Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-17
Crooks Found the Paris Fair Much to
Their Liking.
CITY OVERRUN WITH PICKPOCKE7S
Detectives Were Forced to Dis
guise Themselves as OrientaIs.
FEW CRIMES OF VIOLENCE


PARIS, November ;, 1900
when honest men gather in Paris the
crooks will come by their own
That is one maxim of the exposition. Here
is another:
''One eye on your watch and purse, one
eye on your neishbor, and if you have an
other eye, that's for the exposition
Both have been amply justified. With
the close of the exposition all who have
had 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, gathered
like vutures over the field of action have
fed full. Their lcdgers, and many of them
work on admirable business lines must
show substantial balance on the comfort
able side
VI. Lepine. project of police, and NJ. Co
chefert, chief of the detective department,
TOOK extraordinary measures to protect the
visiting world from the wiles of the swim
diers But the swndling fraternity swoop-
eo down on Paris from every point of the
compass. and the number of victims of all
forms OF swindling devices has been incon-
ceiVabie. Paris became the dumping
ground OF all the rogues of the world No
police could have got the mastery Of sucn
an army OF trained scoundrels.
An Army of Pfckpockets.
Or course, the amiable fraternity of pick
pockets was the greatest enemy the public
mad to face. The city was flooded with the
lght-hngered gentlemen and ladies, for &C
cordlng to the chief Of police, women are
beginning to discover that picking pockets
Is nice, clean occupation, by which "a
handsome income may be made without the
inconvenience of office hours" The very
finest artists of this kind that the world
produces gave continuous performances
90 numerous We're the people who wanted
their money back that the police, at their
wits end, reSorted to the almost abandoned
device Of disguise. The travesty curiously
enough, almost always took the form of an
oriental costume, no matter how monde
script and homogeneous the various vest
ments might be- Wrapped in the glisten-
ing white burnous of the Arab or the multi
colored flowing mantle of the Persian or
Syrian, the police officer could pass every:
where entirely unsupported by the gentry
he was tracking.
Every professional purse thief" ex-
pianed one OF these disguised officials to the
writer, has learned by experience to know
police officer In, plain clothes, just as
surely as he would know one in uniform
We almost never catch a man who has hap
pened to look US In the face as We pass
we have got to drop on him from behind.
II ne mas once seen us, no matter whether
we are In uniform or frock coat he
simply lounges away and waits for bet
ter chance. But this oriental business (my
friend touches the folds of his long Persian
mantle), this deceives them completely"
Detectives I'm Disguise
Many a pickpocket had. in fact, a very
unpleasant surprise when some SLEEPY
Oriental ambling contempla lively along by
his side in the crowd clapped a sudden hand
on his shoulder. whipped out a pair of
handouts. and. with a stern whisper
'Vfens, done tranquillement!' piloted him
to the lookup. 1t is now suggested that
this highly successful oriental disguise be
Paris ne
sitution. Almost any day at any time of
the year you will see a stray Arab or two
In native costume strollng on the boule-
wards of Paris. They are usually chiftains
functlonaries, or well-to-do private indi-
viduals come to the capital from French
Northern Africa on business or pleasure
one or two more such imposing perSonages
looking quite alien to the life OF the city,
may take to paradng the main thorough
fares shortly; and an extra thief or two
from the permanent gang may be nabbed in
consequence.
1t is curious that the police idea of en-
ploying orientalism as a disguise came In
the first instance, 1t would appear, from
certain members or the ancient and honor
able fraternity of sneak thieves themselves
At the ''violon' or police post, in the very
first week of the exposition, when we were
still stumbling about among the hideous-
mess which was one day to be the fair, two
individuals, clad in strange costumes and
taken to be weird orientals, We're overheard
talking together In excellent thieves "ar-
got. A little kohl deity applied to the
eyelashes; wash of walnut Juice over the
face, hands and arms; a good deal of dye
on the beard: the DOMINIC of exotic robes
and a little practice In the slow contem-
plative amble of the oriental had trans
formed two citizens of Seine town into
stately sons of the prophet. 1t was from
them and their imtators that NJ Cochefert
conceived his brilliant idea of setting a fake
to catch fake, and launched his tribe of
sham orientals upon the gathered hosts of
occidental criminals.
Made IL Bad Mistake
Occasionally the police made mistakes in
the excess of their zeal. An old bripa der
told me the other day as deadly secret
$50 please don't let 1t go any further) that
little while ago a man arrayed in all the
white splendor Of the Arab costume was
arrested in the Moorish SIOUX or bazaar. on
suspicion Of picking pockets. He protested
vehemently. He was, he declared the son
of a great sheik now in Paris But nm
fortunately for him, his wrath was set
forth in absolutely perfect French the
French of man to the manner born The
shrewd police officer saw through that
game at once, and dragged the man rudeiy
through large crowd which cried for the
fakir's blood. But at the poste 1t was
speedily found that the Arab was no fraud.
and no thief, but just what he had said he
was. He left the violon with his beautiful
white robes all torn and mud-stained and
his fiery Arab soul filled with burning
hatred Of the Frank. But what do you
wish?" asked my brigadier, f1ingng out
his hands in plantive despair. There are
so many thieves and so few honest men,
A dismal view Of life. that old policeman's.
A good many people who had missed
purse or watch or roll of bills, after re-
turning from the crowded streets of the
various oriental villages, were inclined to
charge with the theft the grave merchants
sitting turbaned and Respondent on their
mats, and sucking persstently at the tubes
of their tall water pipes. But as a matter
of fact these merchants were above all
suspicion. The contents Of their gaudy
| fimsy-looking booths were almost always
| OF great value. They looked like Coney
Island limitations, but they were the real
thing, respectable, solid traders, sfted
scrupulously from a mass Of applicants
When people were robbed in the native
bazaars 1t was always by good Christians
who had never seen the east.
Juvenile HfEhwaymen.
Always? All, well, there is one exception
to be made The sOuks and bazaars
swarmed with little copper-colored native
children in the comicalest miniature bur-
houses or other strangely devised raiment.
They had lovely, innocent, gazelle-like
J brown eyes, funny little brown paws which
they would slip confidingIy into yours as