The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-06
LANGUAGE OF THIEVES.
Strange Vocabulary Criminals Use
in Talking With Pals.

HI WIN
From the Kansas City Journal.
Say, what's become of Fatty NAL
loy?"
FATTY? Oh he cracked a gofe, an
a collar glued him before he could
blow, an the beak handed him ten
spot"
Poor Fatty! I'm leary that he'll
croak in the stir. Say, did you hear
about Dutch Charlie? He got on his
upper an grifted a benny an was sent
to the band house"
Dutch Charles a dead one. What's
Jimmie Burke's graft now?"
'Jimmies stall for a dip. Him
an his pal got packet last week"
Had this conversation been a real
one, as it might we'll have been, how
many readers of this article, CHANGING
to have overheard the talk, would
have had the slightest inkling of it's
meaning? Yet there ar emen who use
these seemingly meaningless words
and phrases and convey their meaning
in them more readily than in the more
polite forms of everyday conversation
The questions and answers that serve
to introduce this article are in the
language which is as strange and as
interesting and as full of revelations
DIS ANY lHdI COulQ eIlSdSe the
of the student. 1t was more easy for
the mythical crook to explain the mis-
fortunes of Fatty Malloy in the
language given than to tell that
Fatty" had blown open safe, had
been captured by an officer before he
had chance to get away and had
been sent to the penitentiary for ten
years by the judge, who, in criminal
parlance, is a "beak."
IN fn the inform a tinY he
has received, the other criminal ex-
presse sthe fear that Fatty" will die
in the penitentiary. In plain English,
Dutch Charlie" being in hard luck,
stole an overcoat and was sent to the
workhouse.
The recipient of this piece of news,
evidently not being an admirer of
Dutch Charlie" asserts that Charlie
is a dead one," meaning that he is no
longer a skillful thief.
A dip" is a pickpocket, and Jimmie
Burke, "a stall for a Dip" is one who
attracts the attention of the victim
whose valuables are being pilfered by
the dip" When Jimmie and his part
ner got a jacket" they were run out
of town by the police.
The foregoing is enough to give one
some idea of the language with which
one can be familiar only through con-
slant intercourse with crooks and
thieves, for it is language that
changes almost with the changing sea-
sons. Ten years hence a coterie of out
laws gathered for a social chat in their
dump" or place of meeting would use
few if any of the expressions put into
the mouths of the fictitious criminals.
The very nature of this language and
the use to which it is put demand that
1t he constantly changing. Criminals
use it not so much for the sake of
slangy and forcible expression, but to
be able to talk while in the presence
of honest people without having their
conversation understood. Victor Hugo
recognized this fact, and in his immor-
tai Les Miserables" he devotes sew
eral intensely interesting chapters to
the language of criminals, which he
calls "argot"
Many attempts have been made to
prepare dictionaries of the criminals
vocabulary, but the fact that this vo-
cabulary, is so variable must always
make the attempt a failure. Police Off
GERS try to keep themselves informed
as to the changes in this remarkable
language, and in Kansas City none has
been more successful in doing so, prob
ably, than Detective Charles Sander
son, who is assigned to duty at the
Union depot. which must be guarded
constantly to keep it from being made
the harvest field for thieves.
1t Is about the depot or the Union
avenue saloons that, if you displayed
roll of bills you would be most apt
to hear someone whisper:
Pipe the long green"
If it was gold that you displayed the
whisper would be the same, except
that instead of scratch" the word
yellow" would be used.
Should there come an answering
whisper in which the word button
could be distinguished you would
know that your dough" was safe,
because a man wearing a star was in
sight. II a gang of thieves is dis
cussing the project of paying you a
visit and you are the head. of your
establishment you are the FIRST fin
ger"
When a sure thing man." or skin
gambler. approaches you and induces
you by a plausible story to try his
game, he "hands you the bull con-"
and when he has got through with
you you are trimmed
The possibilities of this criminal par
lance are almost endless, and it is use
less to try to give a complete diction-
airy of it, even as it is used al present.
The following list, however, contains,
in addition to those already given.
some of the most commonly used
terms:
Bilked-Fooled.
Britch-Front trousers pocket.
IL oh DATe