Free The Right Way to Do Wrong by Harry Houdini Page A

so, how great is the reward for evil doing?
    I am aware that it is the general impression, considered simply as a matter of profits, that the professional criminal is well paid. He gets something for nothing; therefore you would say at a first glance that he must be rolling in wealth.
    Many people who get their ideas of criminals from novels and story papers, for instance, imagine a gambler as a man who always has a roll of bills in his pocket big enough to choke a horse, as they say. No doubt, also, the histories of sensational coups as reported in the daily press are chiefly responsible for this false impression. But such colossal frauds and robberies are rarely the work of professional criminals. They are usually perpetrated by men whose previous good character has placed them inpositions of trust. Men who have led honest lives, when temptation came along and on paper they figured out that they could not lose—why, they stole and fell—into the clutches of the law. Disgraced, they are ruined for life, often ruining all their family. It is a terrible thing to have the finger of fate point at you with the remark, “His father is serving time for doing so and so,” or “Her brother is now in his sixteenth year, and comes out in five years.”
    Such humble criminals as the area sneak thief, the porch and hallway thieves, and the ordinary shoplifter may be dismissed with a few words; their gains are miserably small, they live in abject poverty, and after detection (for sooner or later they are detected) they end their lives in the workhouse.
    â€œIf I could earn $5 a week honest, I’d gladly give up ‘dragging’ [shoplifting],” said a thief of this type to a New York detective; “but I can’t stand regular work, never could; it’s so much easier to ‘prig’ things.” No avarice, but simple laziness keeps these thieves dishonest.
    More lucrative are the callings of the counter thief, the pickpocket, and the “buzzer” or watch thief. Of those the pickpocket wins the largest returns. A purse hunter who knows his work would think he had wasted his time if he did not make $5 on an evening stroll. Race meetings and fairs may bring him in $100 to $150 a day, but: an average day’s makings amount to only $8 to $12.
    The passing of bad money, as everyone knows who is behind the scenes in criminal life, is a very poorly paid “industry,” while the punishment risked is heavy. In England the “snide pitchers” or “shovers of the queer,” as they were called, used to buy the counterfeit coins at so much a dozen, and, working in pairs, pass them out in shops.
    Highwaymen, robbers, and hold-up men sometimes make big hauls, but their careers are short. Into their brutal hands pass many a diamond pin or ring, many a gold chain, worth $20 or $25, even at melting-pot prices of some dishonest goldsmith. Happily for society, these ruffians are speedily brought to book and their ill-gotten gains are dearly earned. There is a thieves’ proverb which runs, “A six months’ run and the hook (thief) is done.” The garrote and hold-up men have far shorter lease of liberty and frequently fall into the clutches of the law within a day or two after release from prison.
    Both burglars and confidence men may make big coups occasionally, but their income is precarious. The burglar is at the mercy of the “fence,” as the receiver of stolen goods is called, and realizes only a small part of the actual value of his pelf. I suppose a burglar would be considered very successful if he made $3,000 a year actual profit. The “fence” has much larger opportunities and his voracity is well known. A detective friend was well acquainted with one who made as much as $5,000 a year for several years and finally shot himself to avoid arrest. Another “fence” actually amassed a fortune, but his wealth did not prevent him from dying