The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-07
"MEUM AND TUUM.D
Thieves and Pickpockets in New Orleans.

Ever since the days when Robin Hood with his
merry men laid tribute upon all wealthy way
farers passing through his woodland domains
ever since Luigi Vsmpa with bis well disciplined
bands inhabited the damp catacombs without the
walls OF balfruiDed Rome, and thence sailed forth
to become possessed of fortunes at blow, or
| captured prisoners whose ransom were kingly
or, still later, since the hair breadth accidents by
| field and food, which, occurring in the lives of
Jack Sheppard or Claude Duval have furnished
material to the dramatist and In their representa-.
ton ecstatic delight to crowded galleries, the
career of the freebooter, be he burglar, highway
robbsr, pickpocket, or pirate has been invested
with sort Of romantic interest in the minds of
the people, applauding the daring while they yet
condemn the crime.
But. then. again it seems that the romance van.
ishes when the midnight homeward traveller
through the streets of great city. where police
and gaslights abound, finds strong, gritty hand
at his throat, pistol at his ear, and hears the
words stand and deliver harsLy uttered. 1t is not
the most agreeable thing to feel for ones watch
and find it abstraeted; or to rise In the morning to
discover that ones breeches pockets have been
invaded at ones very bedside. All these little
occurrences bring the question home pertiuently.
aud make one reason that while the novels sbout
Capt. Kyd and Lafitle. or the dramas of Jack and
Claude, may be very interesting to some people,
it would be better IL such events had ended with
their so-called heroes.
Your modern thief is q very matter of fact,
dollar and cents sort of q person, equally ready
either with strategy or brute force, generally
preferring the former, yet willing, when neces-
ssry, to employ the latter, even to the death.
TIE growth of crime in the United States since
the close of the war has increased tenfold the
number Of those who for q living depend upon
what they can take from another. Their reason
ing is concise: "You, sir, have money, have
none, but place myself in the advantage of you,
and your money becomes mne."
These men are banded together; they have their
organizations extending all over the country, and
even to the other continent; they carry on their
correspondence with system fully as intricate as
that of the police themselves, and it may not un.
frequently happen that side by side in the mail
bags are letters the putting the police and the
other the thieves on their guard at their place
of destination; they know the detectives, the
"fy cops" as well as the COPS know them; they
have their female pals, their " fences" where the
stolen property is disposed Of their lurking places
ligence of a contemplated raid reaches them on
the wings of the wind, and. 10, they disappear as
if by magic, until the danger has blown over
They live God only knows how. One day, "flush "
with funds, they fare sumptuously; the next a
cup of coffee and pigs foot in the marKet, and
hard bed in some alley way or shed are theirs.
Some of them have intelligent faces, are we'll ed
ucated, and may readily impose upon strangers;
others carry about on their faces bad enough to
procure their indictment on sight in any court of
common law; yet, all together, little community
Of outcasts, they scheme aud plan and execute
their crimes, now and then coming within the
clutches of the law, perhaps serving a term of
confinement, yet always sooner or later resppear-
ing in the secret meetings Of Their gang, anew TO |
plot infractions of the laws.
With such as these has New Orleans been in |
Tested during the past six months. The repeal of
tho vagrant law was not long uncommunicated BY |
The professionals resident in this city to their CON-
rades elsewhere. When, therefore the scorching |
-ays Of September's sun were followed by the |
niIder glare of the soft October days, down there
zane upon Us with rush such as the Vsndals
made upon Rome, the skilled villainy of other
titles. From Memphis, st. Louis, Chicago, Gin
'nnad, Louisville, New York and even from Lon.
Ion and Liverpool, came men of notorious craft |
.nd crimes, weary of long watching by the police
q those cities, eager to bask in the fresh fields and
pastures green of the Crescent City. Cotempora-
ieous with their arrival, came letters from a
ozen chiefs Of police to Superintendent Cain, in.
ormiDg him Of the vistations, and asking for the
lew arrivals the police hospitaities of this city.
n this way every one of the new comers on evil
eeds intent was spotted; but what more could
e done? Unless caught in the overt act. they
7ere as safe as not arrested. So certain of this
Tere they that more than one of their number
ared record his avocatiOn az that of thief"
pom the police books they snapped their fingers
the faces of the police AID, confident in the
bsence of any vagrsnt law, boldly defed them.
We, all of us who have read the papers know
hat succession OF burglsres, garotings and
,st pocket.books and watches have been re.
orded since the winter season set in. Why-at
le police Office lie list ssloDg as the moral law
numbers of stolen watches, furnished by the |
sers in the hope OF thereby Identifying their
uckers." Some time since the private Office of
le superintendent was numbered up half way to
e ceiling with household property of the richest
i'd most varied description, stolen from twenty
ferent residences, some down town. some up
wn. some on the previous night, some month
two before, yet all found in one fence" and
! subsequently reclaimed by the owners.
There is, in the community of outlaws we speak |
Z, as distinct spirit Of caste as ever reigned in
olatrous India TIE snsaking :" knuckr or
espoeket, artful dodger though he be, looks
Iih respectful awe upon the cracksman as he
es away at bis skeleton keys for use that even.
6 while in turn he exercises salGtary control
er the youngsters, rotten before ripe, who play !
e parts of couriers, or allow themselves to be
lshed in through broken window frames to un-
stem the door from the inside. They may be '
lssifed thus
" The irsi-classers are called the guns: -
ese are they who undertake the heaviest Jobs.
ch as the famous jewelry robbery a. LilienthsTs;
d Watson, by the way, who was "pulled " for ?
at job, has since been arrested and tried in Liy
pool and sentenced to Botany Bay. This gives D
e glimpse of the varied career of those fel. 4
VS.. Next come the burglars. or " cracksmen;'' D