Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/566

 556 change seats and carriages, and seem to be watching everybody. A gentleman one day was travelling by train from Birmingham to London in a second-class carriage. In another compartment of the same carriage he saw a young and an elderly female, who were very intimate and friendly. The younger lady chatted a great deal with the elder one, and called her attention to almost everything they passed; and their company seemed mutually delightful. At Oxford the younger lady left the carriage and took a friendly leave of her companion. Shortly after the train was again in motion the elderly lady became greatly excited and alarmed, exclaiming,

“Oh dear! I’m robbed. That young hussy has taken my purse.”

The gentleman said, “Why, I thought the young lady was a friend of yours?”

“Friend!” said the old lady; “why, I never saw her before.”

Surely enough the old lady was robbed, for her dress and outer garments were cut open to her under pocket. She was going to pay a considerable sum of money in London, and, fortunately for her, she had stitched some bank-notes where no wire could get them. No doubt this lady had been watched from the bank to her home, and from home to the railway-station, where the lively young female was planted upon her to travel with her until the deed was done. Not at all unlikely some servant had treacherously, or foolishly and unknowingly, put the thieves on the scent. Persons who are going to the bank to pay in money, or who have been to the bank receiving money, are frequently robbed. They wonder how the thieves happen to catch them at that particular time. The explanation is that, like woodcocks, they are considered rare game, and are generally watched and marked down. This kind of thieving is called “jug-buzzing,” and is only practised by the cleverest thieves. Two of them will go into the bank when many people are in, or when they have marked their woodcock. The two thieves are very well dressed, and try to appear as gentlemanly and quiet as possible. One of them will ask for change for a 5l. note, and it is his aim to keep the clerk’s attention as long as he can. This gives the thieves an opportunity of using their eyes and ears to some purpose, as by this means they find out who is receiving money. When they have chosen their victim they try to rob him as soon as possible, preferring to do it in the bank if they can; they consider that the safest, as in it they think themselves least liable to suspicion. A few of the thieves are quick enough to take their booty from the breast-pocket; they are considered the top of the profession, and are called “bloke-tools.” These thieves generally carry snyde scrip and commercial bills, which are supplied to them by broken-down lawyers’ clerks and others; so that, if they become the objects of suspicion and fall into the hands of the police, they produce their snyde paper, and endeavour to pass themselves off for commercial men. A good deal of pocket-picking is done in places of worship, and this is called “kirk-buzzing.” They are by no means particular as to the place—church or chapel, anywhere for money. They will pay two or three visits to the same place, and only give it up when it becomes too hot to hold them. They are very fond of missionary meetings and other philanthropic crowds, where the people are too excited and too far away in the celestial to care for such carnal things as purses and pockets. Some ladies at a small place called Hill Top, in South Staffordshire, were heavily fleeced in a Methodist chapel not very long ago by some “kirk-buzzers,” who, guided by advertisement, came down upon the good people from a distance. Sometimes the pockets are picked during the progress of the service, especially if the meeting is exciting and one calculated to rivet the attention of the audience; but the chief part of the work is done in what thieves call “the burst,” which means just in the midst of the excitement and stir which is made when the people rise from their seats and are passing out along the aisles. Then they fan pockets, pick their marks, do their dishonest deeds, and jostle themselves about, all the while looking as devout as possible. The wax arm dodge for robbing at the communion is seldom used; clever thieves can do without it. This kind of work is also called “buzzing on spec.” It is said by the thieves that when they go to Roman Catholic places of worship they get to know the name of the officiating priest, so that if they are caught they profess to be Papists, and ask to speak with Father So-and-so; they do this in the hope that the priest will take pity on them and get them off. Exchange Robbing is done by men; women and children are never employed, except outside, to receive the “swag.” The Exchange-men never work in towns where they are well known to the police. Moreover, they dress exceedingly well, so that if on a sudden outcry of something gone the doors are closed at once, it is next to impossible for the police to detect the culprit—first, because they do not know him, and secondly, because of the thief’s unsuspicious appearance and manner. An Exchange thief watches until he sees a gentleman with a purse or a roll of notes. This man he marks, and follows him wherever he goes; and the moment the thief has picked the merchant’s pocket he is off. Gentlemen can seldom tell to a few minutes how much time has elapsed since the wealth was in their possession; and should it only be a few minutes between the knowledge of possession and the alarm of ascertained loss, the brief interval is nearly always sufficient to enable the rascal to make good his escape: once outside and his capture is generally hopeless, as on the slightest suspicion of being followed the property is immediately passed from hand to hand. The foregoing explanation will account for the Exchange thief being so seldom caught.

man who invented lucifer matches was doubtless one of the greatest benefactors to humanity. What labour was lost, what tempers were tried, what knuckles were made sore in the hundred thousand households of England, every morning, as Betty the housemaid, with