The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-11-24

by their own.
That is one maxim of the eXposfloh-
-.rN is another:
... eye on your watch and purse,
one eye on your neighbOr, and if you
have another eye, that's for the eX-
position"
Both have been amply justified. With
the close Of the exposition all who have
had a hand or part in it are bringing
out their books to calculate gain or
loss. Losers are numerous; and not
many have gained all they hoped. But
the crooks, gathering like vUitUres over
the field of action. have fed full. Their
ledgers, and many OF them work on
admirable business lines, must show
substantial balance on the comfortable
side.
NJ. Lepine, project Of police, and NJ.
Cochefert, chief of the objective de-
partment. took extraordinary measures
to protect the visiting world from the
wiles of the swindlers. But the swind-
ling Paternity swooped down on Paris
from every point of the compass, and
the number of victims of all forms of
swindling devices has been incOnceiv-
able. Paris became the dumping
ground of all the rogueS of the world.
No police could have got the mastery
of such an army of trained scOundrels.
u NOuiSEs LliE anna BiE II dLCA my VI
pickpockets was the greatest enemy the
public had to face The city was food
ed with the Iight-hngered gentlemen
and ladies'; for, according TO the chief
of police, women are beginning to dis
cover that picking pockets is a nice,
clean occupation, by which 2 hand
some income may be made without the
Inconvenience of office hours. The
very finest artists of this kind that the
fOrmances. So numerous We're the peO-
pie who wanted their money back that
the police, at their wits end. resOrted
20 the almost abandoned device of dis
guise. The travestY, curiOusly enough,
almost always took the form of an
Oriental costume. no matter how non
desCTipt and incOngruOUS the various
Vestments might be. Wrapped in the
glistening white bUrnOuS of the Ara b
or the multi-cOlOred flowing mantle Of
the Persian or Syrian, the police officer
could pass everywhere entirely unsus-
pected by the gentry he was tracking.
On the Trail of the Pickpockets.
Every professional purse thief" ex-
planned one of these disguised officials
to the writer, has learned by expert
ence to know a police officer in plain
clothes, just as surely as he would
know one in unifOrm.- We very seldom
catch man who has happened 20 look
US in the face 6s we passive have got
to drop on him from behind If he has
once seen rs, no matter whether we
are IN uniform or fFOck cost. he
simply lounges away and waits for a
better chance. But this Oriental bust
ness (my friend touches the folds of
his long Persian mantle), this deceives
them completely
Many q pickpocket had, in fact, a
very unpleasant surprise when some
SLEEPY Oriental amDling cOntempIa-
lively along by his side in the crowd
clapped a sudden hand on his shoulder.
whipped out a pair of handouts, and
with stern whisper, ''Viens, done,
tranquillementl' pilOted him to the
lookup It is now suggested that this
highly successful Oriental disguise be
continued in Paris as a permanent Pc
lice institution. Almost any day at
any time of the year you will see a
stray Arab or two in native costume
stTOlling on the bOulevardS of Paris.
They are usually chieftains. function
/ aries, or well-tO-dO private individuals
come to the capital from French north
ern Africa on business or pleasure. One
or two more such imposing personageS
looking quite alien to the life of the
city, may take to parading the main
thorOughfares shortly, and an extra
thief or two from the permanent gang
1 may be nabbed in consequence.
Fake orientals and One Real One
Tt is curious that the police idea o,
/ employing Orientalism as a disguise
/ came in the first instance. It would ap-
4 pear, from certain members of the an.
/ cient and honorable fraternity OF
/ sneak thieves themselves. At the vic
j ION, or polist post, in the very frs
/ week OF the exposition, when we were
/ still stumbling about amidst the hide
4 Gus mess which was one day to be thu
/ fair. two individuals. clad in strang.
! costumes and taken to be weird ORR
! entails, were overheard talking togethe
/ in excellent thieves "argot" A HttE
kohl deity applied to the eye!ashes
/ a wash Of walnut juice over the face
/ hands and arms; q good deal of dy
/ on the beardf the dOnning Of eXOtf
/ robes and little practice in the slow
! cOntemplative amble of the Orienta
! had transformed two citizens Of Seine
/ town into stately Sons of the Prophet
! II was from them and their imitation
/ that NJ. Cochefert conceived his bril-
! uant idea of setting q fake TO catch
/ Take, and launched his tribe of shan
/ OTIentais upon the gathered hosts O
! occidental criminals.
Occasionally the police made mis- axe
/ IN the excess Of their zeal An old brig
adler told me the other day as a dead
! ~ secret $50 please don't let it go an,
iurther) that little while ago j ma
arfayed In ell the white spleadOr of tn
/ AraD dress was arrested in the Moor
I ism SIOUX or bazar, on suspicion of pick
ing pockets. He protested vehementIy
He was, he declared, the son Of a grea
/ sheik, now in Paris. But. unfortunate
~ for him, his wrath was set forth i
absolutely perfect French, the Frenc
| OF man to the manner born. TIL
| shreWd police officer saw through tina
game at once and dragged the ma
rudely through a large crowd. whic
cried for the fakiT's blood. But at tn
poSte 1t was speedily found that tn
! Arab was 10 fraud, and no thief bU
Just what he said he was. He left I'll
| vio}on with. his beautiful white robe
all torn and mud-stained and his fer
| Arab soul filed with burning hatred {
the Frank But what do you wish
asked my brigadier. finging out h
hands in plaintive despair. There al
! so many thieves and so few hone;
meni' A dismal view Of life that oil
policemans.
good many people who had misse
purse OF watch or roll of bills, att'
| returning from the crowded streets
/ the various Oriental villages, were II
/ clined to charge with the theft II
grave merchants sitting tuTbanned an
| Respondent on their mats and suCk1n
persistently at the tubes of their Ia
| Water-pIpes. But as a matter of Ia
! these merchants were above all susp
| clOn- The contents of their gaud
fimsy-lOoking booths were almost a
| ways of great value Tey looked III
COney Island limitations. but they wei
the real thing, respectable. solid, traC
| erS, SIfted Scr4Inulot1SIv from ma