Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/177

Rh cut all round near the frame, the piece is hawled out, and a good booty no longer remains problematical. Phosphorus, in a narrow necked bottle, after being ignited is traced in the line the diamond is meant to take, which renders the glass soft enough for even a common knife to cut out, without making a noise.

N.B. In examining your premises to see whether your doors and shutters are safe, it is proper to feel also; for the house-breakers furnish themselves with coloured papers, near to that of the wood work attacked, with which they cover over an aperture until they can return to finish the job. Like street robbers, these fellows have whistles, and calls, sometimes a word, as "go along. Bob," that is to say,—"proceed vigorously in the robbery;" again, "it won't do," is the sig-nal for desisting, &c.

After all the precautions that are used to keep out the thieves from your house, they prove lamentably ineffectual from the superior cunning or prowess with which their calling endows them. First having found out some of your connexions, they come and induce you to put aside that excellent preventive of sudden intrusion at night—a chain on the door. This is dexterously done by means of a letter, and the bold