Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1895 — VERY EASY TO PICK LOCKS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

VERY EASY TO PICK LOCKS.

It Is Also Easy to Defeat Lock Pickers by a Little Caution. It may be of pretty general interest to know that it does not take much caution to defeat the sneak thieves who pick locks. A lock that takes a flat key with a serrated edge, something after the Yale pattern, is beyond their skill, but a 10-cent bolt is the best protection of all for a door that is habitually fastened from the inside. The only way in which a thief can beat a bolt with the “handle" turned down is to cut the panel of the door, and this is too much of an operation when they cannot be assured of plenty of time. Where reliance is placed on the lock and the key is turned from the inside, it is a question whether it is better to remove the key or leave it in the

lock. If it is a fairly good lock, the housekeeper should decide in favor of removal, for the tramp thief is about as likely to be provided with “nippers” as he is with a skeleton that will shoot the tumbler. Nippers bear a close resemblance to curling tongs, but the ends of the tong part are hollow, so that they will slip over the end of a key. Nippers are not as much in favor as skeletons and lock picks for a number of reasons,. They are more difficult of manufacture for one, and again, there is no mistaking their character in event of the owner’s arrest They are a burglar's tool and canot be passed off as anything else, whereas a wire pick may be of such innocent appearance that a new’ police judge would express a doubt and discharge the prisoner.

PICKING A LOCK WITH NIPPERS.