The San Francisco call., 1904-08-13
MEN anamMAaTERO IN
THE FOR9 he WORLD

short time ago effected a clever cap
ture in this way. He noticed a man.
pipe in mouth, walking up and down
street in the West End of London
end continually striking matches TO
light his pipe. Strange,to say, how
ever, no smoke emanated from the
pipe, and, thinking something was
wrong, the detective concealed himself
and awaited developments. few
! minutes later the man struck another
match, and in a trice a boy about II
years old came out from the front
door of an unoccupied house, bearing
on his shoulders a sack with sticks OF
wood protruding from the end.
The detective "smelt a rat and at
once detained the lad, in whose sack,
. under the wood, was found over $4,000
worth of jewels. The country squire"
endesvOred TO make his escape and
the boy protested that he had never
seen him, but it was afterward dis
covered that the bucolic gentleman
was = well-known ticket-of-leave man.
As a general rule old penal servi-
tude men are the founders of thieves
schools Realizing that as they are
too we'll known TO the police, their
chances Of continuing a felonious
career in q successful manner are very
slight, they have perforce TO procure
understudies.
Accordingly. by enlarging on the
profits accruing from burglaries and
pocizet-picking, they have little diff
Guilty in getting hold of boys with evil
prOpensities. Weeks and weeks are
ha~
in their new trade. The initial les
sons are generally devoted to the art
OF picking pockets
Ladies dresses, when the pocket Is
made al the back of the skirt, offer
little difficulty, but before the pupils
are allowed to try their hand in
earnest they have (jGst as in the days
of Fagin. the Jew) to satisfy their
teachers lat home" and experiments
are first of all made on female accom-
plices. who decide whether the bud
ding pickpOcket is sufficiently pro-
ficient to launch out in public life. 3"
Tie pins, said a detective to the
writer, are generally removed in this
way: Working in pairs. the thieves
wait their opportunity, and in busy
thOrOUghfare they pretend to say
good-by few PAGES in front of their
quarry" AS he approaches one ac-
complice walks away, but before he
has gone far turns round and hands
his friend paper or something Of the
kind, at the same time stretching
across the owner of the pin, apologize
ing the while for being so impolite as
TO do so. 1t is while stretching across
that the pin is removed, as the object
handed is held between the first and
second fingers, while the tie pin is
removed with Nhe third and fourth
fingers.
Only short time ago a policeman
actually saw man steal a tie pin;
caught in the act, the thief. loudly
protesting his innocence, struggled
with the constable, but was taken in
charge and searched. To the police
mans surprise nothing was found on
him, and he was ultimately released.
After the days work the policeman
changed his ''mufti'' and to his sur
prise found the pin, the cause of all
the trouble, in his own pocket. The
thief had placed 1t there during the
struggle; his days of liberty were,
however, numbered, for few weeks
later he was arrested for burglary and
in the course of his trial he confessed
that since he was eleven years old he
had been pupil of q well-known
ticket-of-leave man.-London Daily
Mail.