Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-05-12

him. so as to find by feeling the loca- tion of the pocket in which he carries his watch or purse, and at the same tine to make him less suspicious when the real time comes. This ssfeel- ing" for the whereabouts of mans valuables is done very expertly. One twelve-year-old. who is locked up here. explained his methods to me frankly. He never used his hands. That would excite suspicion. eff I used me bloody 'ands," he remarked, ''the bloomin' gent might fawncy l was agoin' to rob i'm" Nobody notices how gamin is dressed, so this little chap wore merely an undershirt on warm nights. This was very thin, and permitted him to feel with his whole upper body. His favorite plan was to get so located that his back would be pushed up against the intended victims person by the crowd. thus enabling him to tell with his shoulders where the purse or watch was carried. The pressure of a small bows back would not be likely to arouse suspicion.
 After this part of the work has been finished and all the members of the s'mob' know not only which man is to be the victim, but exactly in which pocket he carries the articles which are to be stolen, one of the boys takes up his position as near to the valuabIes pocket as possible and stands uneon- cernedly, with his attention apparently
 fixed on entirely different matters. This being well arranged, another of the Smob'' suddenly iostles the stran- ger from the other side, throwing him over against the quiet boy who immediately gives a howl of pain, jumps, and then with some re- proachful remark to the bloody, bloonin gaffer who'd come down on little feller's foot like that" limps off resentfully In the meantime he has secured the purse or watch, or whatever he was after. Two other members of the mob, small boys, re- main by the victim. If he immediately discovers his loss, they instantly begin to fight, thus attracting atten- ton, intensifying the crowd in that particular place and giving the little thief better chance to get away. The thief is known in professional parlanee as "the snateher,n 7 the man to whom he
 hands the stolen property is called the
 "taller, the boys who fight are dubbed
 .'mokes, and the one who jostles is
 called a .'blolie." IL is probable that New York east siders got their general name for a man or @blokie" or
 'bloke"-from this bit of pickpocl1et slang.
 am told that in the past training schools for this lziad of crime quite as elaborate as the one operated by Fagin in Dickens story have been discovered, but such things are very rare occur rences in the London of today Nod ern picl1pocllets. however. have special ties, as Fagin's pupils did One mob may devote itself entirely to the s'swip- ing of silk handkerchiefs, which are afterward offered for sale in such shops as those which line Petticoat 1ane Others fly higher and devote their pro- fessional attention to watches or pocl1- etboolss.
 The bank burglar is almost unknown in Great Britain Not one set of the elaborate drills and wrenches. chisels and shutter enters such as Superin- tendent Byrnes has made such a vast collection of is on exhibition in the Black museum at Scotland Yard. The use of reyolvers by London thieves is so unusual that when a prisoner who had drawn one on Inspector Lands downe was taken to Bow street police court the magistrate (Mr. Bridge) asked thn English?' and started one of those lively newspaper controversies over nothing which are so common here. The ordinary weapon of a London criminal is club. All sorts of bud geons, from the leaden-weighted ''slung shot or the stunning sand bag to the bit of knobbed blacl1thorn straight from Ireland, are in the possession of the police. When pistols arc used they are generally single-barreled affairs of poor workmanship. Of knives the great elaspknife of the waterside is that most frequently secured.
 London has it's confidence men, who are quite as expert as Americas. Their methods are very similar It is not worth while to record their rou- tine operations, but one recent in- stance as illustrative of their resources is amusing and instructive An old Scotch travelling man, who bore some what the appearance of a countryman, but who knew the ropes perfectly, was accosted. He decided to have some fun at the expense of the would-be swlndlers, so he pretended to fall read fly in with their statements-to be particularly easy victim. They bought him a splendid dinner, calling him Dlr. Kenny of Dundee-a name which they had caught from travelling bag which he had borrowed from a friend He enjoyed their hospitality hugely and ate prodigiously and expensively. They paid the bill and began the usual talk about lottery prize, etc. Then he saw that it was time for him to ''cap their game" Said he:
 Gentlemen, thank you for the din- her. It was very good, and have had a very pleasant time with you. But