Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/57

Rh the full foice of the word; for, as to picking pockets in a crowd, it is quite a different sort of matter,—there, every body goes to wreck. The reader of any discernment, then, will see the propriety of keeping out of crowds; for in them nothing can help him, but strength to get away us soon as possible; and that will be scarcely in his power, if he is well wedged in by eight or ten desperadoes.

Need a word be said of the necessity of keeping the handkerchief concealed, if you mean to preserve it? An outside pocket, in which the handkerchief is visible, is sure to part with its contents at noon-day, even, though you should not walk half the length of the Strand. That circumstance would be most likely to bring its owner into further trouble; as so careless a mode of placing the handkerchief marks him out for one of the unknowing ones, he would be followed and further pilfered, as certainly as that he has a nose.

Walking, from the time of dusk to that of the patrols coming on duty, a little before or a little after, is more replete with danger as the times are worse. Men who only rob occasionally are thereby driven to desperation; and they then sally forth to commit depredations on the persons of