The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-02-24
CUNNING WAYS OF
 THE WILLY CROOK Thieves Tricks By Which They
 Rob Foreigners
MAN OF MANY LANGUAGES
Enelshman Who Makes Quick Change of Baggaee-All Kinds of Swim ders Found In Paris.
 Bad Money Too.

Paris Correspondence of the London Ex-
 press
 When the summer comes around it is not only the Paris shopkeepers and the Paris restaurant and hotel owners who rub their hands and welcome foreigners to Paris. The Paris thief is ready for them, and his tricks are practically lim- itless.
 Curiously enough, the modern brigand of the French capital, whose prey is the foreigner or the provincial, is compara- lively rarely a Parisian himself, but he has lived some time in the gay city and he knows it's bypaths and it's ways.
 The simplest kind of him is the we'll dressed Englishman who stands about the platform waiting for a train. The foreigner has failed to get a porter He puts his luggage down while he is look ing for his ticket. and the thief puts his luggage near it. Then he makes q mis- take. And if there Is any resemblance between the two bags the foreigner on arrival at his hotel finds that some stones wrapped in old newspapers are all that he has brought with him by way of a change for the night.
 In the hotel itself-one of those huge caravansaries where the guests are merely numbers and the servants do not even know them by sight-the unsophis- ticated foreigner will very likely meet a well-dressed and courteous man on his way up or down stairs, in the lift or in the smoking room.
 The well-dressed man talks several lan- guages, knows Paris well, and suits his conversation to the character of the vic- tim He may find out the number of his room and sack it. He may take him to the theatre, show him Paris afterward, drug him, and empty his pockets first and his room during the evening. Or he may take him to the races, and rob him expeditiously there.
 A Neat Theft.
 Rather a neat theft occurred in this way on the day of the Grand PriX. An Englshman, we'll known in society in London, had been in Paris for a few days, and at his hotel had formed a slight acquaintance with a stranger. He met him at the race course, where the Englshman was with some friends. They ldlkeQ dDOuL lle races, anu lIe EItuCH- man gave the party tip and offered to put their money on for them. We shall never see our 85 again, v , said one of the party, who did not trust the stranger. But when the race had been won he appeared with their win nlngs and distributed them. Just before the Grand Prix he asked his hotel ac- quaintances to back the English horse for him.
 ''I only want to put on a hundred 1 francs" he said. But he could find noth- 1 ing smaller than a 1000 franc note. It
 is a nuisance" said he. 'I want to get back to Paris without waiting for the race. And, after all, l don't know you 1 do I, to the tune of G4?''
 The Englisman laughed and gave him 90O francs change. They never saw hin again. and both the 1000 franc note and the smaller notes in which he had pac them their former winnings proved to bC sham ones.
 But the cleverest swindle of all ol which I have heard this season was worked by an Englishman. well lknowr l theatrical manager of my acquaintance on q visit to Paris, was atonshed to set