THE CRIMINAL CLASSES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1583, 1 April 1887, Page 3

THE CRIMINAL CLASSES.

I, the writer, am not in the police, r at punned a vocation in St Giles' for many years which made me somewhat familiar with the ways of the criminal population in the metropolis. As a j ale, I found their homes poorly furDished ; their wives, if tbey bad any, were fond of gin and beer, and their children were often small, wizened, imperfectly developed, and very nomadic in th- ir habits. Some f male pickpockets whom I knew generally dr. ssed io semi-mourning, and wore little jewellery. They often contrived to steal purses containing large sums in notes and gold at the West End, but they were always in a state of terror, and were often tent to prison for two je*ri at •

time. Their most genteel-looking boys were sometimes dressed te resemble youi.g gentlemen frou Eton and Harrow, and sent to pick pockets; but as they coulJ not work with gloves on their hands, this alone enabled keeneyed detectives to know them, for no Eton or Harrow little man ever walked down Regent Street without wearing bis el >ves.

One very clever thief bad a gla j s eye, which he sometimes wore, and *t other times kept in his waistcoat pocket, and by suddenly replacing it in certain critical moments, he cleverly escaped detection. He always tried for gold watches of elderly gentlemen, and as some of his prizes were very costly, he frequently had much money to spend, and very soon managed to spend it always. He was at last sent away for seven years to a convict prison. Many of the most ingenious pickpockets spent much of their time in prison cells. I knew one who had been nine years out of twelve in jail. Yet I have known men of this class to refuse honest employment because they wished to enjoy their liberty. Large gains simply meant large waste.

I have known a thief squander £BO in less than a month. Champagne, pheasants, oysters, cabs, theatres, cards, and other similar means of distribution made the heap of gold melt like snow. Then he told me they stole each other's money when they could, for there is no honour among the ires. Some members of the criminal classes enjoyed wonderful immunity from capture and punishment. I was acquainted with a man and woman who passed false coin for thirteen years. They lived in on« room in a dark court with their four children, and were a striking illustration of the fact that honesty is the best policy. It did not matter how much bad coin they contrived to pass, they were always on the verge of starvation. The peace and beauty of a good home were never theirs, nor of the other criminals in the same court. That some thieves often got large sums of money by their depredations was well known. Three of them contrived to rob a lady of her purse, which contained nearly £3OO, and they succeeded in bailing all pursuit When they stole bank notes they took them at once to certain agents, who gave them £3 for each £5 note, and then send it off to another agent in a continental city. One confederate of burglars had a melting pot always ready to dissolve plate, jewellery, etc., and if a burglar could only reach his house with the spoil, it was soon reduced to molten metal, and the burglar could walk off with the proceeds in his pocket. The forgers of foreign notes were often Poles, Russians, or Frenchmen, and they mostly lived near Leicester Square. Much alarm has been caused by burglars having used revolvers. As a rule, a skilful artist would not do so. A revolver makes a noise, alarms the neighbours, » r d summons a crowd of pursutrs. Woat the burglar wants, when foiled, is to get away unseen, and hence the use of the revolver is not in use among clever house-breakers. One of them, who gracefully showed me how easy it was to enter my own house, told me with a smile that a man who used violence did not know his business, aed was not one of his " people." He was a v«ry smooth, gentle man himself, and often visited my house for a little talk. I am glad to say that he became an honest man, and gave a kind employer every satisfaction. Forgers wero men of another stanp. Tbey had been schoolmaster?, cltrks, drapers' assistants, commercial travellers, and so on. The cleverest forger I knew was a pretended clergyman, whose history would fill a volume. He forged documents which enabled him to preach, to marry beople, to become the chaplain of an emigrant-ship, and to perform all the sacred functions of his office, but he got seven years penal serfitude at last. He was a fine scholar, excessively polite, polished in speech, but crafty, false, and ungrateful beyond degree. Another was the son of respectable parents, and pursued a course of crime against the post office for a long time, until he at last found himself in prison. He has sat at my table with fnVnJs who paid me an unexpected visit, and they little knt w that the chatty gentleman beside them was a convicted forger.

Not a few criminals connected with the commercial claw* escaped punishment through compensation to their wronged employers. I have known a father pay nearly £2OOO to prevent his son being sent at once to the Old Bailey, but the wretched young man did not reform after all. Indeed, in some cases, it is better to leave the law to punish the offender; if not ruin to all concerned comes in the end. Friends who knew of my innocent connection with the criminal classes have asked me to get ba:k their Btolen propf rty for them. If I had a personal acquaintance with the thieves there was no difficulty, and in three noteworthy cases I succeeded, and that, too without making any compensation to the criminals. Visiting thriven' houses was always a hazardous thing, and once I was in great danger, but I terrified my foe by giving him to understand that I knew all about his last burglary, whereupon he collapsed in the most abject style, aud vanished. He was a violent scoundrel, and best in prison.