ever undertaken without a
knowledge on the part of the thieves of the contents of the safe, and the
chances of conducting the enterprise in safety. The Safe-blowers and
bursters do nothing by chance, and their plans are so well arranged
beforehand that they rarely fail.

The Safe-breakers, though really a part of the burglar class, are looked
upon with contempt and disowned by their more scientific associates in
crime. They do nothing by calculation, and trust everything to chance.
They enter buildings by force, and trust to the same method to get into
the safes. Their favorite instrument is a "jimmy," or short iron bar
with a sharp end. With this they pry open the safe, and then knock it to
pieces with a hammer. In order to deaden the sound of the blows, the
hammer is wrapped with cloth. They are not as successful as the others
in their operations, and are most frequently arrested. Indeed the
arrests for burglary reported by the Police Commissioners occur almost
exclusively in this class. A really first-class burglar in a prison cell
would be a curiosity in New York.

Closely allied with the Safe-blowers and bursters is a class known as
Bed-chamber Sneaks. These men are employed by the burglars to enter
dwellings and obtain impressions in wax of keys of the places to be
robbed. They adopt an infinite number of ways of effecting such an
entrance, often operating through the servant girls. They never disturb
or carry off anything, but confine their efforts to obtaining impressions
in wax of the keys of the store or office to be robbed. The keys of
business houses are mainly kept by the porters, into whose humble
dwellings it is easy to enter. When they wish to obtain the keys of a
dwelling, they come as visitors to the servant girls, and while they
stand chatting with them manage to slip the key from the lock, take its
impression in wax, and return it to the lock, unobserved by the girl.
They are generally on the watch for chances for robberies, and report
them promptly to their burglar confederates.

The Bank Sneak is better known as the Bond Robber. He is of necessity a
man of intelligence and of great fertility of resource. He steals United
States Bonds almost entirely, and prefers coupons to registered, as the
former can always be disposed of without detection. He manages, by means
best known to himself, to gain information of the places in which these
bonds are kept by the banks, of the times at wh