THE LONDON PICKPOCKET.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 601, 22 October 1880, Page 2

THE LONDON PICKPOCKET.

(From London Times.)

It is a peculiarity of the London, picki pocket that he ia at once ingenious and pertinaoious, Ho is clevor in selecting a | held for his operation, and when he has • made his selection he abides by it. Some time ago the platforms of the Underground Railroad at midnight were his happy hunting around, and he did such effectual business that the police had to take special care of the Company's customers, Now he has discovered a new scene of action, being guided in the selection by his usual sound judgment, A Police Court, with the dreaded magistrate on the bench, with constables scattered about and an ad libitum supply in reserve, with the police van waiting at the "door, and with the dominant sense "that he would be probably known, and, if so, certainly be wanted, does not seem a very probable haunt for an experienced pickpocket. But there is one important consideration to influence the choice. Persons who " make an application to a magistrate are generally more or less flurried and anxious, and this anxiety is the pickpocket's opportunity. AtClorkenwell lately a young woman who applied for a summons to Mr Hosack, had to add a kind of postscript to her application and apply for the arrest of the thief who had stolen her purse. The magistrate could of course do nothing except to take care of his own pockets as he left the Court, and yet before that time arrived, he was informed that another applicant had been robbed of £3. The anecdote ells both for the courage of the thief and the inemciency of the police. The former haß certainly received his reward; the latter deserves something very like censure.