Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/56

40 external appearance? It is not probable yon would be attacked by them, upon the old and sure principle, that dog will not eat dog. So if you stare them well in the face (not sheepishly), eye them downwards, twig the shabbiest part of their dress,—and, if a row is begun, you join in the phrases used, as "go it;" "now, d—n his eyes;" "what are you at?" "now for it;" "go it my jumbo!" or, whatever may be said upon the occasion, you would certainly increase the chances of getting clear. This is what I always repeat. "The chances only of getting clear of their clutches" are increased by following these precautions; for no one can be at a certainty; as I have known a police officer (Handcock of "Hatton Garden," five years ago) to be stopped and robbed on the highway, when well-armed, and a magistrate who had his pocket picked at the theatre.

As one test of the truth of what I have said, you will invariably discover in the person whose pocket has been picked while walking singly, something that points him out as a proper object of attack: he is easily to be found out as an unknowing one; he is either a silly looking chap, or an unwieldy one, or a new comer. In making this distinction of walking singly, I beg to claim