ST AC A DE (pi. § AS Rm- .: L> acttVi: nn- 5^^ Drnia lal Y SHA y FiSWi. bRt'OO Price, Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN / /^i^>u4-C^^^i^f KXAMIM.K. uy-E^RX.y^ im^RAVITX^ iio pao^K ^'6 I do., Publ..l.'.l l.N- TJ^uMV|.u.. CHoll.on.l'.j SECOND EDITION. THE LONDON GUIDE, AND STRANGER'S SAFEGUARD AGAINST THE THAT ABOUND WITHIN THE BILLS OF MORTALITY ; FORMING A PICTURE OF LONDON, AS REGARDS ACTIVE LIFE, COLLECTED FROM THE VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS Of WILLIAM PERRY, AND OTHERS. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A GLOSSARY OF CANT TERMS. BY A GENTLEMAN, WHO HAS MADE THE POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS, AN OBJECT or ENQUIRY TWENTY-TWO YEARS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. BUMPUS, 6, HOLBORN BAR-J. W. SHAUPE, KING STREET ; T. HUGHES, T. FISHER, J. CRANWELT. , J. RIELL^, LIVERPOOL J AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS 1819. Price 3a'. Qd. bound in red^ W. Flint, Printer, Old Bailey, LonduJ*. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Intro orcTiON iv. Vocabulary x. I. Out Door Delinquencies : Inn Yards and Coaches 1. Hangers on 8. Hackney men 10, Smashing- 13. Of Walking the Streets 14. Picking Pockets 17. Crowds 18. Gangs 19. Resorts 20. Stagging21. Manners 23. Violence 27. Women 28. Boys 31. Of Hustling 32. Footpads 34. Women ib. Tripping up 35. Falling down 37. Running 42. Call 44. Of Highwaymen 46. Arms 48. II. Inn Door Tricks : Sharpers 48. Wagering Kiddies 49. Cards 53. Low Games 54. High Games 60. Greeks and Legs 61. Do's 62. Plucking 64. Money-Droppers 69. Ring-Droppeis 71, Kidnappers, False Accusers, Trappers and Crimps 7P. Subornation 77. Pretended Officers 78. Of Searching 80. Sinnggling 82. Informers 83. Smuggled Articles 86 Piivate Stills 88. Duffers 91. Jobbers 95. Barkers 98. Mock Auc- tions 99. III. MiscELLANEOcs Offences. In poiambniating the Streets i02, Stnll Keepers 104, Clutiies S!.<,ps 105. Street Pilferers 105. Prowlers 108. 0-. Igeis 110. Prostitutes 114. Wiles 116. fags 120. Fancy men 121. B>.nTonl22. Bn!lyl26. Fo.oe 127 Midnight Beggars 130. Box Lobby 136. Lnie 137. Beggars 140. Bold ones 141. Sneaks 142. Excursion 144. IV. Holse-Breakers 146. Prevfntives 148. Arms 149. Jack 52. Muiders 155. Defence i58. Shop- windows 160. Sfrop-LiFFERS 162. Women 164. Heavy Goods 167. Sma.^iie.js i72. Forgeries !74. V. Minor Cheats 174. Frfifuders to Literature 175, Muck Parsons "76. Prete. dcd Doctors 179 Lawyers 181. Obtaining money !85. Cstemiongers 189. Registcj Of- fices 190. Lotteries and Goes 193. Game Publicans '9Q, Brewer and Distiller 2U0. Sycophants 2 3. Spongers 507. Swindlers 209. Reputation 2.2. Banks 2.7. Booeivers 223. VI, Of Conspirators and Informers 227, A 2 INTRODUCTION. When a stranger first arrives in this overgro^v^l city, and finds, upon alighting at the inn, that he has still some miles perhaps to go before he can see his fi-iends, he is naturally anxious for advice how to reach them in safety, with his luggage. But, if this be the case with those who Jiave got friends, what is the dread of such as have a home to seek, business to look after, or a place of service to obtain, without a friend to guide their steps, or a candid person to warn them of their danger ; to tell them of ^ the precipices, pit falls, and moral turpitude, of a large proportion of the population of this great metropolis ? To supply the place of a living friend, and in some cases to perform the necessary part of one, by directing the stranger in the choice of companions, and what characters he should avoid, I have com[)iled these sheets ; in which will be found " all 1 know about the matter," and all I could 'Mearn out" by "fine-draw- ii)g" of others. In this work I have obtained the assist- Hnce of an author by profession, who will new- vvrite it mostly all over. The gentleman will put all of it in order, fit to be read, and add a word or two, or a line or two, here and there, when I am out. This is but fan- and proper, considering as I am not much used to the pen, I might make " a pretty kettle of fish of it;" so, "^I cares not, not I," says I to the gentleman as employs us both, '^ its all one to me, though he should strike out every word ; for, as for me, as I mean to out ivith it all, he may put it dowm in what lingo he likes." This is all I shall say " of my own accord,'' seeing I am willing to make amends for my past life, by disclosing such secrets as never were made public before, not upon paper; and I thought I would have a few words of my own put down in genuine, at the beginning, without any of his '^making or meddling." So, as I have promised and mean to leave off the calling, and " live comfortable" upon the profitr: of this here book, I have just put an end to it by grabbing three or four books* from the gentleman, my employer, which I have now got under my great coat, as I mean to borrow a word or two, and a few hints as I go on, as is usual in book-making. Although one of them authors pretends to be up to * 1. Report of the house of coinmoiis on the police ; 2. A trpatise on the police of the metropolis 5 3, King's Frauds of London ; 4. Sir John Fielding's tracts ; 5. New Monthly Magazine, 1st June, 1817, and 0-ct, Nov, Dec. ajid Jaa. following-. A 3 a great deal, yet he does not know more about the matter than one of us, nor half so much as myself of some things. He had his information from an interest- ed, and therefore a polluted, source, — the officers. When he says, " there are twenty thousand persons of both sexes, who get up in the morning without knoAving whereabout they shall sleep at night," he makes a decent good round numbered guess, as applied to one part of the year, but not so as to another, which shows want of discrimination. But what of the fact } Does he propose a remedy.'* If he had pomted out the means of sheltering them at night, he would haA'e been more beneficially employed ; as the statement now stands his readers are left to conclude, " that those twenty thousand houseless wretches are upon the look out for what they can appropriate to themselves." Agi^eed, as to this inference ; and I can tell him, there are an equal number (morej who \\ve in comparative affluence, who are equally upon the alert m actual robbery, to say nothing of mere cheats, mace-coves, and such like." How to steer clear of and to detect these, and a multitude of others, who are always keeping a sharp- look out to entrap the property of the honest part of the community, to lake hi and cheat the unwary, — to rob and pcrha})s murder the unprotected, and to make a prey of the unsuspecting, — are the motives for this publication. As the hiformation it contains is faithful and genuine, it cannot fail to be highly useful to the perambulator and resident Inhabitant, valuable as a guide to the occasional visitant, and entertaining to aH descriptions of readers. As will be seen in the title page, more persons than one have been employed in putting these sheets into their present form ; which will account for, and be the apology of a certain discrepancy of style observable in most of the pages ; for it was thought better to incur this charge, than to fritter away the pithy sense of the author by grinding it down to the forms ?aid rules of a stubborn rhetoric. The terms of art are explained in the vocabulary; to which the reader may have recourse whenever he is under any difficulty. Among them will be found, also, the English rendering of foreign phrases, which have been retained in the body of the work only because they make part of the Jlash as used by such topping ones as Tom Furby, the young ruffian. Bob Holloway, and such like old ones who knew well how to astonish the natives with scraps of Latin, &c. and who are imitated or copied by great numbers of lads upon every kind of lay. Women street walkers of the better sort affect to talk French upon all occasions, as a means of showing tlieir breeding. Tom's Liverpool widow is supposed to have introduced this species of flummery, and no doubt she had it from him. In avowdng the sources whence we have derived our information, we disclaim any intention of 'peaching those we have Jine-draivn, as v/ell as of having used il- legal means of coming at the secrets here disclosed . Were it not for such imputation, we could adduce posi- vm tive proofs of our accuracy and intimate knowledge of the subjects treated as would convince the most in- credulous reader ; and as for materials we have such a superabundance as would till another volume, — in- telligence flowing from a hundred quarters, but which is postponed for the present, * Suffice it to say, that some of us have had communications, more or less, with Conkey Beau, Tit Shiels, Bill Soames, Kelting Bight, Hoppy Cole, ]\Ir. Pullen, — little Roberts, Old Smith, Mr. B. Jack Pettit, Bill Colebrook, and almost every living soul mentioned in these pages, at one time or other, or under one garb or another. N. B. The judicious reader will see, that by our exposing thus accurately the modes of perpetrating crime, those of prevention must become apparent. In revishig these pages as they went to press, we passed over several smaller errors, which fastidious people may say ought to have been amended, from the sentiment that " one may as well be right as wrong." This,however, is not our feeling: we discover our greatest errors to have been these, 1. Spelling a man's name amiss; 2. Attributing the adventure of one man * Shortly will he published, of the same size as this volume, A Companion to tlie Guide ; or tlie Complete London Tradesiiifrn ; showiuf^ wliat are the means made use of by honourable men, in conduclino- theirbusiness, trade, or com- merce : and also what are the knaveries practised upon upright tradesmen, by the over-keen and disreputable amontr tlaemsclves. Bj the Editor of " the Guide." . to another ; and 3. Mistaking the strength and quality of some liquor, which we never tasted. If notiiing more important than these occur, we shall congratulate ourselves upon having attained a degree of perfection we by no means hoped for in the earlier stages of our labours : shoidd such have crept in, however, we be^ the favour of candid readers to point them out upou paper, directed to W. Perry, left at No. 6, Holbom J3arrs. Erratum : Pag-e 115, Hu€'6, for dark xeiSi^dank, VOCABULARY, lilexo-vp^ ail exposure. BoU^ to start oit". Boi.e, to run away ^^ith. Bowled out, discovered. Bon Ton, hig-li life woiiien. Botanical Excursion, Botany Bay, ag. Canister, the )iead. Carney, softening talk, common in Ireland. Cest toute autre chose, French, quite a difl'erentsort of thing. Cove, a man : thus. Mace Cove, Ding Cove, are 1. a cheating fellow; 2. a lohbing fellow. Cot-ess, female cheat, bawdy-house keeper, old trull. Cull, the dupe of prostitutes. Dead Nail, one who cheats, preserving* appearances. Ding, to carry ofi' hastily. See Cove. Dive, to enter tlie pocket. Dodge, to follow at a distance. Down, to be knowing- of a fact. Drag, cart, or heavy coach. Diaw, an entrapping ([uestion : to pick a pocket. Dro/^i, glasses J gin generally. Felo-de-se, Latin. Self murderer. Flash, to be knowing to brng. Flashman, preferred man. Fih, to batter thf bend. Finf!raii\ to get at a s^erret. Fence, or Hedge, receivers (/f stolen goods. Flfsh market,-^ resort of bad girls. Foreign Pa?7.«, transportation generally. Floor, to knock down. VOCABULARY. Xi ^di'iTiiavfry^ odd mixture, revelry; fi'om GalUmatia pro- bably : see Amelia, I'. 7. ch. 4. Klame, Terb, to vviak at or encourag-e theft. <3oA, the month. Grab, to snatch up. Gumption, knowing-ness. Hujn-Gumption, a pretending to the same. Gusto, Italian, taste, feeling-. JIad-Up, to be, police examination. Harridan, worn out strumpet. Havidge, collection of bad characters' dwellings. Mempen Habeas, a halter. Hygeia, Greek for health. Iter/iy hint or sly notice. Kedge, to liv€ upoB precarious means. I^ag, transportation. ia^, dishonest course of life. JLet In, at gambling, a betraying-. Massacree, vulg-ar for massacre, murder. Mealy-Mouthed, backwardness of speech. Mizzle (to) to g-et away slily. Natives, silly people. Nutty, amatory. Outre Cela, French, beyond the mark or pitch 3 Pron. " outray slang-." Opaque, dull, stupid, senseless. Open, [to) scold loudly. Pads, street robbers. Patter, examination before magistrates, &c. Penchant, French, love, attachment. Plant, clieatery, planned before hand. Pound [to) to lay pounds in a wager. Put upy to acquaint thieves what robbery to undertake. Xil VUCABOLARy. Header, a pocket book. Roost, bed. Sanctum Sanctorum, I,atii), inner or sacred place. Scamps., raoo-ed street thieves. Seedy, shabby dress. No money. Slang, covert hmg-uage of thieves. Snuffy, drunk isli. Snoozing Ken, a sleeping- house. Spar, fighting demonstrated. Spree, fun. Spill (to) to betray. Stag (to) to look hiird at; as slags or deers do on all intruders. Szveet, kind, concihiting-. Take In, a cheat. Take it In, to swallow a lie. Thing, (a 1 a robbery. The Things, stolen articles. Toggery, clothing. Touting, eyeing- the women, generally. Town, London. Upon the Town, street walkers, men or women. Trade, (the) smuggling. Transmogrify, to change. Turned I//;, ruined. To have Turnips (tnrn-nps) a refusal or denial. Twig (to) to eye one jiarliculurly. Vestal, ironical for an incontinent person. Verburn Sat. Latin, means — " u word to iho wise is euoiigh/" IVhopj a blow or sl-^p. THE LONDON GUIDE, ^c. cVc. S^'c, INN YARDS AND COACHES. Most people come up to town by coaches and waggons, a few on foot, and fewer still by water; therefore the inns at which the former put up, are places of especial resort for thieves and cheats of a better sort. The little public houses on the outskirts, as well as those along shore, are fre- quented by a very ordinary and more desperate set. All are upon the sharp look-out for dupes ; the innocent, the artless, and the unwary, are alike their prey. The very sight of a country- man sharpens their appetite, especially if he brings his wife with him, because she embar- rasses his movements. I cannot then compare B "J. INN YARDS AND COACHES — SMASHING. the expression of their countenances to any thing so like, as that of a sportsman when he sees a covey of partridges rise from the stubble. — Sometimes the likeness is greater, when two sharp- ers, like two sportsmen, pursuing the same game, meet unexpectedly : *' What are you after ?'* demands one, " Catching of flats," is the reply ; and they cordially join in hunting down their prey. Smashing is the first depredation to which strangers are exposed, upon setting foot in Lon- don, and consists in passing bad money in change, or pretending you yourself have paid such base coin. Without particularising any one descrip- tion of characters at the inns, who would, be more likely than another to practise this species of cheatery, I must be allowed to say, they are all liable — Coachmen, guards, clerks, and waiters — to be themselves imi)osed upon, and although woi guilty^ are nevertheless likely to pass bad money. The original evil arises with fellows who hang about the iini yards, pretending to make themselves vsefiiJ, or selling and buying some article or other ; some of these we shall have oc- casion to say a word or two about, under the title of " Jobbers," and others called " DuF- roRs or BuFFORs." HANGERS-ON AT INNS. 3 Thus, while we ai-e yet writhig, it is placed upon record, that the hangers-on^ or helpers, at the great public inns, are engaged in the most dangerous species of cheatery ; one of those w^e- ful persons, at the Swan with Two Necks, Lad- lane, was brought to Hatton Garden office, Ja- nuary 28, 1818, charged with passing bad notes, &c. *' He had been in the habit, ^oxfour years before, of procuring customers to go by their coaches, for which he received a pecuniary re- ward," said the clerk at that inn : to this infor- mation Mr. John Lees, inspector of bank notes at the Bank of England, stated to the magistrates, " that there was scarcely a coach-office in town but forged notes (similar to that now produced from the Swan J had been passed at, and after- wards brought into the bank." About a year before this, a " jobber," one George Meacock, who " hung about'' the Queen's Head, corner of St. John's Street, for years, under the appearance of a general dealer and smuggler, and was supposed to be rich, since he lived com- fortably, — was hanged for the same offence. He was always furnished with good smooth whites ; which, according to the time of day^ was the flash for bad shillings, as screens is for forged . notes of the Bank of England. B.2 4 BAD MONEY — PLENTY AT INNS. The name of the first-mentioned culprit is James Law, quite a youth, who will,- probably^ receive the reward of his early crimes about the time of the appearance of this publication. How can tlie honester part of th9se who are engaged about inn yards avoid coming in contact, and partaking in the corruption, while they are daily in the habit ol' seeing so many others ac- tively employed in such nefarious transactions, as the passing bad money, or the representations of moiiey ? To what extent it is carried, with such means at their disposal, remains to be gues- sed at, since there is no probability of making a calculation. As bad silver is always stirring in great abu.idance at the inns, so upon the road ; those of the drivers who have been contaminated, seldom give change without tendering base money, more or less : it happens at times that they give nothiug but bad, so that the cheat is not discoverable upon comparison. Not only must the New comer be upon his guard against bad-money, but must be as much prepared to meet the less refined depredator who would purloin his boxes and other baggage. As soon as a coach enters an inn yard, it is followed or met by persons, who either actually expect friends by it, or pretend they do ; to« ROBBERIES IN INN YARDS— BY WHOM. 5 gether with those idle fellows who constantly haug about coach yards, without other visible means of livelihood than what they can pick up, and are therefore said to be " upon the hedge.'' But inn yards are nothing like so much infested as they were twenty years ago, because of the officers, who take away the offenders, " when they are wanted," but not until then, as it would not be worth their while. A complete clearance might be made, but the men not having done any thing capital^ that is to say, reward- able by statute, the offi( ers do not choose to in- terrupt them, and they accordingly go on nib- bling, until something gi'eat turns up, — and then justice interferes. Tl.e plan is, when the things lie about pro- miscuously, for the thief to become offii ious, as if willing to be serviceable ; he looks about in a simple manner, asks an unmeaning question of one or other of the passengers, as if they were well known to each other; and then turning about with a smile, he takes up some box or bundle which he pretends to carry tovi'ards the house, or to the scales (as the case may be) where the baggage ought to go, still keeping near to. or talking with the same passenger as before. Mean- while, having taken a view of all being dear out b;3 6 PRACTICES OF COACHMEN AND GUARDS. ofsi^ht, he bolts off in quick time; next takes to his heels, and making a double turn or two round the corners, he eludes pursuit, much less detection. Coachmen and guards, belonging to the mails and stage coaches, are mostly honest men, as the times go ; many of them are of high character, and somebecoaie proprietors, and defy the world. But the practices of " shouldering" passengers, on their own account — doing the natives out of articles of life, which they bring to town to dis- pose of — the dealing in contraband goods, and a number of other out-of-the-way methods, — to say nothing of the wish to appear over-cunning, — bring ihem to ** take care of things," for which there is no immediate owner. The feelings once blunted by one improper pursuit, leave their owner open to the fascinations of another, till at length the quality of the crime is no longer an object of soliciiude. This remark is ujore pointedly applicable to short stage and hackney coachmen ; the latter of whom are mostly " turned-off characters" — a few are *' returned lags;" of course neither the one or the other are to be trusted out of sight, — nor yet scarcely in your sight. If gloves, a handkerchief, a shawl, or other HACKNEY COACHMEN — STAGE COACHES. 7 small article be left iii the coach, it may be known by Jam's taking off his hat and placing it in the coach; theu holding the door tight behind him, he deposits thearticleybwHc/ in the poll of his hat^ which he puts on his head. N. B. Whatever coachman mancenvres the door of, his coach, he is at no good : the hackney man keeps Ids open to prevent his number from ob- truding itself upon your notice ; the stage- coachmaii keeiis his tight against his back, the better to conceal what he is at. The landlord of the tap, or watering house, the next barber's shop, or cobbler's stall, are the places to enquire what is become of the things, generally speaking. At every inn yard there are a kind of " hangers on," as we mentioned higher up, who ar© men of the worst character, since they affect an in- tegrity they do not possess, and therefore are sometimes entrusted when they ought not to be. They are vastly familiar with the people really employed ; they run of errands, and carry mes- sages; and if there is a thing to be dune upon the sly, they get off with impunity, because the per- son whose immediate business it should be to de- tect him, is induced to wink at, in hopes of shar- ing the depredation. Sometimes they hang about the tap-room for entire days, to hand off what 8 HANGERS-ON — THE SIGNALS — BY WHOM. may come to hand (by the coaches) either of contraband or of stolen property ; at other times they are employed to stand at some given place — as the corner of an avenue, or under the gate- waj^ to catch hold of what may be thrown down to them frond the coaches, with a view either to cheat the proprietors, the revenue, or the right owners. See more on this subject under the head of *' wagering kiddies," or gamblers of the lower sort. Most guards have a particular tune upon their horns for every different species of service, known onl}'^ to each his own particular dependant, which gives a wonderful facility to their manoeuvres. I have sat down with the landlord of a tap-room, who, without looking out, would remark, " here comes i^uch-a-one ;" " Jemmy is in first," and the like notice, showing his great familiarity with the tunes : and then again " run out and pick up *s basket ;" or " here's a pig coming this time." In this manner giving facility to the concealmfmt and disposal of ill-gotten articles of life. In the year 1815, the G mail brought up one hundred and twenty pieces of India hand- kerchiefs wcc'kly — forty in a bundle. No one could imagine how such an article should come SMUGGLING PER MAIL — OF SHOULDERING. 9 from that place; nor is it our business or inclina- tion to enquire how they got there. It was plea- sant to see the hani^ers-on scamper away with the square bundle of a morning ; sometimes from one point, sometimes from another, taking care not to make their deposit at the same place too often. From all this, the reader must be aware, that persons so employed, are not trustworthy with his luggage, and that he would do well to see after it witn his own eyes ; for if he permit one of the officious hangers-on to meddle with it, no op- portunity will slip by unimproved, even though the coachman and guard are standing near. These are not a check sufficiently strong upon his dis- honesty, since he is himself duicn to so many ef their tricks — such as " shouUleriag," and the like, that they dare not interfere in his " nib- bling." Shouldering^ among coachmen, is that species of cheating in which they take the fares and pocket them, generally of such passengers as they overtake on the road, or who come ac-oss the country ; but it not unfrequently happens that they take passengers the whole line of their run, €ven when the proprietors scarcely have one in- side for themselves. A curious story of this na- 10 HACKNEY COACHMEN. ture is told by an old man in Lad Lane, that when he and a certain great man there, \tere up- on the same coach, not one of six inside passen- gers were down upon the way-bill ; and, that he liaving proposed to give their employers at least one of them, the great man threatened to kick him for this puling conduct, and did actually collar him; and applied to him the words — "fool, rascal, and b thief." Thus it is, the worst spoke in the wheel generally cries out the first. — They " shouldered''' the whole six ! Those who travel much by stage coaches, should always take care to see themselves booked, as in case of accident, they cannot recover da- mages against the proprietors without it. Every one knows (and their employers know it) that hackney coachmen invariably share with their masters in large proportions. Those often get good prizes left in their coaches, by people who carelessly leave their boxes or parcels be- hind, in the hurry to meet their friends ; or what is more general, those who take out their papers, money, pocket-book, &c. to look over in a ' hackney^ coach, in order, as they thiuk, to save time, too often leave some part behind them ; or, by the motion of the coach get it jostled out ef their hands. At no time has a hackney man been HOW TO TREAT THEM. 11 known to restore to its rightful owner such things as may have been so left, at the earliest opportu- nity, nor unless a handsome reward is offered. By the way, the number of a hackney coach should be always noted the moment it is called (or ordered) ; and in so '* calling" them, as well as every word that is said to the coachman, a certain air of command or authority should be kept up. This holds them to their tethers ; tells them they have no green-horn to deal with, and deters them from extorting too much for the fare. If a person, meekly or hesitatingly, gives his or- ders, the coachman and attendant icaterman pass the word " Johnny Raw ;" or if it be a lady, they protract the sound of " Ma'am" to her; — thus, " yes M-a-a-m" and '* no M-a-a-a-m." When a coach is called from the stand, the waterman opens the door as it draws near you, in order to prevent the number, which hangs on it, from obtruding itself on your sight : at setting down, the coachman, with the same view, keeps open the door whilst he gets paid, especially if there be a dispute ; or, if he twigs something left behind, he slaps the steps or the door, so as to make the horses move on a step or two ; he then halloos at them with who-o-o ; swears a good peal of oaths at them, to intimidate his cus- 12 THEIR PRACTICES, AND INSULTS. tomers, and then resumes the dispute, if con- venient. li" a hackney coachman be a smasher, or dealer in bad silver, he endeavours to set down his fares (by night) in a dark place, if possible, in total disre^ard of your orders, generally quarrels with his horses, should he be obliged to take them by the heads, — which quarrel is sometimes meant for his customers. He most frequently "throws off," or talks to his horses of " the precious good looking load they have been " dragging :" »* no great shakes; I'll bet a pound of my own mow^y,'* he will say, while making the animals stand ; and if you supervent his attempts at smashing, he mounts his box, with the observation — " You knows about as much as /do, mastee ;'* but if you reply sharply, rebuking his impertinence, he does not hesitate to charge you with crime, by inuendo, as ** Vhere did you come from? I vonder !" making a motion as if you had come from a prison; and adding, "you'll soon be bowled outy I'll be bound." Such is a fair sample of tiie conduct of the far greater number of hackney coachmen. Smashing is managed thus — a bad shilling or two, or a half-crown, is placed in the left hand between the lingers, and the hand is then half- THEY SMASH — AND HOVr, l3 closed upon them; which operation is performed while lie tugs at the coach door to let you out. — (Those w^ho smash under other circumstances have more leisure to prepare themselves). Should " the fare" want change for a pound note, the result is no longer doubtful : three or four s'riil- lings, at least, " come to his share." But the chiefest ingenuity is, to persuade you that you yourself have tendered bad money to poor Jarvis ; who, after turning your money over and over, and perhaps taking a trial upon the stones, de- clares they ring bad, and you must change them for good ones. If you appear tolerably " ^oft,^ and will " stand it," he perhaps refuses these also, after having *' rung the changes''' once more. This is called " a double do ;" and then, lest the transaction may have been " stagged" by some irap€:rtinent by-stander, or a trap, he mounts his box, and drives away with the utmost precipitancy. N. R. Whe.'never a hackney coachman thus drives -off in a great hurry, rely upon it some- thing is the uiatter ; in which case, he does not pull up at the next coach stand, but drives past it, " standiag for no repairs." Every one should be apprized, the moment they arrive in town, or rather btfore they enter it, c 14 WALKING THE STREETS— HOW CESt DONE. of the absolute necessitj' there is of taking the number of a hackney coach as soon as it is called. Servants ought to have this salutary precaution impressed on their minds ; as also, that as soon as any company comes to the door of their masters in a hackney coach, they should set down in their memories, if not in chalk or in ink, what number it bears. If a reward were paid for such vigilance, when any thing has been recovered by that means, it would add to the stimulus, and have an increasin"; o-ood effect. AYALKING THE STREETS, As well as riding is effected more securely by affecting an ease or knowingness, which deters imposition in a great degree. We spoke higher up of assuming an air of authority in giving orders to ha<:kney coachmen ; no less serviceable is it to appear like a thorough bred ceckney in your gait and manner, by placing tbe hat a little awry, and with an unconcerned stare, penetrating the wily countenances of the rotiucs;, you attain one more chance, at least, of escaping the snares that are always laid to entrap the countryman or new comer : these latter are easily ri'cognised by their provincial gait, dialect, and! cut of llie cloth ; by the interest they take in t]ie\ commonest occurrences imaginable, and the braid stare of MEANS OF AVOIDING DANGER. 15 wonder at every thing they see. Such men attract the attention of passers-by oi every decree; and, it would be surprising indeed, if the knavish part of the community did not endeavour to profit by the want of knowledge apparent in Johnny New- come, or Johnny Raw, as such men are aptly called. He is followed for miles, sometimes for an entire day or more, by a string of pickpockets or highwaymen, until they can find an opportu- nity to clu him. It came out on the examination of Sethard, for robbing A. Anderson, that he and his companions had followed their victim from the waterside to Mincing Lane, thence to the Hercules, in Leadenhall Street, where the foolish man counted over his money ; thence to Snow Hill, and back again to the corner of St. Martin's le-Grand, w^here they hustled and robbed him of near sev-tuty pounds, the hard earnings of twenty years at sea ; and all this by broad day -light ! Walking the streets has been reduced to a system in London ; every one taking the right hand of another, whereby confusion is avoided ; thus, if you walk from St, Paul's towards the Royal Exchange, you will be entitled to the wall of those you 7«6'6'# all the way ; whereas, if you cross over, you must walk upon the kirb stone. The contrary mode is a sure indication of a person c 2 16 SYSTEM OF WALKING— CAUTION. being a stranger, or living at the outskirts of town, and is certain of attracting attention to bis awkwardness (a thing always to be avoided.) A pickpocket will hustle such an one against his ^"^omplice in the day time ; the stranger will be irritated no doubt, and express his indignation, \v:hich will be the better for the rogues : in a half-minute's altercation, they get the best of the jaw, because the loudest and most impudent ; — a spar or two ensues, in which he who pretends to support the stranger to the ways of town, draws him of his pocket-book, or his watch, if he has either, a fact tliey take care to ascertain before- hand. Money in the breeches pockets, can only be come at in a crowd, or hy Jiooring the victim ; the former of which is most usually, but the latter very seldom, |jert6rmed in the day-time. From all this, my reader will see the necessity of cautiously, yet energetically, pursuing his way, without dread or doubt ; since it is better to walk a little out of the right path, than run the risk of being directed wrong : to steer clear of assembLiges in the streets, by going round them, or presMijg rather vudely through them ; whereby you beconje liie ussailanl, if I may be allowed the torm, and add one more chance of steerinii: cU*ar of danger. DEXTERITY EULOGISED — IMPUNITY. 17 PICKING OF POCKETS. This way of obtaining the property of others, is certainly the most genteel, profitable, and alluring of any, because it requires some degree of ingenuity to exercise it properly, and a great deal of address and firmness to get off without detection. Professors of the art are admired for their dexterity, by every one but the immediate losers ; and people laugh at the dioll way in which the sufferers relate how they were done. 1 have myself seen two friends just as they found out that one of them had lost his Reader or Tattler ; —to see the vacant stare of the one, and the broad grin of the other, was to me as high fun, almost, as the actual possession of the property. Even magistracy itself seldom looks half so glum upon a predatory marauder of this order as he does upon a night robber, a housebreaker, or a highwayman. Whenever the prosecution is brought Uj3 to the point of conviction, the pro- secutor always leans to the side of mercy ; and the capital is " taken off':" one never hears of a pickpocket being hung. Lagging is the worst tliey can come to. Lucky dog that 1 was, in adopting so safe, so genteel. 18 CROWDS GET TOGETHEII. and such a productive part of the calling ! What- ever may be said of it, now I have given over the pursuit, I must say 1 have done a violence to my taste, as an amusement, however good the relin- quishment may be as to morals. If the oppor- tunity were to arrive of choosing again, I scarcely know which line of conduct I should take ; but having so taken it, I am determined to be sin- cere, and 1 mean to be a little more particular in the details of this my favourite pursuit than up- on other toj ics ; although these are all collected out of the mouths of each the first in his profes- sion, livii.g or dead, at home and abroad. Abhoui^h the officeu's constantly patrole the streets, or ought to do so, yet they suffer well- known thieves to mix in the crowds that assemble around print-shops, and other showy exhibitions of goi)ds. If a horse tumblts, or a woman faints, away they run to encrease the crowd, and the confusion ; they create a bustle, and try over the pockets of unsuspecting persons ; till at length, having marked out one, the liccomplice shoves him hard up against other persons, (perhaps some of the gang) who naturally repress the in- trusion. Thus wedged in, they next hit him on the head (more or less hard), when he, to save his hat, or to resent the insult, lifts up his arms, a THIEVES ROB IN GAfiGS — DESCRIPTION. ii> third or a fourth still farther behind gives one more shove, rams his fl at hand against the belly of the person marked out to he dojie, and pulls out his watch. If it t*e his pocket-book they are after, they lift up the skirts of his coat to come at his inside pocket ; b-ut should it lie on his breast, then the rogue, whO' is next to the victim, seizes his collar and drags, until the buttons give way, or there is space eciough between the coat and the body for the accomplice to thrust in his arm. So situated, it is clear that every other pocket must be liable to a visit, the breeches not except- ed. As he in th.e rear is generally a short man, or a boy, he thi'usts in underneath the arms of the accomplices, who make room for him on pur- pose, and lie is thus enabled to pick two or three pockets at leisure, especially in large crowds ; such as a boxing match, or my Lord Mayor's Show. Upon the last mentioned occasion, the chief place for the sport is Ludgate Hill, though the whole range from Blackfriars to Guildhall aifords a fine harvest, from the moment my lord takes water to his return home. On that day the gangs assemble regularly, and enter the city at various points. For many years the practice has been to station two women, of good stout growth, near the place of operation, who receive 20 LORD mayor's show — RESORTS. the lev/ stray articles that may be picked up be- fore the grand rush is made, when they join in^ and increase, the confusion. Some ten or twelve men, mostly armed with sticks, are attached to these women, and act in concert on one side of the hill, while a gan^ similarly composed take thet)ther side, and numerous smaller detachments, and single rogues, are strewed about in all directions. As the procession advances, the first object is to create a bustle, and if possible a fight. They, therefore, inclose between them a few people of respectable appearance, and prei>s them forward rudely ; those in front resent this, pretending to be offended, and thrust back those next to them ; the sticks go to work upon the heads, and the ac- complice embracing his fellow, reaches round at the fob, or pockets of the victim, whose hands are emi)loyed in protecting his head. The trunk-maker's corner was, for many years, the spot for making a stand at ; and the articles stolen usicd to walk up the Old Bailey to Whet- stone-park come;-. But things of this sort must change in a course of years, lor the very circum- stance of this exposure must of necessity compel alteration, to prevent detection. Yet again, on • onsideratioii, this is not so certain, since tliere DaNGEU of detection — STAGGING. 21 ape not a greater set of fools in the world than your hackneyed thieves : they have been known to throw themselves in the way of certain detec- 'tion, or, to stand, like the silly penguin, to be knocked down ; when, at the same time, a good run for it, would have preserved them in safety. N. B. But should a pickpocket take to his heels, and be easily distinguished from his followers, it is not always advisable to stop him ; unless in- deed, you are fond of a bit of a spree, or admire being in trouble, as is exemplified in the simple narrative of a writer " on the police," who has not thought proper to give us his name. He says, ** that he detected a daring noon-day robber, and brought him to conviction.*" Again, he observes, *< To be candid, I must confess that my cure for stagging, was accelerated by means of certain bruises and fractures which I received from the hands of three or four of these gently, and that close to my own house. Very few shopkeepers would undergo a second tune, so much trouble and expenceas I then did ; and, therefore, I do not blush to avow that I forfeited rr y recognizance in one instance, and have passecl over the detec- tion of several others to avoid consequences so * See New Monthly Magazine, X st June, 1817— signed " A Constant Reader." page 309. 'I'l ASKING THE WAY, DANGEROUS. inimical to my repose." What is niore, they caiK mostly light a bit, and some are armed with knives, which they would not hesitate to use in a scuffle. Strangers, and silly persons, who are the chief objects with the pickpockets, are not better known by their tirst appearance, than from the ill-advised custom of asking the way, and stand-* ing gapino^ at the names of the streets, as if in doubt which road to take. Thij being a sure indication that they are at a loss, and of course confused, such a person is perhaps accosted, and misdirected into some street or lane more adapted to the robbers' purpose ; and there met again, or overtaken by one, two, or three others, he is either hustled, or his pockets neatly picked, or he is knocked doicii with a bludgeon. I'herelbre it is recommendubie, that no one should ask his way in the street^., but in decent shops, or, at most, of persons carrying small parcels, which indicate they are shopmen or porters : thieves do not go about encumbered in that manner, at least not liilherto ; but tbey might possibly adopt it here- alter, frou) thi» hint, as tiie best method of catcliiiiir Jluts. iVever nsk your road of a gentle- man, in appearance ; if he be a real one, he either -will not coiulcsceiid to answer, or more probably DRESS, TONISH — MANNEHS. 25 tloes not know any more than yourself ; and for a better reason — that thieves frequently go well- dr^essed, especially pickpockets ; good toggery^ bein;^ considered a necessary qualification for his calling, without which the Diver could not pos- sibly mix in genteel company, nor approach such in the streets. But the close observer may al- ways discover in the dress of the genteel pick- pocket, some want of unity, or shabby article, as a rusty hat, or the boot-tops in bad order, or a dirty shirt and cravat : He may come at the same conclusion, by noticing an article of dress which has been made at the top of the mode, some long while before the other parts of his dress, together with similar attempts to appear the would-be gentleman of ton, Mx. Pulleu was, however, an exception to this general rule : the neatness and uniformity of his rigging, from top to toe, his cleanliness, the mild smirk of his red face, and at length his age, contributed to render him as truly tespectable looking a pick- pocket, as we shall ever find again. A curious proof how far this feeling regarding Mr. Pulleu may be carried, will be learnt from the followmi;- anecdote. Mr. PuUen found occasion to go into a public house at some part of town distant from the usual haunts. He w^as here in close conver- 24 MR. FULLEN, ADVENTURE OF — AND sation with two gentlemen, when the master of the house beckoned him out, and gave him lecwff of ab sense, "T shall go instantly, — butmyctine and gloves lie in that corner," replied Mr. Pul- len. To this Boniface objected, ordered him to '* evacuate the premises," without the goods, and proceeded to acts of violence ; the two strangers interfered, protected ** the respectable looking old gentleman," as they called him, disbeliev- ing the landlord's information, which they attri- buted either to a hoax, or to rnalice, and went off in triumph to another house. What is more, they handed him along arm in arm between them, and he could scarcely get liberty to speak a word to a nice crummy j^oung woman, who seemed surprised and interested at his situation. " He wished to send home a message by her," he said ; but the two boobies would not lose sight, and did but just loosen their hold. The interview- was abridged by their intrusion, and with the use of a little force, the fair frail one was permitted to pursue her way. But what a tragedy ! One of the strangers lost his pocket-book, soon after he had occupied hi:* present seat, as he said, and the other a small packet of less value. They suspected their new acquaintance, and he was searched by consent, TWO STRANGERS — A WARNING. 25 but nothing was found upon him, though the packet was discovered under a chair at a distaiHt part of the room. As none of the parties had gone out ; they were the more puzzled the more they thought how it could have been lost. The fact is, briefly, that the female carried it off; the loser having been mistaken in saying, he had felt it since he entered the room ; — a warning to people how cautious they should be in stating unneces- sary particulars, too hastily. Here was a very neat and clean ]oh done, and all safe and right ; and is that sort of practice which for distinction's sake is termed " picking of pockets,'* simply ; though hustling, and knocking down, or tripping up are the same thing prastised with more violence. We will, there- fore, describe all those methods as carried on against single persons. The pickpocket who does the thing '* neatly," as the phrase is, goes alone ; or, at most, two to- gether. His intention is not to use violence, and he even avoids being felt at work ; for which reason the law has made it capital felony to exe- cute his task so adroitly as not to be discovered in the act of taking ; notwithstanding which law, he always endeavours to incur the highest crime. 26 PRIVATELY STFALING — IIOW DONT. while the juc^ge as invariahly apportions to him, t?ie lesser punishment. For the accomplishment of his purpose, he walks the crowded streets, and tries the pockets of various passers by ; till at length he finds the situation of the pocket-booJx, — which has been the favourite aim ever since the extensive circulation of ])ank-notes. If it occupies the outer coat pocket, the task is easy : he dips his hand into the pocket, spreading his fingers to keep open the top, and with the forefinger and thumb draws it forth. Sometimes out it comes, easily, which will be the case if not near so large as the pocket; but should it stick, or hang by something else, the rogue stands no repairs, but pulls away by main force. During the first part of the operation, and pre- viously, he has walked a step or two cheek-by- jowl with the jicrson to be robbed ; he looks about smiling, (to take off the attention of those who may be near behind,) as if they were ac- quaintance, and the thing a mere matter of course and familiarity. A thin worn-out great coat, flowing open, is an excellent screen. If the thing to be drawn is heavy, and its weight might be instantly missed, he presses equally hard upon the edj^e of the pocket, or VIOLENT MEANS TWO ACT IN CONCERT. 27 stoops a little to take hold of tlie bottom, gives a jirk, steps upon the heel, or jostles against the person done ; then seems to beg pardon, and runs. For the inside skirt coat-pocket, he lifts up the skirt or tail, and out comes the pocket-book. Should a button impede the way out, a little kniff, fastened to the hand, soon removes that obstacle. N. B. Whenever you are jostled against, or your heel is trodden ujjon, you may suspect that person, and he who is nearest to you on the other side. Two are much safer to get off than one, as the second keeps a good look-out; and he it is that goes off with the prize, having received it from him who first took it. This one, being next to the victim, il" seized, as is most likely, kicks up a row, and uses the most disgusting language ; or, in c[uite other tones, offers to pursue him who has gone off; but in fact, in pursuing;, throws obstacles ia the way of others; but should he come up with, and overtake him in the hand of justice, they together fight away if possible to efiect an escape ; sometimes dropping the thing stolen, at other times it gets handed to a confederate, who perhaps has the audacity to claim the pro- perty as his own, d2 28 ESCAPE — WOMEN ACT Many women are as expert as men, and thej always have one or two at hand upon great occa- sions, as I said before. They are furnished with a species of pocket which completely encircles their bodies, coming down half way to the knees ; if the wearer be somewhat stout and bulky, it is clear she can conceal a good deal. Besides, if she be searched upon suspicion, the ^ articles will traverse from before to behind, and back again, with a very small quantity of dex- trousness ; and she would thus elude discovery by any ordinary scrutiny of her person. The same sort of pocket is used in shop-lifting. Women who walk the streets at night, are in- variably pickpockets ; and I see no reason to set down those who by day entice the men into their dens, any thing better. Such as stand at the corners of lanes and courts, inviting men to stop, are clumsy hands, but contrive to pick up a good harvest occasionally : they rob indiscri- minately every article of dress, knocking off the silly (perhaps drunken) man's hat in the street, with which tlie accomplice runs away ; at other times they will take off his cravat, while bestow- ing upon him their salacious caresses. A broach, or shirt-pin, is constantly made good prize of, but should the deluded man enter one of tliost; WITH VIOLENCE — AMUSE AND ROB. 2d pestiferous abodes, which are so numerous in this metropolis, the loss of all he has is inevitable. N. B. It is recommended over again not to be stopped in tlie streets, even by a handsome wo- man, though that should be by day. They have great nimbleness of lingers, and convey away your property while talking you into a silly passion for their persons, Although it seems brutish to rebuke a woman who should press against you in a crowd, in a church, at an auction, or in the streets, yet this should be done. At the Rev. Rowland Hill's meeting house, the women attend as well as the. men pickpockets ; they are found amongst tlie crowd of a procession to St. Paul's, and in fact at every collection of people. Such women amuse you with asking silly questions ; perhaps complain to you of some man who is pressing her, while one of her accomplices rifles your pockets in the mean time, from behind another accomplice, who keeps his arms up so as to prevent yours from defending your propert3^ Perhaps she seizes your arm, as if for protection, but in fact to keep you from using it. One very excellent trick for a woman to per- form is, to turn round quick upon the gentle- man to be robbed, and running hard against him, d3 50 TRICKS OF WOMEN — ACCOMPLICES. endeavour to touch him in the wind, pretending herself to be very much hurt. Her accomplices are beliind, and improve upon the accident, by embracing the victim ; and the hindermost is generally the thief who hands off the property. It must be present to every one's mind, that when a person is hit upon the belly, or pit of the stomach— and those women are taught how to place their blows — he will naturally bend from, the effects of the blow : At that moment it is, he loses his watch, a dive is made into his breeches pocket, and both are drawn ; and if the lady's hurt is very bad, (that is, well played off) his pocket-book goes to wreck also. This same trick of turning round, is also practised by two or three men ; and a good method is to stoop suddenly down, whereby the person to be robbed comes wholly, or in part, to the ground ; and during the struggle to recover himself, or the efforts of tiie accomplice to assist him, the job is efl'ected. Ladies who press to the windows of drapers shops are fine game. When they wore pockets with hoops, scarcely any operation in all the light finger trade was easier than the dive, or putting in one's hand ; afterwards, on the disuse of the hoop, the thing was performed by a short fellow. BOYS — CUTTING INSTRUMENT. 31 ©r boy, g^etting between the legs of the accomplice (a tall one) and spreading the petticoats, cut off the pockets, with a knife attached to the hand. The practice of cutting pockets is much lessen- ed of late years, why, I know not for certain ; but apprehend the fear of incurring the penalty of Lord Ellenborough's act, may have had its ef- fect ; and since there are several methods of achieving the same thing, there could be no pos- sible reason why the safest should not be adopt- ed. Any other course of proceeding would be foolish, to say no worse of it. A capital small blade, set in a ring for the middle finger, or the thumb, was a much better contrivance than the common penknife, or the sliding blade ; because their right hand can be employed in cutting, and grabbing the money at one and the same time, whilst the left is engaged no less usefully in bothering his gob. This latter, is nothing more than placing the flat hand (back or palm) over the mouth, (or gob) of a fellow who is hkely to sing out ; at the same time taking care that it shall seem to him the effect of accident, not capable of being reckoned uncivil, if the busi- ness sho aid come to a patter. In all mobs whei e there is not sufficient noise, this botheruig the ^ob, is invariably had recourse to ; the fellew 32 BOTHER, BOX, AND MURDER. might otherwise call oat "pickpockets," or some such stuff, when he felt the things going from his person. Notwithstanding the generally received notion, that pickpockets are an innocent race of mortals, who merely purloin a little of your pelf, yet no- thi[jgcan be more contrary to the real fact. No means of escape would be left untried, in case of detection, even although that should cost the life of an individual or two. They are invariably taught boxing, scientijiciill^', women as well as men ; I mean, so far, as how to place a blow or two with the happiest effect. Indeed, picking of pockets frequently assumes the character of foot- pad robbery, having all its characteiistic features of force, and violenceof conduct on tlie part of the perpetrators. This brings me to speak of that next species of robbery by those who are appro- priately termed Scamps, called HUSTLING; Which is performed in various ways, as suits the present situation of both parties. Higher up, I described the way in which the persons to be done, are crannued together, in order to be rob- bed. The next degree of violence is that where the arms are seized from behind by one, wliilst the other frisks the pockets of their content?. HUSTLERS, SEIZE THEIR VICTIMS. ^3 Just the same end is obtained b}- picking an instant quarrel, and collaring the victim, pull him forward ; while he is thus upon the stoop, the accomplice takes a dive into his pockets, handing off whatever he may find to a third ac- complice, who perhaps has been inakingfr^e use of his stick promiscnously over the heads of all parties. Another plan is to seize him by the collar of the coat behind, and pull him backwards: he must be a rum customer, indeed, if lie gets over this, and a dig in the guts in front; for hav- ing lost wind, he will not recover it again until his property is irrecoverable, A more daring hustle is, where a person being run against violently, as if by accident, and his arms kept down, forcibly ; while tl^ accomplice, pretending to take " the gentleman's" part, draws either his watch, money or book. More cannot well be done in an instant thing like this. Should the pair come down whop, it is far the better for the thieves ; they both get up, pardon is begged, and they part as quickly as possible. The sufferer, in adjusting his dress, then first discovers he has been robbed. Those who give preference to this mode of do, are of the secon- dary sort of thieves, not at all to be considered clever ; they mostly wear short jackets, (at least APe of them) the better to effectuate escape by C4 FOOT-PAD ROBBERIES — WOMEN's ARTS. runniiig, the cloth being made smooth;, if not slip- pery, with grease, &c. their 0[)eratioiis seldom commence until dusk; they never attack other than single persons ; and the fall of the year, is the most prolific in this sort of crime. If tl;is be not " foot-pad robbery," I know not what is ; the only difference seems to lie in that robber who (/e?«a«f/A' the proj)ert3n none case, in the other he takes it without asking. The genuine decent pickpocket, who does the trick in a neat way, deems himself insulted in being classed w ith those, as well as with the following description of street robbers : He decries the use of violence upon the person robbed, unless it be in self- defence, and to make his escape. Women hustle at night, while bestowing their unasked for caresses, adroitly entering your );ockets should you come in contact with them. A short lass, and a tall or big one, are the best adapted to this business: the former forcibly contending with thelatterthe promised enjoyment, seizes you round the middle lasciviously, when the business is done neatly ; she hands over the things to her companion, who moves off instantly, while the other keeps you in tow until the booty is out of I each, and then she becomes uneasy until she herself is safely out of vour sii>ht. liut AT NIGHT — SFXRETE PROPERTY. 35 should you charge the watchman with her per- son, you would not recover the property, and the charge falls to the ground as a matter of course. I have frequently known both women brought in and searched, but nothing was found upon them ; in such cases they have a third accomplice, but generally the stolen things have been deyjosited in some nook or corner conveniently situated near where the transaction took place — such as the interstices of window shutters, for bank^iotes ; or the broken corner of the same,— holes are dug in the mortar of walls for the express purpose, — very often upon the ledges where window-shut- ters are stovvcd away by day. Such are the contrivances of those wretclies who prowl the streets to take advantage of silly m.en. Never suffer a watchman to go out alon^, after he has heard the charge, in which the sceiie of action is of course pointed out : he would take care of the property himself ; and you might ascertain that he had m^et v/ith it, by his becoming extremely jolly in his answers, not to say impu- dent, — among other things, affecting to doubt " whether you ever had so much about you." TRIPPING UP, (BY THE PADS) Is the next degree of street depreciation, and is performed either with a stick, which is thrust 36 WATCHMEN — DOYS ACCOMPLICES. between the legs, or by kicking up the heels of the party. A little more violent still, is the mode of KNOCKING DOAVN, witlithe fist, or abludgeon. This latter is seldom or eAer heard of in our streets, but both are practised at the out-skirts, lead- ing to the adjacent towns. So strong and active are the patrol at present, that robberies never occur at the hours of f^eir being on the watch. Boys will throw themselves down flat before persons they design to make prey of ; the ac- complice pressing forward from behind, precipi- tates you over the former, who, in rising up draws out your watch with the utmost facility. Or you may be eased of your money with as little dif- ficulty, while thus bent down, let the breeches be so ever tight. At the moment we were going to press with this sheet, {March 22, 1818,) three Urchins, attacked some ladies in Ilolborn, who wailed the drawing up of a Hampstead stage (which takes place near the iiouse of our publisher.) Although apparently little rogues, they brought their victims to the ground ; and, but for timely interposition, or, from immature skill, would have robbed the three ladies. The time, was past dusk. PERSONS FALLING DOWN—WOMEN ROB. 37 When women slip down in the street, or faint away, I would advise you to think twice before you lend your assistance ; for, although she may turn out that which she appears to be (a very re- spectable person), yet the thieves are so numer- ous, and constantly upon the alert, that it is a thousand to one, but you get dotie in some way or Other : it happens sometimes, that the lady her- self cfraw5 you, having been pushed down, or tripped up by one of her own fellows ; also, these sort of women know how to run plump against you, as if they had been killed by the collision, and down they go ! Should a lady under your own protection fall or faint, in the streets, (your wife for instance) take good care what persons (women or men) lend their assistance : it is a great chance but they will be upon the do, probably for the first time in their lives. We just now hear of a gentleman who has found occasion to come home alone, three times a week from Homerton, at very late hours, (sometimes an hour after the patrol went off duty) without any interruption whatever ; and this, although he always traversed the garden- lanes, and crossed over the fields, during a great part of the winter, without other arms than a stick, E 38 BOLD CONDUCT SAFEST — OFFENCES or any light, natural or artificial, for the greater number of times. The reader is requested not to follow the example, seeing that this gentleman, in addition to much personal courage, was withal reckless of life ; and that the well-known havidge called •' Haggerstone" lies but a short distance from the path, Of this place it is a suf- ficient character to tell, that the constables dare not enter it, to execute a warrant, in the usual way by two or three, but are compelled to aug- l^ient their numbers, in order to overcome a stout repulse; and yet the place cannot muster above forty men ; about a third of whom may deserve a middling good character. Notwithstanding this anecdote, which we know to be fact, it is not to be denied, that numerous offences of these latter descriptions take place all round London, which are never made public, for various reasons. Of these, the chiefest are the dislike j)eople have to be considered keepers of late hours ; add to tliis the trouble and anx- iety of prosecutions, tlie incipient proceedings upon which are by no means rendered palatable to the prosecutor's taste ; the desire in most people to keep out of public notice (though sought after by so many others), and we have accounted for the impunity a great number of offenders enjoy. NUMEROUS— PREVENTION. 30 When the victim i^flooredi imprecations arid oaths, and threats of vengeance, in case of resist- ance, immediately follow, accompanied by the most active search for the property, while they cover his mouth, kneel on his body, or beat him, as the case seems to them to require. The voice is generally in an under tone, or a kind of vociferat- ed whisper ; and many of these fellows are really so savage, that they will inflict further punish- ment if dissatisfied with the booty they may find. N. B. The reader, especially if he be a stranger to the ways of town, should not ramble about in lanes, or bye-ways, especially at dusk ; and the more so, if he is conscious his appearance is such as to promise an easy couc[uest, or a good booty. Therefore, people should never carry much irrO" perti/f in such situations, nor seem puzzled at the route they should take, nor show their distrust at the appearance of the rogues, but stare them in the face. Now as to these, and all personal robberies, out of deorSf I would advise a sort of knowing circumspection, on which I made some remarks before. Suppose, for a moment, that you were to bustle through the crowd in the streets, shoving about the people; thus, in order to avoid the pickpockets, assuming yourself to be one, to all k2 40 PHRASES— OBJECTS FOR PLUNDER. external appearance? It is not probable yon would be attacked by them, upon the old and sure principle, that dog will not eat dog. So if you stare them well in the face (not sheepishly), eye them downwards, twig the shabbiest part of their dress, — and, if a row is begun, you join in the phrases used, as *' go it ;" " now, d — n his eyes ;" " what are yon at r" " now for it ;" " go it my jumbo !" or, whatever may be said upon the occasion, you would certainly increase the chances of getting clear. This is what 1 always repeat. " The chances only of getting clear of their clutches" are increased by following these pre- cautions ; for no one can be at a certainty ; as I have known a police officer (Handcock of " Hat- ton Garden," five years ago) to be stopped and robbed on the highway, when well-armed, and a magistrate who had his pocket picked at the theatre. As one test of the truth of what I have said^ you will invariably discover in the person whose pocket has been ])icked while walking singlt/, something that points him out as a proper object of attack: he is easily to be found out as an unknowing one ; he is either a silly looking chap, or an unwieldy one, or a new comer. In making this distinction of walking singly, I beg to claim WALKING AT DUSK. 41 the full foice of the word ; for, as to picking pockets in a crowd, it is quite a different sort of matter, — there, e\ery body goes to wreck. The leader of any discernment, then, will see the pro- priety of keeping out of crowds ; for in them nothing can help him, but strength to get away us soon as possible ; and that \x\\\ be scarcely in his power, if he is well wedged in by eight or ten desperadoes. Need a word be said of the necessity of keep- ing the handkerchief concealed, if you mean to preserve it ? An outside pocket, in which the handkerchief is visible, is sure to part with its contents at noon-day, even, though you should not walk half the length of the Strand. That circumstance would be most likely to bring its owner into further trouble ; as so careless a mode of placing the handkerchief marks him out for one of the unknowing ones, he would be fol- lowed and further pilfered, as certainly as that he has a nose. Walking, from the time of dusk to that of the patrols coming on duty, a little before or a little after, is more replete with danger as the times are worse. Men who only rob occasionally are there- by driven to desperation ; and they then sally forth to commit depredations on the per-ons of e3 42 THIEVES RUNNING — RESISTANCE, the unwary, which we, upon mature reflection, (after detection of the offenders) frequently consider to partake in a small degree of insanity. Their necessities blind their judgments on such occasions ; they mistake the object, and get into trouble, from which they are released only by u hempen habeas corpus. Such a mistake may be compared to the old story of " catching a tartar." Therefore, it is advisable, to keep a good look out, and especially avoid fellows who are running hard, or who follow you step by step for any length of way. Pull up all at once, regard the motions of the foe, and resolve upon a stout resist- ance, if you are likely to obtain help in a mi- nute's space, by calling out while you parry the blows, or the endeavour to get you down. If help is not at hand, so as to come up to your assistance in that time, you had better give it in with a good grace, and submit to your fate ; for they will but increase their brutality as you rise in your opposition — in case they are not inter- rupted, or likely to be. But mark this : provided you make good use of your lungs, and also make a decent stir before you get ^OMcAec? with hand or stick, V\\ pound them to holt in a jiffy ; for those sort of gentry have a maxim, ** never to give a chance away ;'* ITS EFFECTS — CASE. 4f3 and as they are rank cowards, they, on such an occasions, put a question to themselves, and that is " Which is to be off the first ?" since he that remains to the last is likeliest to be taken. These statements are exemplified often : the robbery of a gentleman in Shepherd and Shep- herdess fields by the three bakers (1816), one of whom proposed to murder him, because he made so much noise, is a proof of one part of the above proposition ; for, although the place is much frequented, yet no one was nigh enough to alarm them from their purpose. Another part of the above statement was proved under our own ob- servation while yet we were writing it [January, 1818.] A Mr. F — d was followed from the meet- ing house in Moorfields along London Wall by two of a gang who inhabit thereabout : they were short and stout ; Mr. F. being a little lame in one leg, gave them good reason to expect an easy conquest, as his appearance did a good booty. At the turning into Basinghall Street, (no one at that moment coming up it) one of the rogues ran up to Mr. F — d, pushed a leg between his, and brought him to the ground ; instantly putting his hand into his waistcoat pocket, he had but just time to extract a few shillings, when his accomplice became alarmed at the vocifera- 44 CORNERS OF STREETS CHOSEN. tions of the gentleman (thoiigh be already knelt upon him) — and ran away. They conld not be overtaken, nor was the occurrence known beyond the circle of his own friends. It was an operation of about half a minute. Here it will be noted that the end of a street was chosen ; and hence it may be concluded that such would be always preferred, even though I did not know that tactic before hand. Indeed, it will scarcely be expected that I should adduce instances, or proofs, of any proposition I lay down, seeing that every word comes from actual experience, either personally, or fey immediate information from the real actors in the scenes I describe. Weil, then, I have to inform you, Reader, that the corner, or opposite the corner of a lane, or other avenue is always fixed upon ; and the moment is that in which they come to take a glance down it, to eee that it is clear of interruption. Sometnues an accomplice runs on before, to find the turning that will suit the purpose ; he then goes into it a yard or two, and turns about ju^^t in time to contribute his assi- stance to the plundering ; perhaps to receive into his arms, the victim who has been knocked towards him, and to complete thejfooring of the unfortunate person. THIEVES CALL AND WHISTLE. 45 Few such cases are brought before the magis- trates; but 1 repeat it, they happen oftener than would readily lie suppot^ed. On that account it is, 1 have dwelt upon particulars so long, in order that my readers may learn to avoid the dangers that thus surround them. To which let lue add, — let them look out sharp upon hearing a whist- ling or calling, even although the latter should be but a person's name (man or woman), or the former, the ingenious imitation of the canaiy bird's call. The fag-end of a song is a good signal sometimes ; though the words may not be appropriate, they convey a meaning previously agreed upon, and are as intelhgible to each other as Greek to a Gieek, or the sign and counter- sign to the guard that visits a military out-post. N. B. If two persons are in company, it is the safest method, at lat^ houis and dangerous places, to walk at some distance fr«-m each other— say from six to eight yards. ; it would require double numbers to attack both at once, besides the chance there would be of one of you running away and making a row, if both attacks did not take place simultaneously. Moreover, strangers to town in particular should be careful not (O let others know what money or valuables they carry about them; and the town-bred knowing-ones 46 WAGERS FRIENDS ROB EACH OTHER. too, had better profit by the advice, and not sub- mit to be drawn of their secret by the offers of preposterous wagers, the usual method of coming at a knowledge of the contents of your pockets, I verily believe some street robberies proceed from this very cause, and are perpetrated by the friends, or companions of the sufferers them- selves, who probably commit no other offence during their lives. This last is, to be sure, a mere ^u;.)positioI), but I could not otherwise ac- count for three or four such robberies that have been circumstantially detailed to me ; but it is much more probable that a person thus excited to the commission of crime, would continue in the same course until the hour of detection ar- rived. Although we again disclaim to treat of those offences and evils that have ceased, yet we should be guilty <-f a dereliction of duty were we to omit noticing the HIGHWAYMEN, That upon very rare occasions, start up in the neighbourhood of this metropolis. Indeed, so selaom are they now heard of compared to what NOT PLENTY — JOE HAINES. 47 they were formerly, that the mention of this of- fence will appear mere Bagatelle to most of our readers after all the apologies we can offer. It was a mistaken notion of Mr. Barrington, that they receive intelligence from the ostlers and other attendants at inns, or introduced themselves into the company of travellers, of whom they wormed out the secret of their property, its amount, and the hour they meant to take the road, &c. "Whatever might have once been the case, I will venture to say no such thing has happened with- in forty years last past. No, no, they chance it, when they do go out. Else how came Joe Haines to attack the Bow Street officers, in the Green Lanes ? If he had intelligence at all of three Traps being in the post- chaise he made precious bad use of it. He was shot in the thigh, and afterwards taken and hanged in chains. That took place twenty-one years ago ; and since that time we have heard of about four highwaymen only ; the most promi- nent of which was the robbery of the Leeds mail by Huffey White; and another, nearer home, of a Young City Traveller who having lost his money at Newmarket races, stopped some people on Finchley Common, was pursued by the horse 48 PISTOLS — NO TRIFLING WITH. patrol [Highgate to Barnett] as far as Kentish- town, where he was taken. N. B. Persons who travel with a good deal of property, if they mean to preserve it, should pro- vide fire arms, at all events, taking care that they are in primest order for firing ; for it will be an easy matter to foresee, that a flash in the pan would occasion your certain death. No time remains for priming when a desperate fellow holds a pistol at your head. You should also make up your mind to do execution^ if put to the test : dalliance with edge tools in such cases would be fatal. To this mistaken notion Mr. Fryer sacrificed his life in White Conduit fields (1798) : having thrown out his tuck, and failing to use it, the foot-pad shot him dead ! This is a practical lesson for you, even though I did not know before hand what was likely to take place, in almost every possible extremity. SHARPERS, Such as Gamblers, Ring-droppers and Money-droppers, Setters or Trappers, Crimps (for sea or land service,) Impostors, and Swindlers, GAMBLING — WAGER-APHORISMS. 49 come next under consideration in the order here set down ; being a numerous and pernicious annoyfince to all persons walking the streets, where they generally pick up your acquaintance, or at the public house, at which you may turn in, to take refreshment. The propensity to gambling pervades the entire population of the north of England ; and most Welchmen settle the commonest disputes that occur by wager, offering to lay more money upon one senseless dispute than perhaps ever belonged to their whole family at any one time. Those are denominated WAGERING KIDDIES. In the city, where a person meaning to ridicule the practice, or to give an elucidation of it, ob- served, That laying of wagers were attempts to come at the money of others by undue, but ex- cusable, means. Upon which he entertained the following opinions, in the form of aphorisms : A wager well layed is already half won. Wagers are not layed to be lost : For if lost, they are not to be paid. So, if the decision goes against you, still The money must not be paid, but F 50 RESPECTABLE SHARPERS — A WELCH Payment must be talked off; ifthat will not do, . quarrelled off; if that won't do, . fought off. Such is a tolerably fair account of many men, some of respectable occupations in life, but who are nevertheless Sharpers in the fullest sense of the word, — who will even boast of the money they win at laying quirkish bets. The intention is, to take in the unwary, and is not a bit better than picking of pockets or purloining in a dwell- ing-house. AVhat appears the most galling part of the business to me is, that those men brag of their honesty, and look down upon their poorer, but more upright neighbour, with disdain. They are called upon juries to try their fellow (cri- minals ?) creatures, and many among us think them competent ^ad^es of what is a proper ver- dict in all cases but their own. For a great number of years that a friend of mine frequented the coffee-houses, so called, round Covent Garden, he witnessed a nightly and daily struggle to take money out of each others' pockets by dint of this deep laid trickery. At one of them, where the most doltish set m the world meet, a couple of Welchmen from the city, came in to see what could be done in their own way. One of them eggs on the other to BET DECIDED. 51 begin some favourite subject; which happened to be the exact words of a verdict upon a trial at the Old Bailey that day. As is usual with a stupid set, and was expected by the speaker, one contradicts what was asserted, and the vest join in the contradiction. A wager is offered, and laid ; it is doubled and doubled, and laid with all who choose to say done / " Who is to decide, look you ?" asked the Welch wagering kiddy. ** Who ! why any respectable man who heard it to be sure ;" answered a glum old fellow, who did not so much relish the wordy contest as the smell of the blue mark, (as they call a bowl of punch) which accompanied every wager for money* This mode of deciding was greeted as just by the other wagering kiddies, and agreed to by the Welch one, who told them he could " show them one of the jury presently. Who, now, look you ! do you think was the foreman, then, upon that trial ? Ah ! you shall find I knows as much as all of you about things. Now, I will bet you a blue mark and five pounds I find the foreman in this neighbourhood." — "This was too bad," they said ; and began to smell a rat. Our Welchman resumed, *' ah, it is too bad for you. What do you think of Mr. Jen kin James, Esquire, here :" f2 52 TROTTING-HOUSE WAG EH. His companion, the other Welchman had in- deed been that foreman ; and had given the ver- dict in a peculiar manner — whether with any de- sign upon the gentlemen of this room is too much to say. Some of them called it a do ; and a broad faced north countryman, wanted to prove metaphysically that the decision was against justice. But that attempt did not succeed. This was a robbery, and nothing else. The same friend being at a celebrated betting- honseafew nights before this sheet went to press, was witness to the most barefaced robbery of five pounds, — under the semblance of a wager, that ever was committed by foot-pad or highwayman ! At the famous trotting- ho use in — ^ Moorfields, one of the company, who was unusually opaque, from the use of grog, was set upon by another, more transparent than himself, to play at draughts ; not with himself, for he could not pla}', but with another man, who came in a little before hhn. It was to no purpose the groggy man cried off — pleaded his *' inability, — that he was too ripe to lay wagers," crying " Peter, I will lay with you to-morrow, when I know more of my man !" Oh, no ! this was the only thing that would not do ; and the gentleman was bothered into the deposit of his money to play BETS LOST PURPOSELY— IDLE ONES. &3 with one who was a dead nail ! A plant ! Need the reader be told how the bull ran ? It was a close rub. We have given these as two gross instances. There are others more subtle ; and some others that are meant to be lost, — in order to draw you on*; and a few that are fair, but depend upon judgment. For instance, at the house in Middle row, Holborn, you shall find of a day half a dozen bets depending on the number of coaches which shall go up or go down the street in a given time ; sometimes they are laid en the gross amount of their whole numbers affixed on the doors. Others again wager on the prevalence of grey horses, or black ones, &c. Judgment may be brought in aid of the wagering kiddies, even in these foolish bets ; for about play-going time (six o'clock) more coaches go up than down, of course more amount in numbers will go that way, and more grey horses. CARDS. S uch is the least blam cable species of gambling ! What must be those of blacker hue ? Notwith- standing the law, concerning low games at public houses, cards are used in about one-fourth of f3 54 LOW GAMES— CHEATING A them throughout the year. Strolling into an Inn yard in VVhitechapel a few days ago, to pick up information for this book, I walked into the '' tap-room," to notice the manoeuvres upon the arrival of a coach, — then expected. Here pre- sently came in a horse-keeper, the ostler, a waiter, and a hanger-on, whom I knew to be a thief, from a cut in his face, which 1 noticed particular- ly when upon his trial once. They called for the cards, as a thing of course, and played at all- fours, for porter and small wagers. While 1 gave them room to imagine I was such a fool as to be touting the landlady, I had an eye to the game, in which there was no small cheating. In order to make friends with the hanger-on, I called out, in slang, when his ad- versary rubbed off a chalk too many. My eye ! how he did open ! *' Called him all but a gentle- man,'* in such rum style, and offered two to one upon the game as it now stood, which was accept- ed by a young countrynmn, who had been fool- ishly induced to hold their stakes from the beginning, which was the first step towards being taken in. By the way, in putting down again the chalk, which had been so improperly taken, our hanger-on extended his little finger in such a manner as to rub out one of his own chalks ; COUNTRYMAN — GAMBLING THIEF. 55 but all would not do, though the countryman " stood it like bricks and mortar," he won the odds upon that game, which was too palpably gone at the moment to be mistaken for a win. Need the reader be told that he lost in the sequel ? He lost four games " successfully'''' f successively^) *' all hand running." 1 myself tried on the noodle for a tizzy or two : he got the wrong side of the post there too ; and if I had chosen to be sweet upon him, I might have drawn him something handsome, for he was ready tip ; but 1 had better business in hand, as the others had shortly after, when the ■ stage coach drove into the yard, each man putting his hand (of cards) into his pocket, as he sallied forth. The hanger-on, however, first taking a survey through the windows before he went out, and as for me, I was stagging the whole party ; but can take upon myself to say nothing was then done ; for had there been, I should have split and turned honest, as is usual. " Do you know him in the new corderoy jacket ?" asked the tap-keeper of me ; " he with the large gilt buttons .'"' — ** I think I have seen him af/) /ay before," I answered, cautiously ; adding I «* wonder what post he fills here?" — "Whatpo5«/" echoed the tap-keeper ; <« do you not think that 56 LA BAGATELLE DESCRIBED ; I am as great a fool as you ? I wonder why Mr. S — lets him hang about here for ; there is one or two other such sometimes." I did not reply, but continued to stag ; which he perceiving, asked whether I wanted any one ? and demanded pardon for making so bold, " did he not play with me lately a whole fore^ noon in Wood Street, at BAGATELLE ?" I gave him to understand that he might ; for I had been out of place, and picked up a few stray shillings in that way, which came in very sweet to me, notwithstanding my appearance. Here he put me upon an examination : " Could I draw the nine ? Make sure of any hole once out of twice ? Could I top forty once out of three goes ?" To all which I answered modest- ly in the affirmative ; upon which he chuckled a good deal ; proposed that I should act the novice to-morrow at the board, until something liandsome was betted, and that he and me would make a good thing of it. Finally, we parted, with a promise to meet again, and a repartee pun : he asked " which do you use, mace or cue .^" To which I answered that I myself was ynace, but I could come it the cue. Here the hoji mot consists in turning the tap-keeper's noun mace into the verb to mace, or cheat. MUCH PLAYED — ESTIMATE. 57 In the room which he pointed out to me, I saw no Bagatelle board, so took the liberty to make enquiry after it. Some low fellows had it in the kitchen, to which I repaired ; but this room being immediately under the publican's eye, he never permits them to piay for more than a pint of porter, and makes no little parade of the regulation, — though I was convinced he himself would be the first to break through it. He afterwards removed the board into the par- lour, where some one or other continued to play from noon to midnight, as I afterwards found. Going towards Holborn I looked into three places where the same game was playing ; and took the liberty of looking in upon them again after business was over, and found they had all been as actively employed, pretty nigh, as that one in Wood Street. By actual reckoning I have found these boards to average the amount of liquor lost and won at them, at something less than three shillings per hour, when they are going; and it is no unusual thing to find them engaged three or four deep ; disputes often arising for the next turn or go. Now as nine of these boards are kept in Farring- don Ward alone, I calculate there are one hun- dred and eight in the city, and not less than four 5S MONEY LOST, VERY GREAT. hundred and fifty within the Bills of Mortality ; making, for the whole of London, an average loss (for liquors only) of four hundred and five pounds a day, estimating each to be occupied only six hours. As all these have been taken at estimates too low for the factual state of things, we may correctly set the amountdown at the round sura of five hundred pounds a day, without saying a word of the drt/ money, which may, we can safely conjecture, be as much more ; or a total of one thousand pound daily for the gratification of a game at once new and fascinating. So much for La Bagatelle, at which novices do frequently win \Q.x^e numbers, and the best players are some- times foiled. For my part I never lost any thing at it ; and in my last play won every thing. But it is no less pernicious to the stranger, who is sure to be done, either by booty ov playing off. Therefore it is, I warn my readers to keep clear from invitations to, even " one roll up of the balls," for ever so small a wager ; for, as 1 am not now playing, but writing for the good of the uninformed, 1 should not perform my duty {I am told) if I did not come out with every pre- caution and advice in my power ; and I will add, if they are not cured by my exposition of the DRAUGHTS GENERAL — NOVICES BET. 59 danger they run, I will play any one of them to- morrow, — — and beat him. Draughts are more generally in use : and they are in like manner followed with enthusiasm by the votaries of Mercury, that president of pur- loining, among the ancients. So intense are the players at this stupid game, that you may see a couple of decent men, who deserve a better occupation, bestowing the utmost extension of their faculties upon the upshot of a game that deserves, nor shall receive from me other than the bitterest execration, because it is the grave of thought, the extinguisher of every generous sense. Do men meet together to shut their minds up upon a move of timber ? and then, when the game is over, start up as if awaked out of a sleep to join in the jovialities of the evening ? After *' pushing about the wooden gods," as Johnny Bee used to call them, can they descend to con- verse with us mortals ? No ! But they are not less the means of taking money (or money in the shape of drink) out of your pockets. It is the common practice to let you in, if you intermeddle, or give your advice (for novices can see a move which the experienced player cannot). Verhum sat. Should you bet or play, you are done. 60 BACK-GAMMON — DOMINOS— THE Next to draughts, in a general way, is back- gammon^ a game of science indeed, as well as of luck. Although you cannot play, you may bet ; but if you do you are done. The moment the bets are made superior to the stakes at play, the game is sold. Sold ! Even in the most respecta- ble looking company, you are done out of your bet to a dead certainty. Those, with dominos, are the only games at play, in a general way, to which the untaught, unpractised visitor to our Metropolis is exposed. Other and more ardent trials await the man of money, and of warm, generous feelings, who thinks every one he meets as honest as himself. Faro, Rouge et Noir, E. 0. Vingt-une, Hazard, are the high-cut games of those who attack the vitals of an hereditary estate, or the peace of a family, long ennobled by acts of nobleness, which royalty cannot enhance by the fictitious addition of its ribbons, its smiles, or the laying on of a sword ; much less by writing on a piece of paper or parchment the word Baron, Viscount, or Earl ! What less was Mr. P before he was lord B — ! how was his state altered by being created Earl of M ? Lately, a general blow up hath taken place of nearly all the do's at the West end of the town, GREEKS AND LEGS* DO's. 01 by means of a most ill-written poem, the stanzas of which have served as a kind of pegs upon which to hang the notes. The consequence has been, that new and yet unpractised methods are daily resorted to, of which we will apprise our readers by and by, whereby to come at the mone)^ of the unsuspecting stranger. We think the poet has no more rhyme than we have sense ; we know more than he does of the things he describes ; and some things of which he appears to know nothing. We allude to " the Greeks,''^ a poem. What signifies his telling the public about the two sevens (77) in Jermyn Street, or the same quaint description of the feverish do. (77) in Pall Mall ? the so-called subscription houses ! Or in- deed, any house or person, if he describes not the mode in which the novice in town is done out of his money ? Names and places have changed in nine months, wonderfully. To be sure, those remain ; they remain known ; whereas they were antecedently known only to a few (the chosen few) black legs. But a question arises in our minds — why did he suppress every mention of the three houses next the palace gate ? or the tree at the opposite corner, which, like a ivill-o*' the-wisp, is now up, now down, now in, now out? He is shrewdly suspected by many of interested- 62 SUPPRESSED FACTS — PRACTICES — A ness, whocould thuspass over those who, equally in Jiagrante delictu, were practising the same frauds as their neighbours. The poet did not mention the house in Bury Street, as he ought, nor the name of Oldtield, with proper discrimina- tion, to be understood as guarding the unpractis- ed stranger from entering his house. He could not be aware, indeed, of the subsequent Bow Street examination, at which even the watchman could come out with so much intelligence ; nor of the four new estabUshments in Pall Mall with the oval panes, where every thing is affected to be done fair and above board. Furthermore, of what use is the mention of a Smith, or a Hewetson ! They can change names as well as appearances and residence ; and the unpractised in the ways of town (and indeed, the most practised) shall be deceived by the glitter- ing external of houses and persons, which change with the seasons their Proteus form ! It is the practices, the arts, and delusions resorted to, which constitute the danger; and the more finesse that is used, the more is the chance in- creased of your i'alliug a victim to the snares laid out for your destruction. How, or in what way, it came to be known, remains yet to be developed, that a young gen- YOUNG PIGEON, AND STILISH LEG. 60 tleman from Oxford, in going home to spend the vacation, took up his residence at a house in the city, totally out of the verge of all gambling. Probably he was induced to adopt that house, as well from its vicinity to the mail-coach office, as its having been the usual residence of his late father in town, and consequently, that the most respectable mercantile gentlemen from the north put up at. Hither, however, he must have been traced ; for here, on the very day of his coming, a very dashing blade of the Jirst ivater, made his appearance, and took up his residence ; although he was rather oul7'e cela, yet his driving a stilish gig and commanding a groom, could be no objec- tion to give him the common courtesies of the — — and . At the first interview with the young gentleman, who had a previous dispositionybr play, the wily gambler (for so he turned out to be) wormed himself into his esteem by dint of face, a goodly person much beyond the common cut, and the knowledge of several esteemed gra- duates, from whom he had so lately parted at the university. " By G — , Sir, you shall dine with me," ex- claimed thefine fellow : " four o'clock, say you !" ** Make it live. I have two humdrum acquaintance at that hour upon a Yes and No business, so you G 2 64 PLUCKING ARRANGED — DINNER shall dine with me. Between you and me the occasion deserves a damned good dinner ; how- ever, of that more anon." AVho would not concede an hour upon such an occasion ! A good dinner, an agreeable com- panion, and two dull friends to give audience to all you may utter, could not be unacceptable to a young gentleman full of spirit, who was almost alone, except when visited by the lawyers con- cerning the family property \vhich, by the deaths of his elder brother and father, had devolved up- on him to manage. Before they sit down to dinner, the reader must be told that the dashing blade of the stilish gig and groom was a black leg ! His two humdrum acquaintance, as he termed them, were likewise two sharpers from the same hot bed of insidious robbery — St. James's. And he was under the necessity of postponing the dinner hour, that he might have time to send for them, as probably they were then in bed ! And even when they came, another couple were sent for, the booty was expected to be so great ! The dinner over, our party of four resolved on a game at whist, and ordered a couple of packs of cards. But no: a person in the house knew one of the couj)le, wlio had come in, to have been PARTY-T-SCHEME BLOWN UP. 05 dealer at a Rouge et Noir table, and now belong- ed to a Bank, which played all comers, at *' the two sevens.'* Cards were accordingly refused. On some geateel pretence, and the refusal would no doubt have thrown our spark into a fit of mad- ness, (if we may judge by his present behaviour) but from the consolation of a promise, that to- morrow cards would be provided. During this paroxysm he paid the bill for dinner and wine, with an air which bespoke utter indifference for the sum total. Good wine with good company, quickly digest a good dinner, and make the minutes roll merrily away. No time seemed to have elapsed since dinner, when that harbinger of ill-news, the waiter entered, with the appalling information that the horses were putting to ; but there was still a good quarter of an hour to spare. " A quarter of an hour !" exclaimed the Leg : " damnation ! What horses ?" " Mail, Sir 1" smirkingly replied waiter. " 1 have taken ray place, and must depart. You may recollect I told you yesterday I should go the moment my business was finished : the fortunate postponement of dinner, enabled me happily to complete thenegociation I was upon," Said Mr. B — d, the intended dupe ; and he did g3 66 DISAPPOINTED GAMBLERS. set off, notwithstanding the pressing intreaties of the gallant leg and his two companions. Their arguments wanted logic. " Cui hono .^" asked he, inwardly ; and when he found the answer to be ** a game at Whist, to-morrow evening," and the consequent delay of two days in setting out, he came to his conclusion, which nothing could move. He went ; and the two " dull friends," went their way. But our leg expected two more of the club to look in, and did not choose to wait and hear their reproaches and vexatious remarks, which he knew would follow the disappointment and expences they underwent ; so whilst his groom was " putting to" he wrote the note, of which the following is a copy : — "H. " I am off from here : 'tis all up, the bird [pi- geon /) is flown. The bio — y b — r B — d had taken his place in the mail, and would go. Your's, S." This he wafered up, and left with the waiter; but the wafer was wet, which, as heleta significant word drop that excited much talk, the waiter resolved to open. On jumping into his gig, he in- cautiously ejaculated to his groom, in tones of dis- content, " no c/o, by G — !" Such an expression *' let the cat out of the bag" with a vengeance ; EXHORTATION — HIGH AND LOW LIFE. €7 it showed the cloven foot, and the attempt to fleece this young gentleman stood as much exposed as if the parties had been at confession. Will ye not learn, incautious youth ! from this real and veritable narration, that no pains or expence are spared to intrap you in the toils of the destroyer ? That men combine their purses and talents to defraud you of your patrimony ; no time, place, distance, or combination, being- an obstacle to the pursuit of their object. Did we not hear, with agony, the disclosures of an equally villanous attempt, at Brighton in Autumn, 1817, of one O'M — la, (a nine years resident there,) who dispatched his leg to Lon- don at a great expence to bring back a well- fledged pigeon to be plucked under his own eye? But the scheme failed throuah accident. Although we have given instances from high- life, yet the same practices come all the way, by gradations, down to the meanest man that ever had a pound to lose. A party — respectable let us suppose for a moment — meet at a house, re- spectable enough for your ideas of propriety, to play a fair game at cards. " No high betting !" No. But then, into such a party, however up- right may be the leading persons, some one or more black sheep is likely to show his front. ^ 68 FALSE DIES — ATHLETIC GAMES, leg, as arrant a black leg, as ever entered tlia purlieus of St. James's, may be found in St. Paul's church yard ; and so far as leg-ism (cheating) goes, they have as many tricks at the one as at the other place. If a man is to be done, what signifies it to him, whether that be by a game at vulgar put, or the more elegant (because frenchilied) Rouge et Noir, et tous hs deux ? What, if he gambles his all, whether it amounts to hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands ? False dice, is a common cheat, of which the game of roley pole?/ is but an imitation ; but there never was a pair made tliat by use did not lose their true die or square, and thereby receive a new bias, known only to those who are in the habit of using them. Of horses and cocks, and the atliletic games, we have said nothing : in the first place they are not London games ; and secondly, we say, bet not at all ; upon the most trivial matter they are meant but to decoy and entrap the unwary, who, if a doubt arises, is sure to be out-voted in strange company. See mor»' under the head of Lottery-offices and pretended parsons, lawyers, and doctors. MONEY-DROPPERS, Are no other than gamblers, who contrive that method to begin play. It is an almost obsolete practice ; and its twin-cheat, ring-dropping, is not less disused : Men, now-a-days, manage things more subtly ; both kinds of these droppers, too, vary their mode of proceeding to infinity. " What is this ?" says the dropper ; " my wiggy ! if this is not a leather purse with money ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! Let's have a look at it." While he unfolds its contents, his companion comes up, and claims his title to a share. " Not you, indeed ! replies the finder, this gentleman was next me ; was not you. Sir ?" To which the countryman assenting, or, perhaps, insisting upon his priority, the finder declares himself no churl in the business, offers to divide it into three parts, and points out a public house at which they may share the contents, and drink over their good luck : talks as they go of his once sharing in a much larger sum, with a " stranger, who was honourable : — nothing- like honour !" The found money is counterfeit, or screens, or else Fleet notes. They drink, and fill their grog again ; and should a little rain come on, they improve on that circumstance, or any other ; such as the coming 70 COUNTRYMAN ENTICED TO PLAY — BOYs' in of an old friend, whom the finder can barely recognise, but remenibers him by piecemeal. La Bagatelle, the draught board, or cards, con- stantly exhibit the means of staking the easily- acquired property so lately found, but which they cannot divide just now^br want of change. The countryman bets, and if he loses, is called upon to pay ; if he wins 'tis added to what is coming to him out of the purse. If, after an experiment or two, they discover he has little or no money, they run off, and leave him to answer for the reckoning. But with mo- ney, they stick to him until all is gone : if he turns a little restive they abuse him ; if he ob- jects to pay he must fight his man ; if he can do that tolerably well, they all fall on board him, and chase him forth of the house vvith execrations and coarse epithets. Such are among the latest occurrences of this sort, but they do not average once a year. Another playful mode is, for butcher's boys or stall-keepers' boys, to place a white metal button in the street, with a string fastened to the eye, both of which are pressed into the dirt. A stranger to the trick, might very naturally stoop to pick up what appears to be a shilling ; but no sooner has his fingers come in contact vvith the TRICK — DIAMONDS FOUND. 71 dirt (from which he endeavours to extract it) than the young urchin, who holds the string, draws it up suddenly, and the finder has nothing but dirty fingers for his pains. This is the least guilty trick we shall have to record. The RING-DROPPERS, Have more cunning to display in turning their wares into money ; the pretending to find a ring being the lowest and least profitable exercise of their ingenuity. It makes a part of the ring-droppers art to /?wc? things much more valuabla than those : the favourite articles are jewellery, such as broaches, earrings, necklaces and the like, made up in a paper parcel, sometimes in a small box, in which is stuck a bill of parcels with high flown descrip- tions and heavy charges. Proceeding with the dupe nearly as before, the sharper proposes, that as he is not in cash, he will willingly relinquish his share for a small proportion of the amount set down in the fictitious bill of parcels; and if you pay him one pound in ten of that amount, you are done. The diamonds are paste, the pearls are the eyes of fish, the gold is polished brass, gilt. This mode, however, and that of picking up a gold ring, close at the feet of a young servant 72 CRIMPING NEW MODELLED. girl, is very little used. " Is this your ring, young woman ? Let me see your linger ; if it is I shall find a mark there. Well ! I'll declare it's good gold ; don't you see the stamp ?" says the dropper ; and then he proceeds to inveigle her into a purchase. But the whole concern cannot amount to more than three or four shillings, and is really too shabby to detain the reader upon any longer. KIDNAPPERS, FALSE ACCUSERS, TRAPPERS, AND CRIMPS, Have much altered their plans of operations within these very few years ; for instance, the last mentioned have entirely disappeared since the year 1796 ; being put down by dint of law, and the little necessity there was for their services, when the government adopted the plan of recruiting the army out of the militia. That department of crimping which applied it- self to the land service, then, being abrogated and done away, we have only to notice that which is now practised with regard to seamen. The East India company contract with Crimps for a supply of sailors to navigate their ships out and home ; these are, for the most part Jews, who have made advances to the sailors of money (very SEAMEN S TICKETS. 73 small sums), clothes, victuals and lodgings; — every article being charged extravagantly high. The poor fellows are accordingly placed under a sort of espionage, if not close confinement, till the ship is ready to receive them ; and then they are conducted on board at Gravesend, by the Crimp and assistants, and a receipt taken forthera. In this process there is nothing very frightful : the men want berths, and the Crimp wants to be sure of his men : the grand do is in seamen re- ceiving any thing but money of the Crimp ; it is in watches, buckles, hats, and jackets that the robbery is committed. And in the victuals, — foh I the whole is barefaced unblushing rob- bery. With the same view of doing the unwary poor fellows, these Crimps get hold of their "Tickets" as soon as they come on shore, upon which tl ey make advances of watches, jewellery and such stuff, to about one twentieth of the amount. Not only is this the case in London, but at all the outports it is practised to a very great extent, in war-time particularly. Portsmouth was the seat of unheard-of villainies, and rapid fortunes, during the long war that has just been brouiiht to a close, Happy would it be for poor Jack, were this all : he is sometimes brought in indebted to the H 74 FALSE-ACCUSERS OF CRIMES. Crimp to a large nominal amount, by what is called a long-shove attorney, or more appro- priately, a black shark, and thrown into jail ! 1 1 There he lits until his body is v/anted, and then the Iricarcerator negotiates with him for his liberty, to be permitted to enter on board again. Seamen should take care of their tickets and discharges, though they spend all their money ; but if he wants a bit of lark, why nothaveit with his relations and friends, in his own native place, to which a stage coach would carry him in a day or two, at th.e rate of ten knots an hour ? Advice that ought not to be thrown away at any time, much less during war. The same class in society, who thus entrap the incautious sailor, are not likely to be compunc- tunus ill taking in the lands-man. One of their chief moves at this game is to charge an innocent person witiia crime; firstbyinuendo, if in-doors at a pubHc house, and tlien direct, provided they have there a good assemblage of their fellows. These will swear to any thing that may be sug- gested by their spokesman ; and it is best to re- but their most insignificant imperii nencies at the outset, and to shew the proper indignalion con- iiistently with your character : If you once evince syjnptoms of fear, standing silently horrQV-struck, NANCY COOPER HANGED. 75 at the preposteroiisness of the iniijutation, they repeat the blow with redoubled Torce, and you are lost, at least your money ; for it is to obtain your money that the charge is made. Others still lower walk up to gentlemen in the streets, and accuse them of robbery, or of unna- tural crime , of ha\Hng debauched his wife or sister, or getting a girl with child — especially if they know your name. Some years ago a woman accu-^ed a noble lord of having rol>bed her of a fifty pound note, and he wa^ tried at the Old Bailey for it ; but she was immediately convicted of (..erjury, and transported. Much later, one Ann Siadford accused a person of murdering another man in her presen'^e ; hut the latter ap- pea-ing in court, staggered belief of her evidence : she too was convicted, iike the former, and about the time we are writing, may have reached her place of desiinntioit. Botany Bay. Both these women were posti^utes; but the latter was a country occurrence. A fell6w in the regiment of foot guards, whose nickname, Nancy Cooper, designates his character, (as it was considered by the givers), accused a genileraau in the Strand of a beastly offence, said to have been perpetrated in St. James's Park. Struck dumb at the heinousness h2 76 CHILD-BEARING CHEAT. •of the charge, the accused gentleman complied with the demand of giving what money he had about him ; but immediately alter was advised to prosecute, vvhich he did most effectually, for Nancy was hanged at the Old Bailey. Women of the town will walk up to one whom they think they can easily astonish, with their stays stutl'ed out with rags (perhaps), and remind- ing him of certain foolish familiarities, in which he has indulged, persuade him by all the tokens in her power, that he is the father of the child of which she is noiv pregnant. [An indisputable fact.] Here she enlarges her tale pitifully, with an allusion to her hclpl ss state and want of money ; next touching upon the hardness of parish officers, and that with a little assistance she shall be able to lie-in without applying to them, or swearing the child, which she ho, es may die ! and herself too. Asks him whether he would advise her to get relieved at the ad- vertised l}ing-in houses — such as (he " Blue Lamp" in Loudon House-yard ; — or, deeper still, she invites him to procure abortion medicines : should he consent, he is a ruined man. A noble lord (T d) was safely robbed in this way so lately as this winter, 1817. After using these topics, she asks directly for BLOOD-HOUNDS SUBORN CRIMES. '7? the money he niay iia^ e about him r Hectors and bull.es, not a little, and insists upoii his coming to see her ; or that otherwise she shall come and see him in a different sort of way. At what- ever stage of this boisterous meeting he bleeds the least sum of money prooable for the occasion, she is always ev^v after sticknig m his skirts : if the silly man takes fright, and is afraid of being discovered, she brings a companion, and they to- gether bully him out of his money at proper in- tervals, — perhaps, in a state bordering on distrac- tion, they obtain a promi^^e of marriage ! I leave the reader to contemplate the eftiects of such an union, on his purse, and peace of uiind. Those of which we have spoken, are accusations without any foundation, there are otner and blacker kinds of criminal charges, made against individuals, that have aome ground-work to build charges upon ; but which becomes, nevertheless, more atrocious as the perpetrators have twice double objects in view, viz. the commission of crime, the detection, the death of ihe cul'.rit, and payment for their villainy. Of these we shall hereafter speak, under their modern and most appropriate title of Blood hounds, which the reader is desired to see ! Every false accusution goes to the utter ex*» m3 ifS THIEVES ASSUME TO BE tinction of character, they include the fear of imprisonment, and nearly all aim at the life of the accused ; which there is too good reason to believe they sometimes take away, inasmuch as having once ventured to broach the subject there is no retreat left them. In all cases of false ac- cusation or entrapment, the accusers generally prove too much ; acting always with indecent eagerness they overshoot their mark. ' PRETENDED OFFICERS. Seeing the success which has attended the de- predations of officers bearing his majesty's staff — as Vaughan, Brock, Pelham, Johnson and others, many an old thief a&isumcs the garb and autho- rity of such, in order the better to carry on their own, or their accomplices' robberies. This is usually done at night, by ordering off, perempto- rily, any casual passenger, or other })erson, who may be upon the watch, while the business is carrying on. At other times, small thieves get about among groups of people, particularly on Saturday night ; and one crying out *' be off," ** go home," *' come, come, I'll have no more of this 1" the people show their spirit by reprobat- ing such conduct; when the accomplice pretends OFFICERS — CASE OF ONE. 71) to take part and carney with them ; and hereupon in the way to the gin shop, while there, or at coming out, they purloin meat, halfpence, or if the incautious novice produces his purse, they prefer that, and its scanty contents. I one Saturday night saw a fellow at this game in Whitecross Street, and wishing to be in it, I got into a lot of about a dozen old women, every one of them more or less sniiffifi but they were purloined of pieces of meat by the shabby fellow, who declared himself an officer, " and talked about his authority ;" but he was below my " cut," and I blinked him, as there was no one there worth " doing.'' AVell pleased was I to see a little man step up to him, and after demanding what authority he meant, squared at him, — • took him a topper, and a breast-cut ; and after- wards, with the assistance oi' the patrol, he was conveyed to the watch house in Bunhill Row. Here he was yVi^^ecf of his eatables, and stood the gammon well as ever I saw ; but he got clear off, because has was known to two of the Wor- ship Street Traps, who were in attendance there; and they broiled the stolen mutton, while the gentleman v\ho h^A. Jibbed him was fined a half gallon for his interference. This mutton-thief turned out to be a Nose to one of these officers. 80 PRECAUTION IN 5EARCHINC. and that was reason enough for getting off ea*y.He that very blessed night, in my own hearing, split upon Bill-Bill of Golden Lane ; av ho only escap- ed the sessions by reason of the Nose having called too late upon the officer ; vhich latter (his wife declared) got up, and had been gone out ever since five o'clock (in the afternoon), "because the house was too hot to hold him.'* Should a " novice in town," ramble into a public house, late in the evening, if it be not very respectable (and that does not matter, at all times) he may have one or two set upon hira, pretending to be officers, ordering him and his party home, in expectation of a treat, but if dis- covered, pretending to be upon the lark. Land- lords in general pull with them, because they are old customers, and do good to a house. OF SEARCHING. In cases where a party accused stands search, articles are passed into possession of the searched, as suits the purpose of the searcher. When the lads were taken up on Tower Hill for smashing, they had no money about them bad or good until after a kind of second search, when the officer conveyed the base coin iuto their possession. WATCHMEN ROB. LEART. 81 Some years befb.e, Mr. B— of Newgate Street was found intoxicated by the watchman, but his watch could not be found, and tlie drunk- ard accused the guardian of the night of having stolen it, to his certain knowledge. Search was made, the watchman was dismantled, but no watch (ould be found upon either party until the house was cleared, and then it was discovered upon the right owner. Very few people believed it had been there all the time : but the highest part of the joke was to follow : the watchman, threatened un action for defamation, and received Jive pounds as a compromise for the damage his character sustained from the foulness of the charge ! When Jem Leary underwent his second exami- nation for the niurrier of Clifford, his clasp knife was proiuced; wliich was pretended to have been fouiid on the spot, but which he on his Jirst examination, stated to hare lent to the deceased at supper time. ISow the deed was not committed with a knife, but a hammer; the accu.sed claimed the knife the moment it was produced, said he had left it at home in the cup-board the same morning, — yet was this clumsy incident received m proof. Leary was hanged, and the officer discharged for something else. 82 SMUGGLERS. Some custom house officers searched G s and Co., in St. Paul's Church yard, for contrahand silk goods, in vain ; for which they would be liable to an action for damages, and were threaten- ed with it ; hwt fortunately one of them found an old Bandana handkerchief in a dirty-clothes bag, which he coiald swear to as foreign manu- facture. However, the assembled domestics and "warehousemen would all have sworn equally positive the handkerchief belonged to neither of them, or their master. N. B. When premises are entered for a search, the family should divide, and accompany each officer. The same as to personal search, a friend of the accused should'be present. As publicans are liable to the penalties for game, or contraband goods found on their pre- mises, though these should belong to other peo- ple, they should be careful for whom they take charge of goods, as they are sometimes left for the purpose of laying information. Tom Minter, the Stretton's Ccffee House, Newgate market, was so served - but got clear over it, in the Court of Exchequer! ! Stopp, of the Queen's head, St. John's Street, had his house searched for silk PRACTICES Of INFORMERS — INVEIGLE. 83 woods of which some were seized, and the fine, o after every plea for moderation, he got over only by paying upwards of a hundred pounds. INFORMERS. Informers, who find no real dealers in contra- band, are obliged to evince their activity to their employers by creating them. They wheedle themselves into the good graces of some unsus- pecting Noodle at the Alehouse; generally a drunkard who has good connections in life. Bim, they stuff up with a great idea of what each other is doing in the trade ; for there are always two or even six, seven, ov eight frequenting the same house. \\-A\m'r primed \\\m in this way, some goods are produced upon the sly, a lamentation is set up that such great beauties, and so cheap, cannot find a sale ; how happy many ladies would be only to look at such a shawl, or gentlemen such fine large Bandanas ; — then the Noodle's friends are described, as near as may be, and if he does not open his mouth, a direct offer is made to him, his lionesty commended, and if lie appear a little seedy they rig him out. For a space of time, be it more or less, he goes on and prospers for a while, thinks it a fine career to move in, and probably, by his example, induces some other 84 PRACTICES TO TAKE IN poor devil, like himself, sometimes much more respectable than either, to embark in the same trade. Then conies the tragedy. The informers are in full possession of the names of all the pur- chasers, and the whole Hue of connections go to wreck. If they mean to go on again in the same career, they manage to get locked up at a Spunging house; and then inform against the Noodle they had first duped, who is brought to the same place, and the old Informer assumes the character of the '* wolf in sheep's clothing," worms him of the remaining names of his cus- tomers, and informations are issued and penalties levied against the whole. Both parties express their sorrow, that the predicament in which they were placed should have driven them to such an act, and they are then at liberty to pursue their avocations at the same place. The more timid remove to great distances, even so far as from the Commercial road turnpike to Cork Street, Pica- dilly, others only into the city, about Newgate market, to Aldersgate Street, and such neighbour- hoods. In the summer of 1816, Brown obtained a list of persons likely to buy silk goods in the counties of Buckingham, Northampton, and parts adjacent from a gentleman of high respecta- OTHERS. — brown's JOURNEY. 85 bility, with whom he had become acquainted at a dining house in Newgate Street ; — ^ my Teddy accordingly undertakes the journey as regularly as ever tradesman went upon his business. Some months elapsed before he could lay his informa- tions ; for, getting into the King's Bench, his real creditors kept him there and in Horsemonger Lane, four or five months. However, slow and sure, is a good maxim. Some few at Stoney Stratford were taught a lesson they will not short- ly forget to the tune of 200/. or 300/. each. N. B. These instances show respectable persons how very careful they ought to be in taking re- commendations from their most valuable friends, to pursue a course so likely — more than likely — to turn out as these did. This is called a gen- teel do. British goods are the highest hoax upon the knowing ones. Shawls, scarfs, elastics, &c. are now mane equal to the French, in some instances superior; and will puzzle the learnjed to find out the difference. In December, 1817, the court of Exchequer was filled with witnesses, the best judges of silk goods in the kingdom, who gave their opinion, like men, that our manufactures beat Monsieur's hollow. The defendants, Hard- ing & Co. were therefore fined only in about a 66 BRITISH AND FRENCH GOODS. fortieth part of the penalties incurred, as a com- promise. This was a j^reat triumph for the British manufacturer; but none for those who lived by hawking about the like goods for foreign, and selling them as such. This latter go is more particularly in vogue with regard to Bandana handkerchiefs, which are now made to resemble the best Batavia. The house of P. Johnson & Co. make some heavier than P. T., even sixteen ounces and a quarter, though it must be allowed the company's goods [C. G.] are larger and superior, not being too high-dressed. However, the British is, and must be taken, as a very fair substitute for the " real India." ARTICLES SMUGGLED. Of smuggling as well as of smugglers a word or two may not be amiss. The quantity of fo- reign spirits so introduced to, and used in London, is very small : no one can hope to buy that which pretends to be such, of even tolerable quality ; so that the a[)jtarcnt saving of a very few shillings, per gallon is counterbalanced by the evil of swal- lowing a hot, liery, ill-cleansed, and consequently ill-flavoured article, made up as it is of spirit ob- tained from every variety of obnoxious materials. ESTIMATE OF QUALITIES. 87 Teas and Coffee, the former particularly, must be bad. For they are such as come under one of these heads, — 1. Purloined from the war- houses. 2. Sweepings, 3. Imported from the continent or in American vessels. Now, 1. that which has been secreted about the persons of the workmen and porters, is likely to have acquired a flavour very different from what a delicate taste would expect from pure tea. 2. Sweepings from the holds of Indlamen, as well as the sur- plus sea- stock of officers and men, must lose their virtue by exposure, whatever the appearance may be, besides the contamination of every thing offensive. 3. Teas brought to Europe by fo- reigners, are not, at the beginning, so good as those of our East India Company ; who pick and choose and cull all the best good^ of every descrip- tion in India as well as here, leaving to private adventurers, private traders and foreigners the refuse. This must be more particularly the case with tea, because the company bviy nineteen twentieths of all that is brought to Canton ; the Dutch, the Suedes, French, and Americans, di- viding the remaining one-twentieth between them. Such is the sort of tea which, on account of the high duty, is smuggled (in very small quanti- ties) about London. I 2 88 PRIVATE STILL — METHOD OF Coffee that is hawked about is not smuggled as is pretended : it i*- stolen, or inferior, or jobbed for against other goods. Candles and Soap are generally as good as the regular trade, sometimes belter, and make the single exception in that respect, and as to cheap- ness, of any smuggled articles, you may per- haps obtain prime moulds at one shilling per doz. less than dipt candles ; and about as much saving may be made upon soap. PRIVATE DISTILLERIES. But that species of contraband which is carried on to the largest extent, and is most ruinous to those engaged in it, is the distillation of ardent spirits ; at one and the same time, the easiest ef- fected, and the hardest to work at of all the illicit manufactnres, as the article is difficult to dispose of whtn made, lor publicans hesitate before they embark in a trade, irom the trammels of which they can never be free. The makers and vendors frequently turn round upon their heel, and inform against the purchasers ; upon )yhom, if they are licensed victuallets, the penal- ties are treble, — and the exise commissioners sel- dom relax so much on this as tht y do upon other offences. CONDUCTING — SALE DETECTED, 89 3Iost private distillers keep pigs ; for this rea- son, that they not only eat vip the residue of the materials, but are also a good cloak in brirging in and carrying out whatever may be necessary. The pigs go to Smithtield, fat, and store pig* are brought back in a httle cart. A large basket containing bladders goes forward and backward, and the business is now effected with more safety than ever, as I myself have witnessed. Being out upon a drinking spree with four or five others in the autumn of 1817, near Chelsea, I saw one of these carts stop at the door, the driver calling for 9. pint of beer, as he descended with a small mar- ket basket in his hand. As he did not come into the room where we were, but w ent backwards into a dark kitchen-looking place, my curiosity was raised, so 1 watched him through the glass as I sat on the table : he stooped down, as if conceal- ing something, and went away in a short time without speaking to any one ; as the landlord never stirred out of our company, and the pot boy who served him with the beer had been or- dered out by his master to get in the pots. What was my surprise upon sneaking backwards, to find he had not drank half of his beer ! which I then recollected he did not pay for, so far as I could see. He had placed two bladders of spi- i3 90 SUCCESSFUL SPECULATIONS. nts underneath the seat, one of which we boned in the most open way imaginable, before the landlord's face; while two of them made a bit of lark with the poor fellow, the others walked off at a round pace with the bladder of spirits, which proved double strong, but ill-flavoured. Drunken men and fools, are said to tell the truth ; so think I. Out of such have I wormed a pretty precious sight of information. Out of three or four facts, and shrewd guesses at some- thing more, I come to the conclusion, thatseveral of our topping Distillers began with (though they may not continue) private stills. Every one has heard of the detection of Mr. L-— — -, heretofore sheriff of London ; add to him two neighbour distillers who are now at the zenith of commercial prosperity, but who, nevertheless, formerly kept the private still going, which form- ed the nucleus of their respective fortunes. In the dark recesses of an illicit haunt, was laid the foundation of those splendid equipages, which dazzle the drivelling practitioner of a more honest calling ! Ascending from the north door of Saint Paul's N. N. E. i N. (as a sailor would direct an enquirer) at the rate of five mile* an hour, you shall espy one of ihem in ten minutes, over the starboard bow, marked R. near DUFFERS — NEW MODES. 91 the forechains; and at fifteen minutes run, 'tis ten to one but you spy the other right a-head, while upon the larboard wake her gallant well- found tender lies at anchor in Carthusian Creek. Of all smugglers, or pretended smugglers, the most successful are those termed BUFFERS, MISTAKENLY CALLED DUFFERS. Many of them make a good living, one or two have become rich to ray certain knowledge, and almost all of them heretofore carried the pack upand down the country at fairs, great markets, and revels. They are invariably north-country- men. Jordaine was a Glasgow man, and made ten thousand pounds by the last mentioned pro- fession, but never buffed it in the streets of London, so far as I ever heard, saw, or believe. The term buffer is derived from the practice which once prevailed of carrying Bandanas, Sars- nets, French stockings, &c- next their shirts; so, as they were obliged to undress in order to come at the goods, or in other words to strip to the skin or buff, they obtained the name of buffers. AVhen j^Ir. Barrington did his book, they might, and probably did, carry their goods always about them, and show them in the streets ; now, however, they carry on trade in a more genteel manner. 02 SPEECH OF, AND MASTER- leaving a pack at some public house near where they mean to ply, to which they invite the un- wary passenger. The chief haunt for the buffers has been for some years at the back of Saint Olave's church near Union Hall ; for the packmen in London, though they are not numerous, yet in ray night travels, I have frequently seen five or six at a time turn in at the Falcon, Falcon Square. Now these chaps are not rogues, in the strict meaning of the word — they only sell to the best advantage. If they can persuade you an article is better than it actually is, you have nothing to complain of — every tradesman will do the same. The chief objection to them lies in their mode of operations, and in their overstrained recommenda- tion of their goods. As in every other species of cheatery, they look out for the unknowing, or silly, to whom, walking up with a demure phiz, and interesting air, they announce the pleasing intelligence that they have on sale (as may suit your appearance) " an excellent piece of cordu- roy, just sufficient for a breeches piece,'* — or- " some real India muslin, just brought home by a relation, enough for two gowns, at the price of one ;" or '' what would you think of some beau- tiful French silk stockings as cheap as cotton. GAME OF DUFFERS. 93 and ten times as strong ? Sir, there are two or or three pieces of real India handkerchiefs, fine wear, that will last your life-time ; and always loolc well, never wear out : One is yellow — one is chocolate, — one is . What a pity ! Only just now I sold a [country] gentleman, — your size, — a beautiful fine waistcoat piece {de- scribing the one you wear)— full size, genteel, fast coloars,never wear out, at — whatd'yethink ?" (then he starts out with a sum just half its value) — " Down there. Sir ; yes. Sir, at that house with the grapes out, and chequers on, I'll show you such things as you never saw. Very well worth your notice, Sir ; no harm done, though you should not buy. I have a pint of porter there half drank, just step in and look at them.'* Then, part by persuasion, part by force, he hands along his customer to a dark back room, where probably he exhibits some really good articles, if he has a judge of them to deal with, but taking care to " ring the changes" upon wrapping them up, on the event of a purchase. The cer- tainty of a " r/o" is no longer problematical. , A master- piece of the game is, where his con- federate comes in, and begins a conversation v»ith his brother buffer. At the first, quite strangers to each other, tlie comer-in proposes to withdraw. 94 CONFEDERATES, AND tjirough bashfulness, but is ordered to stay by t^ie confederate, perhaps asked to partake of drink ; for dl which kindness he seems much obliged, and expresses his thanks clumsily. At length more emboldened, he introduces a word or two in favour of the goods, magnifies their value, recommends a purchase, and all at once recollects having bought some article or other he now Avears of such another man. The two knaves join in the description of the man, both agree in the particulars, and in his character for honesty, shake hands and drink together. Not less frequently, real tradesmen, living in the neighbourhood, who frequent the same house, gooil natuiedly (or with a worse motive) join in the recommendation of the article to be sold, and the delusion is then complete — the stranger is thus taken in with the aid of those who ought to be his protectors. Should you ultimately refuse to purchase, you must put up with a great deal of abuse, provocations to lay wagers, and to fight, or go through with the quarrel by contending against fearful odds. Whatever money you pro- duce never returns to your pockets again ; the landlord is sure to take [)art against you, " for the credit of his house ;" and all present will declare themselves ready to swear that you have perpe- BYSTANDERS, DELUDE. 05 frated such things as in fact yoa never once so much as thought of. Think yourself well off if you get away without a black eye ; but you must lay your account in a kick of the , or tweak by the nose. N. B, Never suffer yourself to be goaded to purchase any article whatever in the streets : they are invariably cheats who attempt it. The shortest way is to decline tlie least particle of conversation ; and if they place their fingers on your arm to stop your progress — peremptorily bid them "hands off," or if you have sufficient strength, knock them down. "Whoever places his hand upon your person in the street has no- thing good in view, be it man or woman. JOBBERS. JOBBERS of nearly the same description a- bound, who do not stop people in the street, but ply at public houses, offering for sale tobacco, slioes, coals, candles, and sucli other heterogene- ous articles as they think likely to suit the com- pany then there, or the landlord ; which latter generally gets supplied with every article of house- keeping, including meat, poultry, salt, clothes, &c. from such " customers. " They pretend to Have commissions from respectable houses, whom 96 PRETENDED COMMISSIONS they sometimes name, asserting they can pick out goods superior to what you yourself would have an opportunity of choosing. You will ge- nerally find them carrying a small parcel, their pockets stuffed with portable articles, and al- ways a tolerable shabby great coat. An air of deep interest, approaching the appearance of care, seems imprinted on their countenances ; arising from the constant solicitude they entertain of attracting the favour of every one they address, and the seriousness necessary to impress upon purchasers the goodness of their articles. Some- times when they have offered one or two kinds of goods, and are at a loss what you may be in want of, they pretend to have jobbed awaj^ others against them, in this manner: " only look at that sample, my good Sir ; turn it over; I never could sell it so low, but having given cotton goods, by which I got a good profit, in exchange, I can afford to let these go at 20 per cent, under cost price." Here a bill of the goods is produced (nick named a " salt water invoice,") or a me- morandum book, equally genuine, to prove his words. Names of respectable persons who have been his customers, are also adduced to raise your confidence ; and even the place of his own resi- dence is mentioned, where a few years ago the OF REDUCED TRADESMEN. 97 jobber lived in affluence. Such information is seldom untrue; for they are for the most part reduced tradesmen, (who have therefore a long string of acquaintance,) that live by this mode of carrying on trade : neither is the thing in itself disreputable, unless when made so by the in- troduction of arts and wiles, and misrepresenta- tions to obtain sale, and cheatery in the weight or measure when sold. It cannot be commendable, either for the jobbers to watch strangers into public houses, there to press upon them by plau- sible arguments, articles for which they have no immediate necessity ; therefore, let me advise the reader, with a N. B. Not to make purchases in public houses at all, even though he should once have known, under very different circumstances, the poor man who tenders his bargains for sale ; for the prac- tice of such an itinerant way of trade, with all its concomitants of persuasion and deception, effectuates an alteration in the character and principles, us well as the manner of life, of the best men in the world ; while the balance in point of numbers, is considerably in favour of the totally different sort among us. For instance, what ought we to think of a man, who, after sustaining for years an unimpeachable name, and K 98 TREATMENT AND REPRISALS, filling a distinguished office in the city of Lon- don, should be found selling a pound of tea " plated ?" that is, at top and bottom a thin layer of fine hyson, and in the middle the rankest bohea, of Dutch importation ! Next to these, as a warning to avoidance, we must notice the BARKERS, Who are of Moorfields origin, where they press yon to buy household-goods and furniture; as they do clothes in Rosemary Lane, ?even Dials, Field Lane, and Houndsditch. Ladies dresses used to be barked pretty much in Cranbourn Alley and the neighbourhood oi' Leicester Square ; but it is pleasant to have to notice the abatement of the nuisance in a great measure. The shop- women content tbems-elvts, now-a-days, with merely asking strangers to look at their goods. I scarcely know what to recommend to my reader in such cases, for he would not like, per- haps, to follow my example: when these fellows were showing me from room to room, and drag- ging me upstairs and down, I used to manage to carry ofi' portable articles, as inK-bottles — plnted crewet-stands, small lea-caddies, and such like sort of little things as would easily squeeze How KNOWS?. 99 up aud stow away. I may, however, repeat what I have said elsewhere, and that is " knock down the man, or indeed the woman, who dares to touch you with the hands :" should you wish to decline this, at least huit the intruder with «' hands oft, fellou 1" MOCK AUCTIONS. Another set of these barkers are employed at MOCK AUCTIOISS, and no other. «* Walk in! the auction is now on," or "just going to begin," they utter, in coarse stentorian strains. Such auctions are ejsily distinguished from the real one>, notwithstanding th.ey assume all the exter- nal marks of genuineness, even up to advertising in the newspapers, and being held in the house of a person lately gone away, or dead. They are called mock auctions, because no intention exists of selhng under certain prices, previously fixed upon ; which, although not high, is invariably too much for the quality of the goods — which are again of a very inferior cast. And, they are fur- ther known, by the anxiety evinced to show the goods to strangers the moment they enter ; by the overstrained panegyrics bestowed upon every thing put up ; by the exacerbated vocabulary of the auctioneer, who endeavours to jest, to bully, k2 100 NIGHT-AUCTIONS — BARGAINS. and to jaw you into a purchase, asking you in a most petulant way, what you offer for this, that, and the other ? All night auctions are of this sort : the seller having purchased the goods for the express purpose of auctioning them offy often pushing the price exorbitantly beyond the real value ; asseverating that the manufacturer never will be paid ; and increasing his earnestness the more he lies, in order to keep up the delusion. Sometimes, though the sale has not begun when you enter, they will immediately begin business, and perhaps one among" them will pretend to make a purchase ; not only so, he will eren pay down the money, so that this is likely to induce you to make a biduing. An equally deep man- CEuvre is, the offer to take back, or exchange, the articles under sale, for others in a day, a week, or ten days. This is moie pariicularly the case with watches : if you do so take them back, you pay through the nose for tiie exchange, and you find out too late you had better have taken Dr. John- son's advice, and dealt " at a stately shop, at once, where it would not be worth their while to take you in for a pound or two, at the expence of their reputation." On the other hand, it is not to be denied, that a great many bargiiins are met with at auctions EXTENSIVE CHFATERY. 101 of even the worst sort ; especially during the late few years of distressed trade, when manufacturers were in the habit of raising the wind, by sending goods to be sold for what they would fetch, — be that much or little. But here double destruction awaited them ; the auctioneer proposes to give his acceptances at once for the sum total ; or what is still worse, incites the deluded men to go on making more goods, to an immense amount ; but before the bills becoine du^, the acceptor decamps ; the Mart, (as such places are called) changes hands once or twice into the possession of his coadjutors, and after undergoing other transmogrifications, it is at length shut up. This was precisely as it happened at the famous Mart outside Temple Bar, kept by little Williams. He "did the natives," as he used to term it, two or three times, transferring his business to one or other of his colleagues. The last time was that in which he took in a poor hat- ter for a thousand silk hats, and another for twice the number of chip ones ; a Yorkshire man for a great quantity of second broad cloths ; another for kerseymeres, and pelisse cloths ; and others for pipes of beer and of wine. The first description of hats, were sold at three shiUings each less than cost price : the cloths in somewhat the same pro- k3 102 MODERN CONTRIVANCES, portions ; and the wine was bartered away to one J y, in Holborn, for linens ; but was after- wards recovered by action at law, when all those facts came out. One M 1 made an abor- tive effort to continue the fun ^ as F r used to call it ; but failed for want of that gumption, or decidedly rogues' tricks, which is necessary in the performan( e of great actions. Upon this occasion, who can doubt, but that great bargains were to be met with ! But then the time it takes up, and the circumspection necessary to avoid being taken in, besides the chances that exist against the recurrence of the same ingenious devices (little Williams being dead) contribute to render an experiment unsafe. IN PERAMBULATING THE STREETS Either for business or for pleasure, the stranger will have to withstand a great number of subtle contrivances to come at his money, which we shall treat upon in the last place; meantinje, we will speak of those other more violent means, where the person is touched^ or his mind is intimidated^ to come at the same ends, viz. obtaining the pro- perty of the unwary stranger. This is the most p^2Yo5op//zca/ mode of arrange- ment ; and as every thing is done now-a-days ANTIQUATED TRICKS, OBSOLETE. 103 bj- (lint of head-work, Ave can discover no good reason why a little learning should not be intro- duced into the " London Guide." Certainly a plan much preferable to that gallimaufry of in- coherencies, and antiquated rigmarole of precau- tionsagainst evils that no longer exist, — of obsolete terms, and disused methods, — entitled " Piing's Frauds of London," scarcely a line in a page of which is applicable to the present times, and present practices ; no more applicable to the present day, than the " Cheats of Scapin," or those of *' Gil Bias," are to the present manners of Spain. And yet the trash of that poor miserable vav' ment has been adopted, and repiinted into Mr. Barrington'sbook, " The LondonSpy ;" of which it comprises about one half, as near as I can reckon; another quarter of that London Spy is occupied either in telling us about horse-racing and other coMwfry cheats, or the details of mal-practices up- on the river Thames, which no longer exist. These latter are copied out of one of the books I have by me, written twenty years ago, before tho^e Docks were formed which entirely altered the practices upon, and commercial appearance of the river. A man might as weil talk of the beauties of Grecian building in the reign of king Harry, as of the 104 THAMES POLICE. STALL- the frauds committed by " scuffle-hunters, mud- larks, light horsemen and heavy horsemen, upon the trade of the river Thames" that do not exist.* The means of perpetrating these robberies are taken away, by the ships unloading in the docks, (three great basins, or more, enclosed with walls) into which it is impossible to penetrate improperly, and out of which no one goes without search, of whom there can be the viost distant doubt as to accuracy of conduct. Aided by the active ex- ertions of the marine-police, those extensive establishments have extinguished nearly all the old methods of robbing the ships and quays ; in lieu of which, new and more daring acts of piracy have been adopted. Of these we shall speak hereafter; these observations being only used objectively, weshallhere dismiss the subject forthe present, to resume the course we just now pointed out — the exposure of such villains as extract your money by putting you in fear of personal injury. If bufi'ers and mock auctioneers intimidate by their vehemeat manner of pressing tlieir wares upon you, no less do the KEEl^ERS of STALLS * Even the terms of ait have clian^ed : for instance the word cull or cully, a sti limpet's kept roan, then, now means & uian taUcu iu by her v\iles. KEEPERS — B4RKERS. 103 impose upon the credulity of strangers, and treat them with incivilit)' and even rudeness, when these decline to purchase their trumpery. " You did not want to 6?/y," said one of these fellows to a well-dressed gentleman lately ; *' here have you pulled about my books, and asked the price of four or five, but don't know one that you want. No; you don't want to ^m?/," said he with a sneer, insinuating that he was likely to steal ! At various points, ready made CLOIHES SHOPS employ Barkers at the door, who pace up and down before the window, and almost for- •cibly hand you into the shop; where you are set upon by two or three, who will get a garment upon you whether you are v/illing or no, demand- ing twice its real value, and if you are a flat, you cannot get out of it with the gentle use of words. Abuse follows you, if you do not pur- chase ; you are robbed if you do. In what respect are such scum of tradesmen better than the well-detined villain, who being one of the PILFERERS IN THE STREETS runs off with the very garment you have bought. If you carry the bundle yourself, one of these will run against you, or shuffle you along from 106 TIPPET STOLEN, HOV/. behind, and away j^ces j-our bundle or parcel. His companion, if he has one, interrupts the pur- suit, or joining it, impedes your progress, by treading- on your heels or kicking them up. 1 have ^een one of these shabby dogs (who were alwaysbelow my cut) take ofFa lady's tippet in the street, at noon day ; nor has she discovered it for the space of two minutes, — a time fully sulFicient for his purpose, and enough to ensure his safety. 1 thought this trick the nearest to picking of pockets for neatness and cleverness, of any I ever saw. His plan was to loosen the tie round the neck, by getting hold of the end of thel^ ribbon, and reaching over her shoulders point out sometliing in the window at which she stood gaping, the bow was of course pulled through. This manoeuvre passed off very well ; for he held in his hand the remains of an orange, and his ac- complice occasioned an agitation among the crowd at the same moment. Lifting wp thelower corner of the tippet, another ribbon which fastened it round the waist, was cut, and then gently raiding it near the back of the neck, he disengaged it from all further obstacle — and bolted. It was a warm spring day, and I dare say she caught no cold. SCHOOL PILFERERS. 107 Others, still lower and more daring, knock off the hat, if it be a good one, and run away with it. The sufferer liaving received a pretty hard blow with hand or stick, is not in a condition immediately to follow ; and the pilferer, though a mean one, is safe enough from harm in a few seconds. Mr. Tufton was thus served in St. James's place (January, 15, 1818;) but the shabby per[;etrator ran to a passage of the {}ark which had then no outlet, and was taken accord- ingly- Some again wait about the park, at the King's Mews, or wherever errand boys or porters set down their loads — the former to play, the latter to drink ; and while they are in the midst of their fun, away goes the goods committed to their care. A few go about who axe false porters, or a kind of dog-sheep, who contrive to talk or trss up for gin, with the real ones, and meanwhile *' ring the changes'" by walking off with their loads. Upon opening the exchanged package, stone?, or bricks, or (if a cask) vapid water, is found to inhabit a tolerably good looking external. Not many years ago, a lot of young miscreants nsed to wait the coming out of day-scholars of an afternoon, at dusk ; and, affecting to be full of lark^ make off with their hats, books, or great 108 COACHES DODGED. coats. The prosecution of one of them, a Mulatto boy of twenty, for an offence of this precise nature, in Air Street, Piccadilly, put an end to the de- predations of that gang ; and the magistrate at Marlborough Street in thanking our informant for having secured the offender, assured the by- standers, that no affected gloss of a sportive sort, should guarantee to this nursery for thieves, im- punity for thtir early offences. They begin with small wares, imd in time deal at wholesale. Those who PROWL THE STREETS all day upon the look-out, make a dead stand-still whenever people are getting out of hackney, or stage coaches, to see what may turn up to their profit. If a box, or other package, is left a little astray, while the pas- senger is overjoyed at the meeting of his or her friend, advantage is taken of the circum^timce, and it becomes fair game. It may so happen, if it be a hackney coach, that the driver and the thief may be acquainted ; and then the former places joine of the luggage conveniently for carrying off, as thus : standing rather wide, he puts the article to be honed between his legs, and then reaching into the coach for more, he steps forward a little, so thatliis coat conceals from the view o{'\\\sfare both that i)art of the luggage and the thief; the latter stooping down behind the hind-wheel AND ROBBED — COVENT GARDEN. 109 drags the article towards him, and bolts off. Should the fare have gone into the house, the same end is attained by plantiiig tliC article to be honed, a little on one side of the door, while ho- nest Jarvy enters with another part of it. This last is the cleverest way by half; but some people b)'- their vigilance prevent either the one or the other from taking place. At any rate, those who take hackney coaches with luggage (or indeed without) should never permit the driver to take up any one on the box, but peremptorily order such fellows off; they two being invariably dishonest palls : need it be added, that if he is thus driven from the box, he gets up behind, or runs along- side, the same hazard is incurred, of finding him lurking about the coach at the end of your ride ! The first-mentioned method of thieving, I have seen practised upon fruit in Covent Garden mar- ket, at the earliest dawn of morning, when 1 have been out upon my rambles. A coster-monger demands the price of cherries, and makes a fair bidding, which entitles him to look at the goods ; these, being packed in two-peck baskets, placed one upon another, he removed the first between his legs, while he reaches after another basket. His confederate handed off the first, but the L liO WAGGONS nOBEED, AND seller prevented any more iVoin beiaa; disturbed, or I make nodoiibi, iVom the activity of the second man, more wonld have gone the same way. The long- fan-tail great coat of the first man, concealed the second from the view of the sufferer. WAGGON DODGERS. Fellows who follow after town carts, waggons, stage carts, and such like, to pick up any porta- ble package that may remain unprotected for a moment; they are a needy sort of thieves, and partake a good deal of the character of the last- mentioned, to whom they assimilate in many respects. In my preregrinations forward and backv/ard, I have seen a couple of them dodge a waggon from Picudilly to the city, in order to dislodge a poorish-looking box from its tail. With a wisp of strav/ in his hand, to conceal a knife, one of them cut the cords that fastened the box to the tail (to the edge of wliich he shoved it) ; he unbuckled the leather v/hich crosses that hind part of the tilting; and the motion which the faulty pavement now and then gave to the vehicle, soon shook about the straw and the box vipon the ground. It would have been good prize, but for the interference of a civiliariy who MAIL-CARTS, AND BUTC TIERS. Ill made liimself busy with the thing, at the waggon- office in Friday Street. These fag-ends oC a low profession descend so very low, as to run off with a hare, that haug^5at tlie corner of the stage-delivery carts; cut oft' ropes at the ends of town-carts ; attend at the mar- kets to make prey of any packages of dead meat, flats of butter, or any other article that may come in their way, even to the very whips with which the butchers and green-grocers come to cm* markets. The curious part of our readers will be surprised to bear, that a poor fellow in Leadenhall market, and another at Newgate market, get a subsistanceby taking care of the whips only, whilst the owners are in the market ; for which he receives a precarious recompence. When meat or other articles are bargained for, and booked (as it is called), they must be taken away to the cart im- mediately, or left at the peril of the purchaser. Here again is a good scope for the dodgers : t'ne buyer having been v/atched into a distant j-nrt of the market, away runs the rogue in great liaste, calling out *' here, you, Hr. Sueh-a-one's two fore-quarters of beef,'* and away he goes with one of them. In the winter of 1816-17, a cart-load of meat was driven from Ivy-lane and found in Tvpe Street, JMoorfields, and thereabouts was dis- I. 2 112 SHOP DOORS — LINEN AND charged of its contents. The Long alley lads iV.d well that day ; and no doubt some part of the coateuts fetched monei/i as there is a butcher in the next ailey, who has seen foreign coiintj'ies. Some of them wear an apron, or carry one in their hands, rolled up ; sometimes it is a bag — the l^etter to cover smalltr articles. They turn tijeir hands to any thing, in which they are oc- casionally assisted by their women. Shopkeepers v.'lio e^ pose their goods for sale at the doors are always open to their robberies. The men prac- tise it in this way : having marked out an article to be boned, they place their bag upon it, and go on to look at something else ; which, whilst they are replacing, with one hand, occasions no small trouble, and the exertions necessary to accomplish this, keeps the other hand at work in filling the bag — with which he walks off. Books at stalls are fair game. Their women go to linen-draper's shops, where the goods hang up at the door, and one standing behind the other, draws under the arm of the front one, whatever she may have fixed her mind upon: if it does not slide off readily, she cuts as much ;is she can reach. For those sufferers there is very little commiseration : they expose their fascinating lure, and liave no legitimate BOOKS — BULLOCK HUNT — RIOTS. 11-3 cause of coqi plaint if they feel novv and then a little nibbling at it. But for those who steal books, we do not say that they are fascinated with learning — they would learn better else ; perhaps we shall be nearer the fact, when we at- tribute the fascination, mostly, to the money they may obtain for them at the Fences. These fellows will join in a bullock-hunt, or purloin sheep from the drove — hold the clothes at a novice-fight, and rua away with the mail's covering; they will snatch oif a woman's cloak — run off with a hat — lift up a sash for whatever may be within reach — or mizzle with umbrellas, that may be left to dry, or what not ! If there is a riot on account of provisions, this class of people, women as well as men, are the most clamorous, although they never buy any ; when the cheese and bacon dealers were visited so often, some twelve to sixteen years ago, these fellows stole the money in the shops at Clare market, Chiswell Street, and Cow-cross ; but it is worthy of remark, that when one of them was recognised, he had the address to say, he took money to keep the people quiet outside, wf.o threatened to pull the house down : no less so is it, that the suiferer put up with his loss sikntli/, for fear of that very man ! Is the criminal law of L 3 114 WOMEN ALLURE — ARTS this country well enforced, which should permit so flagrant a dereliction to pass ? Too much is left to individuals, to their kindness, pusillanimity or soft-heartedncss. PROSTITUTES AND BEGGARS. Their practices, as they are personal annoyances in the sti eets, come next under consideration ; the former are most dangerous by day, (so com- pletely is the avocation changed) the latter by night. Both assume the character of robbers, as suits their purpose. By day, the number of women of the town, at all points, equal those by night ; and they are more dangerous, because theirblandishments, and means of enticing the unwary, are set off most floridly. The novice to their manners is easily caught, as is frequently he who is versed in the ways of town ; for, to catch hold of the latter, they will dress in the style of a neat servant-maid, with perhaps a key of the front door, or a plate in their hand, as if just stepping out upon an errand. "What are you at, with that plate?" said I, to an old one, whom I knew, *' Catching of cm//a," answered she. This was one Miss Ellis, an Irish woman of very fine symmetry, who had been in keeping in all the varied scenes of life. BY DAY — DRESS, BORROWED. 115 from the top of the tree to the bottom. She was thus strolhng about, without bonnet, two miles from home ; she, upon whom the wind was not permitted to blow, while under the protection of Jack G , exposed in this manner to the dark air of an autumnal evening", reminds us of the fallen greatness of Buonaparte, and the abject state of Lord Chancellor Bacon's last years, who was denied credit for a pint of porter, as the ex-empcror was for his bincerest asseve- rations. In general, the go is, to put the best toggery on that is to be had, adapted to the state of the weather. For this purpose, if the lady has not got clothes of her own, she can find them (on hire) at the upper class of bad-houses ; most of which are extremely well furnished in that parti- cular, deriving, from this source, no small part of their profits. If she is a ^ood judge , she will not overdress herself, but trust for customers to her eyes and limbs, both of which she manoeuvres, when she is down upon a cwZ/, who becomes her admirer. A good deal of ogling takes place on her part ; she pretends to modesty at first, per- haps, if her dress is corresponding thereto ; but, if she discovers her admirer knows a little too much to take that in, she changes her tone to 116 COURTEZAN *S WiLES. an expected meeting, or an appointment with a gentleman of consequence (a married man) ; but the time of meeting being past she thinks of walking homewards. Such arc the arts used to inveigle men, by the force of their passions, into snares and trammels, which last, some of them, to the end of their lives ; but if not, occasion disquietude, breach of rest, and immediate distraction of the faculties, the forerunners of deranged finances, a shallow purse, and probably of ultimate want. The Courtezan, whom we have supposed in- veigling her inamorato to her lodgings, or a brothel, having thus broadly hinted her wish to return home, if he does not bite at that, proceeds with the remainder of her party — as the players call it. Probably she flatters his vanity, or self love, calls him " charming fellow !" Wishes he would call a coach for her, see her into it, and send her home ; for she is '* tired of waiting, disgusted with the men," and heaves a sigh, to think of their unfaithfulness. Let us next suppose the coach approaches, she presses him to accompany her home, but as he cannot spare time, he need not stop a moment, but only just see whereabout her dwelling is, and he may come another time. But should ADDRESS— KEPT WOMEN. 117 he hesitate to order up the coach, she calls him *' shabby fellow ;" at-ks him if he imagined she wanted him to pay ? and when she flounces into it, gives her address distinctly, that he may know where to find her, if his curiosity has been excited by what has passed. Many of these high ones, hand about cards of their addre^•s. N. B. At whatever stage of the negociation, his good resolutions give way to her arts, matters not ; from that moment he is saddled with ex- penses, and with inward reproaches, if not with disease; at leasjt, so it happens in thf majority of cases. Whoever hearkens to the voice of the Syren, is caught by her wiles. Tear yourselves away, then, from its sound, ye yet uni ontaminat- ed young men, 'ere it be too laie ; to hearken is to be lost; — to touch is to be undone. One general proposal is made to every Nev,- comer, by these hioher classes of Cypiians, which is nothing less, than that he will take her into /r^*^/?- ing. This is the rock upon which most per^Oi.s of warm dispositions split : if they once give ear to her representations of its advantages and cheap- ness, of her love and attachment, he is ruined It does not signify to her, that she is already lu keep- ing of one, two, or mo;e ; she wiil turn them up one after another, under the impression that she is 118 WOMEN SWEAR — GRADATIONS. clever in selecting-, or with a worse motive. The purse waxes empty, or its strings })ecome rigid with use. Pleasures like these, (ii" indeed they are so) }iail upon the palate and vitiate by tlieir very odour. No delicacj,'^, no sentiment, no soul, takes ])art in the carousal ; and the indigestion, the flatulencies of love, regurgitate upon the palate, even to nauseousuess. Our readers, who are novices, will possibly be surprised to hear, that many of those High-ilyers, though they keep, or job, a coach, and livery ser- vants, can swear a good round stave as any lish- fag at Billingsgate; some have more taste for that than for prayers : how unlike ladies of the same occupation in some foreign countries ! The charming Miss Shaw, for instance, can !?ay w orsc things about her eyes, &c. (sparkle they never so Ijrigiit), than ever was said about the Duke oi' M W s penchant for her. Many are the gradations from that highest degree of prostitution, down to the trulls that parade the streets by day ; and one or two more steps, still, include those who keep out all night. In the latter dark offenders the conduct is so glaring, their robberies so soon unveil themselves, and the men are so disgusted, that less pers^onal harm comes of them, than of those which begin JEALOUSY, FATAL — FERE. 119 by day ; they are less likely to undergo repeti- tion than these, and terminate in the night that gave them birth. Whereas the man wlio is open to woman's snares, while the mind is its own, is caught by the mind ; the very day-light adds a gusto to the illicitness of the amour, and its re- petition is the consequence. The thousand numerous ills which follow, can scarcely be ima;4ined ; for many a sad catastrophe never has come to light. Possibly, the jealousy of two persons out of four is excited ; for, women of the town can be jealous of the wife of a man with whom they cohabit ; or, her former paramour may feel the same rankling passion, and avenge it by murder : or, perhaps, he may perpetrate the same horrid deed, with the connivance of their common mistress, when her cupidity has been excited by the display of much property on the victim's person. Now and then, we hear of a gentleman being lost, unaccountably: a few years since we knew of a learned gentleman being burnt, with the house, in Chandos Street, for which accident no other reasonable motive could be assigned, than the last mentioned one, since he had a great deal of money about him. Not to quit our subject, we proceed to descant 120 OLD HAGS— FANCY MEN on the dangers to be apprehended from the loose women by day; and, by exposing their methods, put our readers upon their guard against such arts. Countrymen, in particular, and men of florid countenances, generally, are much sought after by old worn-out Harridans ; and, if they are low in life, sometimes get maintained until they become emaciated, and unfit for their lascivious purposes. The contaminated association, bring such men into dishonest habits, and some of them suffer for their crimes. Such men should, above all things, avoid being well treated by old whores ; who upon first view might be mistaken for re- spectable housekeepers' wives : they are much worse to deal with than younger women, for this, among other reasons, that they know more ro- guery, and are remorseless in spilling the man whom they have, perhaps, themselves seduced to the commission of some offence. The guilt of betraying her Fancy is not con- fined to the Harridan ; younger women of the town, are sometimes caught tripping in that way. In two years and a half, , (whose right name I never knew) lost three men iu that awkward manner, one of whom was for a capi- tal offence, so that she was called upon, to ac- count for how it could have happened ? Whether BETRAYED — A LESSON. 121 it was true that she alledged I know not, but every- body believed her, except the mother of the young man who was sentenced : the truth is, appearance and a good face do a great deal ; for I never did see a finer looking woman, from top to toe, than she is ; and when I saw her walking down Fetter Lane, last Christmas, I could not help comparing her to a ship under full sail. The excuse she had to offer w^as, that ** some of the things [stolen] were found in her lodgings ; and the officers knew, without her impeaching, iiow they came there." For the second man, •' that thei/ watched her to where he lay conceal- ed, and so found him out." No excuse was offered for the third man ; two out of three being considered tolerably fair. The reader ought to know, that her extrava- gance, and importunities for money, drove the first-mentioned man into his first and only offence ; thus giving to young men a severe and thrilling lesson, of what they are to expect when they attach themselves to women of the town, be their figure and features never so fascinating. Of a fine day, not less than twelve thousand women of the town, of all degrees, except the lowest, parade the streets in search of whom they may devour. Neatness and cleanliness mark M 122 BON-TON LINE OF MARCH. them all : how much unlike the dirt of powder, and tlie frippery of tliirty years ago ! Indeed, health seems to prevail more and more among them : I s:iiy it, who am a pretty good judge of the matter. From Aldgate Pump to Saint James's Street, is one universal line of march for them, broken at intervals by short turns upon the heel ; and hav- ing, on the right and on the left, houses of resort ; brothels, bawdy-houses and bagnios, which it would be ridiculous to particularise. Another line extends along Newgate Street, into Lincoln's Inn-fielcJs, across Covent Garden, in various direc- tions, through Cranbourn Alley, &c.into Picadilly. In those celebrated Alleys is the favorite shopping promenade of the BON TON ; and here it is the greatest number of the high-flyers are to be met with, and the handsomest women ; though the major part of them take one turn into the city, generally, every day, and back again. The tnird day-promenade for the fair Cyprians, is in Oxford Street, and the streets and squares leading out of it. Descending from the parishes of St. .Ann's and Mary-le-bojie, and out of all the streets on that side, they penetrate to Picadilly by Bond Street. In this round of sensual blandishment the youth PESTILENTIAL IXAMFLC. 1*23 oi the metropolis have got toinhale their existence, and with it the pestileutial infection of example. But they are inured to the sight from their ear- liest years, and some few of them go miraculous- ly through the ordeul ; the far greater part, how- ever, plunge into thetiery furnace of debauchery, and get seared in immoral ideas, and immoral practices. These, repetition cannot harm, for the seat of fine, feelings is become callous. But, it is the countryman or new comer, whom we would exhort to guard against the pestilence, and the snares, that every where await him, both without and withiii. Internally, he feels the want of con- fidence in himself; externally he exhibits the gait and habiliments of the novice, and is eyed by the crafty, the wicked, and designing. He must, then, at going forth, steel his mind against the allurements that will be every where thrown in his way ; his eyes must be dim to the rain- bow colours that scarcely cover, but do not conceal, the alabaster forms that move beneath ; he must resolve to eschew the evil that will be of- fered toh'is ear ; and to resist, with all his force, the tact of pollution, that would endeavour to excite the mere animal passions. A practice used to prevail, for women to sit at a window which had a good aspect, from which M 2 124 CIVILITY TO LADIES IN they would throw out their aliuremeuts to the men as they passed, — beckoning- them in. This has, however, been put down by order of the mao-istrates, on which account we should not have noticed it — our plan being rather to notice the evils that he, than those that have been — but as it may revive, and is very likely still to exist in u, small degree, we think it part of our duty to warm incautious persons how they accept such invitations. Women so stationed are, for the most part, diseased, or under a course of medicine, which disables them from sallying forth; — the consequences of entering would be obvious and painful ; and he who suffered death by such a step, deserves burying at a cross road, with the old English law inscription " Felo-de-se," placed over him. It would be endless, and almost useless, bnt not at all entertaining, to enumerate all the means made use of to claim your attention by day :— . by night, the address is more lascivious, but meant to be equally fascinating, being addressed to your grosser animal faculties and functions. To call a coach for a lady, whoever or what- soever she may be, is no great piece of service to perform by one of our sex for^ the other ; neither to hand her over the gutter, or across a street ; THE STREET, DANGEROUS. 125 but when, in performing such an act of civility-, you receive a squeeze of the hand, a thrust of the elbow, a leer, or a card of address, — learn that no good is intended : it is nothing more or less, than an attack on your purse; sinijily that, and not addressed to your person, this being a matter perfectly inHifterent to her (whatever you your- self may think of its beauty.) — Uer flashman, in her estimation, is ten times handsomer, certainly- more acceptable. Where is the difference, then, of an attack on your purse, v.hether it be made by a man or a woman ? through the medium of your passions, or of another's address and cunning ? We will, for a moment, suppose an unthinking young man led away by his passions, to give ear to one of those Syrens, and that she is of a decent stamp, — say a second rater, or a third, such as would not disgust at the first \-iew : — Wliat has he to expect upon accompanying her along ? Her demand, at first but small, probably a few shillings, is enhanced by inuendo ; as, how hand- somely a gentleman (something like yourself) behaved last week, in a present of a few pounds. If you do not take this hint, she bothers you in the house of ill-fame, to which you may go ; ma- nages that you shall be charged extravagantly M 3 126 bully's abuse— night for accommodation, and what you may drink,— which, if you refuse to pay for, you get kicked and abused by the bully, who is always in attend- ance, and understands the use of his fists. The same fellow contrives, too, to give you a good character into the street, especially if you have taken your cups, so that you may be way-laid, hustled^ or tripped up, or knocked down, and robbed. You are under a mistake if you supjiosc be- having handsome to (he girl, will protect you from this last act of violence; not always so, but on the contrary, the display of yQur property, or the exercise of your benevolence, proves you to be a fiat, and they take advantage accordingly^ of your imbecility. The best way is, to plead a vacuity of purse, combined with the (pretend- ed) wish to contribute hereafter more to her ease and comfort, by a larger douceur, but that pre- sent circumstances prevent it. A large pro- mise goes farther than a small performance, with such people. Attime>5, the importunities for relief from the night-walkers, descend so low as a few pence, for immediate sustenance, or rise to a glass of wine. In case of the first, they take what you give; and while laughing at yovir credulity, make far- WALKERS DELUDE, USE FORCE. 127 ther proffer of their persons, and increase their demands with insinuated threats : in the second case, you no sooner enter the tavern or gin-shop, than several more of their companions surronnd yon, and the glass circulates to all round, in- cluding Flashraen, (thieves) with whom you are thus obliged to associate, after having given way to the first impulse. If you should escape with pocl:raded set who ply the streets, have been already describ- ed ; we come now to such as every man is likely to find at his lodgings, his place of business, or his resort for pleasure. As the last mentioned includes the theatre, as well as the tavern or pub- lic house, to which latter, at the season of agitated politics, almost every man of intelligence resorts occasionally, — vve shall speak of it the first. He who goes to the Theatres without some (large) })ortion of buoyancy of heart, is ill-fitted for the intelh ctual treat, or the moral lessons, furniL-hed at them ; but we will not suppose, BOX LOB3Y WEDDING, 1 • 5 that he would go at all who was fitter for the house of mourning;, so t'ne uiO:>t we coi.cede i>, th:it he may go with lii-liessness, out of pohtenes^ to his companioiis. In either case he would have to encounter that hot-bed of vice, the lobby ^ in a state very unfit to undergo its scorchino- ordeal. If he cannot withstciud the temptation, let me conjure him toac^ with as much prudence as the case will admit; above ail things, let him not retire and come back again. Let him not treat two women at the same time, lest their ri- vality should interest his mind : I pay nothing about the heart in these lucubrations, that is quite out of the question ; although I have known a young man of character actually to marry a girl of the town, who had paced all the pavement in the line of march^ and knew almost every stone in its whole extv'^nt. V/hat a pretty brewing of mischief was in this false stes.? If my reader must dally in llie lobby, let hi;n not disclose his name, nor make a rew appointment with intention to keep it ; let him turn a deaf ear to one half that is said, and disbelieve the other. Better than either w ould it be, to examine the beauties that inhabit theie, with the same apa- thy that a florist examines his tulips, or the na-^ 136 MONEY AND HEALTH LOST — LANDLADY'S turalist expands the wings of a butterfly, and transfixes its body against its last receptacle in his museum. Observing these precautions, my reader will merely be done out of a little money, and proba- bly a small portion of that laughing hygeia with which he entered London. He will then have conquered the most alluring species of destruc- tion that environs our rougher sex ; since here are collected all the most accomplished and fascina- ting outsides of the female form about town, together with the well-practised tongue, and every other art and blandishmerjt to stir up and carry away captive the senses of youth. At the tavern, there sits in the bar the fascinat- ing lure of a pretty bar-maid, or a handsome landlady ; sometimes both. Men in their cupSy pass a word or two with these, and feel gratified ; this ripens into longer conversations, an invitation to walk into that sanctum sanctorum of all grog- gishness follows, where the women as well as the men take their drops of eye-water. With one or the other (or both) of these, you are inveigled into an intimacy, an ogling, and then you are treated with * " Fnvonis sroict, s\vcrt, anil i)iecie, as well as the sailor- looking men, first described, when you pass on without relieving them, follow you a few yards 142 QUEERIXG, SNEAKING BEGGARS. with imprecations on your proud aspect, cai; you tiie most opprobrious name al the tetminytiou of each seuteuce, and wish they had you in the bilboes, on half allowance of water, &c. &c. N. B. Tpon first catching the eye of one of these, put on a scowl, by drawing the eyebrows close together ; one shake of the head and " No, not a stiver," finishes tlie business. If he press the matter farther, and you vociferate *' no" and *' never ;" or some word inapplicable, in a strict sense, to the terms of the demand, it will bother his iL'hack, and compel him to silence, from your *' superior knowledge of stufl^aiid nonsense," For example, he asks '* your charity for God's sake," at each repetition you answer *' can't, indeed !'* '* Never 1" " No ; I didn't." ** Not in all my life !" " Could not think of it !" This mode is not taunting the dihtrtsses of others : it is nothing more or le^s, than quctririg llie attempt of a hold beggar to impose U|-on your softness. The really distres. ed, claim a difi'erent sort of treatment, from this sort of queering, as it is called The aneuking beggar^ wlio is not really and unintentionully in thstress, annoys you in the streets, more ^particularly when you are m com- pany of fe»nales, whose feelings he endeavours to interest in his favour. liis whine will follow RELIGIOU^ BOOK TI NDER DETECTED. 143 you half a iiiile, though his person is in the rear : latterly, however, the liiaihler of foot, supplied with religioits books, forces his wares upon your •attention, which is first anesled on the olfactory nerve, and claiming-, by a greasy eflSuvia, your subscription towards a replenishment of the nauseous olfertory. Under other circumstances, they will creep into the premises of persons who carelessly leave open their fore doors, to pilfer whatever they can lay hands on. Gentlemens' kitchens, back doors, shops and warehouses they enter softly with imploring air : if discovered, they beg ; if not, they steal. A gentleman, of some spirit in the citi/, relates, thiit he was in the habit , the great number of beggars who are actually receiving parish relief, at the moment they are asking for eleemosynary help. Not the insuf- ficient help which consists of a few shillings per week, to pay the rent of a wretched room, in wliich to rest their emaciated limbs, but meat, drink, washing, lodging, and clothes, sufficient for their subsistence. Impatience under restraint, however, and the love of a wandering life, propel many of them to seek, beyond the walls of a work- house, the precarious alms of the generous and ti;e undiscriminating part of the community. A WORKHOUSE BEGGARS, ANNOY. 145 few of them obtain leate to go out, in order, as is said, to visit their friends ; but the greater number are sent out by the master of the houte (who is the contractor for their keep) that he may save tlieir rations for tiie day ! This is most glar- ing, when he gives them threepence in money, never more than fourpence each, with an assur- ance that the walk will do them good. They are expected to bring back broken victuals, or ^OTwe- tliing else, for a regale at night. Great annoyance is experienced, by many re- spectable people being applied to by beggars with letters and petitions, which they buy ready- drawn up, and are couched in the most abject terms ; stating their sufferitigs, and exaggerating their privations. They see your name upon the door, and address a letter to you ; if they find out any of your acquaintance, they hesitate not to name them, or put down their signatures to a dirty list of subscriptions. They are mostly im- postors, and deep ones, who adopt this scheme : they must be resisted tooth and nail ; for if you relieve one you will have a shoal of his or her cronies upon the same errand, at due intervals. Pathetic addresses in the newspapers,— unless well-authenticated, are to be suspected. Some 146 BURGLARS GO ARMED. fellows, habited as clergyman, liave been con- victed of impositions with begging petitions, HOUSE-BREAKERS Abound most in dark winter nights ; on which account we seldom hear of the commission of burglary in the line of streets where the newly in- vented gas-lights are put up. This shows the advantage of burning a light in your house all night ; the thieves drawing a conclusion from that circumstance (unless they have previous con- fidential communication) tiiat part of the family- are stirring. Like all other forceful robbers, they are prone to commit murder, if resisted ; and it must be in every one's recollection who reads, the '* police examinations,*' or attend to the disclosures of the "Old Bailey Sessions" that they never go unarmed, — mostly with fire arms. We will not pretend to enumerate all the vari- ous methods of entering the premises of others, which the law ever presumes to be " with intent to steal." Was it possible this could be done, and a complete exposition made of every man- oeuvre that has been tried up to the present day, new, and yet unheard of, inventions would im- mediately be resorted to. Even on the day wc METHODS OF ENTRY— ATTEL. 147 are writing, the last sad sentence of the law has been carried into execution upon Attel, a Shoreditch lad, who liad found out a new method of safely and securely robbing the next-door pre^ mises to his own for many months, and to a ruinous amount for the poor sufferer. He re- moved a stair, both the front and tread of it, in such a manner, as that each piece should slide out of, and into its groove at pleasure. Through this aperture he let himself down, and conveyed away the goods when the family were asleep. His detection was attended with the singular atrocity of attempting uselessly to murder the victims of his robberies ; but in which he w^as foiled by the more humane interposition of his accomplice !— thus, no longer leaving to the mere invention of fable, " The story of the two hired villains, the one insatiate of blood, the other relenting, &c.'* The children in the Wood, a tale and play. There will be no reason, however, why we should not describe those means which have been hither- to in use for house-breaking ; that so, the yet tininformed reader may know how to guard aoainst a repetition of the same, nor have to re- proach himself for neglecting to take all the pos- sible precautions for securing his bouse and pre- mises against ordinary thieves. o2 148 PREVENTIVES — A DOG LIGHTS. Next to keeping^ a light burning all night, is the affixing a large bell tor an alarum on the out- side of the house, having a communication with two or more chambers. This is moie especially essential out of town {or crowned town). Your next neighbours should be made acquainted with its sound, possibly by tolling it at some given liour ; the same of watchmen, and patrols, horse as well as foot ; and the attention to the tones of the latter would be wonderfully improved, if the thing were to be done over a jug of ale. Hav- ing, in the next place, furnished yourself with a good 5?ro?i^ house-dog, and some well kept hre arms, you may go to sleep in peace, provided you know how to use the latter, and to manage the former. But servants are very likely to spoil both the one and the other : the dog by too much attention, the fire arms by too little. What is the object of firing off a charge of jDOwder every night at dusk ? As soon as the dog is put upon his station, this might be done, and it would be a signal to him to be upon the ^'quiviveF^* ** Now mind, Csesar ! Look out," say you, and fire! Whilst we are upon precautions, we may as well make a fini.,h of the general ones. Should you at any time lose your dog, mysteri' FIRE ARMS— SERVANTS, 149 eusli/f by death or subtraction, do not go to bed that night or the next : something bad is intended ; possibly nothing less than breaking the dwelling-house; more probably the robbing your out-houses, hen roosts, gardens, orchards, sheep folds, &c. &c. If a servant leaves you in dudgeon, for some are very vindictive, or if one soon afterwards falls into bad habits, never suffer them to come near the premises, but look well to the dog, the state of the bell-pulls, and the condition of the fire arms. Should any thing be amiss with either of them, through negligence, suspect that some evil is designed ; should they appear to be de- ranged by design, be assured a robbery is in com- templation. The symptoms we have described, indicate that vour domestics (one or the other of them) are leagued with thieves to break into the house. Then bum lights diligently, look to the dog, and the bell-pulls yourself; and fire off your pistols, shotted, at some boarded place which will retain the shot to next day. This sort of league, or in- formation from within, is called, " a put up rob- bery ;" although 'tis no less so, where mechanics or others have come at the secrets of " good booty, and the means of the easiest entiy," to which o 3 150 PICK LOCKS — KEYS. they put up (as it is called) their palls, or else speak of those circumstances ill-advisedly. How- ever the facts may come out, the effects are tiie same, whether negligently or criminally mention- ed abroad, that much property is in a house that is ill-pvotecfed. The robbery at the Countess of Morton's, a few years ago, was owing to a very slight cause, like this we have alluded to. False keys, and pick-locks, with the addition of a crow bar, are favourite modes of getting into houses, or of making their way through them when the entry is once made. Servant girls, who go of errands at evening, with tlieir keys, should be careful not to leave such a dangerous instrument of robbery behind them ; nor to suf- fer such to be purloined from off tl'.e counter of a shop, nor to be snatched from their fingers, in a sort of sport. She wlio should be thus served would find it but ill sport to be tied to the bed post half the night, whilst her former play fellows are handing off all the portable articles they can find. When one rogue had got possession of the key, another would watch her home ; and the thief obstacle being thus removed from the front-door, the prey would be easy and certain, — as would the loss of her life be, were she to re- cognize any one among the thieves, and say so. MARKED HOUSE, STRIPPED. 151 Young women should be most careful with what men the^^ contract an acquaintance, for house- breakers frequently pretend love to servant j^irls, for the purpose of robbing the premises ; sometimes with the more shabby intention of robbing the girl herself of a little money, and a little clothes, together with all her virtue and peace of mind. A house destined to be robbed, is first survey- ed by the parties ; for, it is too much to suppose half a dozen men would walk about with the proper tools in search of a job ! If an empty, or half finished house, be near, — or one is under repair, — whence the parapets, roofs or gutters are accessible to each other, this is chosen as the medium of communication ; and one of the party {or two) makes his way into that which is to be robbed, by way of the garret. Descending, ac- cording to circumstances, he seizes and binds, or gags, the only domestic (a female perhaps) who has care of the house. He lets in his com- panions at his leisure ; and they as leisurely bring carts if that be nect siry, to strip the house, and carry away, even to the bare walls (we have seen it) as completely as if the king's tax-gatherer had €ome in, three quarters in arrear. Should the kitchen windows towards the area 152 THE JACK, ITS POWERS. be deemed the most vulnerable place, one of the party descends, and breaks a pane of glass, which enables him to push back the bolt, and he slides up the window, the shutter whereof he forces with a small crow-bar, and if the house be not fully inhabited, he leisurely walks upstairs, and admits his accomplices at the front door. In any other case they go down the same way he has done ; and in both cases it hashappened, that the bold rogues have struck a light, drawn a cork or two, and smoked their pipes, while stowing away the valuables in a portable form ! Undoubtedly, obstruction in any possible case, within the house, would be attended with blood-shed ; but before getting in, the tingling of a chamber bell, the barking of a puppy, or the snoring of a servant on the ground floor, would scare away the boldest attempt that was ever made. One of the most unblushing methods is, at once to burst open the front door. A small jack, of great powers, was known to have been used in several cases, a few years ago. It has not been heard of lately, and I am thence inclined to be- lieve, there was but one of them made adapted to this j)ur pose. "With a purchase of one eighth of an inch, you might heave St. Paul's with it," was a phrase used concerning the Jack ; and as DOORS AND WINDOWS. 153 tlvdi purchase could be found at the interstices of ail pavements, it might be made the instrument of u oreat deal of miscliief. Window shutters, as well as doors, may be wrenched open, or burst asunder by force ; but the noise this makes ren- ders it too unsaie for the perpetrators, who do not choose to " give a chance away," when any other method remains to be tried. Many men can rlimb the front of a house as easily as others can go up a pair of stairs : I have seen M n, the binder, go it in this manner, so as to astonish even the knowing ones ; but as he is only an oc- casional thief, much evil cannot be expected from his acquirements in this way, for some length of time, at least, a parcel of cutlery, or a till- box being his highest aim yet awhile. Another plan is, with the old fashioned fasten- ing of a pin through the shutter, to cut the wood- work all round the head of the pin, by which means the shutter opens, leaving the v\v\ in its or-ginal position. This is effected by boring gimblet holes, so. as to admit the saw (made of watch spring) ; and afterwards breaking a pane of glass so as to come at the window fastening, then lifting it up, the room in the first instance, and the wliole liouse Ultimately, is at thtir disposal. Seldom are these latter metliods adopted that 154 CASE OF BURGLARY WATCH- the family, or some of the neighbourhood, are not apprised of them at the moment of perpetra- tion ; at the least, I have never gone into an en- quiry on one of them, that persons have not been awake to the business, more or less. Is it not very strange, for instance, that an ojjposite neigh- bour's servant should discern a man traversing from house to house, along the parapets, or the roofs, at fall of the evening (or indeed any time of the day) but apprise no one of it ? But such is the fact vi^ith regard to several robberies in Westminster and other parts of that end of town. Again, eight or ten persons heard, or saw, the sawing of the window shutter next to the watch- house, in Newgate Street, (March, 1815), — even the sufferer himself heard — but no one had the presence of mind, or the activity, to interrupt them; and "although twenty-two watchmen, patrols, or constables passed within two yards of the place while the business was in hand, yet the thieves were not driven from their purpose, but exchanged the time of the morning with the watchmen," (See Times newspaper, and others of March 4) one of whom vvas apparently upon good terms with them. Whether he was so or not, may be collected from the additional circum- stance of his pulling down, repeatedly, the bills MAN— MARR AND WILLIAMSONS. 155 that were affixed on the walls with a view to dis- cover the thieves ! Indeed, it must have been the feeling, that ihe watchmen were near, which lul- led the suspicions of those inhabitants into an imaginary security. Although it does not come within our province to notice murders that are committed from sudden gusts of passion, or the dark malignity of oifended pride, yet such as accompany robbery are more certainly within our view. As such we must notice a wide-spreading calamity, in the perpetration of murder by wholesale as the first step to burglary. Ever since the murder of the family of Marr, in Rat- clifte Highway, and that immediately following, of the Williamsons, in Gravel Lane, we have heard of those compound atrocities more fre- quently than of any other species of coal-black oflence. The first mentioned was committed on the master, mistress, and children of a haber- dasher, who keeping his shop open until twelve o'clock of a Saturday night, thereby allured the murderer to take their lives, the easier to come at the money, the receiving of which could not fail to be seen from the street through the window. A tolerably good lesson this for people who \n-\ cautiously make a display of their property. 156 INCAUTIOUS PERSONS AND The second' named crime was committed on the bodies of a public house keeper, his wife and servant, by one of their guests, who had conceal- ed himself in the cellar. When the deceased came to close up finally his bar, and to lock away the money, it is concluded the villain made his appearance, and perpetrated his diabolical pur- pose, A small de;^ree of circumspection might have preve .ted this, and indeed the whole cata- logue of crimes of the deepexi atrocity ; whereas, the lesser ones, people in general, take the most precautions to secure theuiselves from being made the tools of, mis-judgiu;^ly concluding, that those of blackest hue, are never to fall to their share. How unreflecting are the robbers as well as the robbed, occasioLally ! When Mr. Wilkinson's premises in Mooriieldls v/ere broken into about Christmas, 181(>, andneaily one hundred and fifty pounds stolen, the gang >ere lO incautious as to regale themselves next nighty at the Punch bowl. Long alley, not one hundred yards off; where they y/ere nosed hy an old v;oni;m, who.^e teeth they knocked out, hut were themselves taken in con- sequence. At the same house, just a year after, two ofticers 'ailed out a thief, to give him the in- formation ** that he lay under suspicion, and they ROBBER— JACK PETTIT. 157 meant he should go along witli tliem." No sooner was he tip to iheir message, than a shrill whistle raised the attention of his companions in the skittle ground: they were down as a nail in five seconds, and the whole party of thirty or forty interfered to prevent the consequences ; and although " the man was got away," yet the officers — now three in number, were dreadfully misused, one of them almost massacreed, and all of them were " spoiled for plum pudding eating" during the holidays which followed, and which they gave to their stomachs — appetite having taken " leave of absence." The first mentioned was the lot attached to Jack Pettit, whose girl and two companions had the lag {ov fourteen ; the latter case hath yet to undergo investigation, before that awful court whose painful task is to pronounce the harshest sentences of the law. — We therefore forbear to say more at present, for obvious reasons. " The proof of the pudding is in the eating," says an old saw, (and old saws are good some- times). We are this moment informed of the attack and defence of a [lone] house by three women against as many men, at the least, which story goes to establish what is said a few pages higher up of the security to be reposed in, V 158 ATTEMPTED BURGLARY. when your house is protected by lights, a dog, and fire-arms ; and goes to prove also the deci- sive victory which would have attended one other precaution which we recommended — viz. a bell, hung on the outside of the house — but which was here wanting. Mr. W having occasion to leave liome, for some daj'^s, the house was left under the pro- tection of his lady and two maid servants: this circumstance was known ; and an hour after dark the house was beset by two or three men, who were suspected of no good intentions, so the doors were well fastened by the female inhabit- ants. The lights were kept in, and all three kept strict watch ; so that the first attack did not take place until eleven o'clock, which was commenc- ed with fruitless endeavours to enter by the front door. Mrs. W here shewed that heroism, whicli sometimes, though seldom, dis- covers itself in the female character, upon great or paramount occasions. She flew to the door, which they were at that moment forcing with a crow, as is supposed ; from the inside she haran- gued them, with promisi^ of a warm reception for the first tliat should enter ; &nd ordered down the blunderbuss, &c. for that purpose. " I shall not prevent your coming 77?," wiid she, " bwt be PREVENTED BY A LADY. 159 assured I shall take good care tliat one or two of you shall not go out again alive." The house dog seconded its mistress, with all its sagacity, and seemed to say with her, *' come along scoun- drels ;" while the two affrighted servants did all in their power to infuse that fear, which alone belongs to the base born, and the guilty. They now abandoned the attack on the door. A very few minutes elapsed when the dog showed symptoms of the enemy being again at work ; they had piled up loose bricks which lay about, and ascended to the top of the parlour window. This point Mrs. W thought they would penetrate, for they were visible from the upper part, or aperture ; she therefore took her station at a distant part of the room, that the shot might spread, so as to hit the whole of the party that might present themselves on the shutter giving way, which was every moment expected. She called to them again, let go the spring sword of the blunderbuss, and hitting the window with it, gave them the same assurances, as before; then retreated, and took a glass of wine ! within their view, as is apprehended. This was too much for their stomachs, and they retreated for the pre- sent. Hours elapsed before a third endeavour was p2 160 BELL, USEFUL — SHOP WINDOWS. made to get in by the cellar door ; in which they so nearly succeeded, that the arm of one was visible from within ; but the besieged being on the alert, the villain retired his arm in great haste, to avoid the thrust to which it was thus exposed, and the effects of which he did but just escape. At four o'clock in the morning, the assailant* drew off; but their retreat would have been cut offhy the timely use of a bell, at any moment of their endeavours to break in. *' A word to the wise is enough," or ought to be so ; this descriptive narrative speaking more than volumes can, to persons who are open to practical advice; let the morose and the self- sufficient suffer, if they neglect it. A very common practice is, to break a pane of glass near the window-fastening, which can be soon displaced by introducing the hand at the aperture thus made. Shop windows are frequent- ly < niered by the same means ; but the breaking is generally effected with a glazier's diamond : as the shopmen are near at hand and might hear the glass fall, a sucker* is employed and placed on ihe pannel in the first instance ; then having * The sticknr is a small piece of tanned leatlier, which bring- well soaked in chamber lies, with a string in the centre, will thus Iicavo a woij^ht often or fifteen pounds. PRECAUTIONS. 161 cut all round near the frame, the piece is haw led out, and a good booty no longer remains proble- matical. Phosphorus, in a narrow necked bottle, after beins^ ig^nited is traced in the line the dia- mond is meant to take, which renders the glass soft enough for even a common knife to cut out, without making a noise. N. B. In examining your ])remises to see whe- ther your doors and shutters are safe, it is proper to feel also ; for the house-breakers furnish them- selves with coloured papers, near to that of the wood work attacked, with which they cover over an aperture until they can return to finish the job. Like street robbers, these fellows have whistles, and calls, sometimes a word, as " go along. Bob," that is to say, — " proceed vigorous- ly in the robbery ;" again, " it won't do,'' is the sig-nal for desisting, &c. After all the precautions that are used to keep out the thieves from your house, they prove lamentably ineffectual from the superior cun- ning or prowess with which their calling endows them. First having found out some of your connexions, they come and induce you to put aside that excellent preventive of sudden intru- sion at night — a chain on the door. This is dex- terously done by means of a letter, and the bold p3 162 CUNNING OF THIEVES. assumption of a friend's name, from whom thej'^ pretend to come. Once inside, all goes to wreck. — Doors, locks, bolts, boxes and safes — even the lives of the inmates, be they more or less, are sacrificed to their vengeance, or their ideas of se- curing impunity. The murders and robbery of Mr> Bird and his housekeeper at Greenwich, lately, was of this description ; and we see hovr difficult of discovery is the perpetration of the compound villainy, that thus sweeps all before its remorseless fangs. Charles H y, a foot- man out of place it seems, residing opposite that ill-fated pair, marked them out for his victims. N. B. When any point is suspected of being vulnerable, or that attempts have been made there, the approach of the villains may be better ascertained by strewing a few coal ashes near the spot, if the ground be not too sott : although they should come without shoes, the crushing if sure to be heard. SHOP-LIFTING Defines itself. It is the act of lifting up, in or- der to carry away, slily, goods from a shop or Avarehouse ; and is carried on to a great extent. We spoke of those who steal from the doors of shops, the goods* exposed at them to invite custo- WOMEN ROB SHOPS, HOW. 163 mers, under the head of street robberies. In the next place, the same class, and some carrying their heads much higher in life, enter a a shop which is pretty well beset by customers, some of whom no doubt are of their own stamp and connexions. Those women who are adepts, wear the round-about pockets, of very large di- mensions, of which we before spoke under the head of " Prostitutes." These generally go in couples, sometimes more, the better to engage the attention of the shopman, whose attention, being fully occupied in present business, cannot by possibility be paid in two places at the same time. Suppose, as is often the case, ten or do- zen pieces of printed cotton lie upon the counter all of a heap ; they form a pile nearly as high as your nose, or are shoved together by the thief, the better to form a barrier against the sight of the shopman. Muslin being the favorite object of pursuit, a piece of it is buried underneath the printed goods, or some of its own quality, and she who is to take it, withdraws it quickly, as 80on as the item is given and perceived. If it be a whole piece, the quantity would be too much for any other than a bulky woman : her size would carry off as much as thirty or forty yards without creating much suspicion, though their eagerness 1G4 VvOMEN SHOP-LIFTERS — ARTICLES is such that the very thinwest would try it on with the most bulky article. The skirt or upper petticoat is made with a very large pocket hole, or slit half way down ; into this the bulky woman thrusts the end of the muslin (or other clotli, when that is not come-at- able) then slides her round about pocket over it, like a case ; and after pushing her sides alternate- ly against the counter, or against her accomplice, so as to liend it under the projecting belly, off she mai'ches, under the pretence of going to some other tradesman in order to save time. " Veil, I declares ! how long you are a choosing, Mrs. Vatkiiis ! I can't stop no longer here, but vill go to Mx. Proones's over the vay for my tea and my sugar. You come." Outside is another ** to take it away," lest there should be an outcry. This is done in a court or narrow passage, but more frequently at the gin-shop ; the keepers of which are sometimes made the holders of stolen goods, without knowing it, thinking, to be sure, that tliey thereby oblige a customer who is to call again. What can amend this facility to the escape of the guilty, but compelling the publican to place the article where it might be open to the view of every one coming in ? Although we have given this insight of shop- STOLEN — LADIES ROB. 165 ^.liting in its most bulky form, it is not to be supposed that the ladies confine their specula- tions and practices to muslin alone, nor to the poor linen draper's shops exclusively. Haber- dasher's shops contain eqnal fascinations for the leading foible of the female mind, unchastened in the school of philosophy — dress ! All-powerful dress, and the over adornment of nature's fairest work, leads even ladies to commit crimes which their own sempstresses would shudder to contem- plate. Ladies of the highest surface-character have been known to rob shops repeatedly, an(j require the vigilance of the warehousemen as much as uomen in the humbler walks of life. Without ripping open old sores, or abrading the film which covers the wounded character of a certain fair one, we must be content with merely making the assertion, and asking credit for it from our readers. As this is almost the only instance in which we have shown any disposition to mealy moiithedness, we demand excuse. Lace was the object of solicitude in the case just alluded to; and is the faA'ourite article of purloinment with those who follow shop-lifting as a profession : the largest value V>eing contained in the smallest space, admirably fits this article to claim the preference. 166 MUFF AND RIDICULE USED. The large hairj- mufF is charmingly adapted to facilitate this species of robbery : it being placed upon one arm, and the attention of the shopman directed to some article contained in a drawer or shelf she is sure is situated just behind, enables the lady to pick up with perfect impunity what- ever she chooses, whether that be lace, ribbons, gloves, trinkets, books, or other desirable article. The ridicule, which in summer supplies the place of the muff, sometimes raises suspicion from its capaciousness, and is no less adapted to receive the hasty acquisitions of its owner. Shopmen would do well to make an end of their bargaining and farcying, respecting one article, before they takedown another ; with the additional precaution of couatmg the number of pieces, pairs, &c. of each, that he may place before his customer. This would prevent a great proportion of those shop robberies, whicli the tradesman Jecls has been committed, without knowing upon whom to fix the crime, and half distracted at his own sus- picions, he robs liimself of peace and the people around liim of their comfort : and, as prevention shall be better than cure (all to nothing) any time of the day, " such shopmen are guilty (the law ought to say) who are so far derelict in their duty as to hold out the lure to their master's cus- p 2 liFAVY GOODS STOLEN. 107 toraei's— of mucli confusion in his goods and negligence in shewing them." If small articles are liable to be thus pur- loined, no less so are the most ponderous; only these do not occur so often possibly as the for- mer. What will the unknowing reader think of a man running away with a smith's anvil of three hundred weight ? He may stare ! but it is not a whit the more untrue, because he happens never to have heard of such a thing. I saw it myself, in open day, not in a remote corner of the town, fent at the corner of Greek Street and King Street, Soho. The owners names were Jackson and Hartlett ; and the anvil stood just inside the door, either to show that they were ironmongers, or to perform odd jobs upon. The facetiousness of the last named s:eutleman induc- ed him to follow, and compel the thief to walk back M'ith his load ! assuring him, ironically, that he was going the tcrong icai', nnd promising him something for the extra trouble he was giving to him ; and he performed his promise : it was no other than a jolly good kick in the which he had for his pains. What is it to me, or to you, reader ! that this happened long ago ? Have yon not j^ot names for the fact ? and the date is a dozen years back at 168 DRAY llOBBKD. least ; but the oddness of the circumstance de- served recording, and I made a note of it, without any date, thinking I should never be called upon to swear every word to its parish, as I have been obliged to do almost concerning the infor- mation furnished for this book. Equally supvising, and much later as to date, was another business that happened while I was in-doors at the Swan on Snow hill. An ale brew- er's dray stopped in the street, while the two men took a glass or two of gin at the bar with a friend. Any one who ever took a glass of good max there, knows how short a time this would take ; but it was long enough for those who acted outside to carry off three barrels of ale ! One would suppose there must have been six men, at least, to per- form so much in so short a space of time ; I wat convinced no more than four were concerned in it, that is to say the friend, who paid for the gin, one of the draymen, and two active lads outside. They had (I dare say) a fine jollification at the holidays, that happened a few days thereaf- ter (Christmas, 1817.) If any one doubts the fact of this robbery, let them go there and ask the landlord ; and, although he will hum / and ha ! and hey ! before he gives an answer, I am persuaded he knows no more of it than what he DARING SHOP-LIFTERS. 1C9 was told» Thus much I have gone out of the straight path to say, in the way of corroboration of the anvil story, which the printer's devil told me " no one would be so soft as to take in not at any price." To return to the shop-lifting system of robbery : a most barefaced attack upon a shop took place within a few Saturdays of the last mentioned one. At the top of Bishopsgate Street and Nor- ton Falgate, six or seven thieves were making a hubhery, as they always do thereabouts on Satur- day and Sunday evenings ; — two of them went into a hosier's shop, and exchanged a word or two of no moment with the master ; they were ^r<\. lowed to the door by their companions, one of whom handed down a parcel of stockings, and passing through the others, walked off with it. I had enough of them ; and not choosing to run any risk by following up, I left them to the dan- gerous means they had adopted to come at the property of others, and walked doun Worship Street. A sight of the police-office there brought me to think what could have become of their pa- trol ! for it was past eleven o'clock. Stealing prayer-books and bibles from churches, was carried on to a great extent four to six years ago, by a tall man about thirty years Q 170 BOOK THIEF RINGS THE CHANGES. of age, who went by no otlier name than " the tall-one." He always had one or two books upon him (as Paddy Byrne uf-ed to phrase it,) and I really thhik he was religious in the main ; for he never swore at all, nor was he Jiash to slangy however ordinary. There is a north coun- try saying, that " the silent sow sucks up the most broth ; so this tall-one, who had but little to say upon any subject, and nothing upon several, had a happy knack of disposing of his Vjooks, so as to make them tell double and treble. It was thus : going into a bookseller's to sell what he might have, he chaffered a good deal about price ; and during the interest this would excite in the mind of the buyer, he endeavoured to pocket some other books. Should this not be possible, in consequence of euperior vigilance, or of the undivided attention of the people of the shop, he would make some excuse to leave his book, and calling again when the first person was out of the way, or at dinner, would reclaim his book, but send it up stairs, &c. the better for the per- son to assure himself that the application was all correct and honest. This manceuvre enabled him to pick and cull, or to pocket any article he might have fixed upon. I have known him to sell an article by description, before he stole it. DISCOVERED — IMPROVIDENCE OF. 171 I call that clever ; as it is also to live a month genteelly upon an original stock of only four or live prayer-books, with which he rung; the changes, at the booksellers : giving those and taking books, and receiving money in return. But he jnit his foot in it, by overdoing his good luck, as most people do, who know not what it is to rule and govern themselves. He took three volumes of Spectator, to sell by way of sampler the remainder of the set, which he stated to be ten, but the bookseller insisted was com- plete only in forty -five volumes. He at length agreed for the whole forty-five, which he meant to steal, as he proposed to bring them by piece- n)eal; but Mr. Gosling of Castle Street, Leicester fields (the right owner) would not let them go in that way, and candidly told him so. The holder of the three volumes, too, supected him ; and both the-e having- menticiied their sus icions at a third bookseller's — the tail-one's schemer* were blown up, and the books returned to their fellows in the set. Than the shop-lifter's, there is not a more im- provident set of thieves in the whole list. Not content with one or two good things (»f a day, they will go on from shop to shop, throughout the whole blessed day ; so that they get watched by Q 2 172 PRECAUTIONS — OFFICERS DODGE. the officers, who know them, from that circum- stance, and from walkings ingly, one after another, occasionally stopping, overtaking, and talking to- gether with apparently great inierest : then t^iey divide, and enter the fchop just agreed upon, i)y one or two at a time, as before f!esc?ibed. If the shopkeepers were to adopt the precaution we gave a little higher up, they would be alj'e to know in a minute or two what they had lost ; and thus contribute to the instant detection of the offen- ders, by immediately informing the officers what goods had been stolen ; for these aciive men run into the shops as soon as the tliieves leave them, to enquire wliat has been missed ? A question which the shopmen seldom answer in the affirma- tive, — for the stupids really do not know ; more shame for them ! In the same way it is the officers find out the SMASHERS* Or passers of bad money ; many of whom are id( ntic.illy the same as the shop-lifters. But the difference in the keennf?ss of the pursuit is most apparent: the reward upon conviction of the latter description being more liberal and more * Sec pag^cs 2 and 12. BANK NOTES, BAD OR STOLEN. 173 certain ; and two or three officers find it worth their while to spend a whole day in thus pnrsuing them from shop to bhoo, until they are discovered, — one or tlie othet- always keeping them in view, when another is making his hasty enquiries, as above mentioned. Under this head we must class the passers of had notes, or forgeries of the Bank of England cask notes ; nor do we see why the ruses which rogues have recourse to, the better to get rid of stolen notes (or those which are otherwise improperly come by) should not be considced of the same genus : all three involve their utterers in the same penalty — death ; and all require the same management to avoid detection, or even pursuit. For instance, a man received a ten pound note too much for a cheque on a bank (Master man's) — he affects that he has not received more than the right sum, for aught he knew ; or, if he has, that he paid it away again just as he received it. Upon coming to trial , however, it turns out that he goes to a shop in Red Lion Street, Holborn, from which it is sent to the public-house to be changed ; and up to this latter place it is traced from the Bank of England. Proving, in this manner, the fellow as dishonest as if he had come at the pro- perty by means of burglary or of highway rob- Q 3 174 FORGERY, PRECAUTIONS, USELESS. bery. Hence tipwards there ascend gradations of guilt, as variously featured as the actors in them are numerous ; but is it not a little extra- ordinary that the makers of forged notes are never found out ? The engraver ! the paper-maker ! the rolling press ! all are buried in the obscurity of night, and bid fair to leave old Patch-Price^ the single instance of a combination of the triple talent in one man. Forty-seven prosecutions a- year, upon an average of twelve years, arc brought by the Bank against the tools and agents of the forgers, but not one in thirty years against the principals. How ! and why is this ? Not one of these forgeries ever met my eye, that I was not convinced I could have discovered of my own accord ; but although there were any positively bad in my hands or those of my friends, I have the means of passing them safely, in such a way, that the Bank never prosecute, for they never discover them from their own. How few give their right name and residence on changing notes at the Bank ! MULTITUDES OF MINOR CHEATS Infest the doors of decent people of every degree in society, and some of them pres»s forward even to your study, and infringe upon your retirement. 175 PRETENDERS TO LITERATURE, And pretenders to superior sanctity, (teachers,) are the worst characters of this class, for they know just enough to feel that they are impostors, in their degree. French emigrants, partaking of both descriptions, a few years ago, overran the land ; the quene of that safety-seeking race still inhabit here, and teach their doubtful laorals, and a deference for their language it by no means deserves. The nobility and gentry were the chief dupes of those fawning hypocrites ; but they descended ah© into the kitchen, and tasted in the pantries of middling tradesmen the good cheer of John Bull ; while they des,iised his man- ners, and honest blunt prejudices, which has kept his more genuine offspring uncontaminyted with the moiikey-tricks and false philosophy which was imported with their fears. The con- sequences are, that our manners have undergone a change by no means for the better, (whicJi they ought to have done when altered at all) and our language is contaminated to the last degree of Frenchijication. At the tables of those who can afford to give them good dinners, we n d those of our own (triple) nation in abundance, who pretend to an intimate acquaintance with 176 MANNERS CHANGED. modern, if not ancient, literature ; but who are certainly impostors in just the same degree as they assume more than they know. All those pretenders cheat \ou out of every mouthful you permit them to devour ; out of every shilliijg you may advance them by way of loan, or as payment for you own or } our chi'.drens* improvement, (if the becoming mere jargonists be improvement.) There is too much of argu- ment in all our conversations, male and female, now-a-dnys, in consequence; and those were the sources of the hateful use of question and answer in the commonest occurrences of life. PRETENDED CLERGYMEN. Fellows who, without any previous preparation, or even the laying on of hands (so much vaunted) contrive to ingratiate themselves into the good graces of the daughters, wives, and widows of our more wealthy citizens, who would fain per- suade you (as they have persuaded themselves) that their mission is from above, whereas nothing is better known, than that some few of them had pretty extensive dealings beloiv. Every one must have heard of the Reverend John Church! Here I hope the truli/ pious clergyman will for- CLERGY — NO-CLERGY. 177 '^'ive rne for using the word ironically ; for there never could at any moment be a particle of real reverence borne tovcards a preacher, who laying under inipntalious of a lieinous nature, should ac- knowledge them in the pulpit. His congregation seemed even to stick to him the closer, the more proof of his guilt there was adc uced against him ; until at length the inexorable^a^ of the law took him from their i^i£^t into soht .y imprisonment. Who has not heard of O'Meara, who by dint of corruption, and a harlot's interest, sought to seat himpelf in one of tlie highest pinnacles of the church ? Mrs. Clarke had another of the €ame cloth, who inttrmeddled in her dirty business ; and the Reverend Mr, Williams, was only dis- charged from the .ustody of the sergeant at arms upon a plea of madness. Not so mad, either : he can play » rubber at .vhist, or a game at cribbage, as keenly as the best that ever lived ; and although he seems lame, if he loses he can run away ; it" he wins he can threaten, hector, bully, and, it is believed, can fight. He can swear too ; but once on a time the magistrate would not permit him. The reverend Augustus B***y is no longer a cleriJryman, though he h.as undergone his de- gree^, and has udviinced a step or two in the 378 HOLSE OF CALL FOR. church : he is perpetual president of the butcher- meeting at the corner of Newgate Market. Ano- ther of the ir-reverends is a dabster at back- gammon, attiiched to ale, loves a good dinner, talks jollify sings a (bad) song ; and has been found upon the lay, for which he caught quod. He gambles deep and long, and is always down upon tlie countryman : 1 know not to what kidney he belongs ; but hear, he has tried three sorts ofhC' lief or o^ discipline, from which I conclude he must be ;)>^, who met at the King's Head near St. Paul's every Saturday. There you might see the Reverend Mr. Jones, and the Reverend Mr. Styles settling a change of service for to-morrow : a dis- pute between Dr. D n and Denis Lawler, the BASENESS AND IGNOHANCE. 179 playwright ; scraps of Latin thrown out to bother tlie Reverend Mr. M y, and to remind him of Inverness and Gibraltar, — together with a dozen other incongruities. If those clergy, as they are improperly called, fumiliarize with your families, and under the garb of sanctity, obtain the ear and the of its females (all for pure christian love.) There are PRETENDED DOCTORS, Who are no less dangerous, if admitted into your friendship or that of the female part of your fa- mily. One of these, named , was lately discovered debauching the wife of his benefactor under circumstances of the most aggravating nature. Many of them })ay attention to the pecuniary concerns of your families, whilst pretending to administer to their corporeal evils: such fellows contrive to become extcutors to the wills of their dying patients, or to marry the daiigliteis of such as are tolerably rich; and then they become (what is called) '* regular*;'* though their previous education, in most cases, only qualify them for servintc in a haberdasher's or a draper's shop, or probably th,e still more honourable employiajent of shaving and hajr-cut- 180 quack's tricks- t'ng. We now know persons who have emerged out of those professions, and become regular ; but can the lion change its skin or the leopard its spots? Nostrum-mongers abound, who prepare some panacea, that will cure various and di*cordant disorders ; thus playing with the lives perhaps, certainly with tl.e health and happiness of thos* who hearken to their advice. Hand-bilis and advertisements are the chiefest means of obtaining notice, the details of which are too disgusting to be copied into these pages. Whoever have been unfortunate enough to con- tract a certain loathsome disease, should be upon their guard against pretended doctors, whose chief object is to keep them in hand a long time, in order to make more charges : the fellows who sell ready-made medicines (called patent) ar^ arrant cheats, inasmuch as the same preparation* cannot efftct a cure in two stages of the same disorder. The publican's paper (as it is called) is almost daily crowded with these filthy invita- tion^, «nd bombastic pretentions. Ladies, persons of delicacy, the totally uninformed on libidinous subjects, h&ve that undescirable propensity thus continually pressed upon their notice, by being put immediatelv into their jjunds. This part of CLERKS DISCHARGED INSOLVENTS. 181 our complaint has abated considerably of late } and ought to be put down altogether. PRETENDED LAWYERS, or those who propose to transact your affairs by way of agency, 'calling themselves " Law Agents;" and " Accomptants'* partake somewhat of the character of the Sycophants or useful men whom we described higher up These gentry are mostly clerks of pettifogging lawyers, who permit them to sue in their names for debts, real or imaginary, actions for damages, assaults, &c. They are at times such as have been in good clerkships, but now out of employment; and they constantly talk of the respectable concerns to which they once belonged : " this was always the practice at B. and A.'s, when I was there;" *' We never failed to get the money by these means," says the pettifogger, in order to give his advice an air of consequence. A great proportion of them know no more of law than whatS- they have learnt " Over the water," or at " No. 9, Fleet Market."* These are admirably fitted for " Agents" in the Debtors Court, under the * The King's Bench and Fleet Prisons are thus quaintly fle>:cribed. 182 OLD BAILEY — HISTORY OF MR. B. Insolvent Act ; but their charges are gene- rally double or treble those of the more respectable regular practitioner. A few, however, have been actual practitioners; but some aberrations of conduct having offended " the Court," it has struck them off its rolls. They genevdlly practise about the police-offices, and at tf e Old Bailey, "for the defence ;" that is ^o say, for the prisoners ; in which way they become the acquaintance and familiars of the blackest rogues and thieves in or about town. The history of one will serve for that of all ; though we must premise, there arc two persons of the same initial letter, which is all we shall say for distinctions* sake. Our hasty sketch of Mr. B. commences fifteen or six- teen years ago, when we find him standing in the pillory, at Blandford in Dorsetshire, for threa- tening to inform against a glover, on the stamp duty, and demanding money to forego the action ! Then it was he was struck ofi', with some severe notice of the chief justice; and ever since he has lived by his wits, as an informer generally, but we have reason to believe we have seen him on the lay also; at least he has been present when things have been done. In summer time he visited Margate, Brighton, and other fashionable resorts, laying the gambling-tables under contri- COLLECTS TRIBUTE— INFORMER. 183 bution, and threatening inform ations against illegal games of chance, then veiy prevalent; receiving in return for his trouble, and to pur- chase his silence, sums proportioned to business done ; this profiruble trade continued as long as the evi^ lasted- Until Silver commenced auc- tioneer, to amufcfa his customers, iifi Bettison sung with the same view. Mr. b. vvith his pall, \V ~ y, (then in practice as an attorney) went their rouitds, collecting tribute with as much ease as the Dey of A Igiers collects his, — and m a si- milar manner. About the year 1803, these two Worthies went to work by wholesale, informing ao-ainct eleven newspapers on the same day, for Ituving inserted advertisements, in which it was proposed to take back a watch which had been lost at Stroud fair, without asking any questions. As this oifer was liable to a fine of 50/ under what is i ailed Jona- than Wild's act, they had a good pull. However, the whole of the parties stood so firmly, that very little good came of it; on thccontrar}-, oneof them took the attempt so ill, that he contrived to upset their apple cart, *when afterwards they laid a ^11- * " Upset his apple-cart," said of one whose whole pe- cuniary concern is ruined. R 2 184 COL^ BROWN — PUBLIC-HOUSE ATTORN lES. awaj/i information against a coal merchant in Durham yard : they were almost ruined upon that occusioii. For some years Mr. B. went by the name of Brown (and Colonel Brown) of Leicester square ; old B*****d, of Gresse Street, being his nominal informer ; that is to say, he whose name was inserted iii the writ *' Qutere clausum fre- git,'''' their favourite mode of proceeding. His com- panions never mention his real name, or, indeed, any other, contenting themselves invariably with the initials only, in the same way we have used it above. This did not arise from any dislike to naming the instrument with which house-maids excite the fire to burn, but merely to throw dust into the eyes of byrstanders, and to avoid the ■)ainful recollections ofBlandfoid, and of his lordship's emphatical conclusion, " henceforth let the name of B- s be infamous, for its pre- sent possessor has rendered it so." Some real lawyers sit about at low public liouses, {and as high ones as they can attain to) in order to obtain customers, fomenting differ- ences, and setting friends by the ears. We know a score or more of them, whose f " FiH"away ;" to fill the sacks without first measuring tlic coalsj according to the act. SHABBY ACTIONS — SEEK NOTORIETY. 185 chiefest practice is picked up in shabb- actions arising at public houses, and in markets, as Wliitechapel, Leadenhall, Covent Garden and Newgate. So barefaced are they in this nefari- ous pursuit, that one of them at the last named market, hearing of the edito^-'s ititentiou in col- lechnii^ materials for the present publication, — offered an indemnity under his hand, if his name and address cuid be imerted here at full lengtJi, As this, ho\'^ever, would but give publicity to his paltry mode of practice, we decline to pander to his notoriety : our duty to the public is paramount to every other considera- tion ; and Lawyer may have back his inteuaed present by calling at the bar of the same house, where it has lain several weeks, and shall remain to eternity for aught we care for it or aim. Had it suited our purpose, we should much rather have inserted a song concerning him which we saw at Pardy's last summer. OBTAINING MONEY OF SERVANTS, Under the guise of either bringin jj some article that has been ordered by the master, or with the false statement that they are sent by him for money or other matters of trade. At times they 11 3 ISO PRETENDED CARRIERS — SIR JOHN have a box or parcel to deliver from the stage coach or mail ; the favourite being a bas-» ket of game, part of which is visible at one corner, such as the foot of a hare, or the neck of wild fowl. Upon laying open the cheatery, you fiave no other present than that 1 have just men- tioned, besides a good hard stone or two, and a little hay, with which you may wipe down the perspiration which must hereupon necessarily supervene. In all expositions such as these, there is no- thing like adducing instances, or as we stiffly call them *' cases," which have been decided ; and although our word is not to be doubted, so fur »s we know, the names have been as constantly inserted as they appeared necessary, together with the dates, when they were known or appeared requisite. Sir John Sylvester, our Recorder, himself un- derwent the master-(/p some two or three years ago, in manner following. Going to the Sessions Hou^e in the Qld Bailey one morning, upon the grand patter, in much haste, he left his watch behind ; and, vexed ^t the circumstance, he opened to Mr. Common Sergeant, *'tut! tut! if I have not left my watch hanging against the bead of the bed !" ' SYLESTER— MARKET-CHEATS. 1S7 A fellow overhearing this, who with a great num- ber of others, was standing upon the steps (all being upon the hedge) runs off to Chancery lane with a made-up message, that he was come for the Recorder's watch, which would be found han^^ing up at head of the bed, and by this token he asked to be believed. What could be more con- vincing ? There the watch hung ; and it was delivered accordingly— but never reached the hands of its owner again. Another plan is, to follow a master or mistress to the butcher's shop, and when they have bought and sent home their meat, to run into the shop with a plate or small basket, for some addi- tional article, stating that the leg of mutton or ribs of beef (as the case may be) which was sent in just now, are not to be dressed to day. This scheme will do for any open shop trade, where the customers can be seen from the outide ; and the only precaution against it is, for trades-people so exposed not to deliver their goods to the ap- plicant, but to send them home. It is not always, however, people can be aware of this imposture. A young woman, with a child in her arms, knocked at the door of, and enquired for, Mr. B-— , He was not at home, she 188 SERVANTS IMPOSED UPON. knew before hand ; so she stated, that he had been at Mrs. Salmon's wax work exhibition, and ordered some little pricked pictures which lie there for sale, upon which he had left two shil- lings ; the remainder of the purchase, eight shillings and sixpence, was to be paid to the bearer, she said, and became very importunate for the money. However, his maid servant was sufficiently awake to thwart her imposition con- cerning the pictures, as well as an attempt she made to leave the child and run off! but the butcher's man came into the kitchen with a tray of meat while she sat there, and she left the house soon after : going to the butcher's shop, she chose a piece of beef, which she took home, the man an- swering for its " being all right," as he had just seen her at the house. The child not having been employed upon the latter part of the trans- action, induces a belief that she had a compa- nion. Jonathan Harris, formerly respectable as a ribbon dresser, in Foster lane, was examined at Guildhall, in August, 1817, on charges of having delivered baskets and other packages, purporting to have come by coaches, for which he demanded the carriage and porterage charges, at various COSTERMONGERS. ISO sums. He was committed specifically for thus taking in a bookseller in Paternoster row ; but was let off at the sessions following, through a mis- taken act of lenity. "Women, and costermongers, who hawk about poultry, apples, butter, meat, &c. when they find trade rather slat k, will at times make a finish of their day's work by preteiiding they have been ordered to call with their wares. Such as these seldom impose as to prices ; but generally put off aged poultry, or meat tiiat died by the hand of its maker. Plated butter — (i. e. fresh on the outside, tallow in the middle) and such other impositions as may suogest themselves to their ingenuity. Most costermongers are thieves, smashers, and the like. We might have said ail of them ; but choose to leave a hole for some one to creep out at. Hay and straw salesmen are doreout of a load or two occasionally, by a clumsy fellow, whom it is a disgrace not to have detected for a villain at his very first appearance, in this manner. He orders the hay to be sent to a respectbble name, at a respectable mews, or a livery suible; where the driver is of course to be pi>id oji deli- very, but he retires into a neighbouring house t© 190 DELUSION — APPLIED TO get the money, while the men unload, but never appears again. REGISTER OFFICES* For servants, increase in number as they decrease in respectability. The very sight of some of them carry conviction to the coarser senses of the object they have in view : viz. the pilfering of the unwa^ry. Can any servant be so beso' ied as to suppose, that a master or mistress would tuter the nasty h.;]es at which thc)'^ pretend to supply the.a with situatiovs ? Boards are put up w ith ** situaticu'" marked on th.-n, and "wanted,'* followed by the vague notice of "mairl of all work, in a small family ;"' " As footman, where a hoy is kept,'"'' and other such addenda^ to make the matter palatable by the idea of little to do, — to gull the idle, and to draw the simple of a few shillings. In walking from Smithfield in a straight line to Finsbury Square, you will find three offices of * Tlic earliest establishment of this nature appears to liave been situated opposite Cecil Street, Strand, about the year 1740, and called tlie Universal Rejjister, partaking much of the nature of our modern *' Echo OflSce," embracing- every object of useful intelligence. BASE PURPOSES. 191 this description, all ou the same side of the way ; and these may serve as a sampler of a great pro- portion of all the rest. Money is paid at most of them upon entering tlie name, but very few of the pilfered servants obtain what they seek, — a good place ; most of them go without any, or are referred over to such as il would, be beneath them to accept of. This is done to amuse them ; and the poor deluded creatures exhaust their little stocks in subsistence, and are driven on the town ; whilst the shark, who pockets the deposit money, and laughs in his sleeve, sends them to houses which never thought of employing him, nor of discharging their present servants. But there is reason to believe worse practices than these prevail at some of them : of one we can speak with certainty, that not long ago the same house was a b y house, and a receptacle for female servants out of place, as well as a Register office for servants, — most of whom are females. We often pass the end of Maiden lane ; and if upon enquiry we find there is cause to do so, this passage shall be softened before it goes to press. Very few register offices for servants occur vithin the city of London proper ; but among 192 CITY OFFICES — BROTHELS. these, the most respectable, and piquins^ itself up- on being- on the most " equitable plan," has been open to the shocking depravity of '* the son ;" who with our eyes have we seen, and with our ears have we heard, in libidinous intercourse with female servants, applying at his father's office ; — we for- bear saying more at present : four or five years may have worked mighty alterations ; but wiiat has happened may happen again, whatever the fatalist may say. After all, these offices, properly conducted, are greatly convenient to servants as well as em- ployers ; therefore it is more especially the duty of moralists to take care they do not devolve into brothels, or worse. No doubt exists, that procu- resses or bawds often hire female servants from regis^ter offices, for the purf)Oses of their custom- ers. Generally, the seduction goes on slowly ; the victim of their delusion being engaged by some modest friend or middling tradesman; and,beingfcent to the bawdy-house with messages, is there entrapped. One of those many old bawds wlio live in splendour, keeps three bad houses and one modest one. She is lately mar- ried to a fellow , who at Deal sustained the nick name of " King of Prussia." Alie Street to wit. LOTTERY OFFICES.— INSURANCES, AND GOES. Concerning the first of these we must not s.iy an adverse word : there is an aet of parliament to make them lega] ; and who dares contravene the ordinances of a law so positive, though it sanctions crime, and renders that innocent, which is in itself altogether baleful and injurious? But we may be i^ermitted to go into figures : we may calculate, that if for every thousand tickets the lottery contains, only ten thousand pounds are divided among the whole, (or ten pounds each,) then every pound paid for a ticket more than ten pounds, is taken out of the pockets of the purchaser ; and is so much lost, thrown away, or cheated out of you. The half ticket would then be worth Jive po^inds, — the quarter ticket two pounds ten shillings^ — the eighth one pound five shill'wgs, — and the sixteenth tivelve shillings and sixpence. On the contrary, at pre- sent, the sixteenth is charged twenty -seven shil- lings, and the whole ticket twenty pounds ! and what for ? Answer that ye knaves ! Tell us how it comes to pass, that the capital prizes are never drawn until towards the latter end of the drawing } 194 INSURANCES — TWO POLL ONE, All that has been said hitherto about insurances upon lottery numbers, must undergo revision. We might as well talk of carrying Thames water a horse-back to Islington, or of the advantage of hand spinning over the machines, as to describe the methods of obtaining insurances. Their baleful effects on the deluded wretches who were the victims of the practice, or of the circumventing policy of those who by means of pigeons contri- ved to do the insurers. Nearly all the regularly licensed lottery offices used to become insurers : some of them did a great deal, and employed a great many " collectors of numbers ;" of whose activity you might form some judgment, by placing your back against the Mansion-house on the first morning of drawing, and turning eyes right, note the buz at the back doors in Lombard Street, when the first drawn ticket i» announced. Although very little insurance can now be eff'ected, on account of the new mode in which for several years the lotteries have been drawn, yet that little is attempted; and we heard with surprise that P. D ns, an amiable good sort of a regular foolish kind of a lottery office keeper, lost nearly all his property, by means of the old clumsy artifice of two poH one. AND LITTLE GOES. 195 That is, where two persons combine to cheat a third. Peter's confidential man and collector re- guiarl)' brought in his book at the proper minute ; but by leaving a vacancy open a page or two back, he was enabled to insert the number of tlie first drawn ticket with the name of his con- federate annexed to it, which number was brought to him, and dropped into the cellar by that confederate, after the doors had been long- locked up, according- to act of parliament. That collector, whom it will be recollected we have not yet named [DaficT) use to set at work a little go for several years just over his regular office ; but a lady, whose losses were too much for her temper, took in dudgeon the sullen beha- viour of the blind goddess who holds a wheel in lier hand ; so applied at the shrine of the blind *' He who holds a sword in one hand and scales in the other :" they put down his table, and the office is extinguished. At the west end of the town little goes are strewed about in great plenty, and in the sea- son double their activity as well as their number. They are of various descriptions ; the master of the house always taking a profit on the play, for s 2 19G BAR E. BAR O — REFRESHMENTS. which he finds refreshments of the most costly kind. In this providing, the houses vie with ewch other in sumptuousness ; wines of all sorts, and viands of the costliest kinds, are always at hand. Five per cent. Jon all the money won, pays him well for this ; which is the profit or allowance, on such games as Whist, Faro, Rouge et Noir, &c. At E. O., the bar E. bar O. falls to the master for the same purpose. When rank cheatery begins, tis called a Jo, But if these are the regular profits of his trade, what do not they not amount to when he is game enough to provide a table with a false top ? Tbii is the modern method of fleecing, and the master is sure to be in it : this is the sine qua non of the speck ; for who would be at the expence, and run the risque of discovery, were he not to divide the Cole ? GAME PUBLICANS. Although numerous laws bear down and grind the publicans, and render the keeping a small or low house little better than slavery, there should not be one the less kept in force against them ; but on the contrary it has been suggested, that they should be further compelled to aid the police in the detection of criminals, who take refui^e KVIL EXAMPLE — GAME CHEATS 197 under their roofs. No greater mischief can exist than a game publican ; none more baleful to the morals of youth who may frequent his house, by the encouragement his smile gives to the theory, and the sanctuary his walls afford to the practice of thieving. Let a man of experience talk lightly of crime before a young man of acute disposition, and the bulwarks of his morals give way, then is he fit to be enlisted into the first knot of desperate fellows who may sally forth, to make a prey of the defenceless and the unsus- pecting. The major part of those who keep public houses of the second, third, and lower degrees, are men who have filled menial situations in life ; of course they are not expected to exhibit much refinement of manners ; civihty being the nearest approach to it, they ever reach, and that is enough in the general way. It were well if 'twere no worse. Some are churls, and endeavour to controul those they cannot persuade to deal with them ; other* ;are unjust, and take advantage of those whom chance throws in their way; others again, cheats by what is called chalking double, or charging more liquor than has been taken. Not a few of tliose combine also the Swindler with the other parts of their character, in learning to beat their s3 198 PUBLICANS SWINDLE. — AID customers at playing the usual games, as skittles or back-gammon, cards ordominos, bj' means of all the tricks and turns to be found in each, which they most sedulously acquire of pedestrian professors. Does it wot savour strongly of the Swindler, for a man to sit hours upon the stretch at the Bagatelle board, to learn of a Sharper hovy to accomplish any given number? So that the next customer that comes \n to play with him is quite certain of losing, whatever the stakes may be? But crying as are those evils for redress, they vanish into smoke before the superior magnitude of permitting pubhc houses to be kept by men who have been had up for imputed crimes 1 Re- turned lags, though they are the best defined villains, are not more dangerous than those whose doings are known to subject them to the laws. They dare not object to any thing that may be l^roposed ; witness he in High Holborn, who per- mitted the cart-load of hosiery to be unlade at his house of a Sunday morning, which had that night been stolen from a shop ? and all this against his better judgment ; for the adage is not a good one, which says " the more public the more private." Again, I know that Georgey C——n, in Tottenham Court Road, was desirous ROBBERS — GAME HOUStS. 199 of leaving off several years, but could not (least- wise he told me so) ; but what was my surprise, after years of absence, (notwithstanding George died in the mean time) to find the house in the same line. Coming out of Bedford Square, eyes right ! there I saw ten or twelve of the oldest hands on town, sunning themselves at the door ! The new man 1 found had been one of those con- cerned in the affair respecting the buying of hay in Whitechapel, at Hill's public house, and is supposed to have sacked all the money. Cripplegate is supposed to be that Ward in the city, the police of which is the best regulated of any, and most carefully watched ; but I know two gajjie publicans in it, whose houses are well- known haunts for night robbers — more or less. Standing with your back at the church-door, and stretching out your hands, not quite straight, you shall find one of them at fifty yards to the right ; the other stands about two hundred and fifty yards to the left hand, having a small sinus or elbow still farther to the left. It is a strange coincidence that upon going into either of those four houses vou step down (more or less) out of the street ; — the last mentioned having two good steps; — with the two first the descent is but just per- ceptible. 200 MAGISTRATE AND BREWERS AGREE. Will it not seem slrange, that a public bouse should b^a receptacle for rogues, two and twenty years, and its licence still continue ; and this, al- though John Greatorex, at tlie other end of the road, lost his licence without cause assigned? The magistrate who said "that he granted a licence to a house which had been put down for a year, because he did not like to hurt the pro- perty ; and becau^e the house had been newly fitted up in a tasteful manner;'' adding, that " the icalls had committed no crime !"* gave but a puerile excuse for one of his numerous partialities. I never go down Bethnal green with- out thinking of him, and his associates, with a grin. THE PUBLIC BREWERS AND DISTILLERS Are deserving of notice here, from the quantity of mancEuvring they are always at with their customers, with the public, and with each other. Their conduct towards the publicans is of the most unjustifiable nature (we hope there are exceptions) : these are accused of not filling their measures, which they attribute to the quantity of air that the machine forces into the beer ; but one * See Police Report of Exauiiuations bsfore the House of Coiiiiuons' committee. SHORT MEASURE BL ITS. '201 or two, more ingenious than the rest, conftss they are driven to adopt the fraudulent practice, because they do not themselves receive measure from the brewers. A late writer* has exposed this matter fully, (and much praise is due to him for the exposition) by giving the particular modes in which the butts are so rendered de- ficient in their contents, which ought to be one hundred and eight gallons each, whereof two are expected to be ullage, or bottom. But Welby King says, he has measured butts out of which only ninety-nine gallons of proper porter could be drawn ; and we understand, that through his representations, many cask-alterations have taken place,- — though not to the full extent of the com- plaint. What can the poor publican do ? Should he complain, he loses his licence, if the brewer has the ear of the magistrates, as we have seen proved. f That is, if he holds a free house, and the brewei holds the lease, and with it the customary " war- rant of attorney," Messrs. Brewer and Co. enter * In the New Monthly Magazine for 1 January, 1818. t Vide Police Report of the House of Commons; which ought to be read by everybody, and studied by all concerned in public house licences. 202 RUINED PUBLICANS — BAD BEER. up judgment, " Fi fa" his goods and chattek, and put in another man who will take it more kindly; one who more obsequiously draws their rot-o-ut stuff, and recommends his customers to cure themselves on the spot with cordial gin. N. B. One scarcely ever gets a drop of good beer at a mere gin shop ; these appear to me to choose the brewer who sells the worst article. Bad goods disgust the public, and that with short measure, hastens the ruin of the suffering publican ; hence the great number of moves (removals) tlu;t happen daily, to the great surprise of every one who does not trace effects up to their sources ; and to the advantage chiefly of the brokers of spirits, aud the appraisers of goods — who alone reap the harvest that is produced by bad beer, Tvloreover, that brewing concern, how- ever rich, is sure to go to Avreck, sooner or later, which serves the public with a bad article, be- haves harshly to its retailers, or disingenuously to their fellow brewers. We know them. This latter description of conduct is the least interest- ing to the public ; for, who cores when two tigera tear each otiier's hides ? But we cannot help thinking, tjiat the brewer, who carncys with, fawns to, or, by hook or by crook pays a magis- trate, to act unl'airly towards another brewer, will DISTILLERS — USEFUL MEN. 203 do any dirty work. The employer and employed being' equally bad. The distillers play an under-game generally, unless where a gin shop has a great trade, and then they are the chief creditors. For more on this subject see under the head " smuggling," " private distillery." SYCOPHANTS, Or useful m§n, as they are called, abound now more than ever, in consequence of ihe recently depressed st^e of our manufactures. They arose out of the latter description of people on the town ; for, as a bad trade produced Jobbers and Mock-auctions, with the Duffers and the Barkers, so the whole combined gave life to a race of men hitherto undefined, who ought to be termed " Sycophants," because they are so. These, not- withstanding they seem to have much knowledge of the world, owe their depressed situation in life to the very want of that knowledge being carried into practice ; and yet it is by the tender of their services in the way of information and advice, that they prey upon the unsuspecting part of the community. Whatever is to be done, they tender their advice, and offer their assistance, asking in return to fill a glass out of your bowl, or to par- 204 SYCOPHANTS PRAISE, TOAD-EATERS, take of your dish ; at least, if they do not put the question, their gentle hints it is impossible to mistake. Of all qualities and all pretensions, they are to be found at every public house, tavern, and din- ing-house ; where, if you tell ever so inane a story, they are the first to commend, and they laugh at what is »iett7?f for a joke, although it should be egregious nonsense. Make a display of your yiurse, and these fellows will lick the dust from your feet ; though yon mistake so palpable a matter as the hour of the day, they are ready to swear you are right ; their politeness is fulsome, their panegyrics nauseate. Sam. Ireland's de- finition of them was a good one : he termed them *' toad-eaters," who w onld swallow any one's poison. Are you in doubt what road to take, or how to fiishion your tiiste for vcrtu ? The sycophant can direct you better, according to his own shewing, than any one alive. They are to be found ply- ing at the liotel, as well as the wuterivg^house ; and although I am not admitted at either the Blenh.emi or Long's, yet I have seen them at places standing equally high with those fashiona- ble houses. I have met with theim at the Old Bailey Eating houses^ at t};e Oiick-lane .soup HIGH AND LOW — NOT DESPICABLE. 205 houses, and in eveiy gradation thence upwards ; but, they are mj'^ readers oP the middling classes, who are the likeliest to be exposed to their malig- nant influence, ulien they enter the houses of re- freshment adapted to their respective circum- stances. Unless they mean to be willing dupes, let them reject the protfered civilities of such gentry : the rouj^h-hewn contradictions of the blunt countryman, or the man of strong mental powers, are to be prized ten-fold before them. And yet, though these sycophants may be des- pised for their servility, they are not to be reproba- ted too deeply : they have bought a knowledge of the world, and they would sell it again, and those who have a wish to become purchasers are merely cautioned not to pay too dearly for what they receive. Undoubtedly, much town-talk informa- tion from men retired from trade, is very desira- ble, always entertaining, and sometimes profita- ble ; yet the chances are so much against the latter, that 'tis two to one the stranger gets done out of his property — more or less. The thorough- bred sycophant may be known by his carney or small talk, or by his whining ; by his mouth being always open, either to communicate something, or to partake of your refreshments. Generally, they have little second rate trades- T 206 GENERAL DEALERS — ALL-TRADES- men at hand, whom they recommend you to make purchases of; these put their heads together, the one 10 impress you with a good idea of the goods and the vender, and the latter to put on extra profits, the better to divide with the sycophant, a decent sum at your expense. Another set are actually in trade at the moment, if that can be called a trade, which consists of a shop of all sorts ; these are called " general dealers," and partake much of the character of the jobbers; only that the latter for a shop, keep a " ware- house," upstairs in a garret; or their lodging room at the public house serves the purpose of a warehouse' I have known one of these, at the same time a dealer in cutlery, coffins, pictures, paper, hose, books, bandanas, and other hetero- geneous articles ; while he could recommend you " to tlie best brandy merchant in town," — " a ca- pital good v^ooUen-draper" — " the man that makes the l)est boots you ever wore" — and " the tightest fit for a pair of breeches, ever heard of." With the vphole of these, he has *' dealt largely for years ; and all his friends who have bougl^t of them were perfectly satisfied." Such is the exact portraiture of a man whom we have particularly noticed ; and we know as certainly that the same genus of traders abound. MEN— SING, LARK AND SPREE. 207 who, though they are far from crimmal, ought to be avoided, as indeed should the whole class of sycophants from top to bottom. These fellows, or rather another species of them, have been, not unaptly termed SPONGERS, Because they lick, or suck up, whatsoever they may touch. They are bolder, and more forward than the preceding, who are thus termed : they are a lower-bred set ; will accost you in the street with a proffer of their services ; the same in a v/atch house (if you get into a row), they can show you to a lodging, where previous to going to bed, a supper is ordered, and you must pay the shot. They also differ from the former class, inasmuch as they can perform none but puerile services, such as administer to your sen- sual appetites ; and unblushingly partake, without even the pretence of bearing a part of the ex- pense. For the most part they can sing a good song, wliich they set a going ; or tell a hundred good stories to increase the jollification. If you would have a bit of spree, they can help you into it; but in helping you oat again, they manage to keep something for themselves out of the ne- cessary fees to the watchmen and constables, T 2 208 BEG, PIMP, BRAG, BOAST, with whom the sponge is the chief negociatoi next morning. Should you ask for a song, appoint a meeting, or applaud any tiling he has said or done, the Sponge will turn round sharply and ask for the loan of a few shillings. He will pimp for you, while talking of his independence ; he will brush your coat, or carry your umbrella, while boasting of his connections, and exult that " he enjoys a moderate competency, in which he feels more real happiness, than with the comparative splen- dour of former days, accompanied by the shackles of his relations' narrow prejudices." Lest this should not give you sufficient confidence in his exalted origin, he pulls off his hat to the car- riages of nobility and gentry as they pass along, of the owners of which he knows no more than you do. One of these gentry walking up the Haymarket with his new-found companion, was carrying the umbrella of the latter as well as his own, whilst the countryman was buttoning his great coat, the better to resist a threatening storm : Our Sponge called out, as a carriage drove past, " I'll die if 1 shall not hear of tins again! Lady T will wondervvhat I am a doing with two umbrellas at once. But 1 shall give her as good as she LIE, ALL EXPLODED. 209 brings; the truth, indeed, the truth will serve my turn best: I shall tell her that I v\us accom- panying a friend frona the country, whom I esteem- ed, (which is truth) to see the Panorama, and the Museum, and so on. She cannot fail to recollect seeing you walking at my side ; yes, yes, she will recollect the colour of your coat ; Aye, aye, yes, yes; Oh, she, Sir ! Slie is a good, — as good a creature ! God bless you ! Lady T against the world, — if I had money." The countryman stared at the carriage pointed out, as it turned round in the street to take up its fare a few doors above where they stood : a nursery maid and child were in it ; the mother of tiie child, perhaps, and mistress of the car- riage, having alighted to make some purchases at the drusrgist's shop. This was a complete ex- plosion of the Sponger's pretensions, and his cha- racter stood fully exposed. SWINDLERS. Their arts and boldness assume so many Protean features, that we despair of giving the reader any thing like so complete an idea of their practices as we have of some (if not most] other modes of taking money out of the pockets of the honester parts of the community. Our chief difficulty t3 210 SWINDLER DEFINED, DESCRIBED. lies in not being able to give our proofs, or in- stances, of their evil deeds, with the names at- tached to them ; for these two reasons, among a multitude of others : 1. That the endeavours of hoaest men, to extricate themselves from diffi- culties into which they have unavoidably fallen, partake so much of the arts and practices of the swindlers to get into them, that we might by possibility confound one of the former with a hundred of the latter, — a thing by no means con- genial to our feelings : 2. That those rogues-in- grain not unfrequeutly experience such reverses of fortune, that they face about in the world, look up, and bring actions to recover damages for defamation against their detractors. We seek none of these. To swindle, — to take away by undue means, not to be called robbery, but which is, in effect, robbery, is the detinition of the term which desig- nates the men we are going to treat of. They are known, in the various situations into which they are thrown, from the honest fair trader, by the presumption of their views, as regards trade in particular ; to which they are almost (but not quite) exclusively attached ; but in fact, to whatever they pretend, it is in a fever ; — in manner boisterous, forward, petulant, and assum- WAREHOUSE, DWELLING. 211 ing. ]n short, all that is disai^reeable to the se- date, discriminating, part of the commercial world, is to he found in the swindler. He not only talks higher, but dresses liigher ; his pre- tensions to the commonest inteUigence, upon the commonest topics, is always overcharged, and dis- gusting to moderate men. He has a warehouse, — or a counting house ; perhaps chambers in the city — (those doubtful progeny of declining trade) ! *' How are they furnished ? or how filled ? Where- about does he live, or lodge, or lie?" Answer 1. Empty shelves ; few books, but none of mag- nitude or long standing ; and as for the cham- bers, what are the other occupiers on the same spot ; and how long have they been in their pre- sent state, or he an occupier of them ? To the second I answer, that he lives upon his wits, lodges any where, and lies every where. How nearly do these approximate to the other cheats we have described ! viz. Smugglers, Duffers, Mock auctioneers } Only differing in this, that these latter are sellers, for money ; the Swindler is a buyer of goods without money, (for which he substitutes *' his own bills :") the one sells in detail, at a careful price, the other bui/s^t any price ; credit being all he looks for. Swindlers generally take a shop, counting 212 CHARACTERISTICS OF SWINDLING. house^ or vvareliouse, the door of which is always fastened. When yon enter it, a certain degree of consternation sits upon the countenance of tlie person placed there to take in messages. The master is never in the way ; most frequently at a neighbo'.i liner tavern or public house ; or the at- tendant directs you to Change, where you may perhaps find him outside the door of Tom's or Batsou's, — unless he has a bill overdue, and then he is at a porter house, in a corner, taking a sneaking cliop by hinjself. And yet, after you have come at all those particulars, and drawn your conclusions ; having made up your mind, and told him your reasons for discredit, he will fly at the imputation put upon his character, (for it is tender) talk of his bills in the market, and other overcharged stuff ; and ultimately succeeds in hermetically sealing your mouth with the threat of an action. And the more certainly would he have recourse to law, as he was more sure of the imputation being just. This is the case even with houses of honour and probity, when under difficulties, but not otherwise. Fear exists in proportion to the degree of danger ap- prehended : if there be no danger impressed upon the mind, no fear can exist in the heart. We will adduce two cases in point, of mercan- TENDER REPUTATIONS — CASES. 213 ti]€ houses, as honourable and as upright as ever were unfortunate. We should name them with regret were it not that the feeling of our duty is paramount to our ideas of delic!*cy ; when men choose to make their concerns the subject of a newspaper squabble, or of argumentation in a court of law, they must not complain at being quoted in the evanescent publication now under hand. Their cases, and their names, must pass away with the occasion that gave them birth, to make room for other newer and better recogmcsed instances of the overweening care usually be- stowed upon that which is of small value : Nurses usually take the most care of sickly children. From five to nine years ago was a tune of trial for the strongest mercantile houses in this country. The successes of the enemy, the burning decrees, the shutting up of one continent, and the war- like attitude of another, with its lucky hits at sea, promised fair to ruin the best prospects of the most firmly established merchants here, who look- ed to those points for the return of their capital, with its attendant profits. Under these circumstances, we heard without surprise of the stoppages that were daily an- nounced or hourly predicted; but we certainly 214 WANT OF CHARACTER FELT. saw with grief, in the Times newspaper a dispute between a Mr. H re of Bishopsgate and Mr. S s, of the house of P. and S., as to some expressions used by the former respecting the stabihty of the latter. The slander was re- butted, and the utterer swallowed his words. But the house stopped soon after ! At Giiildhall, an action for words spoken, so as to huit the character of Messrs. W u and Co., was brought against Mr. , and a ver- dict obtained with commensurate damages. These were scarcely paid, however, when that house offered a composition and paid it. We repeat it, these instances are adduced in order to illustrate our subject, in the same man- ner as diamonds are best seen in the dark, which they almost render visible, or at least make us know its existence. No man feels the want of character so much as the Swindler; or laments its absence in his spe- culations when foiled, or is more waspish in defen<:e of its latent particles, as they fly off in the prosecution of his negotiations. The man of sterling credit, on the contrary, upon finding the least let or hindrance to the completion of a bar- gain, relinquishes the purchase with silent indig- REFERENCES, ABORTIVE. 215 nation, and says (or thinks) "you may keep it yourself for aught he cares about you. The Swindler on the other hand defends himself, and his credit (creditableness) most per tinacoiusly ; demands the grounds of refusal ; offers more references as to character, and shows the cloven foot of his calling, by insolent insinuations against tlie vender. This sort of reference for character is their favourite mode of bolstering up each other. It frequently happens, however, that the party re- ferred to is not a whit better known, or of longer standing, than the referror ; at times they opea two or three such counting houses on purpose to carry on the farce of reference. But he must be a dolt indeed who is duped by ever so many such references, where the aspect of (no) business is so. much akin to each other. The upshot of such undertakings is either the King's Bench, the London Gazette, or a voyage to America; the latter being of rarest occurrence, as it always is for deep game, or large consignments to that quarter ; and tlie former of daily recurrence, being for numerous smaller debts, or in case wherein the efl'ects are so completely swept away, that scarcely enough remains to pay for working 216 RESPECTABLE RIXEIVERS. the commission : Such " take the benefit,'''* as it is too briefly called. Goods obtained in the manner we have before alluded to, and paid for in their " own accept- ances," they sell for cash, at thirty, forty, or fifty per cent, loss, to auctioneers, to Jews, and the receivers of stolen goods, unless when they are shipped off to America, there to wait the Swind- ler's coming, annong congenial minds to dwell. However strange it may seem to our readers, there live in great apparent respectability, not to say splendour, man}^ men who deal largely in stolen goods ; and we could walk all the way from London Brid'^e to Limehouse-hole without once losing sight of some one or other great man's house, who, before the formation of (he Docks, was not a great rogue in that way, — knowingly guilty. Peo])le may be found in every rank and station, who do not resist the temptation of buy- ing cheap, without reflecting how the goods were come by ; or if the reflection does arise, they stifhe it at the birth in the abundance of their cupidity. Wholesale dealers, too, of high and untouchable character, there are, who do * "of the Act for tlie relief of Insolvent debtors," should be understood ; but pramp words and half sentences are g-enerally used to soften down crime. SINKING tradesman's ACCEPTANCES. 217 not blush to make purchases at such prices and amounts as can not leave a doubt for what end the goods were obtained. We know of one house in the linen trade, with whom this culpable prac- tice is so palpable, that their conduct has under- gone investigation in a court of law. In the same street (one of the newest built in London) is a hosier of the same stamp ; with whom, if a manu- facturer at Nottingham or Derby is known to do business, the poor wretch loses his credit for wool and for cotton and every needful et cetera. When one of those is vpon the go, that is to say, must shortly decamp, his acceptances become at any body's command ; and it not unfrequently happens, that a shabby fellow has more of these moon-shine bills proved under the commission against him, than he could possibly have the ad- dress to put forth in five years ** for value receiv- ed." Twenty per cent is sometimes paid for such pseudo acceptances^ which are often given before the bill is drawn (upon blank stamps) — but ten per cent, or less contents them ; and it happens frequently that the poor devil only gets laughed at for his pains before the ink is dry. An honest man's acceptances, who having stood for years, yet, who is ** upon the go," are sought after with avidity, at twenty per cent, paid down. He is to u 'il8 80L1> — RUIN — DISCRIMINATION. be pitied who get into such trammels ; but fail- ing into one difficult}-, draws him on to another ; and the endeavour to extricate himself bj'^ one factitious acceptance but brings on a second and a third. The forced endeavours to negociate these, bring his condition to the knowledge of the Swind iers ; who, taking advantage of his situa- tion, demand peremptorily, under pain of dis- closure — other anci more copious sacrifices of his real creditors' property ; and the disgraceful .alliance (as it is considered) attaches to his cha- racter tluough life. V/hen he l^as gone through the Alembic of the Gazette, or the Insolvent Dehtor's Court, he i» not (as he ought to be) estimated among the honest but miforlunate vidnTis of the times in which we live, but is driven by the universal ill opinion of his former friends, companioiis, and associates, to join the deprecated set amonly. I wanted very much to know whereabout there ; but he was extremely costive of commu- cation, which only served to raise my curiosity still higher. He went off at his usual pace : I could not follow personally [it would look so — — ish] ; so I sent my eyes after him, counting the steps he took : they were thirty-eight per minute by ray watch ; and I resolved to wait un- til he came back, which I knew must be by that route, as it turned out, being the nearest way to Drury lane. Multiplying the minutes of his absence by thirty-eight, allowing two minutes for taking a glass of gin, and two more to speak to the Fence. I found it brought me so far as Fashion Street on the right, and on the left it might extend to Bacon Street ; for I after- wards paced the same number of steps on the 226 OBSOLETE CRIMES— LEMOINE. ground, and found he had taken a ivhet (of gin) in Spitalfields market. What was the precise nature of his business - remained to be solved. I went to Covent Gar- den, and upon enquiry found that two watches h^d passed through the hands of a neighbouring housekeeper, where I knew he was sweet, not to say jiutti/, upon the covess. But I learnt no more for nearly a month, when I met hitn again in the same line of march : we took our drops together at the first vaults we came to. Here I suddenly demanded of him " What is o'clock ?" He would have evaded the quesiion^ but 1 taxed him with having a watch, for that " 1 heird it beating." This, although a lie, puzzled hi.s canister, and he pulled it forth like a gcihi/, acknowledged that he was '* taking it to the Transriiuter,'^ and I sucked him of two dol- lars for quietness vake. Of other little ofilences, we have seen a good deal thajt was written formerly, and reprinted latterly, about Kidnappers and Crimi)s, of Pimps, Procuresses, and Waggon-hunters, Baw- dy Houses, and Conjurors, which, if ever they did exist as there set down, exist no longer ; the me- thod cf doing having greatly altered like most Defective police — remedy for. 227 other things in modern times. We are inchued to think those reveries proceeded from the fertile brain of one Harry Lemoine, well known upon the town twenty years ago, in the lowest walks. Time has rendered the whole book obsolete, shewing things as they were, lyrobahly — not as they are, certainly. From what we have said, and seen, and know of the Police of this Metropolis, as well as that of a neighbouring nation, we do not hesitate to say, that the whole arcana must undergo alteration here, and approximate itself nearer to the fo- reign one, — as near as is congenial to the differ- ence of character of the two people. 3Iore energy, gi eater unity of action, less confidence in individuals, and a corresponding degree of secrecy, comprise the outline sketch we would endeavour to impre:>s upon those in whom the humane task is confided, of lessening the quality of crime, as well the number of the guilty. A sober, silent, and steady regulation of the present alarming system, will do more than un act of par- liament. CONSPIRATORS AND INFORMERS. In times very remote we are told, from pretty good authority, men sacrificed by wholesale the 228 BLOOD MONEY, HOUNDS, REWARD^ lives of others to their mad ambition, or the resentment of injuries, — real or supposed. But that we should live in times when the persons em- ployed in the detection of crime {for which we pay them) should perfidiously assist m its perpe- tration ; and not only so, but that subsequently thereto they should bring the offending wretches to an ignominious death, and that too under the semblance of justice, — is really too much for ns to think of, without pain and grief. Moderately as we wish to bring ourselves to the subject, in Older to view with calmness the atrocious deeds- daily passing under our eyes, a deep indigna- tion, crying for vengeance, swells our bosom, and almost suffocates the whisperings of delibe- rative retribution. The ardour of the soul out- strips the chastened mind, in the pursuit of criminals, such as those we contemplate, and asks the cool and enquiring hand of justice to lay on without delay its unsparing vengeance. Until very lately we had thought the case of Jonathan Wild and the officers of 1788, the only instance in England of employed men bartering in blood for money. We knew and often witnessed the too much avidity of offirers to convict capitally ; and we have seen and heard witli proper feelings, pretended corrO' EVIDENCE— KELLY AND SPICER. 229 bations of the chain of facts adduced against murderers, brought up for no other purpose under heaven than to have " a finger in the pye," and to come in for a share of " the reward,^^ — that bane and antidote of great offences. We have witnessed executions of geveral men, who were convicted " according to the evidence," to be sure ; but what sort of evidence ? Were there any officers in it ? And if there were, what is the conclusion ? N. B. Whoever has occasion to prosecute a criminal, let him above all things turn a deaf ear to the advice of an officer, as to modelling his evidence ; — more especially if the charge amounts to a capital one, or is likely to do so by such modelling. The unknowing reader can scarcely imagine what arts and finesse are used in this way : at times the directions given what to say, are at once pointed, rude, and cruel. But it remained to these times for us to con- template the officers immediately employed in detection of offenders, actually subornating others, and assisting them in the commission of crime, with no other view on earth, than through conviction to receive the reward, which by statute they are entitled to, who bring capitals to jus- tice. Here we maintain, that they are not X 230 BROCK, VAUGHAN, PELHAM, culprits themselves who have been set at work by others to commit ofFences, but those only are so who set theni to work. It is no more our inclination than our business here to discuss the abstract question of right and wrong ; but, neither in this or on any other occasion, shall we refrain from maintaining what we conceive to be right through fear that we should possibly be wrong.. Therefore, it is, we insist that Kelly and Spicer, the two boys, ordered for execution for having passed bad notes, are not guilty, morally (every one will allow), nor say we, are they guilty legally. For the youths would not have com- mitted the crime imputed to them, but for tlie persuasions of Finney ; that is very certain-. And Finney again would have been most careful how he dealt in this sacrifice of human life, — > with which he meant to purchase impunity for his own forfeit life by the favour of Tom Lim- brick, — had it not been for the well-known favour bestowed on Vaughan, Johnson, Brock, Pelham, and Power,* instead of those halters they * Sir Samuel Sheppard (the Attorney General) avowed that they " deserved execution of their sentences.''' Debate on a motion for a copy of the opinion of the twelve judg-es, which the minister acknowledged did not exist. JOHNSON, AND POWER, PAHDONED. 2-31 SO richly deserved, and had taken so much pains to obtain ! and were disappointed. The cry of the blood of immolated victims was before the judgment seat; but so much of state policy and of feveii.-h management, and overweening care, hath marked the two administrations of Lord Sidraouth, from the timeof Despard andthe Tin- man of Plymouth, to that of the Derby row and William Hone, that we should not wonder the least to see the last four named " hellish scoun- drels"* FOR THEY ARE QUALIFIED, advanced tO some Post or office in the gift of the state. Mr. Vaughan received his appointment to office a year ago, as inner turnkey of a yard in Cold Bath fields prison, and the pardon of Brock, Pelham, and Power, and of Ben Johnson and Don- nelly, was known sixmonths before their liberation took j)lace. And when did it take place, think jou, gentle reader ? I will tell you: at a time the most mal apropos for a thi^^l ing mind to re- flect upon, that the darkest, revolting, solicitude could have chosen; namely, the very moment that the warrants for hanging Kelly and Spicer arrived at Newgate, saw also come to hand the order to * Mr, Tierney's words. Y 9 232 EFFECT OF EXAMPLE. liberate those four villains, who had contributed by their example, — but more bj-^ their impunity, — to induce that equally graceless villain, Fin- ney, to take away the two boys (17 and 15 res- pectively) by the same species of villainy as they had practised. When the keeper of Newgate opened the six pieces of paper which contained his directions respecting the disposal of the six men under his care, he must have resembled much the drawer of the state lottery, "just two blanks to a prize;" only the fortune he unfolded was of deeper in- terest, and replete with more painful sensations of grief, national sliame, disgust and horror, at every turn up, whether these were the blanks or prizes of the unseemly envelopes which contained — 'death to the innocent, or life to the guilty. Let us ask ourselves a question. — What would havebeen theconduct of Limbrick, if one or more of the five hellish scoundrels had undergone the sentence of the law ? AVould he have kept in tow this new scoundrel Fiimey ? When the latter was known to him as a passer of bad notes for many months, did nothing pass upon the sub- ject? Yes, most assuredly ; and we might venture to predict the ivords of the conversation, which VICTIMS OF SEARCHERS. Z«y»' terminated wit!i " I dont want you ; sliew me the others.^' Mark the plural, reader ! Two are better than one at any time. So Spicer was added to Kelly, and both delivered up as 'sacrifices to secure impunity to the greater rogue. Else why not take him along with the other two ? ^^ I had reasons for it,'''' said Lim- brick. These reasons are so apparent, so re- pugnant to our feelings, and so appalling to humanity,, that we forbear to enlarge further, than by concentrating the whole essence of his ►murderous " reasons" in two words ; viz. MORE BLOOD ! ! ! Our readers, who are ''strange to the ways of town," will naturally enough desire to be in- formed of the precise points upon which those 'five hellish villains were convicted, and of those -gra\€ " reasons," which obtained for them their .-^jodrdon, and accomplished their enlargement. These it is our duty to give. We shall come, at the conclusion, to this advice : never engage in any thing unlawful, though your employer be ^verso generous; fall not into habits of intimacy with strange or doubtful characters (iiist ascer- ftain who and what they are) — do not let any one 'dodge your heels at night or by day. These x3 234 vaughan's crimes — soames precautions are deemed necessary for the decent and respectable part of the community ; for, although the chief part of the wretches who have been entrapped into the commission of crimes, were poor, — jet we have reason to think, the blood hounds will take other grounds, and seek for higher victims. What, for example, is a decent and respectable man (however innocent) to do, when pounced upon and searched, there is found in his pockets a quantity of forged notes, or false coin ? No matter how they came there ; whether they were dropped into his pocket in the street, or in the public house (while perhaps he was a little drunk) ; — or whether the base imitations were concealed in the officer's hand, and preten- ded {upon oath) that they were found in his pockets, — his good character, his innoceuce, will stand him in no stead ; but he must, under the present administration of our criminal code, suffer the law, and the officer pockets the money, which is the price and the reward of his villainy ! Two boys were served in this manner on Tower- hill, a few years ago, by one of the five hellish villains named above : that they were not hanged was through no omission of his, nor did his soul receive any consolation probably CONSPIRACY SPOILED. 235 irom that circumstance ; for immediately after that we find him prosecuting a joung man, a banker's clerk, for an abominable offence. The officer was the only evidence, and the clerk was pilloried opposite Princes Street, Mansion house. We know not whether the clerk is dead or alive; nor whether his condemnation and punishment has undergone the same revision as some others : Bill Soames's for instance ; he was convicted on the evidence of Vaughan^ and that of a man (gentleman!) never heaid of before or since; but the enquiry terminated in the remission of the punishment, which shows how little reliance was to be had upon the latter evidence when de- prived of the support of the former's. The sweep boy who picked up the pocket book (an iCmpty one !) knew not who threw it away, and his evidence went to nothing more than the mere fact of picking up. Every one knows how guilty Soames was of numerous other robberies, but no one would say that he ought to be punished upon 2^ false charge, or an entrapped crime. If this were proper and right, why not, with the confession of the Attof- ney General before us, that the five jnen " deser- ved to be hanged," hang them all at once in the 23G JOHNSON— CHEAPSIDE STAND. face of a legal quibble ? We every day see men at lar^iC, who ought to have been hanged years ago ; and yet it would answer the end of no ho- nest man to step up to one of them, ml clap- ping a noose round his neck, ran him njj at the next lamp fjofst. But if the same culprit were taken up and tried and Jbund guilty of the fact that su' jected him to be hanged, what signifies' it, the law term that is besiowed upon his crime? There is too much disposition to qnihblem our lawyers: common sense and common houe-.ty are oft forgotten in that hateful propensity. Vaughan was convicted of having, l>y means of one Diivies, a laine petty officer of the navy, induced four youths to break open the house of a woinan with whom Da vies cohabited. Their heints failed them at the door of the premises, and>they left the iooli behind which Vaughan had furnished to Davies. However, the devoted boys were caught nearly in th- fact, not quite ; for. they had not yet made a breach. This dis- appoijitment was foreseen by the wary Vanghan, and a ring belonging to Davies's woman was b)'- him slipped into the pocket of one of the vic- tims ; upon which incontrovertible corrobation of the other parts of the evidence the prisoiiert HIRED COINERS PLOT BLOWN UP. 237 were found guilty, and they would have received sentence of death, but for the explosion of the plot occasioned by Davies's splitting. Ben Johnson's oftence was in like manner house-breaking. With aggravated circumstances he induced his victim to rob a friend's house, and betrayed him before hand; ordering the usual watchman, who would have prevented the robbery, from interfering. This was the second victim he avers that he had so convicted ; and boasting to the surviving relations of the first man that such was the fact, he seemed to glory in the crime he had committed and exulted over the wounds which he thus opened afresh. Just as we are writing these incoherencies, the cai- tiff, who is the subject of them, struts past our ■view, and exhibits in his gait the improved man- ners of an unchained felon. He was a"?sisted by oneDonelly, who was convicted of the sameoffence. Brock, Pelham, and Power, were more complex in their attempt upon three labourers from the sister island, otie of whom could speak none but his native Irish. Going to the Cheapside stand, whereon Monday mornings labourers offer themselves by scores, these villains agreed with one Renorden and his t\^o countrymen, for a job of work which should be pointed out to them. 238 PROSECUTION — BLOODY ATTEMPT. This was no other than to prepare round pieces of metal, resembling shillings, by polishing', filing, and colouring them; the room in Moor lane having been previously hired, and the ma- terials prepaied by the conspirators. In this miserable hole, after a few hours labour, the three innocent men were set upon by persons they had not before seen, conveyed to prison, and in a very few days were arraigned for treason in imitating the coin of the realm, for which the sentence is to be hung, drawn, and quartered. Enjoying this horrid sight, so congenial to his feelings, wishes, and views, was Pel ham, — one of the conspirators who had hired the three victi:nsin Cheaps^ide, — recognised, ashe attended at the press yard of the Old Bailey, by a labourer who was present at the iiiring; after a struggle, and a hiint, Mr. Pelhani was secured, and the plot, by the exertions of the lord Mayor (Wood), was laid bare. All those six fellow^s were indicted ht/ the citt/, for being accessory, before the facts, to the crimes imputed to iheir respective victims; upon the cleaie;st evidence imaginable they were found guilty and received sentence of death ; but after lit tie more than a year's imprisonment we are St ruck agha-t uponhearnig they aretoescapeupon aqulb- ble or lesstlian a quibble. We are alarmed at the HARROW ESCAPE. 239 state of society which is doomed to receive again, intheseour days, such a pestilence into its bosom, to contaminate entire masses of its most unpro- tectedmembers ; — those w ho look up for help, for advice, and assi>tance to the higher classes, and the higher powers are thus exposed to the cold- hearted callous-souled creators of crime, the murder-manufacturers of these sad times. We feel national shame, and express in weak terms our individual sorrow. N. B. Since rewards upon conviction cannot be taken away (in sound policy) as has been proposed, the mode of distributing them must be altered ; and also in the first place the [)ower to dispense justice must be taken out of the hands of the officers altogether. What can be thought of the anxiety of an officer to convict capitally, arriving at that pitch as to employ a counsel, and pay the fees himself toinduce a jury to bring in a capital verdict, which might possi- bly have taken a milder turn ? Yet this has happened, frequently where the prosecutor has evinced signs of clemency towards the accused. The least guilty blood-hounds, are those who- permit the escape of prisoners for lighter crimes, in order that they may be induced to commit those of blacker hue, — rewardable by statute ; to say nothing of the hints, the put tips, the 240 CONCLUSION, sneers at justice, the proposed good understand^ ing, the jeering at prosecutors, and a thousand other arts, that smoothen crimes, and render even punishment more palatable. These keep their eyes on a ^iven number of culprits, whose move- ments and haunts they watch with cat-like assi- duity, and wijom they catch as often as they want spoil. * A very circumstantial and lucid account of the base at- tempt of a Blood hound upon the life of a g-entleman under temporary distress, is given in the twenty-second chapter of the " Life of Mr. Jeremy Foresight," lately printed. Al- though highly entertaining', and strictly elucidatory of our subject, the revolting- narrative is too long- for insertion here, and we refer the reader to thnt gentleman's own well 'written account of his complicated affair, and narrow escape. THE FAD. W. Flinl, Printer, Old Bailey, Lomlo». University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILIP 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was I: ii B 000 002 197 2 I U-^A Y'S LOIN DO iV i^av< no double ' * Tilth in them; and w<^ nro inclii ! a/iicmJ a pejusa) vi 'a :}mu; ii V, u; V ^rning to A\ it«|u< iiiciS, but m-.n ■H!cul..rJy +«> n\\ new visitors, '•■ITv . to '.\'L<'lii \\e P Of «iar O'.r- 1. poli.c-iUtj vji V ,,. j&r\re ppr,;. i i'rn* ifie 3]>\)r«^hc')!4»o'rand COiJ'^ v^ ^' ■ -^'. ■■ Dtc. J8:. 1 ^,c^- n .>?< ?() /V( ...i' Univ mm e 1^4*' (a hu S ciie me$i cew^ ■k^ ,V 'i.rftAnat i .'