Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-12-12

The late Mr.. De Quincy wrote curious
and elaborate paper on Murder Considered
as one of the Tine Arts" Had he lived
half century later he might have extended
his inquiries 80 as TO include pocket picking
in that category for an art it has certainly
become. Your artistic pickpocket is gen.
tlemanly looking fellow, wears neat boots
and gloves, always has a new looking hat,
and Is altogether the last man you would
suspect Of any sinister designs on your pock
cts. He lives in FIRST class hotels and board
| ing houses, often frequenting the same house
| LOT years, totally unsuspected, and remark
aoie only Tor his quiet ard eentlemanly de-
meanor. lie carefully chooses fnur compan
| IONS equally respectable in appearance, to
| iorm what Is called mob, each one produ
cing certain sum TO make bank, to he
used 10 case one OF them fails, Uaken by
the police,) in order to provide bail or TO
pay his counsel fees. They then FREQUENT
| railway stations, public meetings, or any
! place where they can find crowd. A vic.
tim is quietly selected as a probable find.
Two of the mob then place themselves in
front of him and two remain behind, occupy
ing, as it were, the angles of o square of
| which the victim is the centre. These are
called the front and back stalls The unfor
tunate victim is then famed; that ia, his
| pockets are softly padded to find out the
! one in which lie Keeps his wallet; the sign
is passed to the operator, who is termed the
| wire, who Immediately proceeds to work.
He does not place his hand in the pocket,
| that is a fatal error but with the two first
| fingers he gently draws up the lining of the
| pocket to the opening, and with it the wal
| let, and the trick is done. This system is
called reefng. The wallet is Immediately
passed to one of the back stalls, who quietly
though quickly levants.
The most dangerous place for money is
undoubtedly the pocket ofthe pants. gain,
one Of the front stalls passes his arm before
your face to touch the other frent stall on
the shoulder, only to say How are you r.
but the wire from behind has your diamond
pin in his possession. If possible they return
the empty wallet to the pocket to avoid
detection in its possession, or the dangerous
necessity of throwing it away. For instance,
two gentlemen sitting at one end of the car
get into angry alteration. high words ensue,
the attention of the other passengers is
attracted to their dispute, and the young
lady who sat next to that nice looking man
at the other end of the car finds, on arriving
at Stewards, that her purse is empty. The
angry gentleman and the nice looking man
are simply confederates. This they term
wedding. correspondent of a newspaper
lately lost $500 in this way while riding in
q Fourth avenue car
Pickpockcts are necessarily migratory in
their habits, findirg lone residence in one
place inconvenient. This renders it ditlicul
! to make any estimate of their probable mum
bers in New York. They prefer locality
for the scene Of their operations that has
numerous lines of rail. TO enable them to
separate in various directions as soon ii;
they have a good swag an to meet again
in some other town. These men stand by
one another in trouble, and are strictly
square in their mutual trans actions A Gu
rous incident of "honor among thieves is
found in the following anecdote The elder
Mathews and Theodore Hook, on one occa-
sion, went together to the theatre while
ascending the staircase Mathews playfully
took bundle of papers from Hooks pocket
behind By gentlemanly. looking man, who
handed him his own pocket book, apologiz
ing for taking it by saying, II didn't know
you was one of us" and pertinently adding
but what fool you must be to carry il
there" Pickpockets, however, never SAVE
money, for they are all bitten with a mani;
for gambling, and, strange to say, are general
ly unsuccessful at it. Their language is mo5
peculiar, only to be understood by that
intelligent body of gentlemen who hal
from Mulberry street, Their depredationl
on the public amount to a very large sum ir
the course of the year, a considerable portion
of which is never recovered, from the genera
inability of the victims to give any deScrp
ton which might lead TO Identification thel
never, if possible, allowing you to have
full view of their face.-N J. Tribune.