THIEVES' JARGON.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11510, 17 February 1903, Page 9

THIEVES' JARGON.

ttfMfi BE-ABKAB-E EXPRESSIONS. «or three or %<*«££* in perplexity the Supreme Court «£ & on Saturday for several expression oi!« «cued B _ d he would give me U. hat tbe - dark saying whictt asked Mr Byrne the deB* aou , -« ~„ k ne w what the acfending counsel, be tasw Lt in'lhedL was Tmiliar with the term, that it was d.fb,H to .to- Uta wUers tbe obscurity lay. He' pLined eventually that the word wL slang, and meant a signal to make 1 scarce A few ut€s later h ° SlatheCWt .gain with the word !$£ which he stated meant Both words, a representative of Ihe J£l» .»w*l by a competent an_Sr « thieve,' are extremely criminal slang, and form part Tardive, ever-changing. often «*•- ° f Vften expressive vocabulary, concenuuß ..wii'me you ougnt to know --ir- - - **-. L»" This is tlie way a suspected IZ Sght expostulate with the detective, IflSf' or "demon"-for the terms failed to fully recog*%?Lm who affect this perversion 0{ the mother tongue are for the most It "spielers," and criminals CeputaUe bookmakers have in course TZ invented, edited, and revised a vocabulary of their own on racing matJT I? i- a sign of smartness and «tMJ Sed or J&|£S S wing words ore applied to wider purinto criminal slang gene£_w' The jargon thus established as sft* habere? originates »*%£<£ A,_tralia but occasionally it takes on " The Australian slang itirwuSTmainly the English-but again vSionT As used by criminals, rSsat objeTof this private vocabulary, LSSbi Teeorecy. When a word be-SneTc-ommonry known it drops out, and and so the language is per itself The -tag* __ years ago would be tolerably familial JiSmgffths terms at *"■«* » *X Thfa iareon is guided and controlled by Ata_s"g_ ta 2 Stovity. This may be Uustrated by an itimple taken from familiar slang. A £S certainty," which was current EngSSTbecame, ten or twelve years ago a __»1." A synonym was adopted in a S«4 bird," wm similarly reduced to Returning to the original exprwsion, the .users of slang found a curter Evration in "a cert." This term has .viKScome hackeyed, for at present J-Tb-aig superseded largely by/a dead mip," whfdb iTin course of bein^abndged to "a snip." ,■ j t. If a raw young criminal asked an adept 5_ the trade what was the use of their jargon, he Would probably be told "bli'me so that the 'mugs' won't 'jerry-grumble "Mug" is the suspicious characters designation of everybody not following his own calling, who may accordingly be looked upon aVpZible prey. . It replaced the term "flat," and has a synonym m jay. Jer-ry-gnuable" is the latest equivalent for •'tumble," meaning "understand. An interesting word, chiefly used in Austrian slang, is "fullied," meaning committed for trial. It arose from a legal phrase much used on the other side— the accused was 'fully' committea for trial. The jargon makes an ingenious use of rhyme. Thus a "cart" becomes, for purposes of secrecy, a "tart." "I was up the apples and pears before they knew where 1 was," signifies that the suspected one escaped arrest by running up-etoirs. The word "apples" is adroitly added to conceal the tjßuWty of sound between the real word aud its slung doublet. Two years'imprisonment is designated "two shot," which has practically superseded the term 'two "str_Vckv A month's incarceration is "a moon," now not often -used, wliikv a year it "a stretch," and three months is a "drag. A lawyer is"a "mouthpiece," and a, magistrate is still "a beak," the latter term, it is interesting to remember, being often traced back to tbe "beaks" of captured ships which . the Romans were accustomed to hang on the rostrum. "If I'd 'ad a mouth-piece I'd r avt won -rd 'eld," is a phrase which, shows, fat the hat two words, tbe influence of the racing terms originally taken from the booknjakers. "Pannem, used always for food, tuggests a classic derivation again from the Latin "panis," bread* "Guying A whack," or "giving them brusher," de- ' scribes the action of the dishonest booknuker who makes off with th© public's money as soon as the luck is against him. (The second expression might be literally translated as "sweeping oneseH off." A weirder ia a "screw," probably from his astcei-tflon with the keys, gaol is described a* *latk" and the constable to the "Kai-str-man," but the appellation changes every yssr. The Australian thief isf distinguished at once by his calling a man "a cove." The New Zeaknder of shady character always says "bloke," while a softer term, of course, is "Johnnie." v

An interesting derivation attaches to the word "Ptfer." "How that bloke did 'rap' on toe when he mounted the ' peter,'" an | tooused will say in referring to a witness's strong evidence against him from the witness box. 'Teter* originally meant a dicebox, then any box, and finally the witness box, witfb which those who used the term to irequently came in contact. "You were on the gonce," infers that "you were doing your best to make a fight for it." It is wed also by the man who stakes all he has got at the gome of hazard, when he says, 1 went for the gonce." An Irishman, for some reason, is a "bitesomer," and a Jew • "Sbeeney." A ?'watoh" was for years a "thimble," but is now also called a *'peter." To '"nick a peter and slang" is to steal a watch and chain. Committing a b_rglary is "doing the jumps," from the toet that one often leaps into the house by a window, and breaking into «if es is called "buwiang tanks." There have been numberless terms for money. Half a crown is always called half a dollar, and two of them a dollar, an earlier term for tlie latter coin being "caser," whence sometimes "half a caser." A sovereign is at latest ' tslkd a "jim," and money generally is most oametlv designated "splosh." The small table which a bookmaker used to take with aha to the course, or on which games of chance are played, is a "joint," while a Stb is obscurely called a "flounder." . flardly any <. of these choice sentences, however-, ore* strictly correct without garnishing, which the readers may imagine