Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/34

18 and such a productive part of the calling! Whatever may be said of it, now I have given over the pursuit, I must say i have done a violence to my taste, as an amusement, however good the relinquishment may be as to morals. If the opportunity were to arrive of choosing again, I scarcely know which line of conduct I should take; but having so taken it, I am determined to be sincere, and I mean to be a little more particular in the details of this my favourite pursuit than upon other topics; although these are all collected out of the mouths of each the first in his profession, living or dead, at home and abroad.

Although the officers constantly patrole the streets, or ought to do so, yet they suffer well-known thieves to mix in the crowds that assemble around print-shops, and other showy exhibitions of goods. If a horse tumbles, or a woman faints, away they run to encrease the crowd, and the confusion; they create a bustle, and try over the pockets of unsuspecting persons; till at length, having marked out one, the accomplice shoves him hard up against other persons, (perhaps some of the gang) who naturally repress the intrusion. Thus wedged in, they next hit him on the head (more or less hard), when he, to save his hat, or to resent the insult, lifts up his arms, a