Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/167

Rh Young women should be most careful with what men they contract an acquaintance, for housebreakers frequently pretend love to servant girls, for the purpose of robbing the premises; sometimes with the more shabby intention of robbing the girl herself of a little money, and a little clothes, together with all her virtue and peace of mind.

A house destined to be robbed, is first surveyed by the parties; for, it is too much to suppose half a dozen men would walk about with the proper tools in search of a job! If an empty, or half finished house, be near,—or one is under repair,—whence the parapets, roofs or gutters are accessible to each other, this is chosen as the medium of communication; and one of the party or two) makes his way into that which is to be robbed, by way of the garret. Descending, according to circumstances, he seizes and binds, or gags, the only domestic (a female perhaps) who has care of the house. He lets in his companions at his leisure; and they as leisurely bring carts if that be necessary, to strip the house, and carry away, even to the bare walls (we have seen it) as completely as if the king's tax-gatherer had come in, three quarters in arrear.

Should the kitchen windows towards the area