The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-11-18

swindlers, kleptomaniacs, ard similar
classes, who, like the members Of
other occupations III Japan, are Or
ganized into guilds. They apportion
the cities among their members under
the direction of masters of the
trade" most of whom are engaged in
honest business. Some Of them are
keepers Of low drinking places, tea
houses, and employ lent. agencies. In
Toxic, for example, there arc more
than 100 "suri" known to the police
as members of the guild, of whom
about percent are women and girls,
and they have 20 masters who serve
as fences" for the disposition OF the
stolen property. When member OF
the guild is arrested and thrown into
prison his master" provides him with
food, blankets, and other comforts, and
employs a lawyer and witnesses to help
him out of the scrape.
The "surl" are divided into three
classes, according to the special lines
they pursue One class includes or
binary sneakthieves who plumber shops
and residences, snatch purses and
packages from careless people, get
their fingers into the tills and the
market women, and do their work in
the open daylight. The second class
includes pickpCckets, who are exceed
ingly skilful, because the Japanese,
who wear the old-fashioned dress, car
ry their valuables in the sleeves and
girdles of their kimonos, from which
it is more difficult to extract a purse
than from the pocket Of an ordinary
European garment. The third class
includes burglars and highway rob
bors, who break into houses and hold
up people upon the streets.
Last year. in all Japan, thore were
255, 1893 cases of stealing of all forms,
from grand burglary down to petit lar
ceny, and that was the smallest num-
Der reported for many years, the max
imum having been reached in 1898,
when 263, 1852 cases Of theft of all
classes were reported. But even that
total is very small compared with the
population OF Japan. OF these 1049
cases were attended with violence;
32,457 were thefts from the person of
the victim. and 1885, 1867 were thefts
from houses and shops.
There is underground communica-
ton between the police of Toxic and
other cities and the masters of the
''suri," from which both derive advan-
tages. The police are often willing
to overlook the pecadillos of small Of
tenders, provided the 'suri" will as
sist them in recovering valuable prop
erty and in the detection of serious
crimes, and | am told that in many
cases .sneakthieves have proved useful
in promoting the ends of justice. The
members Of the guild, also, are very
jealous Of their prerogatives, and when
a thief who belongs in one ward of
the city peaches upon the reserves or
another; when an ordinary member
of the guild ueglects his obligations
to the MASTER when a professional
sharper from another city changes his
base Of operations, or a sWindler from
the country comes down TO work q
town the police can always count upon
information and clews from the jeal-
Gus suri."
There was formerly a beggars' guild,
also, and chief or oyakata, as they
called him, regulated their affairs, al
lotted locations to the various men,
bers. and received percentage OF
their collections. But the beggars'
guild has been abolished. Begging is
prohibited throughout Japan, and the
law is strictly enforced, except against
a few cripples and infirm old crones,
whom you will find about the temples.
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