MODERN FAG INS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12272, 16 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

MODERN FAG INS.

HOW A BOY OP ELEVEN WAS TRAINED TC CRIME.

Standing'on a chair in the witness-box at Clerkenwell Sessions, so that the judge might see him, a boy of eleven, named Morris Cohen, gave an account of the kind of education he had received. His mentors were John Solomon and a man named Isaacs, whose fitness for the post of instructors in theft is supported by the fact that both are now in prison. Very practical was Isaacs' method. Isaacs had a sweetheart, and as she walked up and down the room the boy had to remove her purse, while the expert looked on critically. This process was repeated over and over again until little Cohen was sufficiently advanced to be token to crowded market-places to " work," always under the watchful eye of Isaacs. On day Isaacs and Solomon met the lad in Whitechapel and forced him to go with them to Stoke Newingtou. There, in the High-street, he stole a. purse from a Mrs. Lyons. In doing so. he followed the lessons of Isaacs, the left hand opening the pocket, and the right swiftly abstracting the contents. A witness, however, brought about the arrest of Cohen and Solomon. The latter threatened the boy. So the frightened lad kept silence, and Solomon was discharged. When, some time later, Isaacs was arrested Cohen mustered up sufficient courage to tell the whole story. Isaacs, identified as a notorious trainer of young pickpockets, went to penal servitude for five years, and Solomon, rearrested, was ordered eighteen months' hard labour.