The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1884-05-27
pocKET-pIcKINe ON THE RATrLERs.

!. may that mean?
That, says Dunn, means pocket
picking on the cars-street cars, ele-
waited railroad, or Broadway buses,
as the case might be. Knocks, or
tools, we call EN-, and the two clever.
est that ever 1 knowed was Lizzie
Smith and Mary Ann Taylor. Clever.
Why, sir, Lizzie was that clever that
she could get her hand into a woman's
pate (pocket), open the purse, take
what's in it and close the purse, all
without drawing her hand from the
pocket Now that sounds rubbish, /
know. but I've seen her do it. You
see. when woman's pocket has to be
picked, the knock has to work left
handed on the account of the pate ly-
ing on the right side, and wimmen as
q rule is much handler with their left
than men. Another clever thing I've
seen Lizzie do is to pick woman's
pocket while the woman has been
grabbing the top of it. That was
done with pair of nips, scissors you
call 'em, with which she'd run a slit
down the dress and reach in for the
pocket and cut it out clean as you'd
lick eff an oyster from the half shell.
Most of the pocket-pickipg on the rat
tiers is done when they'r are crowded,
and when you has to sit close up to
one another. You never can tell
who's your naybor in cars, and tine
good-looking young CELL at your side
may be lingering your pocket book
with her hands stuck through her
false pockets. or the quiet old gentle
man on the other side may be easing
out your watch with his hands work
ing through slit in his overeoat,
while you would swear their fiippers
we're all the time resting quietly OH
their knees.
WORKING THE FUNERAL.
You say that women are useful at
working the funeral. What's that?
Well, sir, returned Dunn. l am
glad to say L never sisted at that
more'n once. One day Glass-eyed
Nell came to me and says, she, Mike.
1 want you to collar the leather's-'
that means holding whatever pocket
books she ight steal-whiles works
a big funeral up at Grace Church.
So up we goes, and there was dread
swell a-lying out in his coffin, and the
church crowded and the moosic play.
in, and flowers enough to stock a
nursery. Nell, who was all dressed
in black, got right in the thick of
the mourners, and when they began
to file around the stiff she drops in
line, just as if she was a fust cousin.
Yes, sir, and dang me if she didn't
60 oop and kiss the corpse, with the
tears a-streamin down her face. When
she comes back to me she drops three
purses into my pocket and then works
her way into the thick of the mourn
srs again. That was enough for me,
though /; it seemed too much like the
pennies of a dead mans eyes, and
though l got good deal chafed about
my Observation-Disclosures, / never help
ed work a funeral again. But. bless
you, the racket didn't do out because
i wouldn't help work it, and it's car
ried on to-day at every big funeral
that takes place.
GOING ON TIE DIP.
And what is going on the dipf
That's any kind of pocket-picking |
on the steamers, or picnics, or in |
churches when there's a fashionable
preacher working up q sensation. a
woman's particularly handy on a
boat when the passengers are crowd
ing of, and she works there with q
man who hustles the teller in front,
while the woman reaches under his
arm from behind and takes the ticker.
Many Teller I've dug in the ribs and
hollered out. Where are yer a shown
TOT while the knock would flip out
his silk wipe 30 quick you could
see it fly. / said a woman
was useful as fence. and, Of course,
everybody knows that q fence is a
receiver of stolen goods. A fence is
more'n that; indeed, she's the thief's
broker. gets him his lawyer when he's
hooked and looks after his affairs
when he's in quod. Why, I know
one woman, Mother Felderbaum,
who's been a fence in New York for
nineteen years and who has laid out
IS much as $4,000 taking care of a
burglars wife and family while he
was serving out sentence, and you
IAN bet she got every cent of it back
he first haul the burglar made. That
burglar is converted now and is in
he New York home acting as our ,
agent, and the honestest man that
ever breathed.
Then you have said that women are