Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1899 — THE ARMY OF PICKPOCKETS. [ARTICLE]

THE ARMY OF PICKPOCKETS.

An Observant Policeman Describes Their Rank* and Method*. Some men operate on the “singlehanded” basis; they travel alone, arrange their own “frame-ups” (personally corner their victims) and keep all the profits. There are a few well-known successful pickpockets of this order, and they are rated high among their fellows, but the more general custom is for what is called a “mob” of men to travel together, one known as the “tool” doing the actual picking and the others attending to the “stalling.” f A stall is the confederate of the pickpocket who bumps up against people or arranges them in such a way that the pickpocket can get at their pockets. Practically any one who will take a short course of Instruction can learn how to stall, but there are naturally some who are more expert than others. A tool who hires his stalls and makes no division of spoils with them will sometimes have to pay as much as $5 a day for skilled men. When he divides what he gets, each man in the mob may get an equal shate or not, according to a prearranged agreement, but the tool is the man who does the most work. Of first-class tools, men who are known to be successful, there are probably not more than 1,500 in the United States. Practically every professional offender has a “go” at pocketpicking some time in his career, but there are comparatively few who make a success of it as actual pickpockets; the stalls are numberless. Among the 1,500 there are some women and a fair proportion of young boys, but the majority are men anywhere from 20 to 60 years old. The total number of the successful and unsuccessful is 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000, as one likes. All that is actually known is that there is an army of them, and one can only make guesses as to their real strength.—lndependent.