three to seven; those who "cover," as it is termed, making a rush to
create pressure, in order that the pickpocket may use his hand without
being noticed. In taking watches it is generally supposed that the ring
is cut by a pair of wire-nippers. This is rarely the case; thieves have no
time in operating to use any other implement than their own nimble
fingers, and the ring of the watch is wrenched off with the utmost ease,
as the purchase upon it is very great. A police magistrate, of large
experience, suggests that the way to baffle the fraternity would be to
_make the ring work upon a swivel_. Inferior classes of thieves work in
smaller "schools," say of a couple of women and a boy, whose little hand
is capitally adapted for the work. Whilst one woman pushes, the lad
attempts the pocket of the person nearest him, and the third "watches it
off," as it is called; if she observes that the youth's attentions have
been noticed, she immediately draws him back with a "Ha, Johnny, why do
you push the lady so!" Look to your pockets, good reader, when you see
forward little Johnnies about--especially at railway stations. Such places
are the chief resort of this class of pickpockets, and we hear that
theatres and churches, just as the people are coming out, are favourite
haunts--the women creating a stoppage at the door, and the children taking
advantage of it. Women's pockets are much more easily picked than men's,
for the reason that the opening through the dress to it is larger, and it
hangs by its weight free of the person. In a crowd, the operation is easy
enough, as the general pressure masks the movement of the depredator's
hand; when the victim is walking, a more artistic management is required.
The hand is inserted at the moment that the right leg is thrown forward,
because the pocket then hangs behind the limb, an essential condition for
the thief, as the slightest motion is otherwise felt upon the leg. The
trowser-pockets of a man are never attempted in the streets: but in a
crowd, as at a race, he can be cleaned out by a school of mobsmen of
everything in his possession, with little fear of detection. The first
step is to select their victim; to do this demands some caution; and if
they cannot see whether he carries a purse, and if they have no
opportunity of watching him pull it out, they will feel all his pockets.
The "spotter," as he is called, passes his hand across the clothes
seemingly in the most accidental manner; sometimes twice when he is in
doubt. The fact that there is booty being ascertained, the confederates
surround him, and wait for the coming-off of a race. Just as the horse is
at the winning-post, there is a rush forward of the crowd: of this the
mobsmen take advantage, while the victim, perhaps, for better security,
keeps his hand over his pocket, but in vain. At a critical moment the man
behind tips his hat over his eyes, instinctively he lifts up his hand to
set it right, and the next moment his pocket is hanging inside out. Few
betting men who attend much at races have escaped being thoroughly cleaned
out. It is rarely that Londoners are robbed in the streets; they are too
busy, and move on too fast. Country people form the chief game of the
light-fingered gentry: as they stare about, they instantly betray
themselves to their watchful enemy, and in the midst of their admiration
at everything about them, fall an easy prey. The thief in search of purses
or handkerchiefs always makes his way trout-like against the stream. There
are places, which, to carry out our piscatorial analogy, seem
"ground-baited" for these fishers. Temple Bar, St. Paul's Churchyard, the
Shoreditch end of Bishopsgate, Holborn, Cheapside, and other crowded
thoroughfares, all afford excellent sport for the pickpockets, and any one
acquainted with their "manners and customs" may occasionally see them
exercising their craft at these localities, if he watches narrowly. They
look out for a temporary stoppage in the stream of people, and a horse
fallen in the highway, an altercation between a cabman and his fare, a
fight, a crowd round a picture-shop, are all excellent opportunities, of
which they instantly take advantage.
The May meetings at Exeter Hall, however, form the most splendid harvests
for the pickpocket. If the members of the various religious denominations
who flock thither escape the hustle on the hall stairs, they are waited
upon with due attention in the omnibus. Ladies and gentlemen who attend
these May meetings are well known to be "omnibus people:" they lodge or
visit, for the short period of their sojourn in town, either at Islington,
Clapham, or Camberwell, and the "Waterloos" and the "Victorias" are
followed by the fraternity as certainly as a sick ship in the tropics is
followed by the sharks. Omnibuses are generally "worked" by a man and a
woman; the woman seats herself on the right-hand side of the most
respectable-looking female passenger she can see, and the man if possible
takes a place opposite the individual to be operated upon. If she be a
young person, the man "stares her out of countenance," and, whilst
confused by his impertinence, the "pal," by the aid of a cloak thrown over
her arm, or, if a man, by passing his hand through the pocket of his cloak
made open on the inside for the purpose, is able to rifle her pockets at
leisure. If the victim be a middle-aged or elderly lady, her attention is
engaged in conversation whilst the clearing-out process is going on. The
trick done, the confederates get out at the first convenient opportunity.
It is very rarely that a pickpocket pursues his avocation alone; but a
case has been reported lately in the newspapers, which proves that a
clever artist can work single-handed. A man named William Henry Barber was
charged at the Worship-street court with robbing a lady of her
portemonnaie in a Stoke Newington omnibus: he was well known to the
police, but had generally escaped by his adroitness. His manoeuvres were
thus described by a lady, a resident of Stoke Newington, who had been
robbed by him on a previous occasion:--
"She had got into an omnibus," she said, "at Kingsland, several weeks
back, to convey her to town, and found herself next to a
gentlemanly-looking stout man, who was dressed in sober black, with a
white neckerchief, and apparently a dissenting minister. The gentleman
gradually encroached upon her, and pressed upon her; but she thought
nothing of it, as he was very intent upon reading a newspaper the
whole way--so intent, indeed, that she did not see his face, and he
did not seem to notice that his newspaper several times partially
covered her dress. The stranger shortly afterwards got out, and she
did so also in a few minutes, and upon then placing her hand in her
pocket to make some purchase, she found that her purse had been
stolen, and with it seven sovereigns and a quantity of silver."
The "Dissenting Minister" had evidently worked the Stoke Newington road
regularly, and no doubt the "sober black" and the white handkerchief were
assumed with a perfect knowledge of the "serious" class of passenger he
was likely to encounter in omnibuses running to that suburb. Robberies of
this kind have enormously increased of late. The security with which
pickpockets can work, withdrawn as they are from the surveillance of the
police, is a great incentive to thieves to take to this particular line of
business.
The earnings of what is called a "school" of boys, who pick pockets in
concert, under the eye of a master, must be considerable; for we were
shown, some time since, a bill made out by one of those Fagins for the
board and lodging of his hopeful youths, from which it appeared that the
regular charge for each was two guineas a week! This person was well known
some years since on the Surrey side of the water as Mo Clarke. He attended
races, dressed in the deepest black, with his young assistants in jackets
and turned-down collars; and the whole group, to the eye of the general
observer, presented the sad spectacle of a widower left with a family of
young children to lament the loss of an attached mother. Their appearance
disarmed suspicion, and enabled them to empty the pockets of those around
them at their leisure. The subsequent fate of two of the children, though
nursed in hypocrisy and vice, proves that the old saying, "once a thief
always a thief," is not invariably correct, for they are at the present
moment flourishing cab and omnibus proprietors.
The advantage of working out of sight of the police has lately led some of
the swell mob to go to church, prayer-book in hand, and pick pockets
either in the pews or while the congregation is coming down the aisle.
Women are the greatest adepts at this kind of thieving, and they are
constant attendants at confirmations, plundering in sight of the most
touching rite of the Church. The dress of these females is perfect enough;
but with them, as with most other members of the swell mob, the finish is
entirely on the outside; they scarcely ever have any education, and the
moment they open their mouths they betray themselves. This fact is of
especial service in detecting another large class, of thieves--the
shoplifters. A lady cannot go into the shop of any silkmercer or
linendraper without being struck with the rude manner in which the shopman
clears the counter immediately the purchaser takes her seat. The
plundering to which they are subjected is some excuse for their
suspicions, for the assistants cannot tell at first who the customer may
be, and if expensive goods were left exposed while their backs were
turned, serious robberies would inevitably occur. The value of the manner
of speech, as diagnostic of character, was exemplified not long since at
Messrs. Swan and Edgar's, where a lady-like person asked to look at some
"wallenciens." A watch was kept upon the "lady," and she was speedily
detected secreting a card of valuable lace.
The extent of pilfering carried on even by ladies of rank and position is
very great; there are persons possessing a mania of this kind so well
known among the shopkeeping community, that their addresses and
descriptions are passed from hand to hand for mutual security. The
attendants allow them to secrete what they like without seeming to observe
them, and afterwards send a bill with the prices of the goods purloined to
their houses. Jewellers' shops are especially open to a class of thieving
termed "palming." One of the gang goes in first, and engages the attention
of the assistant; then another drops in, and makes inquiries for some
article which is on the other side of the shop; then perhaps a third,
without recognizing his companions, follows, and asks for something,
saying he is in a hurry, as he has to be off by a certain train, and at
the same time pulls out his watch to show his eagerness to be served. The
shopkeeper's attention is thus diverted from the confederates, who rob the
trays before them of their valuable contents. Some of these fellows are so
dexterous that, if they perceive any person watching them, they can "palm"
back the goods they have secreted, and, on being accused, put on an
appearance of injured innocence, which makes the tradesman believe that
his own eyes must have deceived him. The higher order of thieves will
sometimes "ring the changes," as it is called. This must be ranked among
the fine arts of swindling. They will call on first-rate houses, and
request to be shown valuable pieces of jewellery, such as diamonds,
necklaces, and bracelets, which are kept in cases. Having noted the case,
they go away, promising to call with "a lady." A case exactly similar is
then made, with which they call a second time, and ask to see the
identical bracelet they before admired, and substituting the empty case
for that containing the jewels, depart with an apparent inability to
decide upon the purchase. Many robberies to a heavy amount have taken
place in this manner. Jewellers are liable to be attacked from without as
well as from within. From the narration communicated by a prisoner to
Captain Chesterton, when governor of Coldbath-fields prison, we extract
the following method of procedure in what is termed "starring the
glaze:"--
"One or two parties divert attention while another 'stars.' This is
either done by a diamond, or by inserting a small penknife through the
putty, near the corner of a pane, and cracking it; the wet finger
carries the crack in any direction; an angle is generally formed. The
piece is wrought to and through, and then removed; if necessary,
another piece is 'starred' to allow of the free ingress of the hand.
In a retired neighbourhood an opportunity is taken of tying the door,
in order to prevent any one coming out, and on passing of a heavy
carriage the hand is driven through a square of glass, upon which has
been laid a piece of strong paper, coated with treacle, to prevent
noise from the glass falling, and then articles of value are removed.
This is termed spanking the glaze. At other times the parties
intending to star go a night or two before and break one of the lower
squares of glass, a watch is then put upon the shop to know when the
square is renewed, which, of course, the putty being soft, can be
removed at pleasure; a piece of leather, upon which is spread some
pitch, being applied to the square to prevent it falling when pushed
in. Much time is saved this way."
We often hear of the march of intellect in thieving, and the height to
which its professors have carried it in these latter days. There could be
no greater delusion; all the tricks of card-sharpers, ring-droppers,
purse-cutters, &c., are centuries old, and it does not appear that they
are performed a bit more adroitly now than in the days of Elizabeth. Mr.
Charles Knight, in his charming paper on London rogueries, gives examples
of the tricks of the Shakspearian era, which prove, as he observes, that
pickpocketing in all its forms was taught as cleverly in the days of the
Tudors as by Fagin and his boys in "Oliver Twist." His account of a school
of thieves discovered in 1585 is an instance:--
"Among the rest they found one Wolton, a gentleman born, and sometimes
a merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay. This man
kept an alehouse at Smart's Key, near Billingsgate, and after, for
some misdemeanour, put down, he reared up a new trade of life; and in
the same house he procured all the cut-purses in the city to repair to
his house. There was a schoolhouse set up to learn young boys to cut
purses. Two devices were hung up--one was a pocket and another was a
purse. The pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung about with
hawk's bells, and over the top did hang a little scaring bell; the
purse had silver in it, and he that could take out a counter without
any noise was allowed to be a public Foyster; and he that could take a
piece of silver out of the purse without noise of any of the bells,
was adjudged a judicial nypper, according to their terms of art."
The tricks we have enumerated all require cunning, lightness of hand, and
address, rather than strength and courage. As the swellmobsman stands at
the head of this school, so the cracksman or housebreaker stands on the
highest pinnacle of the other great division of crime which attains its
ends by force and courage. Since the ticket-of-leave system has been in
action, this department has flourished to an alarming degree. The released
convict re-enters the community with the enlarged experience of the hulks
and with a brutal disregard of danger. Suddenly thrown upon his resources,
with a blasted character, society leaves him no better means of livelihood
than his old course of crime. One fellow who was brought up to Bow-street
had committed no less than four burglaries within three weeks after he had
been liberated! Bands of ruffians, with crape masks and with deadly arms,
stand by the bed at dead of night, and, after robbing and terrifying their
victims, leave them gagged and bound in a manner that would disgrace
banditti. It is true these burglaries are confined to lonely houses
situated in the country; but housebreaking has been on the increase of
late even in the metropolis. Some of the craftsmen have become so expert,
that no system of bolts or bars is capable of keeping them out. It may be
as well to state, however, that a sheet of iron, on the inside of a panel,
will often foil the most expert burglars; and all operators of this class
who have opened their minds upon the subject to the prison authorities
admit that it is totally impossible, without alarming the inmates, to
force a window that is lightly barred with a thin iron bar and supplied
with a bell. A shutter thus protected, and which gives a little with
pressure, will not allow the centrebit to work without creating a motion
which is sure to ring the alarum.
Most burglaries of any importance, especially those in which much plate is
stolen, are what is termed "put up;" that is, the thieves are in
correspondence with servants in the house, or with those that have been
discarded. Many robberies that appear to have been accomplished in a most
wonderful manner from without, are committed from within. In "put up"
robberies, however, the thieves seldom allow the confederate in the house
to know when the robbery is to come off, for fear of what is termed a
"double plant;" that is, lest the person who originally "put up" the
robbery should, from the stings of conscience, or for other reasons, have
officers in waiting to apprehend them. It is quite sufficient for adroit
burglars to know where the valuables are kept, and the general
arrangements of the house. We are indebted to the Yankees for an extremely
clever method of gaining entrance to hotel bed-chambers, even when the
inmate has fastened the door. The end of the key which projects through
the lock is seized by a pair of steel pliers, and the door is unlocked
whilst the traveller sleeps in fancied security. Several robberies of this
kind have lately taken place. The most ingenious pilfering of the "put up"
kind we ever heard of occurred many years ago in a large town in
Hampshire. A gang of first-rate cracksmen, having heard that a certain
banker in a country town was in the habit of keeping large sums of money
in the strong box of the banking-house in which he himself dwelt,
determined to carry it off. For this purpose the most astute and
respectable-looking middle-aged man of the gang was despatched to the
town, to reconnoitre the premises and get an insight into the character of
their victim. The banker, he ascertained, belonged to the sect of
Primitive Methodists, and held what is termed "love-feasts." The cracksman
accordingly got himself up as a preacher, studied the peculiar method of
holding forth in favour with the sect, wore a white neckerchief, assumed
the nasal whine, and laid in a powerful stock of scripture phrases. Thus
armed, he took occasion to hold forth, and that so "movingly," that the
rumour of his "discourses" soon came to the ears of the banker, and he was
admitted as a guest. His foot once inside the doors, he rapidly "improved
the occasion" in his own peculiar manner. The intimacy grew, and he was
speedily on such terms of friendship with every one in the house, that he
came and went without notice. He acquainted himself with the position of
the strong box, and took impressions in wax of the wards of the locks.
These he sent up to his pals in town, and in due course was supplied with
false keys. With these he opened the strong box, made exact notes of the
value and nature of its contents, and replaced everything as he found it.
A plan of the street, the house, and of the particular chamber in which
the treasure was kept, was then prepared and forwarded to the confederates
in London. He persuaded his kind friend the banker to hold a love-feast on
the evening fixed for the final stroke. A few minutes before the time
appointed for the robbery, he proposed that the whole assembly should join
with him in raising their voices to the glory of the Lord. The cracksman
laboured hard and long to keep up the hymn, and noise enough was made to
cover the designs of less adroit confederates than his own. The
pseudo-preacher, to disarm suspicion, remained with his friend for a
fortnight after the theft, and on his departure all the women of the
"persuasion" wept that so good a man should go away from among them!
In a large number of cases the servants are only the unconscious
instrument in the hands of the housebreaker. We will venture to say that
more house robberies are committed through the vanity of servant girls
than from any other cause. A smart young fellow, having heard that plunder
is to be obtained in a certain house, manages to pick up an acquaintance
with one of the female domestics, and makes violent love to her. We all
know how communicative young women are to their sweethearts, and the
consequence is, that in a short time he gets from her every particular
that he requires,--the habits of the family, the times of their going out,
the position of the plate-chest, and the fastenings of the doors. Where
only a servant of all-work is kept, the process is more simple. The lover
calls in the absence of the family at church, proposes a walk, and takes
charge of the street-door key, which, unseen to the girl, is passed to a
confederate; and whilst the polite lover and his lass are enjoying the
cool of the evening the house is being ransacked. An investigation took
place at the Lambeth Police Court a few months ago, where the poor girl
who had been made the tool of the housebreaker attempted to commit suicide
in order to prevent the consequences of her folly. Her account of the
manner in which the "plant" was made upon her, affords a good example of
the style of "putting up" a house robbery:--
"The young man with whom she had casually become acquainted called
after the family had gone out, and she asked him into the back
parlour. He then asked her to dress and go out with him, and he
remained in the back parlour while she dressed. While in the back
parlour he asked her if she could get a glass of wine, and she told
him that she could not, as the wine was locked up. He said it did not
matter, as they should have one when they went out, and that he
expected to meet his sister at the Elephant and Castle. They then left
the house and went for a walk, and on reaching the Elephant and Castle
remained there for some time, waiting for the young man's sister, but
did not see her. They next proceeded to a public-house, where they had
a glass of brandy-and-water, and the young man accompanied her to the
end of the street, where they parted, with the intention that they
should meet at one o'clock on the following day and spend the
afternoon together. On going to unlock the door, she found it ajar,
and on going in, found that the house had been robbed. On discovering
this, she did not know what to do, but thought she would make up a
story about thieves having got into the house, and took up the knife
and chopped her hand; but after this, not knowing how to face her
master or mistress after being so wicked, she took up the knife again,
intending to kill herself, and inflicted the wound on her throat."
This confession was enough for the officers, and her "young man," with his
confederates, were caught and convicted. The frequency of these robberies
should put housekeepers on their guard as to what followers are allowed,
lest the "young man" should turn out to be a regular cracksman in
disguise. We bid the housekeeper also beware of another danger that
sometimes threatens him when he has an empty house for a neighbour.
Thieves always, if possible, make use of it as a basis of operations
against the others. They creep towards the dusk of evening, when the
inmates are generally down stairs, along the parapet, and enter
successively the bedrooms of the adjoining tenements. As many as half a
dozen houses have thus been robbed on the same occasion. Police-constables
always keep a careful watch upon these untenanted houses, by placing
private marks on some part of the premises; and if any of these signs are
disturbed, they suspect that something is wrong, and make a further
examination. In the City, where an immense amount of valuable property is
stored in warehouses, the private marks are much more used than in other
portions of the metropolis, and are continually changed, lest they should
become known to thieves and be turned to their advantage.
Professional beggars are almost without exception thieves; but as they are
generally recruited from the lowest portion of the population, they never
attain any of the higher ranks, but confine themselves to petty acts of
filching, or to cunning methods of circumventing the honest. The
half-naked wretch that appears to be addressing the basement floor in
piteous terms, has a fine eye for the spoons he may see cleaning below;
and the shipwrecked sailor just cast ashore from St. Giles's would be an
awkward person to meet with in a dark suburban lane. Professional beggars
are migratory in their habits. They travel from town to town, not in the
filthy rags we are accustomed to see them in, but in good clothing; the
rags are carried by their women, and are only donned when they are nearing
the place in which they intend to beg.