#yeggs

yeggs

They talked volubly. They seldom laughed and never fought - too far gone for laughing or fighting. When they could drink no more or buy no more, they staggered or crawled to a bare space on the floor in the back of the room where they lay on their backs in a row with their heads to the wall, each with his hat over his hideous, bloated, purple face. The porter-cook-wino watched the sleepers carefully. When he thought they had “slept it off” enough to stand up, he roughly kicked them to their feet and herded them out into the streets to beg, borrow, or steal enough small silver for another bout. Too often they failed to respond to his kicks; he would lift the battered hat, take one look at the purple-blue face, and ring for the morgue wagon.

This pitiful crew, gathered from the four corners of the earth and from every stratum of society, whipped beyond resistance by that mysterious and irresistible craving for alcohol, drank themselves purple in the wine dumps and died on the floors or under the city sidewalks. The wine dumps are gone; can any man regret their passing? And so are the winos gone. In their places have appeared the Jamaica ginger fiend, the canned heat and wood alcohol drinker. It is difficult to study and classify them; their lives are too short.

The most disreputable wine dump in the city was in Clay Street, below Kearny, and I never failed to visit it when in the neighborhood. I had no more than stepped into the place one night when a wino at the door shouted, “Here comes the wagon, “ and dashed out wildly. Some of the soberest ran out the back and disappeared. I started to the front door, but the cops were coming in. I was the first one they got, and as the cop threw me into the wagon, in the middle of my explanation, he said: “Oh, tell the judge about it, I’m no court. I’m a hundred-dollar-a-month cop, and it serves me right for being one if I get lousy throwing all you wine bums in and out of the wagon.”

He seemed discouraged."

"YEGGS FOILED," Vancouver Sun. May 28, 1934. Page 1. --- ATTEMPT TO LOOT HOTEL SAFE FAILS ---- Yeggmen failed in their attempt to force the safe in the office of the Cobalt Hotel, 900 block Main Street, at 3:20 a.m. today.

Investigation led to the recovery of three slot machines stolen from The Better 'Ole Confectionery, 915 Main Street.

L. A. Proctor, night clerk at the hotel, told detectives that he had gone to the basement to stoke the furnace.

When he returned he discovered that yeggmen had been at work on the safe, having knocked off the combination dial and attempted to punch back the tumblers.

Detectives immediately commenced an investigation of the premises, and in the rear of the hotel found a disused wagon in which were the three slot machines stolen from the confectionery store.

The machines had been forced open and the contents stolen.

Burglars ransacked the office of McGlashant & Jenkinson Machine Works, Limited, 1604 Powell Street, on Sunday night, but failed to secure anything.

It is stated that three youths were seen leaving the premises.

Investigation disclosed that the contents of the office safe, which had not been locked, had been scattered around the office.

"POLICE BELIEVE THEY HAVE A BIG ONE," Cobalt Daily Nugget. December 26, 1913. Page 2. --- Thief Captured at Sudbury Has Long Record; A Much Feared Criminal ---- SUDBURY, Dec. 26. Detective Casey, of the Pinkerton staff whose visit to Sudbury was the means of breaking up a band of pickpockets working the outgoing trains, effected the arrest of the third member of the gang, who turned out to be, according to his finger prints, none other than Billy Hillis, king of yeggmen, mon thief and one of the most feared smuggler, burglar, pickpocket, and common criminals in the West.

The police have the tip that one of Hillis' jobs in Sudbury was to have been the "cracking" of the post office safe.

Since his apprehension here on a charge of vagrancy, Detective Casey and Chief Walker have been scouring the country for information about him. Before the results of his finger prints were known, Detective Casey made inquiries in the West, with the result that he got information from Detective Springer, chief of the detective bureau at Saskatoon, Sask., that the description tallied exactly with that of the yeggman who blew up the safe in a laundry there last year.

From Chief Cuddy, of Calgary, comes the information from detective that Hillis is the leader of the Sullivan, Murphy, Ayres safe-blowing gang, who have worked the West and eastern states successfully. Hill's who has always been a hard man to get a case against, it being particularly hard to get a convection unless "caught with the goods on." He is known to all of the police departments in Canada and a great deal throughout the States, and his conviction here would be a great relief. Colonel Sherwood Chief Commissioner of the Dominion police supplies the information that Hillis, has served two terms of eight years-one for burglary and the other for bringing stolen goods into Canada. He was fined $25 another time for carrying a revolver, while a charge of having explosives in his possession and another one for theft were not pressed. He was arrested at Regina in March last on a telegram from the chief of police at Edmonton, charged with safe-blowing, but on account of one of the witnesses disappearing the case was dropped. It appears that since coming to Sudbury, Hillis has confined himself to robbing passengers boarding the Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal trains. At each of these reports of passengers being relieved cities the police have had numerous reports of passengers being relieved of various sums of money. Last week Police Constable Hunt, at the Union Station, Toronto, was informed by a passenger that he lost was containing $250. Another that he lost, a wad of $900, but the conductor recovered it for him.

"YEGGS MELTED SAFE; WERE THEN BAULKED BY CASH BOX LINING," Vancouver Sun. October 9, 1912. Page 4. --- Steel Walls of Vault Yielded to Blow Lamp When Cracksmen Visited Bank of Vancouver at Collingwood. ---- MANY HOURS' WORK BROUGHT NO REWARD ---- With Fingerprint Clues Police Are Confident of Effecting Burglars' Capture. ---- In the early morning hours yesterday a pair of expert cracksmen broke into the branch of the Bank of Vancouver at East Collingwood and after melting away the outer casing of the big steel safe by means of a hydrogen torch, were finally forced to give up and depart unrequited on account of the faultless construction of the heavy chrome steel cash box which defied the best efforts of torch or drill.

The would-be burglars left few clues to their identity, save for some finger prints upon the polished surface of the safe and a few small tools scattered about the scene of operations. Constables Lee, Rawden and Rigor of the South Vancouver police force have taken the case in hand and state confidently that they will apprehend the robbers.

Melted the Safe. Entrance to the bank was gained through a storehouse in the rear of the building. The robbers had evidently planned their nefarious work very carefully beforehand. They sawed through the partition at the back of the safe, removing a section of the wall about eighteen by ten inches. As the big steel box was only an inch or so from the opening the light caused by their operations was entirely masked from anyone passing by on the street.

With the aid of the hydro-gasoline torch the cracksmen cut through one layer of steel, removed a layer of asbestos which is provided in all fireproof safes, cut through the second lining, removed another pad of asbestos and commenced operations on the cash box.

The robbers evidently expended considerable effort upon the chrome steel before they came to the conclusion that with the means at their disposal it was impossible to reach the money, for, unlike the outer covering of the safe, chrome steel contains no carbon and is therefore impervious to disintegration except under the most intense heat.

Only $500 on Hand. It was not until seven o'clock that the attempted burglary was discovered. The janitor on his morning rounds found evidences of the surreptitious visit and without delay he notified the police and the local manager. Subsequently the head office in Vancouver was notified and Bank Inspector Dallas and an expert employed by the bank paid a visit to the scene.

In conversation with a representative of The Sun yesterday afternoon Mr. L. W. Shatford, general manager of the Bank of Vancouver, stated that only a very small amount of money was in the safe at the time, not more than five hundred dollars altogether. This was on account of the fact that he had issued instructions to all branch managers to transfer their cash, with the exception of a very small portion, to the head office before closing time.