SECOND EDITION. DEXTEROUS THIEVES.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1107, 2 November 1883, Page 3

SECOND EDITION. DEXTEROUS THIEVES.

A Chinaman has been known to seize a in >ns finder ani cut it clean off in the mi-isi of n crowd, to obtain possession" of a ring, and escape detection,. This immunity jia due, perhaps, to the great r'esoihbianco which the faces of a Chinese mob; bear 'to brie another in European eyes, -rendering individuals absolutely iiniisiingnishable at first; ns well as to nn ingenious artifice for disguising a brond-bladcd knife in the semblance of a closed fan, such as all Chinese carry'. Hindus,; will swuu or float cauMon-iy along a river at dusk with an old basket or empty gourd over their head, whirling and twirling' lazdy with-every eddy' mid braving the crocodiles, to gain .in entree to the bungalow they decide to plunder under the very nose of its proprietor. ; The writer once saw a coolie immigrant in Guiana, a field hand on one of the sugar plantations, towing H log of wood along.one,ol the muddy .canals or trenches which ihr tersect the cane pieces;-; He passed - the manager oh the path,- salaamed composedly, an i was plodding quietly on towards wh- - n i he rope hitched in a stake in the bank, causing the log to tilt up, and disclosing the fact that it was ballasted with soracr thing underneath. Something’’ proved to be a - coff-e-pot and various other silver utensils, which had been purloined from the breakfast table laid in the -verandah of the house. to. await; our return. In a few hours' the whole would doubtless have been’ Converted into bangles, nnldcis, mvl earrings ; for the poor Indian’s untutored mind is just ns keenly alive to the advantages which attend the d■ v.dopriviit of specie .mir lawfully acquired, as that.of Mr’ Frigin| or any o»heri met ropolitan !. fence.— 4 'CJimiber's Journal. ■;>? '■ !