The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-12-18
tUhIuNES IN FINGERS.
London PiclzDockets Who Could
Give Old Fagln Lessons.
They Are said to Be the Cleverest Thieves
in the Ngorld-Sto-y of I. Bing-Ex-
perience OF a scDtIsnd-Hard
Detective

wcll-advcr;ised guide books. one of
which, dealing chiefly with London
aud its cnviro1s, warned Americans
ar.iiust the light fingered portion of its
population Therefore when ] went
abroad / did so with my eyes open, as
| thought, but / was soon to discover
by actual experience that n stranger in
the great metropolis needs very keen
optics to escape the wi'es of its Fagins.
Having Lut moderate purse ut my
command i took cheap lodgings in
Charter House square, and when ont
sightseeing was careful to take along
Just enough money To last me through
the jaunt
In NV half-aimless sauntcrings one
morning ! turned il the Strand. al
ready bristling with its peculiar life,
and had not proceeded far when some
one taprcl me on the shoulder Having
no part cular acquaintance in London
at that time, / turned quickly and saw
"A wcll-drcsy ed m&n step back like
person embarrassed
..Aw. beg your pardon. sir" said
he. politely: Il thought | was tapping
the shoulder OF a friend; would no;
have stopped you for the world, anc
before / could tel him no harm had
been done he was off AMI out of sigh
in 4 moment
! thought no moro of the interrupt
tion until. seeing a book which / de-
sired to purchase, / reached for my
purse, but it was gone. In a flash the
shoulder tapping incident came back
with strange distinctness, and had to
laugh Mt the adroitncss of the theft,
for | knew | hal been robbed while
the strange man was apoiogizing for the
apparent blundcr. ! had not lost much
money. owing to the carefulness re
ferred to. but the purse contained Il
keepsake in the shape of plain gold
ring suitably inscribed That was
worth more to me than the contents Of
the purse, and, upon telling the book
seller of my loss, he advised me to re-
port it at Scotland Yards, the head
quarters of the metropolitan police.
/ had little hope of ever again seeing
the ring, for / could give nothing but
vague description of the person who
had stopped me- bat | resolved To take
my complaint TO the authorities, as
much to get into Scotland Yard, which
Is world famous. As anything else.
Quitting the boOlI-stall, / made my way
To the place from which the shrevvd de
tcctives OF London sally forth TO hunt
down the evil docrs, and in a short time
was stating my loss to a little man in
uniform, who listened intcntly, but
with 4 lurking smile in his bluc eyes
When he heard me through, he said
that in all probability the keepsake
and had parted company forever; but
calling to his side Il man whom he in
troduced as Sergt. Douuy. he went
over the story, and unen turned me
over 70 the sergeant. Sergt- Donny
reminded me of Mr. Inspector Bucket.
Of ..Rleak House" He seemed to have
a queer way of comforting with his fat
foretinger while he listened, and from
the first he impressed me as a good
natured man, too much So 1 thought, to
be a member of the police force. having
TO deal with the roughs and toughs OF
London.
The sergeant and | adjourned to the
nearest little coffee house where ]
found that he improved on acquain-
tance.
we have 100. 900 thieves in London"
said he Nov. Your purse has fallen
into the hands of one of them; but
which one? The man who tapped you
on the shoulder did not do the robbing;
he merely secured your attention whiie
Ills ItliCNtu NoA- oA 1Ntb
nothing in your pocket? No? The fin
gers of our genteel Fagins are very
light and shapely. | was robbed once
myself, and that while conducting the
thief to the station for picking lady's
pocket did not know my watch was
gone till we came to search the scamp
Your ring. ah, yes" and here Sergt-
Donny tore blank leaf from his mem
orandum-
II think we had best advertise for
it" he continued
| was surprised
.sYou wonder, 1 see smiled the SER
geant ..Some of our thieves are very
sympathetic, and there Is one chance IN
a thousand that your purse may have
fallen into the hands of fellow of this
description. We will try first with
something like this
He wrote rapidly for a minute. his
chubby little hand running back and
forth over the sheet, and when he
stopped he read the following adver-
tisement:
..Iost-Ring-If tho person who found plain
gold ring inscribed From : Il. 10 J. c. g.,
viii return il to No. - Charterhouse square. he
viii receive one guinea reward and no qGes-
tions will be asked. The ring was lost on the
Strand and s. valued as memento, being a
gift from a dear friend who is dead"
Some of the light-fiugered gentry
are very tender-hearted,' said Sergt-
Donny when he had read the advertise
ment which seemed to delight him
In a case of this kind we have no ac-
curate description of the thief; there
fore we have TO resort to stratagem.
Your advertisement will appear in the
Times tomorrow, and then we shall
wait for results Meantime, we have
nothing to do, and i am prepared to
tell you something about the thieves OF
this great city, seeing as how l have
been dealing with them these twelve
years"
/ was more than pleased that the in
spector had turned me over to so clever
subordinate, and intimated pretty
strongly that ] was eager to listen tc
anything Mr.. Donny had TO say.
This is June" began he. IF you
had come over two months later the
chances are that you would not have
been touched on the Strand to-day.
August and September are the safest
months to walk in or mix with the
crowds on the streets of London. Dur
ing these months our pickpocl<ets are
at the seaside, working the crowds o.
fashionables who flock thither, or hav,
gone To the foreign race courses. Thou
sands of them go to Paris, and hun
ireds to other places, and we are no
busy with them at home. Yes, sir
we have one hundred thousand of thi!
evil class in London, more thieve.
than you have honest people in som,
of y,ur pretty American cities. 1t il
90 orr shame. of course, but how ar,