From November 1 to March 1 is the safe burglar's harvest time, because then the nights are longest and the chances of detection less, as fewer people are on the streets and houses adjoining, being tightly closed to exclude the cold, exclude noises also. A man can, furthermore, carry tools in an overcoat without attracting attention, that he could not wear with a summer suit. The remainder of the year is spent in "marking" the most desirable banks for future operations. Four men, who compose the ordinary safe mob, will put up from thirty to forty "jobs" for a winter's work, allowing for all contingencies. From six to ten of these will be carried out. A bank safe will be broken into in a small town in Maine, and in ten days the gang will be operating in Texas. [Illustration: (Burglar blowing up safe, part 1)] [Illustration: (Burglar blowing up safe, part 2)] [Illustration: (Burglar blowing up safe, part 3)] [Illustration: (Burglar blowing up safe, part 4)] [Illustration: (Burglar blowing up safe, part 5)] [Illustration: (Burglar blowing up safe, part 6)] Having decided on a bank, the habits of the cashier and other chief employees are carefully studied; but, above all, of those who visit the bank after working hours, chief of whom is the watchman, if the bank has one. If the watchman drinks, or spends time visiting women when he should be at the bank, the bank is an easy prey. Weeks, and sometimes even months, are spent in putting up a job of magnitude, and a number of smaller jobs are done to carry out one where the proceeds may run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Men visit the town who have a legitimate business as a "blind." They make all preliminary preparations. The greatest ingenuity is employed to obtain exact information, such as the evenings the cashier or teller is likely to visit the bank and the exact time. SCIENTIFIC BURGLARY. Burglars whose chief qualification is the mechanical ability to open bank vaults and safes and steal thousands of dollars in bonds or cash cannot be classed with those who break open a store door and filch a lot of buckets, brooms or dry goods. The man who makes the defects of a combination lock, safe or vault a study must have intelligence and mechanical knowledge equal to that of a man who draws a big salary for what he knows. Whenever any new combination lock is brought in the market for vault or safe use the scientific burglar obtains one, and by patient study discovers its weakness or defect, something which every safe or vault has.