Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/169

Rh that purchase could be found at the interstices of all pavements, it might be made the instrument of a great deal of mischief. Window shutters, as well as doors, may be wrenched open, or burst asunder by force; but the noise this makes renders it too unsafe for the perpetrators, who do not choose to "give a chance away," when any other method remains to be tried. Many men can climb the front of a house as easily as others can go up a pair of stairs: I have seen Mn, the binder, go it in this manner, so as to astonish even the knowing ones; but as he is only an occasional thief, much evil cannot be expected from his acquirements in this way, for some length of time, at least, a parcel of cutlery, or a till-box being his highest aim yet awhile.

Another plan is, with the old fashioned fastening of a pin through the shutter, to cut the woodwork all round the head of the pin, by which means the shutter opens, leaving the pin in its original position. This is effected by boring gimblet holes, so as to admit the saw (made of watch spring); and afterwards breaking a pane of glass so as to come at the window fastening, then lifting it up, the room in the first instance, and the whole house ultimately, is at their disposal.

Seldom are these latter methods adopted that