CUNNING OF CRIMINALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2200, 30 April 1896, Page 49

CUNNING OF CRIMINALS.

Some Casks of Remabkablb Ingenuity Recalled. I ran across my old friend Bank', the detective, a few days ago, and we chatted of our experiences. Banks had seen a great; deal since I last met him. Apropos of the Burden robbery and other recent crimes that have bufHdd the police, oar conversation turned on criminal ingenuity. My friend oited several instances whloh interested me greatly. " No doubt," said he, «• you remember that bold and ingenious robbery which occurred some three or four years ago In Brattle square, Boston 1 " " I do not reoall it," I replied: "Wel», It appears that Mr Maynard, a jeweller, being at the time without a clerk, was In the habit of looking up his store for about 20 minutes in the middle of the day while be proceeded to a restaurant a few steps around the corner. One noontime*, just after he had departed, there stopped in ! front of his store a coupta of men dressed in the garb of window-cleaners. One carried a bucket of whitewash, and the other a pair of steps./ With the utmost coolness the formes proceeded to { • 1 ' DAUB THE WINDOW, while the other mounted the step-ladder and crawled in through a transom— the busy paisers-by and the people opposite having not the slightest suspicion o£ anything

wrong. ' " The fellow inside went to work at onca behind his companion's veil of whitewash, and within five minutes they had decamped with plunder amounting in value to several thousand dollars. Imagine the emotions ol the jeweller when he returned from his lunch to find bis store door open, his traps emptied, and his stock rifled." " A cool and ounning piece of work," I exclaimed. " One of the sorb which sacoeeded by its very boldness," " Here is an irjstanoe of another sort," continued Banks. "It came under my notice while I was engaged upon a case in London. A jeweller there had on exhibition in his window A DIAMOND NECKLACE VALUED AT £1000. It was a magnificent eight, and undoubtedly had caused many a burglar's fingers to itch for a touch of it.

" One day a handsome, fashionably-dressed young man entered the shop and desired to examine the necklace. It was taken from is window by feha proprietor himßelf and —-■—■■- ■■'■■■ ""■ mmimtt

handed-, across the. low, flat counter. The ( jeweller understood his. business, and although; his customer, might have, been a lord for anghfc he knew, ho kept a sharp eye upon the precious jewels. Presently, with the diamonds "still, in. hlB- band* the young man asked, to see a beautiful bracelet olose at hand, and the jeweller half, turned to-ge# ifc It took him but a second ;, yet when. he again faced his ouetemer the-. necklace was nowhere to be seen. " Quick. as.affashJ.he j&welle&grabbed the young , man by, the collar? and called to his clerks for. his. assistance. Protesting his innoce&ce, and apparently IHIHGUTANT AT SUCH-A SUSPICION, the man. turned out all' hia. packets: and in> vited a. thorough seafch. . This was instantly made, and all -the noaks. and corners of the shop were, carefully examined, but the necklace had . most mysteriously disappeared. Thara ■ was. nothing for it, of course, but. to -call thepolice, and have the young man-taken Into custody.

" So, between two bobbies,,an<T closely ioh towed by a third, who carefully watered, lest the prisoner should drop his prize or. page it over to an. accomplice, the young man was led forth and the jeweller trudged behind. It was not long before the usnal mob of gamibs and loungers wer« tagging after, and the „ poor jeweller was jostled' by the throng and J gayed'and qaestioned'until he. was- weir nigh eraay.

-" At the fock*up the ycung, man was again ■ ■ examined, Kut to no purpose. Had it been. ; . A SIKGI.B STONE • It might have been conjectured that b& had • , swallowed it, bat with' a necklace this.was a, ' physical' impossibility.. The shop wae again thoroughly gone through, but the mystery remained as deep as ever. Was the: thing.bewitched?. What, on earth had become of- . it?*" I

"I oaiv't imagine,^ I put ih. "WEatwas. the solution.?"* v " Absurdly simple; yet T think I should be safe in giving youv 20' gueasea on it, Yankee • though you' are," replied Backs. with a laugh; , *• A week or so later the" young, man and' bis g<uig were arrested for another, crime, and the whole story came out. It appears that when the jeweller tamed to. reach tbe bracelet, the pretended customer simply dropped the necklace into, the jttweller'B own coat pocket. On the way. to the Jockvup an accomplice among the gamine easily PICKED HIS POCKET

of tbeiprize be did not know he, was carryirg* and when the young man gpfr free.- they divided the swag, Frettj neat tricky wasn't; Ifc?" " Ta the. London thief more expert than the thief- of New York? ' r l inqnired. ■"* "By reason of heredity and training heis- . apt 1 to be. bo," replied Baz>Kg. "Take the 1 piefepoofcete of London, for example ; they pat their children .through a regular course of study ia their profession. One day, while ' strolling through tbe.Whitecb.apßl district, I came across a ragged, little girl weeping £itemufly> Her poor, thin shoulders, which were almost bare, showed large welts where -• . she had been cruelly abnsed. On my. asking the cause of her trouble, she told me her mother had beaten her because she bhook; the doll. 11 '-The. doll ! ' I said. ' Ob, I suppweyon mean the baby?" " ' No, sit, not the baby,. but the doll. I didn't shake it very much, but she beats me Bt the slightest tinkle.' "Being now to London, ways, this' was to . me rather mysterious language, bo ' I made v farther inquiries; I' fonud' that the lightfingered gentry make- their little ones prtsc- - Use packet-picking: upon a^dummy, or ' doll,' EM 1 they call fry which is. Buepßuded from.a boot in the wall. Attached to this doll is«a bell, adjusted so as to tinkle at the slightest Dlumsineisonctha part of the operator.. A« v %- tinkle means a: Making to the little itudentSj it; ta scarcely- a wonder, that tbey loon beoome; remarkably expert.!'— Detroit f Tee Press. ffHE SOCK-EYE 3OE TUB FKASER. The particular salmon with whom: we propose to travel are known as sock-eyes tathe vulgar, to the learned as. 1 OnehoThynchna " nerka. They are grown-up salmon; recently ' wed, and bent uport spending their honey;- - moon' upon the head waters of: the- EVaeer River. Between the' tint* wbett they were -born amongst" the-geldec gravels oft be upper Fraser— probably about four years- ago — and' ' to-day, no one knows anything about them iThey went' down ■ the' Gulf of Georgia,- we

believe, and out into tile North Pacific; and were lost to ri««in the. great de*ps. Neither ' do' we* know how tbey< find their way back- to the breeding grounds ; we> • don't know whether the currents' guide them, or mere blind instinct; we only know that once in four years they 1 come in enormous numbers, that the second 7 yea* the numbers are less, and that they- go on decreasing until th<jbumper year comes round again.* Almost' everything Connected with* the salmon is a mystery. His birthplace we know, of Mb life we know scarcely anything, and those who know him best disagree most' about hia death. Some of us have Seen' the great shoals' gwarming up tbe-nortbem rivers, have seen? the Fraser fairly wriggling with, fish, have^ seen them lying two aßd two at intemdaof a few feet in trie gravelly streams of Alask*, ordead iff hundreds x>n. the -mtrd flats afc thebead of the streams, where' bears and the bald'-headed 1 eagles gorga omtfieir carcase*, orfloating upTrght down the.streainsred .with - corruption, and breaking to^ pieces as they float; but we have never seen them recover--ing, never seen them making their: way downstream, cured: of their, summer folly. What is more, the fish of~ the Sook-eye sort are all of an even size.. Every run is made np of many thousands or millions of fish, averaging- 71b. If they go back to the sea, and return- In one,, oc two, or ten years! time to the breeding-grounds,- thej must return as they went, neither larger, noriwnaller, but just ' 71b fish. This is not the case with the big spring salmon, who varies from 121b to 501b. . , . 'In Jnly, the first of the great shoal come round Gape Flattery, on Vancouver Island, and' news ia.sent ppst haste to. the fishers on: thetKaserthatthe Indiana at liecber Bay are>busy witE the salmon; The f ndians at Beoher Bajraw tha-outpoatrof- the hostile arnxy>- Like*otfaer.ontßMt«, they are few in number, amftbe Sbß "thejjrtafce are scarcely;, misaed from the sfioal. ' Perhsps I ought to hzv&s aald" that even- heiorff tfia* flak-wtingi

Indians, commenced, their onslaught at Beobor Bay the teals had been at work, but 'these ravenouß-foea*hang upon the flanks of the army of Bate from the ocean to- the river's mouth. I have seen, them in the grey. of the- morning, swimming up on the- flood, many miles from the mouth of the' Sticking River in Alaska, and the fish oaly know from: what depths of" ocean, they followed them thither. From Bechen Bay onwards the troubles of the.aoak.-eya increase. H ls course, ifl-a-. well-known one,, and' his enemies lie in on every mile: of it. Bound, every kelpbed there are spoons spinning, but' these the sock-eye passes by untempted. The spring salmon, .bin big cousin, is.foolad by tbJ6se, but th» sock- eye will not look at them. Though exceedingly awift travellers, the sock-ejea , have no idea o£ going straight. Perhaps it is because they, find their way by groping along th a ashore ; perhaps it is only, that they love to play. in. the shallow bays along the coast. However. thiß is,, they keep close" in shora^ and at Boundary Bas, jastf before they- . reach.the yellow tidal waters of the IVaser; they pay- for their, folly. Here the: watere-are ; shallow, though well out from, the bay there ara- splendid deep waters where the road would be safe as it is broad ; but the' fish do not consider, this. Instead, they; forge along inshore, nntil they reach the outward' carve of the bay. Here the shore peems to- change a-llttle-; a fiae. fnuge. of what may be- seaweed' runs along, it, and here and'there in tbi* fringe a post occurs. By-and-byea spur or this same seaweed appears* on their left. Doubtless it is but a. portion of the bank on ibbeir right wbicb has drifted seaward, and there is still- a wide stretch of open' water on either, side, so they p«sa on until the' road gradually narrows and there is a wall of ; this fine* mesh. on. either side of the shoal witb but one narrow open way in front: Tfien ■ perhaps tbaahoal hesitates. They have come far, and become involved! in this weeoY-bedl

|- Some dash at? it on either side, but though it gives to their rush they cannot' break through it. They swim round, but the*, impervious weed is on all. sides of them. Just then there-is a- heavy plunge in their- midst-/ and a sea-hawk rises' with one of their fellows writhing in its claws.

The fish are swimming near the surface, now, and if they look up they will see upon* every pole wbion risea from the wall of mesh, either a hawk, an eagle, or a great gull,, ready to pounce upon them. They dive, and try to swim under the weed. They cannot. The water is-sballow, and the weed rises from the. very bottom. Meanwhile, hawks and eagles. are buiy, a panic ensues, a. few fish dart through the. narrow way. It is moret open beyond, and after all. if lasds in the right direction. The generaL impulse isr to l go forward; no one wants to turn back; and like sheep tbey follow their leaders 1 through the gates of death. For after this* .it* is, all over with, the salmon. Before leng the wide pool' narrows again. Again a straight way; lies beyond them, and before, long tbeyt are crowding and* jostling each other in a r pound s(Titby-30ffc; where Cheystay; hopelessly confused' and dashing, wildly from Bide to. Bide, until a. Bteamercomes along with ascow. in tow. On the scow is a crane. Chains from the crane are bitched on> ta the- net which is below the pound; and some thousands of strong free fisb, which had an hour ago the whole sea to swim .ini,.are drawn- up to the surface and ladled ■ out ih Bcoop-netaj ' knocked on the- head, thrown on the scowj and carried off to the American canneries' < •at. Point Roberts, where, they go. through a I sausage machine, and become' "canned 1 , salmon." — Temple Bat.