Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-01-22
LONDGN'S TRAINED FACINS
How English Youngsters are Trained
and Turned into Very Clever
Street Thieves.
How the Pocket Thieves of Paris Go
at Their Work to Accomplish a
Steal.
Continental Pickpockets Recognize
the Superior London Method-Ex-
ampleS of Their Great Success.

At no other time of the year Is London
so safe place to walk in or to mix with
crowds as during August and September.
1t is then that a large exodus of the light
fingered brigade occurs. These gentry
depart in large numbers for the most
profitable hunting grounds of seaside and
inland watering places, for foreign race
courses and all the resorts where travellers
of ali nations are wont to congregate
Paris being favorite rendezvous for pro-
vinoais and strangers about this season,
5000 or 1000 British pickpockets, it has
been estimated, find their way there
singly OF in groups. They are recognized
by the police as more expert and danger
Gus than those of any other nationality.
They are of both sexes and all ages; as
frequently as not woman is one of the
trio that almost invariably unites to carry
on operations, the ''nipper.' Pickpockets
dislike working alone, the danger of be-
ing caught is so much greater. As a rule
the blind iostles the intended victim,
the 'nipper' avails himself of his dis
comiture or wrath to extract watch, purse
or jewels, when he promptly drops INTO
the hand of the receiver" respectable
well-dressed, careless spectator of the IN
cident, who walks off leisurely and unsus-
pecteo with the ''swag," while his more
susplclousiy clad accomplice draws upon
himself the attention of the police, ana
even challenges it, in the security of hav
ing nothing compromising on his person
N certain cases, where the booty is i'm
portant, the ''nipper" has been known to
assume the appearance of frightened guilt
to give his pals better chance and more
time to get away. The tipsy man who
reels into an omnibus and has words"
with the conductor; the stout woman,
evidently from the country, who suddenly
discovers that she is in the wrong carriage,
clamors to be let down, appealing to h.r
fellow passengers against the iniquity of
being made to pay her fare; the foreigner
who excltedly begins story in broken
English, are accomplices of the supercili-
Gus lady and clerical gentleman. who, OBJ
Jectlng to the unseemly disturbance, re-
quest to be let down; not, however, before
they have successfully availed themselves
of the commotion to explore the pockets
OF their nelghbors while their attention
was diverted.
Since tailors have made mems pockets
less loose, and dressmakers hidden those
OF women in clinging folds, the ''nipper'
has had to alter his style. He can no
longer insert his whole palm through the
narrow aperture, so he artifcially elon-
gates, with delicate pincers, the two fin
gers which alone can be thrust in and the
rifiing process is the same. Those who
have never been able to acquire the re-
quisite suppieness of manipulation or
whose hands are naturally coarse and
broad, cut the pocket bodily away or use
an ingenius little appliance constructed
as follows: To one central slender cord
are fastened four strings, ending in loaded
balls coated with glue or cobbIer's wax,
which are dropped into the pocket, any
thing it contains adheres to the balls and
can be dragged out with them by pulling
the main cord. If the thief notices any
obstruction, or the lining is likely to come
out also, he cuts the cord with a sharp
knife and walks off, leaving the balls be-
hird him. However, he rarely resorts to
this extremity and is ashamed of himself
when he does.
Crowds are an essential to pickpockets.
This is why they haunt railway stations
landing stages at the busy hours, music
halls, the waiting halls of important banks,
which they call ''melon frames" 1t is
well known that no small boat leaves
Calais or Dorer without carrying several
pickpockets, and that hardly ever is a
crossing effected during which some pas
senger is not robbed; yet it is only at
great intervals that detectives constantly
on the watch have been able to take a thief
red-handed.
When there are no crowds the pickpockets
create one, and have little trouble in so
doing. One pickpoeket was famous for
the realism with which he acted an epilep-
tic fit, and rolled foaming on the sidewalk,
but the inquisitive or charitable passer-by
who stopped to assist or see him assisted
paid dearly for their benevolence or cur
iosity. Other picGpockets quarrel, call on
the spectators to make a ring and see fair
play; the sham boxing begins until at a
certain preconcerted signal, telling them
that the game is played, they suddenly be-
come reconciled, shake hands and 90 en-
their separate ways.
About a century ago Paris had only
about fifty pickpockets; now the police re-
ports show that their number has reached
1000 in the metropolis alone, and about
10, 900 in the rest of France These figures
are nearly doubled at times of reviews,
races, popular fetes and exhibitions by re-
cruits from abroad. But singularly enough,
they come from or have been trained in
Great Britain. England is the cradle and
hot bed of pickpockets. 1t Is profession
as firmly established as carpentering or
brlck!aying; it has its apprentices, gradu-
ates, professors, experts and commercial
agents. NOVlces are taught to recognize a
Frenchnan from a native, Russian from
German, a South American from an
Italian; they are made acquainted with
the slight but all important differences in
each nationality In the cut of the clothes,
the place of the pockets, the mode of
carrying Jewelry, watches, purses or loose
cash.
When the pupils are supposed to have
proited sufficiently by their education they
are dispatched at Christmas time to GER
tain suburb OF London, where they are
farmed out. The agent, who has come to
select trio, puts them through their
PAGES, and if they acquit themselves credit
ably he engages them, gives them clothes,
board and special instructions, and takes
them abroad to ply their trade under his
management. As soon, however, as their
personality has become inconveniently
familiar to the police Of the locality, they
are returned and exchanged for FRESH set,
under the same conditions.
The community numbers 100, 900 in Lon
DON including women and children. Their
headquarters are in the obscure puriieus
ofzthe st. Giles, Whitechapel. the Minories
and the lOw-lying wharves of the Thames
1t is there that they hold their meetings
organize their detachments, deliberate on
future movements, have their savings
banks and clubs and settle On the way of
assisting those of their pals who are Ill,
Swallowed or in prison. They form regu
lar association, like the housebreakers.
and sho~lifters. from whom, however,
they are quite distinct.