cockneys, belonging to the same class, who steal from these shop-doors.
They are poorly dressed, and live in some of the lowest streets in
Surrey and Middlesex, but chiefly in the Borough and the East end.
Some of them are dressed in a clean cotton dress, shabby bonnet and
faded shawl, and are accompanied by one or more men, costermongers
in appearance. They steal rolls of printed cotton from the outside
of linen drapers’ shops, rolls of flannel, and of coarse calico,
hearthrugs and rolls of oilskin and table-covers; and from brokers’
shops they carry off rolls of carpet, fenders, tire-irons, and other
articles, exposed in and around the shop-door. The thefts of these
women are of greater value than those committed by the boys. They
belong to the felon-class and are generally expert thieves.
The mode in which they commit these thefts is by taking advantage of
the absence of the person in charge of the shop, or when his back is
turned. It is done very quickly and dexterously, and they are often
successful in carrying away articles such as those named without any
one observing them.
Another class of Sneaks, who steal from the outsides of shops, are
women more advanced in life than those referred to,--some middle-aged
and others elderly. Some of them are thieves, or the companions of
thieves, and others are the wives of honest, hard-working mechanics
and labouring men, who spend their money in gin and beer at various
public-houses.
These persons go and look over some pieces of bacon or meat outside of
butchers’ shops; they ask the price of it, sometimes buy a small piece
and steal a large one, but more frequently buy none. They watch the
opportunity of taking a large piece which they slip into their basket
and carry to some small chandler’s shop in a low neighbourhood, where
they dispose of it at about a fourth of its value.
We have met some thieves of this order, basket in hand, returning from
Drury Lane, who were pointed out to us by a detective officer.
The mechanics’ and labourers’ wives in many cases leave their homes in
the morning for the purpose of purchasing their husband’s dinner. They
meet with other women fond of drink like themselves. They meet, for
example, outside the “Plumb Tree,” or such-like public-house, and join
their money together to buy beer or gin. After partaking of it, they
leave the house, and remain for some time outside conversing together.
They again join their money and return to the public-house, and have
some additional liquor: leave the house and separate. Some of them join
with other parties fond of liquor as they did with the former. One says
to the other: “I have no money, otherwise we would have a drop of gin.
I have just met Mrs. So-and-so, and spent nearly all my money.” The
other may reply: “I have not much to get the old man’s dinner, but we
can have a quartern of gin.” After getting the liquor, they separate.
The tradesman’s wife, finding that she has spent nearly the whole of
her money, goes to a cheesemonger’s or butcher’s shop, and steals a
piece of meat, or bacon, for the purpose of placing it before her
husband for dinner, perhaps selling the remainder of the booty at shops
in low neighbourhoods, or to lodging-houses.
Such cases frequently occur, and are brought before the police-courts.
These persons sometimes steal flat-irons for ironing clothes at the
brokers’ shop-doors, which they carry to other pawnbrokers if not
detected. At other times they take them to the leaving-shop of an
unlicensed pawnbroker. On depositing them, they get a small sum of
money. These leaving-shops are in the lowest localities, and take in
articles pawnbrokers would refuse. They are open on Sundays, and at
other times when no business is done in pawnbrokers’ shops.
These shops are well known to the police, and give great assistance to
these Sneaks in disposing of their stolen property.
A considerable number of depredations are committed at the doors of
shoemakers’ shops. They are committed by women of the lower orders, of
all ages, some of them very elderly. They come up to the door as tho’
they were shopping, attired generally in an old bonnet and faded shawl.
The shoes are hanging inside the door, suspended from an iron rod by a
piece of string, and are sometimes hanging on a bar outside the shop.
These parties are much of the same order of thieves already described,
possibly many of them the mothers and some the grandmothers of the
ragged boys referred to. The greater number of them are Irish cockneys.
They come up to the shop-door generally in the afternoon, as if
to examine the quality of the shoes or boots, but seldom make any
purchase. They observe how the articles are suspended and the best
mode of abstracting them. They return in the dusk of the evening and
steal them.
The shops from which these robberies are committed are to be
found in Lambeth-walk, New-cut, Lower Marsh, Lambeth, Tottenham
Court-road, Westminster, Drury-lane, the neighbourhood of St. Giles’s,
Petticoat-lane, Spitalfields, Whitecross-street, St. Luke’s, and other
localities.
Small articles are occasionally taken from shop windows in the winter
evenings, by means of breaking a pane of glass in a very ingenious way.
These thefts are committed at the shops of confectioners, tobacconists,
and watchmakers, &c., in the quiet by-streets.
Sometimes they are done by the younger ragged-boys, but in most cases
by lads of 14 and upwards, belonging to the fraternity of London
thieves.
In the dark winter evenings we may sometimes see groups of these ragged
boys, assembled around the windows of a small grocery-shop, looking
greedily at the almond-rock, lollipops, sugar-candy, barley-sugar,
brandy-balls, pies, and tarts, displayed in all their tempting
sweetness and in all their gaudy tints. They insert the point of
a knife or other sharp instrument into the corner or side of the
pane, then give it a wrench, when the pane cracks in a semicircular
starlike form around the part punctured. Should a piece of glass large
enough to admit the hand not be sufficiently loosened, they apply the
sharp instrument at another place in the pane, when the new cracks
communicate with the rents already made; on applying a sticking-plaster
to the pane, the piece readily adheres to it, and is abstracted. The
thief inserts his hand through an opening in the window, seizes a
handful of sweets or other goods, and runs away, perhaps followed by
the shopman in full chase. These thieves are termed star-glazers.
Such petty robberies are often committed by elder lads at the windows
of tobacconists, when cigars and pipes are frequently stolen.
They cut the pane in the manner described, and sometimes get a younger
boy to commit the theft, while they get the chief share of the plunder,
without having exposed themselves to the danger of being arrested
stealing the property.
The number of felonies of goods, &c., exposed
to sale in the Metropolitan districts
for 1860 1671
Ditto ditto in the City 133
----
1804
Value of goods thereby stolen in the
Metropolitan districts £1487
Ditto ditto in the City 35
-----
£1522
_Stealing from Children._--Children are occasionally sent out by their
mothers, with bundles of washing to convey to different persons,
or they may be employed to bring clothes from the mangle. They are
sometimes met by a man, at other times by a woman, who entices them
to go to a shop for a halfpenny or a penny worth of sweets, meanwhile
taking care they leave their parcels or bundle, which they promise to
keep for them till they return. On their coming out of the shop, they
find the party has decamped, and seldom any clue can be got of them, as
they may belong to distant localities of the metropolis.
In other cases they go up to the children, when they are proceeding on
their way, with a bundle or basket, and say: “You are going to take
these things home. Do you know where you are going to take them?” The
child being taken off her guard may say. She is carrying them to Mrs.
So-and-so, of such a street. They will then say. “You are a good girl,
and are quite right. Mrs. So-and-so sent me for them, as she is in a
hurry and is going out.” The child probably gives her the basket or
bundle, when the thief absconds. A case of this kind occurred in the
district of Marylebone about six months ago.
A girl was going with two silk-dresses to a lady in Devonshire-street,
when she was met by a young woman, who said she was a servant of the
lady, and was sent to get the dresses done or undone, and was very
glad she had met her. The woman was an entire stranger to the lady.
The larceny was detected on the Saturday night, and the lady was put
to great inconvenience, as she had not a dress to go out with on the
Sunday. Robberies of clothes sent out to be mangled, and of articles
of linen are very common. Milliners often send young girls errands who
are not old enough to see through the tricks of these parties prowling
about the metropolis.
These larcenies are generally committed by vagrants decently dressed,
and too lazy to work, who go sneaking about the streets and live in
low neighbourhoods, such as St. Giles’s, Drury-lane, Short’s-gardens,
Queen-street, and the Borough. They are in most cases committed in the
evening, though sometimes during the day.
_Child Stripping._--This is generally done by females, old debauched
drunken hags who watch their opportunity to accost children passing in
the streets, tidily dressed with good boots and clothes. They entice
them away to a low or quiet neighbourhood for the purpose, as they say,
of buying them sweets, or with some other pretext. When they get into a
convenient place, they give them a halfpenny or some sweets, and take
off the articles of dress, and tell them to remain till they return,
when they go away with the booty.
This is done most frequently in mews in the West-end, and at
Clerkenwell, Westminster, the Borough, and other similar localities.
These heartless debased women sometimes commit these felonies in the
disreputable neighbourhoods where they live, but more frequently in
distant places, where they are not known and cannot be easily traced.
This mode of felony is not so prevalent in the metropolis as formerly.
In most cases, it is done at dusk in the winter evenings, from 7 to 10
o’clock.
Number of larcenies from children in
the Metropolitan districts for 1860 87
Ditto ditto in the City 10
--
97
Value of property thereby stolen in the
Metropolitan districts £65 0
Ditto ditto in the City 5 10
-------
£70 10
_Stealing from Drunken Persons._--There is a very common low class of
male thieves, who go prowling about at all times of the day and night
for this purpose.
They loiter about the streets and public-houses to steal from drunken
persons, and are called “Bug-hunters” and “mutchers.” You see many
of them lounging about gin-palaces in the vicinity of the Borough,
near St. George’s church. We have met them there in the course of
our rambles over the metropolis, and at Whitechapel and St. Giles’s.
They also frequent the Westminster-road, the vicinity of the Victoria
Theatre, Shoreditch, and Somers Town. These low wretches are of
all ages, and many of them have the appearance of bricklayers’,
stone-masons’, and engineers’ labourers. They pretend they are
labourers out of work, and are forward in intruding themselves on the
notice of persons entering those houses, and expect to be treated to
liquor, though entire strangers to them.
They are not unfrequently so rude as to take the pewter-pot of another
person from the bar, and pass it round to their comrades, till they
have emptied the contents. If remonstrated with, they return insulting
language, and try to involve the person in a broil.
You occasionally find them loafing about the tap-rooms. They watch for
drunken people, whom they endeavour to persuade to treat them. They
entice him to go down some court or slum, where they strip him of his
watch, money, or other valuables he may have on his person. Or they
sometimes rob him in the public-house; but this seldom occurs, as they
are aware it would lead to detection. They prefer following him out of
the public-house. Many of these robberies are committed in the public
urinals at a late hour at night.
These men have often abandoned women who cohabit with them, and assist
them in these low depredations. They frequently dwell in low courts
and alleys in the neighbourhood of gin-palaces, have no settled mode
of life, and follow no industrious calling--living as loafers and low
ruffians.
Some of them have wives, who go out washing and charing to obtain a
livelihood for their children and themselves, as well as to support
their brutal husbands, lazzaroni of the metropolis.
This class of persons are in the habit of stealing lead from houses,
and copper boilers from kitchens and wash-houses.
There is another class of thieves, who steal from drunken persons,
usually in the dusk of the evening, in the following manner: Two women,
respectably dressed, meet a drunken man in the street, stop him and ask
him to treat them. They adjourn to the bar of a public-house for the
purpose of getting some gin or ale. While drinking at the bar, one of
the women tries to rob him of his watch or money. A man who is called a
“stickman,” an accomplice and possibly a paramour of hers, comes to the
bar a short time after them. He has a glass of some kind of liquor, and
stands beside them. Some motions and signs pass between the two females
and this man. If they have by this time secured the booty, it is passed
to the latter, who, thereupon slips away, with the stolen articles in
his possession.
In some cases, when the property is taken from the drunken man, one
of the women on some pretext steps to the door and passes it to the
“stickman” standing outside, who then makes off with it. In other cases
these robberies are perpetrated in the outside of the house, in some
by-street.
Sometimes the man quickly discovers his loss, and makes an outcry
against the women; when the “stickman” comes up and asks, “what is
the matter?” the man may reply, “these two women have robbed me.”
The stickman answers “I’ll go and fetch a policeman.” The property is
passed to him by the women, and he decamps. If a criminal information
is brought against the females, the stolen goods are not found in their
possession, and the case is dropped.
These women seldom or never allow drunken men to have criminal
connection with them, but get their living by this base system of
plunder. They change their field of operation over the metropolis,
followed by the sneaking “stickman.”
Some of these females have been known in early life to sell oranges in
the street.
The “stickman” during the day lounges about the parlours in quiet
public-houses where thieves resort, and the women during the day are
sometimes engaged in needlework,--some of the latter have a fair
education, which they may have learned in prison, and others are very
illiterate.
Though respectable in dress and appearance, they generally belong to
the felon class of Irish cockneys, with few exceptions.
They are to be found in Lisson-grove, Leicester-square, Portland-town,
and other localities.
Females in respectable positions in society occasionally take too much
intoxicating liquor, and are waylaid by old women, gin-drinkers, who
frequent public-houses in low neighbourhoods. They introduce themselves
to the inebriated woman as a friend, to see her to some place of safety
until she has recovered from the effects of her dissipation,--she may
have been lying on the pavement, and unable to walk. They lift her up
by the hand, and steal the gold ring from her finger.
At other times they take her into some by-court or street in low
neighbourhoods, where doors may frequently be seen standing open;
they rob her in some of these dark passages of her money, watch, and
jewellery, and sometimes carry off her clothes.
If seen by persons in the neighbourhood, it is winked at, and no
information given, as they generally belong to the same unprincipled
class.
There is another low class of women who prowl about the streets at
midnight, watching for any respectable-looking person who may be
passing the worse of liquor. If they notice a drunken man, one comes
and enters into conversation with him, and while thus engaged, another
woman steps up, touches him under the chin, or otherwise distracts his
attention. The person who first accosted him, with her companion, then
endeavours to pick his pockets and plunder him of his property. A case
of this kind occurred near the Marble Arch in August 1860.
They have many ingenious ways of distracting the attention of their
victim, some of them very obscene and shameless.
They take care to see that no policeman is in sight, and generally
endeavour to find out if the person they intend to victimize has
something to purloin.
They may ask him for change, or solicit a few coppers to get beer, or
inquire what o’clock it is, to see if he is in possession of a watch
or money. They abstract the money from the pocket, or snatch the watch
from the swivel, which they are adroit in breaking.
Such persons are often seen at midnight in the neighbourhood of
Bloomsbury and Oxford-street, the Strand, Lower Thames-street, and
other localities.
The most of those engaged in this kind of robbery in Oxford-street come
from the neighbourhood of St. Giles’s and Lisson-grove.
The number of felonies from drunken
persons which occurred in the Metropolitan
districts for 1860 were 221
Ditto ditto in the City 10
---
231
The value of property thereby stolen in
the Metropolitan districts £867
Ditto ditto in the City 40
----
£907
_Stealing Linen, &c. exposed to dry._ This is generally done by
vagrants in the suburbs of the metropolis, from 7 to 11 o’clock in the
evening; when left out all night, it is often done at midnight.
Linen and other clothes are frequently left hanging on lines or spread
out on the grass in yards at the back of the house. Entrance is
effected through the street-doors which may have been left open, or
by climbing over the wall. In many cases these felonies are committed
by middle-aged women. If done by a man, he is generally assisted by a
female who carries off the property; were he seen carrying a bundle of
clothes, he would be stopped by a vigilant officer, and be called to
give an account of it, which would possibly lead to his detection.
These felonies generally consist of sheets, counterpanes, shirts,
table-covers, pinafores, towels, stockings, and such-like articles.
When any of them are marked, the female makes it her business to
pick out the marks, in case it might lead to their detection. Such
robberies are often traced by the police through the assistance of the
pawnbrokers.
They are very common where there are gardens at the back of the house,
such as Kensall Green, Camden Town, Kensington, Battersea, Clapham,
Peckham, and Victoria Park.
The clothes are generally disposed of at pawnbrokers or the
leaving-shops, commonly called “Dolly Shops.” They leave them there
for a small sum of money, and get a ticket. If they return for them
in the course of a week, they are charged 3_d._ a shilling interest.
If they do not return for them in seven days, they are disposed of to
persons of low character. These wretches at the leaving-shops manage
to get them into the hands of parties who would not be likely to give
information--the articles, from their superior quality, being generally
understood to be stolen.
These felonies are also committed by the female Sneaks who call at
gentlemen’s houses, selling small wares, or on some other similar
errand. When they find the door open and a convenient opportunity, they
often abstract the linen and other clothes from the lines, and dispose
of them in the manner referred to.
They are also stolen by ragged juvenile thieves, who get into the yards
by climbing over the wall. This is occasionally done in the Lambeth
district, in the dusk of the evening, or early in the morning, and
is effected in this way:--Some time previously they commence some
boyish game, about half a dozen of them together. They then pretend
to quarrel, when one boy will take the other’s cap off his head and
place it on the garden wall. Another boy lifts him up to fetch it--the
object being to reconnoitre the adjacent grounds, and see if there are
any clothes laid out to dry, as well as to find out the best mode of
stealing them.
When they discover clothes in a yard, they come back at dusk, or at
midnight, and carry them off the lines.
They take the stolen property to the receiver’s, after having divided
the clothes among the party. Some will go off in one direction, and
others in another to get them disposed of, which is done to prevent
suspicion on the part of the police.
The receiving-houses are opened to them at night, as these low people
are very greedy of gain. Sometimes they convey the stolen property to
their lodgings, at other times they lodge it in concealment till the
next day. These clothes are occasionally of trifling value, at other
times worth several pounds, which on being sold bring the thief a very
poor return--scarcely the price of his breakfast--the lion’s share of
the spoil being given to the unprincipled receiver.
They are often encouraged to commit these thefts by wretches in the low
lodging-houses, who are aware of their midnight excursions.
Number of felonies of linen, &c., exposed
to dry in the Metropolitan districts for
1860 236
Ditto ditto for the City 0
---
236
Value of property thereby abstracted
in the Metropolis £150
_Robberies from Carts and other Vehicles._--There are many depredations
committed over the metropolis from carts, carriers’ waggons, cabs,
railway vans, and other vehicles. Many of those people have the
appearance of porters at a warehouse, and are a peculiar order.
At one time they may have been porters at warehouses, or connected
with railways, or carmen to large commercial firms. Some have corduroy
or moleskin jacket and trowsers, and cloth cap; others have a plain
frock-coat and cap.
Many of the robberies from carts are done by the connivance of the
carters. They are sent by business establishments to dispose of goods
over the metropolis; some of them are connected with the worst class
of thieves. They connive with those men in stealing their employers’
property, and in rifling other carts, carry the booty away in their
own, and always manage to secure a part of the prize.
These carters take thieves occasionally to railway stations to assist
them with their work, and when an opportunity occurs, carry off goods
from the railway platform, such as bales of bacon, cheese, bags of
nails, boxes of tin and copper, and travellers’ luggage, which they
dispose of to marine-store dealers and at chandlers’ shops. The wearing
apparel in the trunks they sell at second-hand shops, kept by Jews
and others in low neighbourhoods, such as Petticoat-lane, Lambeth,
Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark.
Many carts are rifled by persons who represent themselves as hawkers or
costermongers--men who have no steady industrious mode of livelihood,
and are usually in the company of prostitutes and thieves of the worst
description. The carter may have occasion to call at a city house, and
to leave his horse and cart in the street, when they steal a whip,
coat, or horsecloth, the reins from off the horse, or any portable
article they can lay their hands on.
Numbers of hay, straw, and store carmen frequently steal a truss of
hay, or clover, or straw, from their employer’s cart, and dispose of
it to some person who has a horse, or pony, or donkey, for a small sum
of money. These dishonest practices are carried on to a far greater
extent than the public are aware of, as it is only occasionally they
are brought to public notice.
Robberies from cabs and carriages are sometimes effected in the
following way: They follow the cab or vehicle with a horse and cart,
driving along in its wake--two or three thieves generally in the cart.
One of them jumps on the spring of the conveyance while the driver is
sitting in front of his vehicle, pulls down the trunk or box, and slips
it into the cart, then drives away with the booty.
At other times they run up, and leap on the spring of the conveyance
while the driver is proceeding along with his back toward them; lower
the trunk or other article from the roof, and walk off with it. These
trunks sometimes contain money, silver plate, and other valuable
property.