Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/49

Rh Just the same end is obtained by picking an instant quarrel, and collaring the victim, pull him forward; while he is thus upon the stoop, the accomplice takes a dive into his pockets, handing off whatever he may find to a third accomplice, who perhaps has been making free use of his stick promiscuously over the heads of all parties. Another plan is to seize him by the collar of the coat behind, and pull him backwards: he must be a rum customer, indeed, if he gets over this, and a dig in the guts in front; for having lost wind, he will not recover it again until his property is irrecoverable.

A more daring hustle is, where a person being run against violently, as if by accident, and his arms kept down, forcibly; while the accomplice, pretending to take "the gentleman's" part, draws either his watch, money or book. More cannot well be done in an instant thing like this. Should the pair come down whop, it is far the better for the thieves; they both get up, pardon is begged, and they part as quickly as possible. The sufferer, in adjusting his dress, then first discovers he has been robbed. Those who give preference to this mode of do, are of the secondary sort of thieves, not at all to be considered clever; they mostly wear short jackets, (at least one of them) the better to effectuate escape by