When the enterprising burglar goes a'burgling in China he not infrequently exhibits a talent for humour. One member of the fraternity who has visited Whiteaway Lajdlaw's during the week end, and apparently spent quite a few hours in the building, indulged a humorous aptitude for writing chits. From investigations made by the Police on Sunday, it appears that the man secreted himself iv the premises before closing time on Saturday, and then set out on an extended, but not very lucrative, search for cash. He tried every safe, desk and drawer on three floors, but was only able to collect a small amount of petty cash from a small safe. It has not yet been ascertained what other things were appropriated. The curious feature of the visit was that at various points in his tour of the building, the thief left signed chits, such as "Taken by Sz Dzeu-fah," and "Sz Dzeu-fah has been here," but his most ambitious effort. was composed en the' manager's desk. Under a rough sketch of a heart, coloured with red pencil, the artist rote "We are altogether 22 men who make this sign red. am the 14th, Sz Dzeu-fah. I advise you not to arrest anybody. Do not injure others. I want to go up Yangtze so I borrow this money."
It appears that "Sz Dzeu-fah" hid himself on the fourth floor and, having gone round that department, found his way barred to the lower each floor. He seems to have had storeys by the fire doors separatin,
no difficulty, however, in making his way below by means of the lift shaft, climbing up again upon leaving the premises. He made his exit through a window, first using a borrowed hack-saw to cut through a steel bar, then wrenching away a wire netting cover outside the bars, thus forcing an exit to the fire escape, down which he made his way into the Nanking Road alleyway. And so home.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.