Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/55

Rh When the victim floored, imprecations and oaths, and threats of vengeance, in case of resistance, immediately follow, accompanied by the most active search for the property, while they cover his mouth, kneel on his body, or beat him, as the case seems to them to require. The voice is generally in an under tone, or a kind of vociferated whisper; and many of these fellows are really so savage, that they will inflict further punishment if dissatisfied with the booty they may find.

N.B. The reader, especially if he be a stranger to the ways of town, should not ramble about in lanes, or bye-ways, especially at dusk; and the more so, if he is conscious his appearance is such as to promise an easy couc[uest, or a good booty. Therefore, people should never carry much property, in such situations, nor seem puzzled at the route they should take, nor show their distrust at the appearance of the rogues, but stare them in the face.

Now as to these, and all personal robberies, out of doors, I would advise a sort of knowing circumspection, on which I made some remarks before. Suppose, for a moment, that you were to bustle through the crowd in the streets, shoving about the people; thus, in order to avoid the pickpockets, assuming yourself to be one, to all