St. Paul daily globe., 1889-02-17
SOME MODERN "FLY' TALK
A Police Reporters Vocabulary Of
Thieves and Sports Lingo.
ENGLISH AS SHE IS TALKED.
Some Expressions That Most People
Would Not Exactly Understand
the Meaning Of.

ssDe kid win de coat and took sneak
just as de flatter staged him." Compar-
atively few people outside the police
{! force, the thieves fraternity and men in
: charge of prison would get any intelli.
gent idea of the meaning of the sentence
given above. 1t was a hard-loOking
citizen standing on Bridge square at
| the corner of Second street who ad-
| dressed the remark quoted to city de-
| tective, who seemed to know him, and
|. had inquired regarding the theft of a
! coat from neighboring secondhand
store a few minutes before. Translated
| into everyday English, his reply was:
.The boy stole the coat and ran just as
| the policeman sighted him." A kid is a
boy, to VIM is to steal, and the word
| is spelled, or rather pronounced. the
same in all the different moods and
| lenses. To stake sneak" is to run
( away. and "chase yourself" means the
same thing. Nearly all
THE PECULIARITIES OF THIEVES
slang or ''patter" are suggestive of
some quaint or humorous fancy; for i'll
stance: Sugar or ''dust'' is money,
''queer'' is counterfeit money,
"binched" or ''nipped" means arrested,
a ''supper sneak' is a man who climbs
up verandaS to steal from secOnd-StOry
rooms while the family are at meals; to
l,.chew" is to eat, and chewing the rag''
lis talking, especially in a loud, excited,
For angry manner.
There are a number of synonyms for
Eealy a chilly sound to men who make it
l'tteir business. SWipe is favorite sub
tstitnte for steal, while ''win," ''pinch''
and sAsf1iclZ'' are uSpd DV manV.
"NiXy weeden,'' or ''cheese your
patter." means to stop talking, and in
( dicates that the speakers are liable to be
overheard. Thieves warn each other of
1.-THE approach of officers or ''fy bObs'' by
pulling the hat over the eyes, coughing.
Kissing or whistling. This is called
E"giving the ofice.'
I The meanings of "stiff' are various.
tits used to denote a forged paper of any
kind, an exaggerated story or a baseless
tale, cadaver and other things. When
| two men talk in the presence of others
| and both understand that something
different from what they say is meant,
the conversation is denOminated a
| 'sstiff.'
A ..stretch" is a year in prison, and
a ssmoon' is a month of the same.
I ..Wringing super" is twisting watch
from its chain; and ''red and white
supers" are gold and silver watches re-
spectively. A ''mouthpiece" is a
lawyer, ''beak" means magistrate.
italy" a trial; cooler" ''Quad" or
.'Quay" is Jail,
:. TURNED UP"
is discharged from custody, "settled" is
convicted, and ''grand Quay'' is states
prison.
A 'bloke'' is a man, a "moll' is
a woman, ''gopherman'' means safe
blower. .'Wire,'' dip" "dive," bloke-
buzzer,o "teol' or "knuck" is pick
pocket. A moll-buZzer robs women only.
A s.plant'' means hidden plunder, and
sspringing the plant'' is bringing out
| the property after suspicion has blown
over. To ''get in your graft'' is to do
J whatever kind of work you make a
specially of. There are hundred
more words of a similar character
which would mean nothing to most peo-
pie, but which imply as much as the
plainest words of English among
thieves. They are not used simply to
crafty taste for slang. but to enable
| the users to speak before people with
out being understood and suspicioned.