SOME OF THE WAYS OP THE WILY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13277, 8 September 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME OF THE WAYS OP THE WILY

HOW PARIS THIEVES ROB UNSO-

PHISTICATED TRAVELLERS.

When the summer comes . round it is not only the Paris shopkeepers and the Paris restaurant and hotel-owners whc rub their hands and welcome foreigners to Paris. The Paris thief is ready for them, and his tricks are practically limitless.

■ Curiously enough, the modern brigand of the French capital, whose prey is the foreigner or the provincial, ie comparatively rarely a Parisian himself, but he has lived some time in the Gay City, and he knows its bypaths and its ways. The simplest kind to him is the welldressed Englishman who stands about the platform waiting for a train. The foreigner has failed to get a porter. He puts his luggage down while he is looking for his ticket, and the thief puts his luggage near it. Then he makes a mistake. And if there is any resemblance between the two bags the foreigner, on arrival at his hotel, finds that some stones, wrapped in old newspapers, are all that he has brought with him by way of a change for the night. In the hotel itself—one of those huge caravanserais where the guests are merely numbers and the servants do nob even know them by sight— the unsophisticated foreigner will very likely meet a well-dressed and courteous man on his , way up or down stairs, in the lift, or in the smoking-room. The well-dressed man talks several languages, knows Paris well, and suits his conversation to the character of his victim. He may find out the number of his room and sack it. He may take him to the theatre, show him Paris afterwards, drug him, and empty his pockets first and his room during the evening. Or he may take him to the races, and rob him expeditiously there. ' A NEAT THEFT. Rather a neat theft occurred in this way on the day of the Grand Prix. An Englishman, well known in society in London, had been in Paris for a few days, and at his hotel had formed a slight acquaintance with a stranger. He met him at the racecourse, where the Englishman was with some friends. They talked about the races, and the Frenchman gave the party a .tip, and offered to put their money en for them. " We shall never see our £5 again," said one of the party, who did not trust the stranger. But when the race had been ] won he appeared with their winnings, and | distributed them. Just before the Grand j Prix he asked his hotel acquaintance to: back the English horse for him. . "I only want to . put on ai hundred francs," he said. But he could find nothing smaller than a thousand-franc note. "It is a nuisance," said he. "I want to go back to Paris without waiting for the race. And, after all, I don't know you, do I, to the tune of £40?" The Englishman laughed, and gave him 900 francs change. They never saw him again, and both the thousand-franc note and the smaller notes in which he had paid them their former winnings proved to •be sham ones. ABOUT "CAPTAIN* THOMSON." But the cleverest swindle of all was worked by an Englishman. A well-known theatrical manager, on a visit to Paris, was astonished to see a man whom he knew well by sight and recognised as a member of the " swell mob" talking to a lady and her daughter, people in society. He took an early opportunity of warning them against the man, but they laughed. "Captain-Thomson," they said (this was the name adopted by the swindler), "is a man of means.. We have known him for some time. He occupies one of the best suites in the hotel, and, far from getting money from us, ho has brought us money.' Little by little the theatrical manager discovered "what " Captain Thomson" was doing. . ' . He had made the ladies' acquaintance, and had actually proposed to the younger one. Every now and then, on his return from the races, he brought them small sums of money, which he "had taken the liberty of winning for them." Ho recouped himself by gambling with the ladies' friends, and in the course of a few weeks lie had made several thousand pounds out of two or three young men who, having been introduced to him by ladies whom they knew well, had no suspicion that they were in the hands of a sharper. _„ ' BOGUS THEATRE TICKETS. But thieves and sharpers are by no means the only pitfalls awaiting the unwary visi- 1 tor to Paris. A tremendous trade is done here in bogus theatre tickets, and it is very unsafe to take tickets for a theatre or a music hall anywhere except at the official box office. Outside every theatre in Paris are men with tickets for Sale, and even if the tickets they sell be, as they often are, j perfectly genuine ones, the unofficial ven-! dors exact enormous prices for them, basing the price asked upon the gullibility of the buyer . | As for had money, that, in the summer season, is almost unavoidable. Numbers of waiters in the cafes frequented by foreigners keep stores of Peruvian five-franc pieces and j other unnogotiable coins in a special pocket, and plant them on their customers. A good' rule is to refuse anything that is not French and that is not a coin e ; ther of the Third Republic or of the Sew .id Empire. You should also be careful that, all the heads of Napoleon 111. have their laurel wreaths upon them. Others will not pass. Avoid the so-called guides who offer you their services on the boulevards aud round about their neighbourhood. The best of them all ca.n show you nothing .that you cannot find for yourself. All the shows in Paris advertise in the newspapers and on the round columns on' the boulevards. And you can get all necessary information as to Where to go from five Paris cabmen out of six.

Even if the guide does, not rob you by picking your pocket (and this he does comparatively rarely), ho is of no real value to you. And, as he is known in every place to which ho lakes you, the expenses of your trip round are increased by'about 100 per cent., so that the guide may be given his heavy commission on everything for which you pay. ;,