Confederates are usually of good appearance, understand business methods, can discuss loans, mortgages, sale of securities, etc., long enough to allow the "sneak" to operate without discovery. A "sneak" thief, wearing rubber-soled shoes, will frequently pass within a few feet of the official or clerk in charge, enter a vault or teller's cage, or rob a safe or money drawer, without creating the slightest noise. A ruse to make the way clear for the "sneak" is for a confederate to drive in a carriage to the bank or store to be robbed, as a pretext exhibiting a crutch, or accompanied by a female, requesting some passer-by to ask the cashier or some other official to step out to the carriage, which usually occurs when few of the employes are in the place. Another device is to hold a large blue print of some property on which is pretended a loan is desirable, or a bundle of maps offered for sale, in such position that the view of the official being interviewed is obstructed, thereby covering the "sneak" and giving him opportunity to operate. Another more recent artifice is the telephone; the confederate of the "sneak" at an appointed minute "calls up" the bank and requests that the paying teller be sent to the 'phone, and there detains him in conversation while the "sneak" thief operates; confederates, as may be necessary, engaging the attention of other employes. CIRCUS DAY BRINGS A HARVEST. Many sneak robberies were formerly committed in medium-sized towns on circus days, while most of the employes were at windows or doors watching the circus parade. This offered "sneak" thieves the opportunity to enter the building by some unguarded door or window, or having, prior to the parade, concealed themselves in the bank or store, to commit the robbery while the parade is passing, virtually behind the backs of the employes. A favorite scheme, especially in savings banks, is for one thief to attract the attention of a customer who is counting money, to have a bill purposely dropped in front of him on the floor by the thief and, while he stoops down to pick it up, believing it part of his money, another thief steals the then unprotected money he, the customer, was counting. Often professional "sneak" thieves have posed as bank clerks or porters, wearing office coats or porter's uniforms and, when the opportunity presents itself, committed robberies of considerable magnitude. Some of the old-time "sneaks" used specially made steel instruments of various shapes to move packages of money from one section of the teller's cage to a point nearer the teller's window, so that it could be more readily extracted. This practice, while the utmost caution is necessary to avoid suspicion, has been quite successful. At times thieves have used large satchels or dress-suit cases to stand upon and, with a long wire hook, extracted money by reaching over the wire screen surrounding a paying teller's cage.