continue his work without interruption. Burglars get valuable information, from the social columns of newspapers by reading the announcements of "quiet little parties" to be given at houses which they have already marked for business. Card aaid dancing pairties are considered especially "easy propositions" from the burglar's viewpoint; they absorb the atten tion, and axe accompanied by an amount of social chatter or , music that often drowns the noise of the burglar's movements. In many homes the servants go below as soon as the wante of the arriving guests have beem attended to. This gives the porch climber his chance.

The modern burglar is like the modern man in any legitimate calling — he is learning to use his wite more and his muscles less; he is finding that he can accomplish by sifcrategy and cunning what would cost him great effort and risk if done by the old-fashioned' methods suggested by the wond "housebxeaking." Now, an adept in the art of burglary will get into a. house by outwitting the servants or even the mistress of the place on the pretence that he is a gasfitter, plumber, telephone man, or a workman of some sort or other. Once inside, he does his work swiftly, and "gets away with the goods," unless 1 he is too closely watched — in which case he spies out the land', and, if possible, fixes a window lock or a door by which he can enter another time.