Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-01-20
The Art Of Pnekef Picking.


New York Tribune, wrote a curious
and elaborate paper on Murder con-
sidered as one of the Fine Arts" Had
he lived half a century later, he might
have extended his inquiries SO as to
include pOcket-pickimg in that cata-
CORY; for an art it has certainly be
come. Your artistic pick-pOcket is n
gentlemanly 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 pockets.
I He lives in first class hotels and board
ing houses, often frequenting the
same house for years, totally unsus-
| pected, and remarkable only for his
quiet and gentlemanIy demeanor.
He carefully chooses four companions,
equally respectable in appearance, to
form what is called a mob, each one
producing a certain sum to make
bank, to be used i'm case one of them
fails taken by the police in order to
provide bail or pay his counsel fees.
They then frequent railway stations,
public meetings, or any place where
they can find a crowd. a victim is
quietly selected as a probable fiend.
Il
in front of him, and two remain be-
hind occupying, as it were, the angles
of a square of which the victim is the
center. These are called the front
and back stalls. The unfortunate VIC
tim is then famed; that is his pock-
cts are softly padded to find out the
one in which he keeps his wallet; the
sign is passed to the operator, who is
Tor faaIx
eeeds to work. He does not place his
hand in the pocket; that is fatal er-
rOr, but with the two first fingers he
gently draws up the lining of the
pocket to the opening, and with it the
wallet, and the trick is done. The
system is called reefing. The wallet is
quickly passed TO one of the back
stalls, who quietly, though quickly,
levants.
The most dangerous place for mon
ey is undoubtedly the pocket of the
pants. Again, one of the front stalls
passes his arm before your face to
touch the other front stall on the |
shoulder, only to say, How are you ?
but the wire from behind has your |
diamond pin in his possession. If pos
sible, 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 a
car get into angry alteration, high /
words ensue, the attention of the 9TH
er passengers is attracted to their dis
pute, 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 eOnfederates.
This they term wedding. A cores
pOndent of a newspaper lately lost
$500 in this way while riding in
a Fourth avenue car.
Pick-pOckets are necessarially very
in their habits, finding a
long residence in one place incOnve-
nient. This renders it difficult to
make any estimate of their probable
numbers in New York. They prefer
/ locality for the scene of their opera
lions that has numerous lines of rail
% enable them to seperate in various
directions as soon as they have good
,wag, and to meet again in some other
own These men stand by one an
,ther in trouble, and are strictly
,quare in their mutual transactions.
4 curious instance of "hOnor among
heivesn is found in the following an
,cdOte: The elder Mathews and TheO- ,
lore Hook on one occasion went to- !
-ather to the theater, while ascending
he staircase, Mathews playfully took :
bundle of papers from Hooks pock- :
{, when he was touched from the !
from behind by a gentleman
Y looking man, who handed him his +
wn pocket-bOok, apolOgiZing for Ia !
ing it by saying, 81 didn't know 4
on were one of u.s." and peril i
emily adding, but what a fool you =
lust be to carry it there" Pick a
Ockets, however never, save money, 7
)r they are all bitten with a mania i
1r gambling, and strange to say, are n
cry unsuccessful at it. Their Ian n
uage is most peculiar, only to be un- +
erstOod by themselves. Their dep +
edations on the public amount to n
cry large sum in the course of a year, +,
considerable portion Of which is h
ever recovered, from the general in :,
Dility of the victims to give any de- q.
.ription that might lead to identifi- !,
.tiOn, they never, if possible, allow n
lg you TO have full view of their r.
ce. -