Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/179

Rh, under the head of street robberies. In the next place, the same class, and some carrying their heads much higher in life, enter a a [sic] shop which is pretty well beset by customers, some of whom no doubt are of their own stamp and connexions. Those women who are adepts, wear the round-about pockets, of very large dimensions, of which we before spoke under the head of "Prostitutes." These generally go in couples, sometimes more, the better to engage the attention of the shopman, whose attention, being fully occupied in present business, cannot by possibility be paid in two places at the same time. Suppose, as is often the case, ten or dozen pieces of printed cotton lie upon the counter all of a heap; they form a pile nearly as high as your nose, or are shoved together by the thief, the better to form a barrier against the sight of the shopman. Muslin being the favorite object of pursuit, a piece of it is buried underneath the printed goods, or some of its own quality, and she who is to take it, withdraws it quickly, as 80on as the item is given and perceived. If it be a whole piece, the quantity would be too much for any other than a bulky woman: her size would carry off as much as thirty or forty yards without creating much suspicion, though their eagerness