SAYS HE IS A PICKPOCKET.
Man With Much Jewelry Held by
Police for Investigation.
"No, I'm not a burglar. Neither am I a stick-up man. I am a dip, a pickpocket, and a first-class one, too."
The man who made the foregoing remark while looking through the bars of the holdover at police headquarters gives the name of Otto Max. He is a structural ironworker and has hands which are very large, broad and calloused. The police say that a "dip," or pickpocket, always has long, slim hands as soft as a woman's, especially if he is an expert. They think Max has been in the "stick-up" business.
Max was arrested yesterday in a Cherry street boarding house. It was learned that he had given his landlady a gold watch, had given another to a roomer and one was found on him. He had also pawned a gold locket with a chain and a gold pin.
"I got all that stuff while in Fort Smith, Ark, two months ago," Max told Detectives Lyngar and Farrell, who arrested him. "And I got it by picking pockets. I am an expert."
When Max was searched at Central police station, a bunch of fine skeleton and pass keys, ordinarily used by burglars, was found.
Max said that before going to Fort Smith, he had worked at his trade in Seattle, Wash. He blamed the recent financial panic for his downfall. He said that circumstances had forced him to become what he was and that he soon found that he was adapted to that class of "work." He is being held for investigation.
