Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/36

20 the few stray articles that may be picked up before the grand rush is made, when they join in, and increase, the confusion. Some ten or twelve men, mostly armed with sticks, are attached to these women, and act in concert on one side of the hill, while a gang similarly composed take the other side, and numerous smaller detachments, and single rogues, are strewed about in all directions.

As the procession advances, the first object is to create a bustle, and if possible a fight. They, therefore, inclose between them a few people of respectable appearance, and press them forward rudely; those in front resent this, pretending to be offended, and thrust back those next to them; the sticks go to work upon the heads, and the accomplice embracing his fellow, reaches round at the fob, or pockets of the victim, whose hands are employed in protecting his head.

The trunk-maker's corner was, for many years, the spot for making a stand at; and the articles stolen used to walk up the Old Bailey to Whetstone-park corner. But things of this sort must change in a course of years, for the very circumstance of this exposure must of necessity compel alteration, to prevent detection. Yet again, on consideration, this is not so certain, since there