Show 9 it Dread of Magic 1 I o safest place in world to hide your you youra a I f 1 r money ney from thieves outside a bank is in a ai i coffin Who Vho says so Christopher Beck And 5 who's Beck An expert on the psychology of underworld superstitions Beck says he doubts if there's theres a thief on earth who would pry open a coffin encountered during a pillaging raid And JI its it's a a. certainty that no professional burglar would 1 r. r go near it Burglars also avoid hous J they know death has recently taken place Like the rest of us only more so they recoil from death and all things connected with it Ed Howe lowe l' l I the Kansas country saM i th that t while all people talk notices that every everyone one grows strangely quit as soon as the conversation drifts aro around nd to death deathS A checkup of police records in jn important cities shows that very few professional criminals work vork on the day of the month There is reason to believe that the 13 superstition started in the underworld Crooks are the most superstitious p people ople on earth They are saturated with queer beliefs in luck omens rand and the like Few housebreakers have the courage to rob fob a ahouse ahouse ahouse house where they find a black blac cat J around the premises Even more dr dreaded ded is a a blind dog Most crooks have an unlucky number which they fear Usually it is the number of the policeman who arrested them the first time Suppose a n crook enters your home in the dead of night If he finds a clock stopped he sc scarcely notices it But if th the do clock io k stops while the burglar is at work hell he'll break break ak into a a. cold colds s sweat eat and flee into the night This peculiar superstition probably bly dates back to some tragedy that overtook a famous crook while on a job job Minor thieves thieves especially pickpockets pickpockets consider consider it the worst of luck to steal a knife or rob a one armed man And nd nearly all crooks carry a mascot the luckiest of which is supposed to be a aring aring aring ring made from a horseshoe nail I And so on until a book could be written on the subject Such uch a book sho should ld have haver a good sale Professional nal criminals are a ra separate breed of animal as different from the the Ia law lav v abiding as day is from night About the only thing they have in common with the rest of u us i is an uneasy fear of the mysterious unknown i Hence their ther susceptibility to superstition |