The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-18
From the London Standard.


 "HE ingenuity of two thieves who
 few evenings ago nearly succeeded
 in abstracting a valuable tie pin from the cravat of a man sitting be- tween them in a music hall by means of an almost invisible horsehair stretching from the right hand of one thief to the left hand of his accomplice. caused a rep resentative yesterday to make some in- quiries among plain clothes policemen and detectives as to the methods of pick pockets and thieves.
 The horsehair trick, it would seem, Is more common than might be generally supposed It can be worked with ad- vantage in a crowd, and, if the operation is skilfully performed, premature discov- cry does not as a rule involve suspicion falling upon the thieves. The usual prac- tice is for the operators to place them selves one on each side of their intended victim, while the horsehair, stretched between them, passes right across the vic- tim's chest The thieves, by simultan- eouly raising their hands, under pretense of putting their pipes or cigarettes into their mouths, then contrive by pulling the horsehair taut gradually to lift the vlc- tim's tie pin or other similarly attached ornament from it's place. If It falls to the ground unnoticed the thieves take the earliest opportunity of securing it, or by skilful manipulation of the horsehair l,a da to slide down the almost invisible line right into the hand of one of the confederates.
 Tie pins, of course, owing to the ease with which they are detached, are fav- orite objective with many petty thieves of both sexes, and great many of them are stolen by means of the old and well worn trick of the 'tumbling lady. Tho well dressed gentleman walking along the pavement notices that lady crossing his path suddenly stumbles and lurches forward. Instinctively he throwns open h,s arms to catch her, and for moment she rests upon his breast. The next, with a confused murmur of apology ana thanks she is gone, and it Is only some time afterward that the gallant rescuer discovers that his tie pin is also gone, or perhaps his watch.
 The ideal environment for the oper- ations of the pickpocket on the lookout for watches and pocket wallets IS, nat urally. a crowd. and where crowd does not exist the expert thief knows several ways of creating one. One of the sim n,est methods is based upon curious psychological fact of human curiosity.
 he hV who cares to make the experiment. A man walking along well frequented thoroughfare will suddenly come to a halt and gaze steadfastly at something in the air. He may be minutely observ- ing the actions of a man cleaning win dow in a building on the opposite side of the road or he may be merely staring intently at a quite ordinary chimney pot. But. whatever 1t is he is staring at, If he only stares long enough a second person will inevitably come along and also stop and stare. They will be joined by an- other, and yet another. until finally there Is a large group of people all gazing in- tently in the same direction without any of them having an idea what they are looking for. In the meantime the orig inal ''gazer' has quietly disappeared ana so, in all probability, have some or the belongings of the other curious ones.
 Some methods of crowd collecting, how ever. are much more elaborate. Some wears ago a group of three pierrots-two men and a woman-were very familiar in the streets of the outer circle of London. Their performance was undoubtedly something above the average, and they reaped golden harvest from the opera lions of quietly clad, gentlemanly look ing individual who was regularly among their audiences. Then there is the ragged little urchin who creates consternation and excitement among dense crowd of seaside visitors by falling off the pier into the water. The ragamuffin. as a rule. can swim like fish, and, In any case, is not in the slightest danger; but the longer he can keep up a realistic resemblance of drowning the longer hia