Connecticut western news., 1888-01-04
PICKPOCKETS.
The Methods Pursued By These
 Lightfngered Individuals.

Lightfngered Individuals. An Inmate of a Prison Cell
 Loosens His Tongue. A San Francisco Post reporter has been interviewing an imprisoned pick pocket. "What is your legitimate line of work, as you call it F asked the re- porter. The prisoner replied:
 "Taking care of purses and such things for people who don't know how to take care of them themselves. If a man studies his business he need never get caught picking pockets. It is sim pie and nice light work for gentlemen who don't care about doing hard work. You probably don't know it, but tho professional dipper studies his work just the same as lawyer studies law. Take tho Eastern safe crackers, Randall, Thomas and Heinz, who were out here a couple of years ago. Why they've got their business down to a science. They know just where to look for the combination in safe, and with one bore they break the tumbler and lock into pieces. It is part of their business to know these things, and they never have to pry the door off with crowbar. That's not safe cracking, and fellows who do bungling work ought to go to prison.
 "People think that picknocket rushes up to man, dives his h into his pocket and grabs the purse. That's not so. To do neat work, pickpocket must have good stalls to do the Ger ush, and he must be able to tell what kind of man he has selected to rob. The stalls are helpers, and do the rough work while the pickpocket is getting the purse. When you work in crowd there is not one chance in thousand that you will get caught if the stalls | understand their business. Now, when I worked the theaters or the ferry land ing I always had two good helpers. We would go to the thcater and wait until | the end of the first act. Of course, we never noticed each other, and when the other gentlemen would go out to get cloves we would go to. The stalls then commenced their work, and l would stand back and study. They would size up men who looked as if they. had more money than they needed, and would brush up close to them. While they were working in and out around the bar would be studying.
 "The nervous man who is always on guard against being robbed was the one l wanted. Now, the cautious fellow who feels for his purse as soon as he had been crowded, shows two things. First, that he has got something worth steal Ing and then that he will go to pieces and lose his head when jammed in a crowd. When I selected my man I would give the stalls the sign and we would go back to the show, When he was leaving the theatre the stalls would manage to get around him, one ahead, and one behind. I would walk by his side and knew just what pocket his purse was in for I noticed that when he felt for it at the bar. Then when he got into the jam the stalls would con- mence the crush, that is, squeeze him between them. The man ahead would accidentally push him back, while the one behind woulf crush him ahead. As soon as he felt the crush he would get nervous and excited raise his hands up to make his way through the crowd and wriggle from one side to the other. The stalls would only squeeze him harder and then would slip my hand into his pocket and get the purse. A cough would be signal to the stalls that I was through, and then they would stop squeezing him.
 "As soon as we released him from tho crush it was funny to see how he would wiggle to get out of the crowd, and when he got there he found that his purse was gone. Of course, you can work that way in any crowd, but you must always take 1 nervous man. Take one of these cool fellows who doesn't think of getting robbed, and who doesn't mind the crush, and 90 times out of 100 he will catch | you."
 "But how is it that you manage to rob ladies, when oftentimcs their pockets are covered by their skirts ?" asked the re- porter.
 1 "Just the same as man," answered the prisoner. "The stalls give them the crush, and the one behind cuts the dress at the same time. Why, it is ten times easier to rob woman than a m an, for they arc all fidgety. When they get into crowd, and are jammed, all they think of is their dress. They are afraid that it is going to be torn and dragged out of shape, and they get so angry and excited that you could put your hand into the pocket 50 times without being de- tected."
 A Big Ferry Boat.
 A massive ferry boat, built expressly l with A view to it's ability to crusb heavv