Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/41

Rh but nothing was found upon him, though the packet was discovered under a chair at a distant part of the room. As none of the parties had gone out; they were the more puzzled the more they thought how it could have been lost. The fact is, briefly, that the female carried it off; the loser having been mistaken in saying, he had felt it since he entered the room;—a warning to people how cautious they should be in stating unnecessary particulars, too hastily.

Here was a very neat and clean job done, and all safe and right; and is that sort of practice which for distinction's sake is termed "picking of pockets," simply; though hustling, and knocking down, or tripping up are the same thing prastised [sic] with more violence. We will, therefore, describe all those methods as carried on against single persons.

The pickpocket who does the thing "neatly," as the phrase is, goes alone; or, at most, two together. His intention is not to use violence, and he even avoids being felt at work; for which reason the law has made it capital felony to execute his task so adroitly as not to be discovered in the act of taking; notwithstanding which law, he always endeavours to incur the highest crime,