Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-09-01
From the New York Tribune.
NEW YORK PICKPOCKETS.

With pickpockets, highway robbers, burglars
thieves, houldcr.hi:ter and politicians, New York
city is cursed to a greater extent than any other
city on this continent. Excepting the shoulder
hitters and politicians there is no class Of scoun-
drels so numerous as the piokpockets. Old men
and women, spruce young boys and blooming
girls, are numbered i'll the ranks of the profession.
They are met at all points, in all sorts of cos
tunes and the most unexpected time and place,
always having an eye to business, yet exceedingly
wary. 1t requires great skill, W. had almost said
genius, to become an expert and successful pick.
pocket. One who is never at o loss for an expe.
dent, never losses his self-possessiou, and who
generally gets what he is after, has only acquired
his skill and d~ezterity by many years of hard
study of human nature, an immense amount oil
practice, and probably many months imprison-
ment. Pickpockets are a distinct class Of thieves,
and associate as little with burglars and other dep'
redators as would a dry goods merchant prince
with a retail dealer in hardware. A sAillful pick
pocket oxcitcs the greatest admiration among his
less fortunate companions, and is looked up to with
as much reverence as is a man in respectable SO.
cieiy who has thousands of dollars at his fingers
ends. lie fully appreciates his position, and with
an air Of the greatest condescension accepts from
his rellow'thieves those little offerings Of brandy
punches and cigars which they so freely offer at
his shrine of d~oxterity and impotence.
Their modes of obtaining the objects Of their
ambition generally a pocket book or a gold
watch are as numerous as the various classes Of
pick pockets. They all particularly delight in q
crowd. Let a few thousand people congregate in
the street or in some place of amusement, and
there you will find the pickpOcket in his glory,
Take q street crowd, for instance. Two or three
Of the light fingered gentry are there, working to-
gether. They select their victim and Immediately
seize every opportunity to hustle AID jostlo him
Suddenly some one is crushed up against him, al
which both begin to swear furiously, the victim
striving to get away, and the pickpocket crowdina
still harder, till he succeeds in getting his hand:
away from his pocket. In an instant a dexterous
confederate silly slipn his fingers into the victim,
pocket, and they seldom come out again without
the coveted wallet.
Meanwhile, the plucked pigeon is so much ali
sorbed in crowding, h~ustling, and swearing tina
he has no suspicion Of the transfer that is being
made. AT oil places Of amusement, or where any
sort of tickets are cold that will create a rush
there look out for your pockets. You want to buy
a ticket, have taken out your wallet to get the nee
essary money, and returned it to your pocket. A
professional has witnessed the operation, and il
Instantly by your side, c%rowding and jamming al
ferociously as yourself toward the little hole whert
the tickets are passed. You pass in your moncy
aud demand a ticket-ho does the same, striving
to get ahead Of you-you become anxious, anC
Jour hand and his get into a strife for the coyete.
2asteboard, and meanwhile his other hand is ex
ploring the recesses of your pocket. By the tim
you get out of the crowd, your wallet and you
pertinacious friend have both disappeared. Pick
pockets generally work in schools of two, three
r four, five, or six, just as the exigoneies of ih
occasion may require. The first object to be oil
tanned is to divert their victims attention from hi
pocket, and the next is to induce him by som
means TO pot up his hands, A fght, u crowd, G
something else, may accomplish the former, bt
the latter is moro difficult. Some one will :aL
! hold Of him, or knock his hat of, when up 90 DO,
hands, and out goes his wallet or his watch. ]
stealing watches the guard chain forms quite q
obstacle, provided il be securely fastened. II
most frequent way Of overcoming this Difficult,
is to perform the opertion called ringing it, ThI
is, the wateL. is cautiously lifted from the poke
and by a dexterous movement Of the thumb az
fOrefnger, the ring to which the chain 10 attache
q 10 twisted from the watch, and left dangling fro