MODERN FAGINS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7720, 1 June 1903, Page 2

MODERN FAGINS.

HOW A BOY OF ELEVEN WAS

TRAINED TO CRIME.

Standing on a chair in the witness-box at Olerkemvell Sessions, so that the Judgo might see him t a boy of eleven, named Morris Cohen t recently 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's method. Isaacs had a sweetheart, and as she walked up and down th© room tho boy had to remove 'her purse £ while the expert looked on critically. y

This process was repeated over and over again until little Cohen was sufficiently advanced to' b& taken to crowded marketplaces to "work," always under the watchful eye of Isaacs. One day Isaacs and flolomon met the lad in Wliitechapel, and forced "him to go with them to Stoke Newington. 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 ttie aright 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 courage to tell the whole story.

J/wiacs, identified as a notorious trainer of young pickpockets, went to penal servitude for five yearns, land Solomon, rearrested, was ordered eighteen months' hard labour.