Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-02-02
THE ART OF POCKET,pICKING.

NcAAA
Had he lived half a century later, he
might have extended his inquiries SO
as to include pocket picking in that
catagory; for an art it has certainly
! become. Your artistic pickpocket,
says the Tribune, is a gentlemanly
looking fellow, wears neat boots and
gloves, always has new looking hat,
and is altogether the last man you
would suspect of any sinister designs
on your pockets. He lives in first
class hotels and boarding houses, often
frequently the same house for years
totally unsupported, and remarkably
only for bis quiet and gentlemany de-
meanor He carefully chooses four
companions. equally respectable in ap-
pearauce, to form what is called mob,
each one producing certain sum of
money to make bank, to be used in
case one OF them fall taken by the pc
lice, in order to provide hail or to pay
his council fees. They then frequent
railway stations, public meetings or
any place where they can find crowd.
A victim is quietly selected as proba-
BILE find. Two of the mob then place
themselves in front of him, and two
remain behind, occupying, as it were,
C ,,,l,,ak
centre These are called the front and
back stalls. The unfortunate victim is
then famed that is his pockets are
softly padded to find out the one in
which he keeps his wallet the sign is
passed IT, the operator, who is termed
wire, who Immediately proceeds to
work. He does not place his hand in
the pocket, that is the fatal error bnt
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. This system is
called reefing. The wallet is imme-
dlately passed to one OF the back stalls,
who quietly, though quickly levants.
The most dangerous place for money
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 possible, the return
the empty wallet to the pocket to avoid
detection in its possession, or the dan
gerous necessity of throwing it away.
For instance two gentlemen sitting at
one end of car get into angry alter
cation, high words ensue, the atten-
ton of the other passengers is attract
ed to their dispute. and the young
lady who sat next to that nice looking
m IN at the other end OF the car fluids,
on arriving at Stewards thai her purse
is empty The angry gentleman and
the nice looking man are simply con-
federates. This they term wedding.
A correspondent of a newspaper lately
lost $500 in this way while riding in
Fourth Avenue car.
Pickpockets are necessarily very mi
gratory in their habits, finding long
residence in one place inconvenient.
This renders it difficult to make any
estimate of their probable numbers in
New York. They prefer locality for
the scene of their operations that has
numerous lines of raj to enable them
to separate in various directions as
soon as they have good swog, and to
meet again in some other town. These
men stand by one another in trouble,
and are strictly square in their mutual
transactions. A curious instance of
''honor among thieves" is found in
the following anecdote The elder
Matthews and Theodore Hook, on one
occasion, went together to the theater !;
while ascending the staircase Matthews
playfully took bundle of papers from
Hooks pocket, when he was touched
from the shoulder from behind by a
gentleman. locking man, who handed
him his own pocket book, apologizing
for taking it by saying, Il didn't
know you was one Of us, and peril
nently adding, but what fool you
must be to carry it there" Pickpock-
cts, however, never save money. for
they are all bitten with mania of
gambling, and, strange to say. gener-
ally unsuccessful at it. Their language