FEMALE ROGUES OF TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1949, 2 July 1891, Page 35

FEMALE ROGUES OF TO-DAY.

There is one branch of roguery in which the fair sex bears the palm. According to Inspector Byrnes, of New York, women are the best pickpockets and shoplifters. To this bad eminence have daughters of Eve at last attainpd.

The pickpockets work in couples, as a rule — two sisters, or two female partners, or, to vary the monotony, a man and woman. Of course where crowds most do congregate there they make their harvest. They play on the fringe of the groups of genteel ladies examining the dresses and jewellery in the handsome windows in Regent street or in Broadway, New York. They are also diligent students of the newspapers, amd may be expected at matinees, theatrical and musical, May meetings, and political demonstrations. Probably the adept pickpocket whose business has steadily increased even keeps a diary in which the prospective "lays" are duly noted.

Messrs Moody and Sankey had a great deal to answer for. During the revival attending their ministrations in New York, Kate Armstrong gained a world-wide reputation by the clean way in which she fleeced the worshippers. She attended the meetings and picked pockets, with consummate ease, in the crush. Hertouch was extraordinarily deft. She could go up to a stranger, and under cover of a few passers-by and loiterers, open her handbag, remove the handkerchief, shut the bag, and walk off, gently . wiping the smile of satisfaction from her lips with the stolen " hanky." She knew every officer in the force, and was so skilful at making herself up that, but for being a big woman physically, she would have escaped several of her arrests.

Sophia Lyons had a touch that was even smarter and neater than Kate's. She could pass her band up a man's coat, remove his watch and chain, and let them run down the sleeve of her dress. But flexibility of fingers was not her sole accomplishment. She was unequalled as a blackmailer, being enabled to achieve success by her clever acting and fascinating style. It was a way she had. Pretending to be a stranger to that part of the town, she would ask a respectable, substantial-looking man to show her to her hotel, and induce him to accompany her to it on the pretext that she was desirous to ittroduce him to her family for his courtesy. Arrived at her room the door was shut to and a price — her price — put upon his liberty. She once got a Boston gentleman's cheque for £2000 by this trick and had it cashed before her victim could stop it. A fool and his money are soon parted-, and it is hard to sympathise with those who are defrauded in such circumstances.

It need scarcely be said that pickpockets adopt method in their calling. When women hunt in conples, it is usual for one to devote hers If to the victim's right side and the other to the left. Thus, when it has been ascertained that a purse is carried in a pocket on the right, the left-hander, by stratagem— as, for instance, by hooking her umbrella in the dress of the prey — engages the lady's attention, while the right-hander scientifically annexes the purse and disappears from the scene. Professionalism in this kind of roguery shows itself in a variety of ways. For example, when a novice is caught she kicks and screams and conducts herself (generally in

an obstreperous fashion exceedingly trying to a detective, whose gallantry would otherwise prompt him to keep the " unfortunate affair " as quiet as possible in the public streets. On the other, hand, the experienced thief will assume a lamblike look and act the injured innocent with so much success as frequently to influence bystanders in her favour. Fo i obvious reasons many pickpockets prefer to await tbe knell of dying day before sallying forth on business bent. A rich harvest may be gleaned during the pressure consequent on shutting shop. Nearly every thief has a dodge of her own. One woman carries a nickel-plated reticule and silvertipped pocket book, both of the cheap and nasty order, but well enough looking in the varying light of most shops. If she sees a , valuable bag lying on the counter, she will lay her own beside it, inspect some of the goods exhibited for sale, and then in the most natural way pickup the wrong bag by mistaker The shopman, of course, has paid no notice to her bag. He saw that she laid it down, and when he sees her pick it up again he suspects nothing. Should the rightful owner, however, have been vigilant, and call her attention to the fact, the thief blushing innocently at her own stupidity gushingly says, "Ohl so I have. I beg your pardon," and adds, with an engaging little giggle, " Thank you so much for mine. I wouldn't have lost it for the world." Thus, in either event, the pickpocket is safe. In the one case, she escapes with a good bag, containing perhaps a well-lined purse, and in the other she escapes with her liberty. Most shoplifters wear a dress with an open lining and a twelve-inch slit on each side. Purloined articles— these are mostly soft goods — are slipped into the most convenient pocket and slid down to the hem at the feet. The Teceptacle is as ample as the skirt, and forms the most capacious pduch ever worn by woman. A' man and' woman in league constitute what is known as a train. This class of partnership leads to bigger hauls than when a couple of women work together. But in the former case it is the woman who takes all the risks. Blinded by what— in more in- - stances than people imagine — is undoubted 1 jvc for the lazy loafei who stimulates her by doses of praise judiciously administered, the female will attempt anything. Women thieves, moreover, never quarrel about the booty, but men will curse and fight and even peach over an unequal division of the spoil. Female alliances are usually broken by treachery or jealousy. They will steal for the men of their choice, but should the green-eyed monster become their bosom's lord, then they are like fiends incarnate. Detectives take full advantage of ,this weakness. A visit to the despised or jilted woman is seldom paid in vain. It is a curious thing that females take to roguery from selfish motives more commonly than .men do. As a rule, men begin by stealing to buy food, coals, and clothing for their wives and families, and to pay the rent ; but woman's downward career, in nine cases out of ten, may be traced to passion or vanity. . - : Men are more stolid and, as might be expected, much less impressionable than women. This feminine excitability alone lands many of its victims in prison. Detectives often visit thieves' haunts purely, 1 * on epec," arid, it is with the women almost exclusively that their success lies. Some women' cannot control their feelings, and such as these are as clay in the potter's hands when tackled at a venture by a shrewd officer. They can.be "drawn," some of them ,to any extent. Men's wills are stronger, ! speaMng generally, and when a resolute man determines to pursue a policy of dogged silence, the attempt to break it will end in collapse. And as for "pumping" some male thieves, wild horses would not drag from them what they wish to keep entirely to themselves. Another odd circumstance is that women are seldom employed as detectives. Though Inspector Byrnes is pestered ü by applications for such a post, he roundly declares that he wouldn't engage a woman for the work without putting a, detective or two on her track. This seems rather hard measure for female humanity, but the inspector, having thought the matter out, as is his wont, says that no good woman would bend herself to the work that a detective has to do, and no sane man would trust a bad woman. Consequently, in New York, there are no women on the detective staff. J' Set a thief to catch a thief," is a saying therefore that can only be indirectly applied to women. Although they are of no use for the actual running of a criminal to earth, they are sometimes found serviceable in completing the evidence of a man's guilt. Consequently it not infrequently happens that when a man has been arrested, the detective searches for the woman with whom he was well acquainted. When she has been discovered — which is seldom a difficult task an adroit effort is made to win her confidence. By the prudent use of money, flattery, and the supply of comforts for her now solitary home, she is ultimately prevailed upon to become more and more communicative — little suspecting that the, sympathetic ear into which she is pouring her confidences belongs to an emissary from Scotland Yard— about her absent lover, until she has revealed enough for the purposes of the police. Through her instrumentality he is sentenced to; it may be, a long term of imprisonment ; and months or years before he will again be free, she, too, will have paid the penalty that sooner or laber overtakes all female rogues.