Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/106

 rying crowds at railway stations, the stream of folks frequenting banks and exchanges, the mobs at election contests, the concourses at political lecture meetings. In Japan the pickpocket (suri) takes a pride in his business. He regards a burglar with contempt, and is scarcely disposed to admit his own dishonesty, since he merely takes advantage in broad daylight of the culpable carelessness of his fellow-citizens. There are master-pickpockets and apprentices—about twenty-seven of the former and seventy-seven of the latter in Tōkyō. The apprentice usually comes from the rank of boy-beggars who have shown aptitude for the trade, and when a master-beggar transfers the services of such lads to the pickpocketing trade, he retains a pecuniary interest in the youngsters' future earnings. The apprentice gets at first only ten per cent of his "takings," but is always fed, clothed, and supplied with small money by the master, who also pledges himself, and faithfully observes the pledge, that the boy shall be well taken care of in prison. A master-pickpocket in Tōkyō is said to have an income of about thirty yen a month, and his field of operations is strictly defined. He is sometimes utilised by the police, for if the recovery of some stolen article is specially desired, the "masters" are warned that it must be produced at once. Occasionally, too, when an exceptional event seems likely to create special opportunities for theft, the "masters" are quietly