Chapter C: R. Hellyer (2)

General circulation. A scrutiny; an impertinent staring. See “GANDER,” “RUBBER[10].” Example: “The guinea on the end is giving you a necking through the glass.” Also used as a verb, to “neck,” to peer, to watch.

[10] There is no entry for “RUBBER” in the text.

NEXT, Adverb

General usage. Conventionally wise. A synonym for “JAKE,” “JOE,” “HEP.” Example: “You can’t spring anything he isn’t next to.”

NICK, Verb

Current mainly amongst pickpockets. To surreptitiously extract something from the person; to “touch” in the criminal sense; to purloin by stealth in personal presence of a victim. Example: “This lob couldn’t nick a handful of air out of a flour barrel without scratching his mitt.”

NINES, Noun

Current amongst roues and cosmopolitans. The limit possible; the maximum extent. Example: “He’s soused to the nines;” “That dony is made up to the nines,” i. e., artificially beautified.

NOODLE, Noun

General currency. The human head; brains; savoir faire; mentality. Example: “He’s got a noodle like a Santa Claus,” i. e., intuition, perspicacity.

NUT, Noun

Commonly current in all circles when the meaning is “LOCO.” Used by grafters whose operations involve an investment to signify an expense incurred in connection with a venture. Example: “The grift was punk; we were framed five strong and never got the nut off.” “We went on the nut for two fifty.”

NUTS, Noun

Current amongst “flat joint” grafters, though comprehended in general. The three shells. See “HICKS.” Example: “If we can’t beat the crap game we will play the nuts for the winners.” As an adjective and adverb it signifies daft, mentally deranged.

OFFICE, Noun

General currency. A signal; a sign; a warning conveyed by facial expression, by physical motion, by sound or other nonchalant prompting. Example: “When I give you the office, blow.” Used also as a verb in the same sense.

ON, Adverb

General currency. Wise. A synonym for “NEXT,” “JAKE.” Also used to indicate an acceptance, as of a proposition. Example: “You’re on for five hundred.”

OPEN AIR, Noun

Current amongst “flat joint” men and circus grafters generally. Used both as adjective and noun. County fair, street carnival, popular sport gathering and other out-of-door grafting.

OVER ISSUE, Noun

Current amongst confidence men of the “green goods” type. A bunco scheme involving the use of crisp, new legitimate bank notes which are purported to have been clandestinely issued by employees of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. One or two of the notes are given the victim who is then steered to a confederate who poses as a detective. The latter professes to recognize the principal in the bunco as an ex-convict and counterfeiter. The upshot of the scheme is the “shaking down” of the victim for all he possesses and is successfully carried out through the victim’s fear induced by consciousness of criminal complicity.

PAD, Noun

General circulation. A bed; a place to sleep. See “KIP;” “DOSS.”

PADDED, Verb, Past Part.

Current amongst shoplifters. To have swag concealed about the person in a neat, compact order so as to enable the thief to pass inspection. Example: “He moped out of the joint padded to the nines.”

PAN, Verb

General currency. To scandalize; to defame. Example: “They panned everybody to a whisper.” “ON THE PAN” signifies a subject on the carpet for discussion.

PAPER HANGER, Noun

Current principally amongst forgers and utterers of false paper. Example: “There’s a bunch of paper hangers plastering the town from A to Izzard.”

PETE, PETER, Noun

Current amongst yeggs. A safe; a strong box; a “GOPHER.” Example: “The pete in the pig is a single H. H. with a drop,” i. e., “The safe in the hardware store is a single door, Herring-Hall with a drop handle.” Amongst gamblers and badgers a “peter” is a sleeping potion, a “knockout,” such as hydrate of chloral.

PIG, Noun

Current amongst yeggs and prowlers. A hardware store; the merchandise sold by hardware stores, preferably the more valuable assortments. Deduced: “Hardware”: steel tools, steel, iron, pig iron. Example: “He’s gone out to drop a swag of pig.”

PINCH, Noun

Current amongst “flat joint” grafters. A wheel of fortune or a roulette wheel that can be stopped at any point desired by operating a secret trigger or spring. As a noun its use is also general in the sense of an arrest; the same with the verb, to pinch.

PIPE, Noun

General currency. A certainty; a cinch. Example: “It’s a pipe that he can’t get away with it.” Derived from the term “lead pipe,” used by highwaymen, because its effectual employment involves a moral certainty that the robber will relieve the victim of his valuables.

PIPE, Verb

General currency. To look; to concentrate the attention; to observe. See “GUN.” Example: “Pipe the moll with the rocks.”

PITCH, Noun

General currency. An effort; an essay; an attempt. See “PLUNGE.” A “HIGH PITCH” is the term used by street fakirs to describe the operation of beguiling the public from a soap box, a platform, a carriage or automobile; selling merchandise from an eminence like an auctioneer.

PIVOT, Verb

Current amongst yeggs and street beggars. To solicit alms on the thoroughfares. Used also by “HUSTLERS” to indicate the operations of a woman of the town who solicits on the streets.

PLUNGE, Noun

Super idem. To sally out on the streets with a specific aim, as in begging, soliciting or in other reprehensible conduct. Example: “The whole tribe made a five buck plunge to spring Jimmy from the canister.” Amongst non-criminal classes of the demi-monde the term is used to indicate a strenuous endeavor.

POKE, Noun

General currency. A pocketbook. (Poke a sack or bag. “A pig in a poke.”) See “LEATHER.”

P. P., Noun

Current amongst yeggs and money-begging tramps. A plaster of paris cast used on arm or limb to simulate fracture. See “BUG;” “JIGGER.”

PRATT, Noun

General usage. The human rear; the buttocks; a hip pocket.

PROP, Noun

General circulation amongst pickpockets and looters. A diamond stud originally, now comprehending diamonds in any sense. See “FISH EYE.” Example: “Any heel gun can get a breech poke, but it takes an A1 claw to grab a prop.”

PROWL, Noun

General currency. An expeditionary investigation; a survey in transit; a search of the person or of a place in the sense of “FRISK;” a burglary; a sneak; a saunter. Also used as a verb in the same senses.

PUFF, Noun

Current amongst yeggs. Powder used to blow a safe; the explosion of “SOUP” in a safe. Example: “The dump was kipped, but we muffled the puff.”

PUNCHING GUN, Verb, Present Part.

General currency. The use of criminal slang; ostentatious display of sophistication. Example: “He can punch gun till the cows come home, but he can’t get a can of water out of a water tank.”

PUNK, Noun

General currency. Bread. As an adjective the term is synonymous with “CROW,” “LAMOS.” Example: “The whole layout is punk.” Also a sodomite youth--a yegg term.

PUSH, Noun

General currency. Crowd; gang; clique; mob.

PUSH and SLIDE, Noun

Current amongst short changers and confidence men who employ the ruse of substitution. A short changing operation whereby money, currency, counted in the hand of the crook is afterward held out by palming, and depends for immunity from detection by a forcible pushing of the residue of the sum counted into the hand of the victim, accompanied by a suggestion or urge to pocket the money without recounting.

PUSSY FOOT, Noun

General currency. A detective. See “RICHARD;” “DICK.”

PUT-EM-UP, Noun

Current amongst heavyweights mainly. A highway robber; a desperate criminal who is prepared to hold up any interloper to prevent interference.

RAG, Noun

General currency. A woman. See “SKIRT;” “JANE;” “MOLL.”

RAP, Noun and Verb

General usage. An identification; a charge of guilt.

RAT, Noun

General currency. Passenger train: street car. A contraction of “RATTLER.” Also an ignominious term, used in the sense of “CRAB.”

RAT CRUSHER, Noun

Current amongst heavyweights, yeggs and “dise” men. A box-car burglar. The terms “rattler” and “John O’Brien” are used interchangeably by some criminals, but their original significations are those given.

RATTLER, Noun

General currency. A passenger train; a passenger or street car. Example: “The two of us stalled the rattler can on one ducat.” Also a “RAT WORKER.”

READER, Noun

Current amongst “flat joint” men and peddlers. A formal license; a certificate; a written permit. Example: “You can’t open the ballyhoo in this burg without a reader.”

READERS, Noun

Current amongst crooked gamblers. A pack of marked cards, therefore readable from the obverse side. Example: “How are they working, with the mitt? No, with the readers.”

REDUCTION, Noun

Current amongst dope fiends. The reduction cure for a “HABIT.” Example: “The only sensible way of getting off is on the reduction.”

REEF, Verb

Current amongst pickpockets. To lift a pocket lining or an obstacle in the form of wearing apparel by methodical manner to expedite the operations of the “WIRE” or “TOOL” in a gun mob. Generally used in the imperative mood. Example: “Reef the right kick for a tweezer.” By this function a pocket may be slowly turned inside out without detection; it is done in cases where the pocket is too deep, too tight or where extraordinary caution is expedient in pocket picking.

RICHARD, Noun

General currency. A detective. Derived from the process of nicknaming, but in reverse of the usual custom. Thus from the term “DETECTIVE,” “DICK” was suggested and hence “RICHARD” was derived. Or, following the corruption of the English “Robert” to “Bob” and “Bobby,” the American parallel was suggested.

RIGHT, Adjective

General currency. Sympathetic in a criminal sense; fixed; squared; noncondemnatory. Also a synonym for “SQUARE-SHOOTER.” Example: “He’s as right as a golden guinea. Slip him a piece of soft.” Also used as a verb, to fix; to bribe.

RINGER, Noun

General currency. A similarity; a double; a disguise; a pair of spectacles. Used in the latter sense because of the wonderful change produced in one’s aspect by the addition of a pair of nose glasses or spectacles to the personal adornment. Used also as a verb. Example: “They’ll hardly make him because he’s rung up.”

RISER, Noun

General circulation. An “eye opener;” a scare; a fright; any mental or physical agent that moves to action. Example: “He got an awful riser with that dick at his pratt.”

ROAR, Noun

General currency. A protest. See “SQUAWK;” “BELCH.” Example: “If this gink blows the touch he’ll make an awful roar.”

ROCKS, Noun

General usage. Diamonds. In popular slang it means money.

ROD, Noun

General currency. A revolver. See “SMOKE WAGON;” “ROSCOE.” Also used as verb, to hold up at the point of a pistol. Example: “Rod this guy right off the jump.” (Here as verb.)

RODS, Noun

In general circulation amongst “hop scotchers.” The iron truck braces under a passenger coach, running at right angles to the length of the car. A “ROD DUCAT” is a small board used as a seat by truck riders.

ROLL, Verb

General usage. To search the pockets of a sleeping person or of an intoxicated one. Example: “He rolled a stiff for a bundle of scratch.” Used as a noun “ROLL” signifies a wad of money, as a “BANK ROLL.”

ROSCOE, Noun

Current amongst arms-carrying criminals. A revolver. See “CANNON;” “GAT.” Example: “Stash your roscoe before you come back to the kip.”

ROUND, Noun

General currency. A turning of the head to take a backward glance; surveying the rear trail to ascertain whether or not one is being followed, or to determine the identity of a person or object passed. Example: “Stall something to the ground and take a round at this coatmaker;” (trailer or tailer, corrupted to tailor and thence coatmaker).

ROUST, Verb

Current amongst pickpockets. To jam against a victim in a violent manner; to squeeze a victim between two pickpocket assistants in a way to distract his attention from the principal in the encounter who consectaneously[11] extracts the victim’s valuables from a given pocket. In the present tense the term is used in the imperative mood, being a command and an instruction of itself. Example: “Roust!!” “Jostle the victim rudely, but in a seemingly unconscious manner.”

[11] The author probably intended “simultaneously.”

ROUTE, Verb

Current amongst pickpockets principally. To look up and make memoranda of dates of large popular gatherings, such as conventions, etc. This is known as “Routing the grift.” To route is usually the function of the best mind in a “gun mob.”

RUM, Noun

General currency. An ignoramus; an inefficient. Derived from the experience that “booze” incapacitates the mind of a crook, who to be successful requires a quick wit and a vigilant grasp of situations. A synonym for “RUM DUM,” that is, dumb, of slow wit, from the use of rum.

RUMBLE, Noun

General currency. A botch that precipitates discovery; a faux pas; an awkward situation brought about by fumbling. See “BLOOMER;” “TUMBLE;” “FALL.” Example: “If you walk on the main stem with him you’ll get a rumble.” In this sense the term implies an identification. Also used as a verb, to arouse suspicion; to be discovered.

SANTA CLAUS, Noun

General currency. An ingenious mind; an original thinker.

SAPS, Noun

General currency. Crutches; clubs or sticks as weapons of offense. Derived from “sapling.” The latter meaning may also be employed in the form of the verb, to sap, to beat. Any bludgeon is a sap.

SCAT, Noun

General circulation. Whiskey. Derived by suggestion from “skey” (skee), the termination of “whiskey.”

SCOFF, Verb

General usage. To eat. Example: “When do we scoff in this dump?” Also used as a noun; a “scoff” is a meal, a feed.

SCORE, Verb

Current amongst pickpockets and criminals who are necessitated to make frequent repetitions of procedure to acquire means. To successfully negotiate; to “make a touch;” to “put one over.” Example: “We scored seven times in the same joint by ringing up,” i. e., disguising. Also used as a noun in the same sense.

SCRATCH, Noun

General currency amongst literate criminals. Paper currency; a letter; a signature; a writing. Examples: “He’s got a bundle of scratch,” (Bank roll); “The only way you can get a knock-down (introduction) is with a scratch.” “The difficult thing is to get his scratch.” See “JOHN HANCOCK;” “STIFF.”

SCREW, Noun

General currency amongst prison habitues and prowlers. A key; a turnkey or jailor; a prison guard. Example: “That bunch of screws you’re carrying is a knock.” “You can get a letter in through the screw; he’s a P. O.”

SCENERIES, Noun

General currency. A pair of spectacles or nose glasses. See “GLIMS;” “RINGER.” Example: “He’s peddling sceneries and hoops.”

SEND IN, Noun

General circulation. An indorsement; a recommendation. Example: “With the proper send in I can twist this boob. Rib it up.” Also used as a verb, to laud, to praise, with an ulterior motive.

SETTLED, Verb, Past Part.

General currency amongst outlaw criminals. Convicted of misdemeanor or statutory offense. Example: “He’s settled for a two spot.” See “LAGGED[12];” “LOSER.”

[12] There is no entry for “LAGGED” in the text.

SHAGGED, Verb, Past Part.

General currency. Identified; recognized; discovered; exposed. See “RAPPED.” Example: “He was shagged on the first go.”

SHAKE DOWN, Noun

General currency. A personal search; a deprivation of one’s personal belongings. Used also as a verb. Example: “If this dick nails you you’ll have to stand a shake down.”

SHILLIVER, SHILLIBER, Noun

Current amongst criminals who employ “Stalls,” “boosters,” or aides. A supernumerary; a secondary; an epithet applied to apprentice crooks. To “SHILL” is to act in the capacity of a hired criminal.

SHONIKER, Noun

Current amongst cosmopolitan thieves, especially Jews. A neophyte or inexperienced hand at the game. A synonym for “SHILLIBER.”

SHOOT, Verb

Current amongst hypodermic habitues. To inject morphine or other drug with a syringe. Example; “How many times do you shoot a day?”

SHOW, Verb.

General currency. To keep an appointment; to present oneself at a meeting place. Example: “This party can never be depended upon to show. He’ll stick you nine times in ten.”

SHORT, Noun

Current chiefly amongst pickpockets, though used by all polished criminals to some extent. A street car. Derived from the limited extent of a street car ride compared with the distances negotiable by railroad transportation. Example: “After catching the breaks we’ll make the shorts for a half hour.”

SKIRT, Noun

General currency. A woman. See “JANE;” “MUFF[13];” “MOLL.”

[13] There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.

SKIN, Noun

General circulation. A shirt. Example: “Let’s go down to the jungles and boil our skins.”

SLAM, Noun

General currency. An insult; a rebuke; an insinuation. Also used in the same sense as a verb as well as with the meaning of violence, to deliver a vigorous blow.

SLANG, Noun

General currency. A watch chain. A watch fob, as well as an earring, is called a “DANGLER.”

SLOUGH, Verb

General currency. To dispose of; to abandon; to throw away; to eliminate; to conceal without delay or forethought. Example: “There isn’t a mark of identification on his clothes; he’s sloughed everything.” In this sense the term is pronounced “sluffed.” In the sense of hiding or getting rid of an object instantly the same word is pronounced “slou,” with the sound of “o” as in cow. To “SLOUGH” also means to close, to shut, as a door.

SLOUGHER, Noun

Current amongst plunderbunders. A fence; a pawnbroker; a middle man in the disposition of contraband.

SLUM, Noun

General currency. Jewelry of any description, but lately reduced in scope of meaning to include only the less valuable kinds of jewelry; a synonym for “CROW;” “PUNK.” Example: “He’s got a bale of slum for sloughings.”

SMOKE WAGON, Noun

General currency. A firearm; a revolver. See “ROD;” “CANNON.”

SNEEZE, Verb

General usage. To be apprehended; detained. See “GLOMMED;” “CRABBED.” Example: “He wouldn’t have been sneezed if he had kept away from that fluzie.”

SNOW, Noun

Current chiefly amongst cocaine fiends. Derived from the extremely flocculent nature of cocaine when pulverized, in which state cocaine is used as a snuff. A “SNOW BIRD” is the customary designation of the cocaine habitue.

SOFT, Noun

Current amongst currency thieves and grafters who handle considerable sums of money. Paper money. See “SCRATCH.” Example: “I fanned a gob of soft in the right jerve.” As an adjective “soft” means easy, facile, felicitous, comfortable.

SOUP, Noun

Current amongst yeggs. Nitroglycerine. Example: “If you drop that bottle of soup you’ll grease the scenery,” i. e., be blown up.

SOUTH, Adverb

General circulation. Stored away; concealed, as valuables. See “UNDER COVER.” As a verb the term is employed with the same meaning. Example: “Keep tabs and see that he don’t go south with the dough.”

SPLIT, Noun

General currency. A division, as of spoils. See “END;” “BIT.” Used as a verb it indicates to divide, as money; or to separate, as in the sense of “SPLIT OUT,” or “SPLIT AWAY.” Example: “The make was split three ways and then we split out.”

SPUD, Noun

Current amongst confidence men chiefly. The “green goods” bunco; a substitution ruse, devised originally on the basis of counterfeit currency, hence the name “SPUD,” derived by attribution, as in the case of “KALE.” Any confidence game in which currency plays a prominent part as a lure is aptly designated a variation of the “SPUD.” Also commonly used as a synonym for the Irish potato.

SQUAB, Noun

Current amongst libertines mainly. A young female; an unsophisticated girl.

SQUARE PLUG, Noun

General currency. A timorous person who is in moral sympathy with the criminal element, but lacking the courage or inclination to actually participate; a harmless individual in the view of crooks. Example: “Don’t be leery of him; he’s a square plug.”

SQUARE-SHOOTER, Noun

General currency. A dependable person; a reliable, compact-keeping person; though not necessarily a moral, virtuous, impeccable one; for it is politic for even a crook to be a “square-shooter” provided it be also expedient.

SQUAWK, Noun

General currency. A protest; a vociferous demonstration, as an indignant repudiation of an injustice. Also used as a verb in the same sense. Example: “If you don’t put up a squawk they’ll trim you.”

SQUEEZE, Noun

General circulation. The principal or manager of an institution, an establishment or of any undertaking. A contraction of the popular “MAIN SQUEEZE,” meaning the same as here given.

STAB, Noun

General currency. An essay to accomplish a project; an effort. See “PLUNGE.” Also used as a verb. Example: “I don’t know how it will come out, but I’m going to make a stab at it.” Also used by dope fiends for “JAB.”

STALL, Noun

General currency. A pretense; an equivocation; a confederate who distracts the attention of a victim or misleads him to regrettable action. See “BOOSTER.” Used as a verb in the same sense, to prevaricate, to misrepresent with sinister intent. The colloquial vernacular, “He’s got more stalls than a livery stable,” signifies that the person under discussion is a shifty agent, a colossal liar.

STASH, Verb

General currency. To hide; to conceal; to cease talking; to “plant.” Also used as a noun in the sense of something cached. Example: “Stash the gun crackin; there’s a knocker in the push.”

STIFF, Noun

Current amongst literate criminals chiefly. A piece of paper; a letter; a ticket; a license; a permit. See “READER.” Derived from the unpliable attribute of paper in general. Example: “I haven’t had a stiff from home for two months.” Also used to designate a mean, contemptible person; sometimes it is employed as a synonym for man. See “GUY;” “MARK.”

STIR, Noun

General currency amongst prison habitues. Penitentiary; a synonym for “BIG HOUSE,” the latter being employed in contradistinction to county jails, workhouses and police stations when prison is discussed. Example: “He’s back in stir again.”

STEM, Noun

Current amongst yeggs. A steel drill. Amongst opium smokers the term signifies an opium pipe. See “GONGER.” It also is a synonym for “DRAG.”

STRETCH, Noun

Current amongst prison habitues. A prison sentence. See “LAG;” “BIT.” In general circles the term signifies a look, a glance, used as a verb as well as a noun. See “GANDER;” “NECKING;” “ROUND.”

STIX, Noun

General currency. A pair of crutches. See “SAPS.”

STRIDES, Noun

General usage. A pair of trousers. Example: “This dump is an easy boost for the strides.”

STRING, Noun

Current amongst yeggs. A fuse. Example: “He’s got five yards of string around the midriff,” i. e., wrapped around the waist under the shirt.

SUEY POW, Noun

Current amongst opium smokers. A sponge or rag used to cool and cleanse the face of an opium bowl. Also used by the demi monde as an equivalent of the term “GRANNY.”

SURE THING, Noun

Current amongst confidence men and “flat joint” grafters principally. A something-for-nothing proposition. See “HUNDRED PER CENT.” Used as an adjective it specifies an unmitigated robbery.

SWEETEN, Verb

General currency. To augment; to “press” in the gambler’s sense, as a jackpot. Amongst the plunderbund the term signifies the procuring of an additional loan on collateral. Also used as a synonym for “BRIBE.”

SWINGING BALL, Noun

Current amongst “flat joint” grafters. A ball suspended from a gibbet by a chain or string and which is skillfully swung at a wooden cone posited in the center of the ball’s swinging area, the purpose being to avoid the cone on the forward movement, and to strike it upon the rebound. Incidentally the aim is to relieve the inexpert of ready cash.

SWITCH, Verb

General currency. To substitute; to exchange; to vary. Example: “The only way you can score with the weight in that joint is with the switch, as he has everything cased.” Used as a noun to signify a substitute.

TAIL, Verb

General circulation. To trail; to follow. Used as a noun in the same sense. Example: “Be careful not to bring anything home on your tail,” i. e., a shadower.

TENT, Noun

Current amongst prison habitues. A cell. Example: “He’s doing penance in a tent.”

THERE, Adverb

General currency. Informed; wise; trained; artful. Example: “He’s there forty ways from Revelation.”

THIMBLE, Noun

General currency. A watch. See “BLOCK;” “TURNIP.” Formerly the term in the plural had the signification of “NUTS;” “HICKS;” “SHELLS;” as these are in use today.

TIN EAR, Verb

General usage. To eavesdrop; to listen impertinently. Also used as a noun. Example: “Chop the wheeze, we’ve got a tin-ear on our hip.”

TIP, Noun

Pickpockets. A ticket office. The place where obligations are paid to a cashier.

TOG, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. An overcoat used for a shield. From Latin “Toga,” a cloak.

TOMMY, Noun

General currency amongst the licentious. A prostitute. See “DONY.”

TOOL, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. A pickpocket proper; the member of a “gun mob” who does the “dipping.” Also used as a verb in the same sense.

TOP, Verb

General currency. To execute by hanging. See “BUMP OFF.” Example: “Carrying a rod is an invitation to get topped.”

TOUCH, Noun

Current mainly amongst pickpockets, though used in a milder sense in general circles. See “SCORE.” Example: “Any fink that tears into that tip without making a touch ought to be canned.” “He tried to put the B. on me for the third touch this week.”

TRIBE, Noun

Used principally by yeggs and begging bums, though current, too, amongst grafters who operate in cliques. A gang; a class. Example: “You’ll find the tribe at the joint when you get there.”

TRIM, Verb

General currency. To fleece; to cheat; to rob in any manner. Example: “If you make a flash you’re due to get trimmed.”

TUMBLE, Noun

General currency. A discovery; an exposure. See “RUMBLE.” Example: “It’s a bad idea to work without fall dough, for it’s a ten-to-one jig on the first tumble.” Used as a verb in the same sense, as well as to signify acquiring understanding suddenly.

TURKEY, Noun

General usage. A suit case; a large traveling bag. Derived by suggestion from the popular custom of stuffing a trunk full of personal belongings into a suit case. In non-criminal circles, as well as in criminal, the term has a vague meaning of facileness, something easily or readily accomplished.

TURNIP, Noun

General currency. A pocket time piece; a watch. See “BLOCK.”

TWEEZER, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. A small pocketbook with knob clasps.

TWISTED, Verb, Past Part.

Current amongst confidence men. To be buncoed; to be deluded by a confidential snare. Derived by suggestion from the confusion created in the understanding of a victim in the usual confidence game. See “TRIM.” Example: “Out of six plays we twisted five ripe ones.”

UNDER COVER, Adverb

General currency. Protected financially by a reserve held in secret; selfish; miserly; illiberal with wealth. See “SOUTH.” Example: “Anybody in this mob that’s under cover is running chances of being prowled.”

UNDERNEATH, Adverb

Current amongst shoplifters. A term used to describe the most common method employed by female shoplifters of concealing stolen goods; i. e., carried between the limbs. Example: “She can go underneath with a bigger bunch of junk than any other moll I know.”

UNLOADING, Verb, Present Part.

Current amongst pickpockets. Picking pockets in a crowd as passengers alight from street or railroad cars. Example: “We scored more pokes in unloading them than we did in the breaks.”

WEAVE, Verb

Current amongst pickpockets. To sway a victim rudely from right to left between two “stalls” so that the “claw” may operate without detection of finger contact. Example: “Weave! I’ve got a tight breech,” i. e., “jostle the victim, I have got my hand on a pocket book that is wedged too firmly in the pocket to be pulled out without the aid of distraction.”

WEIGHT, Noun

Used by store jewelry thieves. Pennyweighting; the “pwt.”

WELCH, Verb

Current in all circles. To betray a professional confidence; to peach; to protest. See “ROAR.” Example: “Unless you’re nailed bang to rights don’t welch, for the first principle of self-defense in law is to make the other fellow find out what he wants to know through someone else.”

WHITE, Noun

Current amongst morphine habitues. Morphine. Example: “How many times a day are you shooting the white?”

WEED, Verb

Current chiefly amongst pickpockets, though used to some extent by those who are familiar with currency. To extract any fraction from a roll of bills; to withdraw a partial sum from the principal; to take the essential and leave the nonessential, as the money from a pocketbook of miscellaneous valuables; to steal a sum which will hardly be missed because of its proportion to the whole amount involved. Examples: “Weed the poke and put it back.” “He weeded a sawbuck to me under the table.”

WHITE LINE, WHITE LIME, Noun

Current amongst yeggs and hoboes. Alcohol. Example: “You’ll have to go to the croker and get a stiff for the white line.”

WICKY, Noun

General circulation. Calaboose; place of detention in small towns and villages. Contraction from “WICKY UP,” an old term for a small tent, used by the Indians.

WIPE, Noun

General currency. A handkerchief.

WIRE, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. The principal craftsman in a “gun mob.” See “CLAW;” “JERVE;” “TOOL.”

WOLF, Verb

General currency. To vehemently protest. See “SQUAWK.”

WOP, Noun

Used principally in the east. An ignorant person; a foreigner; an impossible character. See “BOOB.” Example: “You couldn’t find a jitney with a search warrant in this bunch of wops.”

WORM, Noun

Current amongst shoplifters. Silk; a bolt of silk. Example: “Can you swing under with a worm?”

YEGG, Noun

General currency. A desperate criminal of the least gregarious and social type; a thieving tramp.

YEN HOCK, Noun

Current amongst opium smokers and other dope fiends. The slender steel needle used for preparing opium pills over a lamp flame. Used also as a metaphorical adjective to describe any slender object, as a lean person. Example: “Ask the yen hock guinea to stake you to a glim.”

YEN SHE, Noun

Current amongst opium smokers. The residue of smoked opium, a black cindery substance which clings to the interior of an opium bowl after the opium has been melted by heat on the face of the bowl.

YEN YEN, Noun

Current amongst opium smokers. The recurrent relaxation from super exhilaration occasioned by habitual indulgence in any opiate; these three latter terms are pure Chinese, and were imported into criminal circles with the advent of addiction to the opium-smoking habit in the United States in the early seventies.

Suggestions for the Reduction of Preventable Crimes

It must be apparent, to all who have given more than a passing thought to the relation between the criminal classes and the law and order departments of our government, that the peace officers to whom the public looks for protection can do but little more than apprehend criminals after they have committed crimes. For, although the modern system of identification, including the arts of photography, physical measurements and record of finger prints together with a biographical sketch of the suspect or convict, enables the police to locate a known criminal and to frequently determine the probable identity of an unknown who committed a crime from the more or less faithful description furnished by the victim, it is understood only too well that personal knowledge in possession of the peace officers concerning the criminal propensities of a given individual is not sufficient warrant before a trial court to justify the imprisonment of the criminal; and, furthermore, the readiness of venal counsel to plead the cause of guilty persons for a consideration is another insurmountable obstacle to the safeguarding of society against the depredations of the vicious classes who entertain such high respect for their freedom of choice in moral matters that they decline to sell it for bread.

In short, the point sought to be brought out forcibly is that property holders are depending entirely too much upon the police for protection and too little upon themselves. If the prevention of crime be possible then it rests as much with the prospective victims to prevent it as it does with the guardians of peace, seeing the latter number scarcely more than one to the thousand of our population and cannot be everywhere at the same moment of time.

There is one practical method for successfully combatting stealth and deceit, and its keynote is awareness. The local department of safety has no bureau of publicity through whose functions the whole public may be educated in the latest schemes for obtaining money and valuables by false pretense, stealth and force, as well as apprised of the presence in the community of this, that or the other well-known confidence crook, sneak or robber. Just as the fire department is but partially efficient in preventing fires and is necessarily devoted to their suppression after they have come into existence, so the police must often await the call for help from the thief’s victim before they may take action. This is not always the case, of course, as in critical times of crime epidemic, or upon the threatened approach of criminal action, or in cases of exposed conspiracy, all the potential as well as actual criminals in the community may be rounded up and detained by operation of the vagrancy act. However, even in times of ordinary or seeming quietude the total amount of losses suffered by the public and which are never accounted for satisfactorily makes a staggering sum. All losses are not discovered at once; of those that are all are not reported to the police; whilst of the reported losses only a fraction are ever recovered.

Many victims of the criminal classes prefer for one reason or another not to let their losses come to light. One reason is lack of confidence in the capability of the police to apprehend the criminal or recover the loss, and this feeling is often held unjustly, arising out of the failure of the victim to recognize the fact that police are no more omniscient or omnipotent than other men, but labor under quite as rigid limitations as do the victims of the criminals.

It devolves, therefore, upon the public at large to co-operate as far as possible with the peace officers in preventing crime by the adoption of self-protective measures, not measures of violence, but of self-education in the methods of crime and of elimination of such glaring opportunities as constitute a standing invitation to the morally weak and irresponsible to help themselves to whatever is not nailed down, sewed up in a bag, or too hot or of too high speed. The average citizen disdains to inquire into the modes of the criminal element; it is so sordid! Besides, he hires the policeman to do this dirty work for him. It is the policeman’s business to rake in the muck and to get himself slaughtered, if need be, in return for the ninety dollars per month which the citizen pays him. Again, Mr. Citizen is asleep at the switch regarding self-protection until he suffers a loss, or he may have to suffer a great many losses before he awakens to the realization that he as well as the policeman has a certain part to play in the maintenance of public security.

The United States Supreme Court has held that it devolves upon a plaintiff to secure himself against fraud through altered bank checks by the personal use of the most approved devices which insure protection. Suppose this same principle were applied to every merchant in the protection of his goods against theft; to every automobile owner; to every individual who carries money on his person; to every householder who carelessly leaves vulnerable points to the watchfulness of Providence; to the credulous people who fall easy victims to the wiles of confidence men of a hundred schemes? Of course, there is no danger that the principle will be applied except by the Supreme Court of your personal conscience after you have looked the issue squarely in the face. Then you may come to the reduction of preventable crimes, whose solution rests upon a due recognition of carelessness and ignorance as the chief factors. Non-preventable crimes occur by reason of public impotence, both physical and mental. When your pocket is picked it is because of your ignorance; or if you were previously aware of the pickpockets’ methods then your loss is to be ascribed to carelessness. You wouldn’t dare put your hand into a lion’s mouth because you are afraid he will bite it. You know a pickpocket will put his hand in your pocket and yet you are foolhardy enough to carry valuables in accessible depositories.

The grand combination of popular attractions staged in all the cities of the Pacific Coast for the year 1915 will act as a powerful magnet to draw thither numerous criminals of almost every profession for the purpose of thriving upon the ignorant, the careless and the unprotected. They will operate upon the visitors and the natives with equal avidity and daring. Their ranks will be made up mainly of the cleverest members of their crafts; and as it will cost them a considerable outlay to come it is a foregone conclusion that they will come with a keener view to business than to pleasure. A few of them will inevitably fall into the clutches of the law; more, however, will probably be fortunate enough to get back to their native habitat laden with the spoils of adventure, whilst a percentage of the whole number may be expected, and reasonably, to fall by the wayside and thenceforth for an indefinite season be compelled to cast in their lot with the home talent and ply their trades in the principal coast cities. Every cosmopolitan law and order bureau will delegate representatives to the big celebrations to co-operate with local officials in identifying and apprehending pedigreed malefactors; still, a liberal estimate of the ratio of arrests to crimes will probably be one in every ten. Whilst the virtuous hold lawful carnival during the coming year the vicious will prosper.

There’s an old saying, “Three meals missed makes a possible thief and six meals missed makes a possible murderer.” More to the point, though, is the saying, “Eternal vigilance is the price of security.” Very little stealing occurs in well-regulated banks, jewelry stores and corporation counting houses, with the unavoidable exceptions of crimes by superior force or internal disloyalty, for the simple but signal reason that methods of awareness are in vogue there. This was not always so; for they had to learn awareness in the school of cold, hard facts, having been “bumped” and “twisted” and “turned” and “flimmed” and “gyped” times innumerable before they learned the value of precaution, self-defense.

There are two places from which a thief will not steal: where there is nothing attainable and where the possessors of the attainable are as wise and ready in self-defense as the thief himself. The eternal struggle to attain goods is not more strenuous than the battle to hold them. For, whilst possession is nine points of the law, dispossession is such an easy achievement with one professional despoiler in every thousand of our population that it behooves everyone in whose education this fundamental element of self-protection has been too sadly neglected to polish up his wit now and then by taking stock of what the bold criminal may do in the way of seizing opportunities. The self-reliant may not be frightened, yet it is not the purpose to frighten even the timid; it is, nevertheless, the duty of every citizen to pay heed to timely warning on the subject of preventable crime not alone that he may protect himself but likewise contribute to the protection of the weaker by removing as much of temptation from the path of the criminally inclined as is found to be practical and consistent with general commerce and the open enjoyment of honestly acquired wealth.

In this regard consider that twenty years and less ago jewelers all over this land, with very rare exceptions, were as easy prey to the pennyweighters, or diamond and jewelry thieves, as the burial mounds or “huacas” of the Incas with their fabulous treasure in gold ornaments and bullion were to Pizarro and his free booters. Such was the lack of self-protection in the system of display employed by the jewelers in the recent past that anyone with the desire and temerity could help himself out of trays in which gold ornamented with diamonds and other precious stones was heaped indiscriminately in such wise as to render detection of loss out of the question on the instant. Through the organized efforts of the jewelers and opticians, by means of their trade review, all this loose carelessness was wiped out, precision and order in display and necessary changes in fixtures were adopted; a system of surveillance and nation-wide reports on criminal developments were carried out methodically, until today it is a very infrequent occurrence for a capably managed jewelry store to suffer loss except by robbery through violence or by disloyalty of employees. And jewelers themselves are not the sole beneficiaries of this new order of self protection; they have almost totally denied to the sneak thief the opportunity, or temptation, of replenishing a depleted subsistence fund.

What they have done for jewelers the banks, aided by the inventive genius of the Todds and the Burns Detective Agency, are doing for savings fund and commercial bank depositors. The fraudulent issuance and alteration of bank paper has assumed enormous proportions in recent years, but by the operation of protective measures this resource of the lawless will soon be entirely cut off.

The evolution of the small merchandising business into great department stores has proved another fruitful source for both the early schooling and continued support of petty and grand sneak thieves by the irrepressible display of unprotected goods. The eagerness to sell lays the managers open not only to personal loss, which must eventually be charged off to advertising or some other item of overhead costs, but also to widespread community loss by the activities of the successful thieves outside the department store. In proportionate measure nearly every storekeeper who openly displays small or compact and valuable merchandise is contributing to the temptation of first-timers and to the required opportunities of the professional thief and the kleptomaniac. When confronted with this truth storekeepers shrug their shoulders as though they are between the horns of a dilemma and say, “We set our goods out for people to buy, not to steal,” unmindful of the fact that of thieves in general some are born so, some become so by surrounding circumstances, whilst every son of Adam is a potential thief. You may deny this with as much vehemence as you care to expend in protest against the aspersion of perfectly honest people, but if you know the hidden workings of the human mind you must pause when you reflect that hope, the well spring of ambition, is a variable in every personality at different times, and when it, hope, reaches the maximum intensity it becomes avarice. And with avarice goes the power of lying, mendacity in word or action or both. Hence the above truth. For, a liar will deceive, and larceny is but a degree of deceit. And once capable of lying the particular manifestation of larceny is but a question of congenital talent or combination of talents. But to get back to the subject of preventable crimes.

Admitting that only a small proportion of crimes against property are preventable (and in these suggestions for the reduction of preventable crime only the crimes against property are being given consideration), when we come to deal in aggregate losses, say annual ones, whatever proportion may be prevented, by the timely dissemination of helpful information upon this subject, should be recognized as a definite gain. During this unusually active year the total losses to be inflicted upon the fixed and floating population will undoubtedly run into five and maybe six figures.

Of the dozen unorganized guilds of professional criminals enumerated in the introduction to the Vocabulary the most to be feared and guarded against are burglars, sneak thieves, merchandise thieves, forgers, utterers of false paper, confidence men, pickpockets and thieves who threaten violence. Of these the burglar and the robber who uses weapons as an aide are the most difficult to deal with. Their suppression is almost impossible, yet their partial defeat may be confidently hoped for by the increased watchfulness of the peace officers, aided by the greater prudence of householders and prospective victims in general.

What was said about banks, jewelry and specialty merchandise dealers applies with equal pertinence to householders and others who offer promising occasions for the application of the burglar’s skill. Ordinary locks offer little protection against the burglar’s master keys, jimmy and other tools of forcible or surreptitious entry; yet the greater secretion of valuables may prove an effective remedy against casual loss. Still, the best advice available for protection against this sort of loss may be laughed to scorn by the clandestine act of a desperate or determined criminal.

But of sneak stealing in stores much relief may be had by a sane regard for safety in display. Valuables should not be placed within reach of every ostensible patron, neither on top of counters and show-cases nor in end show-cases nor in unprotected windows. If show-cases are so narrow as to admit of access from the outside, in front, by reaching across, they should be kept locked. The same with all end show-cases, where free passage to their rears may be had. The merchant who violates these modern canons of commercial prudence not only assumes personal risk but he abets the thief and is a source of danger to others.

In department store prudence these same observations hold good, and what is more important every clerk should be trained as thoroughly in the protection of the goods submitted to his care as he is in the execution of common exchange formalities. No goods should be shown any customer without mental inventory of the number of separate displays, so that accurate account may be constantly kept of them, and when the fancy or demands of the customer are not satisfied with an accumulation of goods which is assuming proportions too difficult to inventory in a spontaneous summary they, or at least a part of them, should be removed. Goods should not be left upon display while the clerk withdraws his presence in search of other samples. The secret of the successful store thief consists in his ability to obtain a confusion of displays and then send the clerk for an article which lies at some distance. The over-polite clerk or shop-keeper may at first object that he cannot afford to be discourteous, disrespectful, suspicious, gingerly or risk wounding the susceptibilities of a patron. This objection would have greater weight in a drawing room or at some function where politeness is on trial; in business it counts for far less than safety.

Observe the presence of mind of your jeweler when he finds it necessary to go in search of other displays. He knows it might prove fatal once in a hundred times to leave a stranger in undisputed possession of a tray of valuables, for even though he has them so arranged in geometrical formation as to detect an abstraction he is aware that a substitution might be made in the flash of an eye and thus wipe out the profits accruing from the previous ninety-nine customers who inspected his goods. No, he feels that business can dispense with the urbane conventions, and he avoids possible loss from this source of ever-present danger, as the veriest tyro of either sex and any age possessed of inordinate desire could easily help him or herself whilst the clerk’s back is turned.

When store sneaks operate in pairs or threes one, or in the latter case perhaps two, of the number assumes the attitude of purchaser whilst the seemingly indifferent companion or companions plot to secrete goods. It is generally considered the duty of a floor or department manager to keep a lookout for such seemingly unoccupied companions of purchasers, yet it would be a profitable investment of time and pains to instruct each and every clerk in the simple rules of protection. An incentive, such as a bonus or promotion, should be held out as an extra inducement to clerks to prevent thefts. Loss sustained through internal peculations is, of course, a constant annoyance, not so much on account of actualities as on account of possibilities. In well-regulated establishments where no employee may enter the display rooms with hat, package, umbrella, coat or wrap, and can therefore carry none away, the chief losses by dishonest employees are those of such small articles as may be hidden on the person. There still remains the avenue of secret transfer of the store’s property to friends of the clerks who may carry the same away in bags, suit cases or in packages wrapped in paper imported into the store by the clerk’s confederate. However, such cases do not come up frequently and are very difficult of avoidance except by means of daily or weekly inventories and an exhaustive knowledge of the employee’s previous character and associates, which is an almost superhuman problem.

Clerks in all stores should be warned to scrutinize, not impertinently, all strangers carrying packages of bulk, boxes, traveling bags, umbrellas unfurled and loose or heavy wraps, whether worn or carried on the arm, as these all afford means for secreting goods. Yet if the few previous suggestions are observed no goods may be extracted from a special display, though the fixed and open displays do afford opportunities for the use of these sneak thief aides. Dangerous or professional store thieves thrive not on trifling articles, but upon the more valuable lines of merchandise, such as silks in bolts, articles of silk manufacture, furs, leather goods, art works, jewelry, wearing apparel, millinery and dress trimmings. Such goods should be removed as far as possible from exits.

In smaller establishments these same rules for security should be carefully carried out.

The stupendous losses suffered by business men of every class from the operations of forgers and utterers of false paper could be materially lessened if not wholly stamped out were obliging business men to adopt the commonest measure in vogue in the telegraph offices, express offices, postoffices and banks throughout the country--that of absolutely refusing to cash paper of any variety for unidentified strangers. The strict enforcement of this principle might sacrifice trade for a time but it would save loss and eventually when all reputable business houses by mutual agreement honor the observance the obtaining of money by false pretenses with paper as collateral would be impossible. Whoever writes a check or draft or signs a note or other negotiable instrument unrecorded without protecting the same by the most modern methods is foolishly laying himself liable as well as contributing to the loss of other individuals. Whoever thoughtlessly leaves his check book in accessible places incurs the jeopardy of community and personal loss, seeing that “paper hangers” are vigilant in the search for these. A locked desk drawer is not sufficient protection as a “jimmy” will pry open any furniture lock.

As for confidence men, that satirical old saying “There’s a new sucker born every minute” is so true that the task of educating them all to the folly of entertaining get-rich-schemes is quite beyond the power of even a wise man. The shortest and safest rule for self protection against misrepresentation is “Don’t do it in a hurry.” Take your time; if the proposition is good it will keep for a day or so; besides it will bear full investigation. If you are considering the investment of any sum of money in somebody’s else scheme don’t be too proud or stubborn to seek the advice of a man of large affairs and unquestioned integrity--your banker, for instance, or your legal adviser. If you have no relations with either of these professions consult your friend. Anyway, take it easy, take it easy and don’t swallow the hook at one gulp. This will be especially difficult to avoid if your cupidity be aroused, provided, of course, you be burdened with such excess emotional baggage. If you make wagers with strangers or casual acquaintances you are a candidate for the mourner’s bench, and sometimes all your regrets and the best efforts of the police are of no avail to bring back a single dollar of your loss. You simply pay so much money for so little experience, which may be likened to a mule’s kick, not being worth anything when acquired.

As for pickpockets know these things: If you must carry money on your person carry it in an inside vest pocket, or nearer in yet if possible. And don’t keep your hand on it, nor feel of it every once in a while to see if it is still there, lest a pickpocket observe your concern is solicitous and shortly cause you to learn that it is not there but elsewhere; just where no man may be able to inform you.