The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-07
NEWsBOY PICKPOCKETs.
Two Little Experiences With Thieves,
With an Interval of Thirty Years.

"One of my earliest experiences in
this city, said a New Yorker of now
thirty-odd years standing, was with
a newsbey who tried to pick my pocket.
and among my latest experiences has
been one precisely similar; this last ex-
perience showing, suppose. that 1 am
getting old and so have come to be
regarded as an easy mark again, as 1
must have been considered when I was
young and new to the town. The meth
ods employed by the two boys, work
ing thirty years apart, were identicafly
the same, the boy in each case attempt
ing the comparatively simple and easy
pocketpicking task of extracting money
from the outside change pocket of an
overcoat
ITO do this the boy carries his news
papers, to the casual eye held out in
front of him quite in the ordinary way:
but he actually holds them with the left
hand only, carrying the right hand un-
der the papers out of sight and ap-
parently helping to support them, but
wholly free. Offering his papers to a
customer thus the newsboy pickpocket
advances them closer and closer to the
customer, with an appearance simply
| of impOrtuning him to buy, until he
gets the papers close to the mans coat
and over the change pocket. Under the
papers thus advanced he puts forth
quick, out of sight, his right hand, with
which to rifle the pocket, if you leave it
unprotected though he may lose
chance by bungling himself, and so give
you a chance.
This last boy that tried me was
novice and a bungler who did just
that; and I felt the pressure of his
fingers on the coat plainly before he
got into the pocket at all; and turn
ed on him, but not angrily, nor even
threateningly, but with a sort of re-
proachful and regretful exclamation.
Besides being chagrined for myself at
having been picked out as easy it really
seemed pity that this youngster should
have deliberately set out, as he seemed
to have done, on the wrong road; to
follow a way that, in the nature of
things, could lead to one end only; and
I am sure that the boy knew how 1 felt.
Il don't mean that he figured it all
out as exactly as l have tried to tell
it to you, but he certainly did know in
a general sort of way He started
back with scared sort of look, as
though he thought I might get after
him, after all; but when he realized that
was just soft-hearted and sorry, and
wasn't going to do anything about 1t,
why, though 1 stood and gazed at him
for moment. he after his first momen-
tary look of shamefacedness and alarm,
ignored me completely, and simply went
on offering his papers to the passersoy
as though 1 had never existed
HE had had good shaking up from
his failure with me and my discovery
of him. and what with his wonder after
that about how it was going to come
out; but he was ratified for moment
only He was a novice but he was
coming on. The moral of all this is
that while the great bulk of the news
boys are Independent, self-reliant. cap
able little chaps. who are strictly on the
level. there are among them, more's
the pity, some who will pick a pocket
if they get a chance; and when you
meet q boy who insists upon working
his papers up close against you. over
your outside change pocket. why of
him you want to fight shy. New York
Sun.