LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

the leash, darted in the direction of the carriage.

      * * * * *

25. The Merry Beggars.

26. The parties to be wedded find out a dead horse, or any other beast, and standing one on the one side, and the other on the other, the patrico bids them live together till death do them part; and so shaking hands, the wedding dinner is kept at the next alehouse they stumble into, where the union is nothing but knocking of cannes, and the sauce, none but drunken brawles. —Dekkar.

27. Receiver.

28. Memoirs, of the right villainous John Hall, the famous, and notorious Robber, penned from his Mouth some Time before his Death, 1708.

29. A famous highwayman.

30. A real gentleman.

31. Breeches and boots.

32. Gipsy flask.

33. How he exposes his pistols.

34. For an account of these, see Grose. They are much too gross to be set down here.

35. “The shalm, or shawm, was a wind instrument, like a pipe, with a swelling protuberance in the middle.”—Earl of Northumberland’s Household Book.

36. Perhaps the most whimsical laws that were ever prescribed to a gang of thieves were those framed by William Holliday, one of the prigging community, who was hanged in 1695:

      Art. I. directs — That none of his company should presume to wear shirts, upon pain of being cashiered.

      II. — That none should lie in any other places than stables, empty houses, or other bulks.

      III. — That they should eat nothing but what they begged, and that they should give away all the money they got by cleaning boots among one another, for the good of the fraternity.

      IV. — That they should neither learn to read nor write, that he may have them the better under command.

      V. — That they should appear every morning by nine, on the parade, to receive necessary orders.

      VI. — That none should presume to follow the scent but such as he ordered on that party.

      VII. — That if any one gave them shoes or stockings, they should convert them into money to play.

      VIII. — That they should steal nothing they could not come at, for fear of bringing a scandal upon the company.

      IX. — That they should cant better than the Newgate birds, pick pockets without bungling, outlie a Quaker, outswear a lord at a gaming-table, and brazen out all their villainies beyond an Irishman.

37. Cell.

38. Newgate.

39. A woman whose husband has been hanged.

40. A dancing-master.

41. “Nothing, comrades; on, on,” supposed to be addressed by a thief to his confederates.

42. Thus Victor Hugo, in “Le Dernier Jour d’un Condamné,” makes an imprisoned felon sing:

      “J’le ferai danser une danse

       Où il n’y a pas de plancher.”

43. Thieves in prison.

44. Shoplifter.

45. Pickpocket.

46. Handkerchiefs.

47. Rings.

48. To the pawnbroker.

49. Snuff-boxes.

50. Pickpocket.

51. The two forefingers used in picking a pocket.

52. Pickpocket.

53. Pick a pocket.

54. No inside coat-pocket; buttoned up.

55. Scissors.

56. Steal a pocket-book.

57. Best-made clothes.

58. Thief.

59. With my hair dressed in the first fashion.

60. With several rings on my hands.

61. Seals.

62. Gold watch.

63. Laced shirt.

64. Gentlemanlike.

65. Easily than forged notes could I pass.

Скачать книгу