His method of procedure was simplicity itself. To the electric supply current of the chandelier overhead he connected two wires, one of which he fixed on the safe, and the other at the extreme of his carbon style. It was suitably insulated by a wooden handle. Then, having inserted this pencil in the hole of the plate, whose purpose was to protect him against the heat and light, he produced a voltaic arc of immense power between the point of his style and the wall of the safe, thus melting the metal with the greatest ease. SOME CONCRETE EXAMPLES. BURGLARS USE ACETYLENE FLAME TO OPEN SAFE DOOR. In Paris, January 4, 1908, burglars broke into the premises of Martin and Baume, colonial traders, at Marseilles, and stole money and goods to the value of $20,000. Most of their booty they took from a safe, the door of which they burnt through with an apparatus giving an acetylene flame of sufficient heat to melt the metal. The case recalls one at Antwerp recently, when the thieves melted a safe with a combined oxygen and acetylene flame. The police believe that the Marseilles burglars are past masters of the art, and that probably not more than a dozen possess such apparatus for melting safes. One or more of the burglars may probably have been employed at a motor factory, where acetylene lamps are in frequent use. In any case, even the finest lock or the best steel safe can't resist, if burglars take to using oxygen and acetylene lamps with blow-pipes. Safe manufacturers have a new problem to solve. THE BANK SNEAK. The bank sneaks of the country were formerly among the most troublesome criminals with whom the police had to deal. The money and jewelry stolen by them aggregated hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The bank sneak is the cleverest of crooks, and as bold and daring as any of them. But modern police methods, the system of exchanging Bertillon photographs, and the organization of bankers' and jewelers' associations, together with perfect burglar alarm equipment, have combined to put him out of business, and his work nowadays is on a limited scale. During the past ten years not more than five good bank sneak games have been pulled off, while there has been a similar reduction in the raids on jewelry shops. The Bertillon photographs facilitate the identification of the sneak and the bankers' and jewelers' organization put up the money with which to pursue him remorselessly, and soon catch him. Concerning the bank sneak and his mode of operating: An expert professional bank "sneak" thief and his associates study the habits of all employes to determine when the greatest number are absent (which generally happens at the noon hour), decide how many confederates will be necessary to engage the attention of the remaining employes, while the sneak thief noiselessly enters a vault, teller's cage, or goes to a safe, and commits the robbery.