The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-11-12

and there are quite a large number of
thieves in London who make a living by
working almost entirely in public con-
veyances,
One gang in particular was broken up
long ago. 1T consisted of about twenty
three men, and was known--on account
of practice they had OF singing a
hooked stick over their arms-as the
CROOKED Sticy Gang" 1t was started
in 1898, and the originator was an ex-
ceedingly clever thief with whom the
police desired further acquaintance.
He started this brilliant idea by giving
an "4At Home" in the Seven Dials< He
hired a room in public house for the
purpose Gas he informed the landlord)
of holding Friendly Lead" but as a
matter of fact the people who turned
up were one and all practised pickpock-
cts, and the outcome of this meeting
was the formation of a sort of Thieves
Union the object of which was to prey
upon unwary people who travel in ON
nibuses and trans and public convey
ances generally. The members worked
in pairs, the one thieving and the other
watching that he did not cheat his fell
lows.
This system worked remarkably we'll
for q time. Each pair of thieves had q
number of ingenious DISCUSSES; on diff
ferent occasions they exchanged routes;
and as they kept a particular record of
their proceedings and were careful not
to work too often in the same district,
they We're for long time undetected.
At the end of each day they met at a
vi
dividing their spoils: and fair idea of
the profits of the concern will be gath
cred from the fact that they have divi-
ded as much as six hundred and fifty
dollars on a single day.
After a time the conductors of the
buses Especially in principal thor
oughfares like Piccadilly) got to know
the gang, and become strangely short
sighted when one of them hailed them
from the pavement. They treated them
with an indifference that was CALLING
! and their behavior seemed especially
brutal when the passenger with the
CROOKED stick happened to be an old
white-haired gentleman with gold eye
glasses.
When at last business became so in
volved that the directors of the omni-
| bus companies began to employ detec-
tives to watch them, the gang thought
1t advisable to run buses Of their own,
and they did They started number
Of pirate" buses, and as just some
where about this time the company
| buses raised their fares, they easily got
large number of passengers by re-
| tanning the old prices They were very
| r,trx 1I,-F a,, ,oIJ
dressed and respectable-lool1ing people,
and it was a strange thing If a passen-
ger did not miss something before he or
she reached the end of the journey
Each person who entered the bus
was, of course most carefully watched
! The cry "All fares" gave the thieves a
| clue to the whereabouts of the purses,
and a short time after they were re-
| placed they were skilfully removed by
/ the working members" One of the
gang who manipulated matters inside
| the bus was a. most dexterous pick
| pocket 1T was his boast that he could
extract a purse with a pair Of sugar
longs and he has been known to steal
one, remove all the money, and then
quietly replace it in the owners pocket
without exciting the slightest suspicion.
For while these pirate" buses sue
ceeded even better than the others. On
some occasions a single bus has yield
ed over twenty purses day, some of
/ them containing as much as seventy
five dollars, and it was seldom that a
! pocket was picked without something
of value being found
/ At last. however, complaints at Scot
land Yard became SO numerous that the
authorities set a special detective on
the track of the crooked sticks, with
/ the result that one of the members was
caught red handed, and this led shortly
afterward to the arrest of several 9TH
4 ers. After that 1t was not long before
they We're entirely broken up. Without
head they were Incapable of working
Systematically, and they scattered in
every direction-nostly to Portland,
where many of them are still doing
time. "-Pittsburg Dispatch.