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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/76632-0.txt b/76632-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31c5d52 --- /dev/null +++ b/76632-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3856 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76632 *** + + + + + + A VOCABULARY OF + CRIMINAL SLANG + + + + + Copyrighted, 1914 + By LOUIS E. JACKSON + + + + + A VOCABULARY OF + CRIMINAL SLANG + + WITH + + SOME EXAMPLES OF + COMMON USAGES + + BY + + LOUIS E. JACKSON + + Assisted by + + C. R. HELLYER, _City Detective Department_ + + PORTLAND, OREGON + + Price, $1.50 + + + + + DEDICATED TO + + T. M. Word + + Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon + + A Fearless + and Intelligent Administrator + of a Public Trust. + + + + +_INTRODUCTION_ + + +It is not with a view to sensationalism that this little work is +undertaken, but with a sense of helpfulness, of social obligation. It +is submitted for the perusal and study of all those public officers and +professional servants whose responsibilities are such as to bring them +into casual or constant contact with the confirmed criminal classes. + +It may fall into the hands of some unfit subjects and thereby +contribute to the propagation of its contents in undesirable quarters. +On the other hand we may consider that publicity is the speediest agent +for the destruction of cankerous moral growths. Perhaps the possession +of such knowledge as is here presented argues a sordidness; but Gordian +knots can be untied only by use of the sword; to have cherries in the +winter a can opener must be used, or to stand eggs on end you must +smash them. + +By the very nature of crime its efficient vehicle of transmission is +ephemeral, very ephemeral. The vernacular of twenty-five years ago +is almost oblivion today. So with the future; provided, of course, +that the idiom of the underworld surrender its meaning to the social +layers superimposed upon it. This process can be made effective by +investigation and publicity. When bench and bar, the press, custodians +of law and order and private agencies devoted to the detection, +repression and correction of crime are made familiar with the wiles +and mode of communication of criminals, the latter are rendered less +powerful insofar as the evolved system of guile and wrong-doing are +concerned. + +It is noticeably true that our average law officer or advocate is +necessarily a specialist in one or perhaps a few, at most, of the many +recognized branches of professional crime. The limitation is occasioned +in part by prescribed capacity and in part by inexperience or +unfamiliarity with criminals of all types and their methods. Efficiency +in general correctional labor may undoubtedly be promoted by a fuller +understanding of the linguistic acquirements of subjects to be dealt +with in every day practice. It is hoped that the publication of this +vocabulary of criminal terms will render material advantages to the +conscientious workers in this large field. + +We are conscious of many errors of omission in the work and we request +the co-operation of all who are interested in its utility. Only the +essential and most pertinent or purely criminal vernacular usages have +been selected from the mystical parlance of professional violators and +their accomplices, for the reason that popular slang is so extensively +comprehended as to make its publication of doubtful value as a new +contribution to our literature. + +An analysis of the four hundred and thirty terms included in the +vocabulary reveals the interesting fact that criminal idiom is largely +an ingenious combination of epithet suggested by similitude and a +perverted construction of essential and accidental attributes of things +and powers to imply or express the things and actions themselves. +An occult jargon on its face, yet systematic enough when the key is +acquired. + +Some of the terms seem to have been derived by simple partition of +legitimate English words, occasionally with the addition of euphonious +prefix or suffix. As a prime example of the transposition of an +attribute for the thing itself, consider what is perhaps the most +popular slang term in use today in the unregenerate world--“dope,” at +present signifying “news,” “intelligence,” or “meaning.” Originally +this word was derived from opium by partition, with the disguising +consonant “d” prefixed to the accented syllable. Amongst narcotic +habitues the most salient attribute of opium is stimulation of +loquacity, or imaginativeness or of exaggeration. In process of time +any of these powers came to characterize narcotic intoxication; thence +information on any subject was designated “dope.” The “dope sheet,” a +“line of dope,” are natural offshoots of this tendency to transpose +attribute into a new substantive. To philologists this noteworthy +observation should infallibly point out the utter lack of scientific +relation between an artificial sound--or visual--symbol and the thing, +quality or quantity symbolized thereby. + +Without previous instruction a person gifted with intuition might +divine the signification of the majority of these terms in vogue by +weighing the context of the sentences in which they are included. Yet +a practical working knowledge of them should be made more available by +frequent reference to a complete list. The sole excuse for criminal +slang is the protection afforded by secrecy, which once destroyed +the slang is forced to die of neglect, though it will naturally be +superseded by evolutionary linguistic devices. + +To fraternize with a secret order we must equip ourselves with a +knowledge of the ceremonies and aims as well as the selective means +of the secret fraternists. To combat criminals successfully it is +necessary to understand their complete vehicles of intercommunication, +else the investigator is unqualified to fraternize with them so as to +gain a fuller insight both into their actions and the living motives +concealed behind them. Unquestionably, every term in the vocabulary +is known to some officer of the law; unquestionably, too, every term +contained therein is understood by but very few individuals even +amongst criminals themselves. Therefore it would seem a distinct gain +to become familiar with them all. + +Aided by a panoramic view of recorded crime in the last generation we +may roughly divide criminal offenses into the four great departments +of crimes against self, or reflexive crimes against personal character, +which have their fountain head in intemperance and gluttony; crimes +against sex, which have their basis in the emotions flowing out of +lust; crimes against property, fed by the sins of avarice or greed; +and the crimes of violence, growing out of anger. Of these four, +reflexive crimes and crimes of violence are distinctively psychological +and must be left to the individual for corrective solution. Crimes +against property and crimes of sexual depravity constitute the bulk of +costly and troublesome cases which choke the machinery of our legal +tribunals and necessitate a regrettable public tax for maintenance +of penal and detentional institutions. The chronic defectives who +most seriously menace the social body are comprised of prostitutes; +gamblers; nondescriptively larcenous tramps; yeggs; burglars; sneak +thieves; confidence men; dishonest solicitors; promoters and agents; +forgers; merchandise thieves; pickpockets; highway robbers; and +their accessories, the unscrupulous pawnbroker, the unrestrained +liquor dealer, and the drug dispenser. It goes without saying that +the volume and value of business transacted by these latter three +attest the stupendous proportions of the direct losses sustained by +the commonwealth through the misdirected energies of the principal +professional criminal classes. + +From an economical standpoint the traffic of professional crime is +stupendous. We are mulcted some four hundred millions of dollars +annually by reason of the criminal element in the nation. A +conservative estimate of the number of active professional criminals of +high and low degree is probably 100,000. We have one uniformed police +officer for every thousand of population, and about one auxiliary +officer per thousand of population in addition. Here are 200,000 more +persons in the non-productive class. Criminal lawyers and criminal +court functionaries contribute another ratio of one to the thousand of +population, making a conservative total of 400,000 engaged in preying +upon and relieving the producers from distress occasioned by crimes +against person and property. + +Admitting that the average income of the 300,000 police officers, +lawyers and court officials is about $1,200 per year, we have a +$360,000,000 overhead cost charged against production. The loss +sustained through the peculations of criminals and the cost of +detaining them is not less than another $88,000,000 per year, on +the estimated basis of $882 per year per criminal. A grand total of +$448,000,000! + +Suppose the average age of the professional criminal to be 30 years. As +the average financial investment in an individual of that age in the U. +S. is $12,600, his productive capacity should be at least six per cent +on the investment (if possessed of industrial training), plus the cost +of human upkeep; which means a total of about $1,170 per year earning +capacity for the average individual. Or at six per cent interest +alone on the personality investment he represents an annual potential +addition of $757 to the national wealth. Add to this the cost to the +state of detaining him, say an average of $125 per year, and we have +$882 per year per prisoner. The actual loss in interest on criminal +personality investments is about $75,000,000 per 100,000 prisoners per +year; a waste that is perpetuated by the present judicial and penal +system. + +Now, the average thief cannot steal $1,170 per year, nor even $757, +when account is taken of time lost in prison. The crux of the situation +seems to lie in the criminal’s lack of training in the useful arts, +together with moral delinquency. So far we have experimented chiefly +with two extremes in penology--employment of convicts for their +exploitation by selfish interests on the one hand, and unemployment +or else employment of such nature as tends to lower the standard of +efficiency of the individual on the other hand. The evolution of labor +unions has suppressed reform that makes for the criminal’s economical +independence; and yet the criminal element is recruited mainly +from the fourth estate. To date the history of penology shows some +development of apprehenders and keepers in the practical side of the +work, but at the prime expense of the apprehended. The producers at +large pay the interest on the debt, whilst the principal is shouldered +by the deficient themselves who are passing it along to the future +generations. + +As to the moral aspect of the problem with which the professional +criminal confronts the nation, it must ultimately be determined by +psychology. Intemperance, greed, lust and anger; these are the radical +causes. Economical dependence is the first outgrowth of these known +qualities but unknown quantities. + +How are we going to reduce the overshadowing difficulty? By +ostracism? By sterilization? By simple detaining repression without +corresponding elimination of root causes? As for ostracism, folly +flees a grave danger whilst moral courage fortified by intelligence +faces and overcomes it. Ostracism revives and perpetuates caste +divisions of society. Sterilization is as wrong in a larger moral +view as infanticide in a smaller; the theory has emanated from higher +intellectual, moral and spiritual darkness. It solves the criminal +problem like national debt solves the economical problem--saddles a +moral mortgage upon posterity. Detention without conferring assimilable +moral uplift and increased economical efficiency is a parallel for +the fabled delusion of the ostrich. Imprisonment as it obtains today +costs much and produces little or nothing save waste. The maintenance +of delinquents in rotting idleness or at labor which is subsequently +unprofitable to the prisoner from the standpoint of talent and +character development is an unbusiness-like as well as an inhumane +make-shift which reacts upon society like a boomerang. + +But it was not the aim to air views on criminology and penology in a +preface, though it has seemed appropriate that the intelligence of +interested men and women should be appealed to, as the widespread use +of the following idioms has a deep significance. If this work achieves +no other result than this it should be regarded as well worth while. + + C. R. HELLYER + City Detective Dept., Portland, Ore. + and LOUIS E. JACKSON, + +Portland, Oregon, October 3rd, 1914. + + * * * * * * * * + +Should you find any terms missing from the following vocabulary which +in your opinion should be included in it you will confer a favor by +communicating same to the publisher. + + W. H. THORNTON, + 872 Brooklyn St., Portland, Ore. + + + + + A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang + Alphabetically Arranged + with Practical Examples + of Common Usages + +[Illustration] + + +ADMAN, Noun + +Current amongst literary confidence men. A fake advertising solicitor. +See “HUNDRED PER CENT.” + + +ANGEL, Noun + +General usage. A financial backer. Derived from “good thing.” + + +ARM MAN, Noun + +Current amongst “heavyweights.” A strong arm man; a holdup; a highway +robber. See “PUT-EM-UP.” + + +ARTILLERY, Noun + +In general currency. Firearms of any description. See “ROD,” “ROSCOE,” +“SMOKE WAGON.” + + +B. A., Noun + +Current amongst literary confidence men. A book agent who commonly +employs confidence methods for obtaining subscriptions or orders. + + +BADGE, Noun + +Current amongst “hustlers” and the demi-monde. A badger; a blackmailer; +an extortioner. See “SHAKE DOWN.” + + +BALLY HOO, Noun + +Current amongst exhibition and “flat-joint” grafters. A free +entertainment used for a decoy to attract customers. See “READER.” + + +BANNER, Noun + +General currency. Used in the colloquialism “carrying the banner,” +meaning to walk the streets all night or otherwise endure the hardship +of loss of sleep. + + +BATCH, Noun + +General currency. A number; a quantity; a lot; a great many. + + +BELCH, Noun + +In general usage with all grafters. A protest; a complaint. See +“SQUAWK,” “ROAR,” “HOLLER.” Example: “When he blowed his dough he put +up an awful belch.” + + +BELCH, Verb + +Idem Supra. Example: “He cannot stand the gaff without belching.” Also +used to denote the giving of information. See “COME THROUGH.” + + +BEN, Noun + +General usage. An overcoat; derived from Benjamin, in reference to the +biblical coat of many colors. + + +BENNY, Noun + +General usage. A sack coat; derived from Benjamin, some say the +biblical character, while others say the New York manufacturer of men’s +garments. + + +BENT, Adjective + +General usage. Crooked; larcenous. See “TWISTED.” Example: “His kisser +shows that he’s bent.” + + +BIG TOP, Noun + +Current amongst circus grafters and “open-air men.” The large tent used +by circuses; now evolved to include the meeting of the maximum exhibit +possible in any given case. Example: “I’m flopping at the big top,” +i. e., “I am rooming at the biggest hotel in town.” + + +BIT, Noun + +General usage. A portion; a division; a share or a part of anything, as +profits or proceeds of a transaction. Example: “You’re supposed to be +in on anything that comes off, so you’re entitled to your bit.” + + +BIT, Noun + +General usage, particularly amongst grafters who operate on the outside +of the law. A prison sentence. Example: “He did a bit in Joliet.” +Also a share. See “END.” Example: “If you don’t take a chance you’re +entitled to no bit.” + + +BLOCK, Noun + +General usage. A watch. See “SUPER[1],” “TURNIP.” Example: “The wire +rung six blocks in the breaks,” i. e., “The tool (pickpocket) detached +six watches from their rings in the crowded exit.” As a noun it has +another meaning, i. e., a head. See “NOODLE.” Example: “He got his +block sapped,” i. e., struck. + +[1] There is no entry for “SUPER” in the text. + + +BLOOMER, Noun + +Current with genteel grafters. An error; a failure. Example: “We framed +wrong and scored a bloomer.” + + +BLOW, Verb + +General usage. To cease; to get away; to lose; to miss something +absent. Examples: “Blow! here comes a bull.” “We blowed some kale that +night” (spent it). “Just as the touch was scored the boob blowed his +poke.” “A shilliber’s work is to cop and blow,” i. e., to take and give +in a gambling, ostensibly winning and losing in good faith from and to +a confederate. + + +BLOW CARD, Noun + +Current amongst gamblers and genteel grafters. Any useless thing or +condition; financial embarrassment; the last card; the final play or +thing in any series. Examples: “Don’t connect with this wop, he is on +the blow card,” i. e., broke. “Pull this one off and call it the blow +card.” + + +BOOB, Noun + +In general usage amongst all sophisticated classes. An inferior in any +specific sense; a victim; an uninitiated person when used by a “gonif.” +Derived from booby. + + +BOOSTER, Noun + +Used by confidential grafters. One who endorses a person, thing or +action of immoral nature either by complementary action or by moral +support; a helper; a confederate. + + +BOOSTER, Noun + +In general currency amongst “gonifs.” A shoplifter; a thief who +operates in merchandise stores in daytime. A “Boost” is an assistance; +“The Boost” is the shoplifting profession. + + +BREAKS, Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets. Any place of exit where throngs of people +pour through en stream, as from a theatre, from a convention or other +popular gathering, or from a street or railroad car or from a boat, all +of which afford facilities for the pickpocket to operate under cover +and in the press of unusual excitement. Example: “The guns are rooting +into the swell mob at the Grand Opera breaks.” + + +BREAK UP, Noun + +Current amongst thieves who specialize in plunder or loot. Melted +silver or gold. See “MELT.” + + +BREEZE, Noun + +General usage. Loquacity; guile; “hot air;” “bull con.” + + +BREEZE, Verb + +General usage. To deceive; to beguile; to occupy one’s attention; to +descant loquaciously. Example: “She breezed everybody on the line.” +Also to move on, to leave, to come in or go out. See “BLOW.” + + +BREECH (britch), Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets chiefly. The rear pants pockets, designated +right and left breech, in contradistinction to the front pants pockets, +for which see “KICK.” Example: “Fan his right breech for a leather,” +i. e., “Feel of his right hip pocket for a pocketbook.” + + +BROAD, Noun + +Current amongst genteel grafters chiefly. A female confederate; a +female companion; a woman of loose morals. See “DONY,” “FLUZIE,” +“MUFF[2].” Broad is derived from the far-fetched metaphor of “meal +ticket,” signifying a female provider for a pimp, from the fanciful +correspondence of a meal ticket to a railroad or other ticket, which +latter originally was exclusively used by “gonifs” to indicate +“broad,” or a conductor’s hat check. Also a playing card from the +deck of fifty-two. A “three-card monte man” is a “BROAD SPIELER”; +“Tipping the broads” is riding on a purchased transportation ticket; +“Beating the broads” is corrupting the conductor or other collecting +functionaire of a transportation line. + +[2] There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text. + + +BUCK, Noun + +Current generally. A dollar. Example: “They tax you one buck for a room +without a bath at the cheapest hotel in the burg.” + + +BUFFALO, Noun + +General usage in the northern states. A negro. See “DINGE.” + + +BUFFALO, Verb + +General usage. To bluff; to intimidate; to frighten. Example: “The dick +buffaloed him into tipping his plant.” + + +BUG, Noun + +Used by alms beggars. A fearful looking sore artificially produced to +simulate a burn or scald by the use of Spanish blister. + + +BULL, Noun + +General usage. Misrepresentation; a lie; deception. Probably derived +from the financial term bull, which in polite and legal circles +signifies inflation, optimism. See “BREEZE.” Also used to indicate an +officer of the law whose function is to apprehend or arrest, whether a +constable, marshal, sheriff, detective or policeman. + + +BULL CON, Noun + +Supra idem. + + +BUMP, BUMP OFF, Verb + +Current amongst heavyweights and desperate characters chiefly, though +understood by grafters generally. To kill; reflectively it signifies +suicide. Examples: “He bumped himself off when he saw that the game was +up.” “He copped a cuter and got bumped making a get-away.” + + +BUNCO, Noun + +General currency. Deceit. Derived from “BUNCOMBE.” + + +BUNK, Noun + +In general currency. Deceit; ostentation. Derived by corruption of form +while retaining the meaning of “Bunco,” a contraction of buncombe. +Example: “If you fall for this bunk you’re a simp.” + + +BUNK, Verb + +General usage. To employ misrepresentation; to defraud; to cheat; to +establish confidential relations with intent to abuse the influence so +acquired. Example: “The frame-up in the play was to bunk the sucker +with protection and scare team work.” + + +BURNEYS, Noun + +Current amongst “hop-heads,” dope fiends. A catarrh powder containing +an illicit proportion of cocaine, used as a snuff, administered with a +combination detachable rubber and glass blowing tube. + + +BUZZARD, Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets. A timid or amateur or low life “gun” who +operates on “molls,” women. Example: “The moll buzzards tore into the +jam at the market house on Saturday night and glommed a batch of pokes.” + + +BUZZER, Noun + +Current mainly in western circles. An officer’s badge or star, the +insignia of authority. Example: “Who are you? says he. For reply I +flashed my buzzer.” Derived, doubtless, from the metal disc toy with +starlike points which revolves by pulling crossed strings which pass +through it. + + +CAN, Noun + +General usage. A place of confinement; a prison; a cell. A practical +metaphor for a receptacle designed to confine or bottle humans. Also a +lavatory, toilet, urinal. Example: “He rumbled and made the can.” See +“CANISTER.” + + +CAN, Verb + +General usage. To discharge; to eliminate. Derived from the prankish +cruelty of tieing a tin can to a dog’s tail, whose effectual purpose +is to get rid of a useless or undesirable object. Example: “He made so +many bad breaks we had to can him.” + + +CANISTER, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst prison habitues. A prison. Also in use amongst +crooks who resort to the use of weapons, denoting a firearm. Example: +“He’ll stick his hands up if you flash the canister.” + + +CANNON, Noun + +General currency. A revolver. In pickpocket parlance it signifies a +pickpocket of indefinite order. See “GUN,” “GONIF.” + + +CASES, Noun + +General usage. Observation; scrutiny; survey. Example: “Keep cases +on his actions and you will learn his motive.” Also an ultimate, a +finality, the last of a series of things or actions. Example: “He +hasn’t turned a trick for so long that he is down to cases.” The term +is derived from gambler’s parlance; in faro bank the recording of +cards turned out of the dealer’s box is denominated “keeping cases,” +whilst the last card to remain in the box is called the “case card.” +“Down to cases” is used to signify that the cards are all dealt and +played; the money or resources at an end. + + +CASE, Verb + +General usage. To watch; to observe; to scrutinise. + + +CAT HOP, Noun + +Current amongst gamblers. See “KITTY HOP.” + + +CENTURY, Noun + +General usage. A hundred; a hundred dollar bill. + + +CHIP, Noun + +Current amongst burglars and store prowlers. A cash-box; a till; a cash +drawer without belling device. A cash receptacle with belling device is +called a “combination chip,” or a “damper,” or a “dinger.” Example: “He +copped a heel on the chip and glommed a century.” + + +CHIV, Noun + +In general use amongst yeggs and rough-neck criminals. A knife; a +sharp-edged tool or weapon. Derived from the French word “chef,” by +reason of a cook’s use of a carving knife, though the French term for +knife is “canif.” + + +CHIV, Verb + +Supra idem. To cut; to slash; used only in regard to an attack upon a +human. Example: “Beware of that geezer that he does not chiv you.” + + +CHOP, Verb + +General usage. To quit; to cease. + + +CHUMP, Noun + +General usage. An unsophisticated individual; a victim; an inferior; an +“angel”; a “captain.” See “JOHN.” + + +CLATTER, Noun + +General usage. A patrol wagon. + + +CLAW, Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets. The “tool”; the “jerve”; the “wire”; or +the expert operator in a “gun mob” who lifts the money and valuable +collateral from the victim’s person. Example: “Our mob is working under +one of the speediest claws in the country.” + + +CLAW, Verb + +General usage. To snatch; to appropriate; to annex. + + +CLEAN, Adjective + +General usage. A state of financial embarrassment; exhausted supply of +a given property. Example: “He wasn’t very dirty when he got in town, +but he is thoroughly clean now.” + + +CLEAN, Verb + +General usage. To take all one possesses of a given commodity; to +deplete one’s assets. Example: “He headed in wrong with that bunch and +got cleaned.” Also used by exponents of the art of self-defense to +indicate the infliction of defeat upon an opponent. Example: “He made a +pass at me and I cleaned him in one, two, three.” + + +CLOUT, Verb + +In currency amongst the plunderbund. To purloin any kind of valuables +in any manner. + + +COME-ON, Noun + +General usage. A prospective victim; a “steered” prospect. + + +COME THROUGH, Verb + +General usage. To give up, to deliver, to surrender any secret +information or any material goods demanded. Example: “After I showed +him the situation was in our hands he came through with the dope.” +In pickpocket parlance “to come through” describes a function of one +of the “wire’s” “stalls,” consisting of a frontal attack or sudden +onslaught upon an intended victim with the purpose of bewildering the +latter in order that the “wire” may operate upon the victim from the +rear; or, the relative positions may be reversed, when the “stall” +should “come through” from the rear. Example: “Precede this mark +through the car door, wheel and come through just as he descends the +steps.” + + +CON, Noun + +General usage. A convict; a lie; a misrepresentation. See “BUNK.” + + +CON, Verb + +General usage. To ingratiate; to establish confidential relations. See +“BUNK.” + + +COP, Noun + +General currency. A policeman. + + +COP, Verb + +General usage. See “CLOUT.” Cop is an old Cockney flash-word and +signifies capture; conquer. Example: “Booze and the blowers (women) +cops the lot.” + + +COPPER, Noun + +Current amongst prison habitues. The commutation or good time allowed +prisoners for good behavior. Example: “You grab one month copper off +the first year.” + + +COSE, Noun + +General usage. A five-centpiece. “Cosan” is a ten-centpiece. + + +CRACK, Verb + +General usage. To talk. For example see “EYE FULL.” + + +CRAB, Noun + +General usage. A grouchy, stingy person; of inferior quality in +intellectuality or habits. See “PIKER[3].” + +[3] There is no entry for “PIKER” in the text. + + +CRAB, Verb + +General usage. To spoil or ruin or render impossible any plan of +action. Example: “This fink crabbed the play and we went on the nut for +a double sawbuck.” + + +CRAP, Noun + +General usage. Treachery. See “BUNK,” “BULL,” “CON.” + + +CREEP, Verb + +Current amongst prowlers and panel-joint workers. To use stealth; to +crawl. + + +CREEP, Noun + +Current amongst crooked pimps. A creeper, a crawler who searches the +clothes of a victim while the latter is abed with the creep’s paramour. + + +CROKE, Verb + +General usage. Passively it means to die; actively it is used as an +elegant expression for murder. Examples: “He croked himself with +bichloride.” “The copper got croked in the jackpot.” + + +CRIMPY, Adjective + +Used by yeggs principally. Cold, applied to the weather. + + +CROKER, Noun + +General usage. A physician. + + +CROSSLOTS, Adverb + +In use amongst yeggs, hobos and the meandering unemployed. +Cross-country; away from frequented routes of traffic; by star route. +Example: “In the get-away they hammed twenty miles cross lots.” + + +CROW, Adjective + +Current amongst shoplifters and pennyweighters. Poor; mean; trivial; +insignificant; worthless. Example: “There’s a bale of slum in the +joint, but it’s all crow.” + + +CROWNS, Noun + +Used by drug fiends. Same as “BURNEYS.” + + +CRUSH, Noun + +General usage. A forcible entry or exit. Also as verb. + + +CUT TO THE BREAKS, Verb + +Current amongst gamblers and ready-money grafters. Reducing action to +its lowest terms; displaying only the essential. Example: “The mark +stalled to the can, gunned his soft and cut to the breaks,” i. e., “The +victim retired to the lavatory, inspected his bank-roll and separated +the amount required to finance the intended operation.” + + +CUTER, Noun + +Used by gamblers and western criminals. A surprise; a fool; a josh; “a +boob.” For example of first-cited value see “BUMP.” + + +DAMPER, Noun + +Used by prowlers and daylight “heels.” A combination cash drawer or +register. See “CHIP.” + + +DANGLER, Noun + +Current amongst jewelry thieves and those who commit larceny from the +person. A watch fob; an earring; a pendant; any article of jewelry +which swings free at one end. + + +DEAD ONE, Noun + +General usage. One who is useless in any specific case; out of funds. + + +DERRICK, Noun + +Current amongst shoplifters chiefly. A “hoister”; a “lifter”; a +“booster”; an “elevator.” Example: “The boosters are making a plunge +with a derrick ben.” In this sense it is used as an adjective, but can +be transposed for “boosters.” + + +DICK, Noun + +General usage. A detective. See “RICHARD.” + + +DINGE, Noun + +General usage. A negro. See “BUFFALO.” + + +DIP, Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets. See “CLAW”; “WIRE”; “JERVE”; “TOOL”; +“GUN”; “CANNON”; “GONIF.” A common term for a pickpocket of any degree. + + +DISE, Noun + +Current amongst store burglars, shoplifters, and box-car thieves or +“RAT WORKERS” mainly. A contraction of merchandise. Loot; plunder; +effects that can readily be disposed of in the market as new goods. +Example: “There’s a mob riding the rattlers between here and the +junction who have a dise plant stashed (cached) in the jungles.” + + +DONY, Noun + +Current amongst pimps and free lovers chiefly. A female member of the +demi-monde. See “HOOKER”; “JANE”; “FILLY”; “MUFF[4].” Derived from the +Hebrew “yoni,” the female sex organ. + +[4] There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text. + + +DOSS, Noun + +General currency. A place to sleep; a bed. See “KIP”; “FLOP.” Example: +“Stake me to two-bits to get a doss.” Apparently from the French “je +dors,” I sleep. + + +DOUBLE, Noun + +General usage. A conspiracy to deceive or defraud a victim; the +“double-cross.” Example: “He got the double.” + + +DUCAT, Noun + +Current amongst genteel grafters. A ticket of admission or +transportation. See “BROAD.” Example: “The ducat box was crushed last +night,” i. e., “The ticket office was burglarized.” + + +DUCK, Verb + +General currency. To retire; to leave; to flee; to disappear. + + +DUKE, Noun + +Used by gamblers and genteel grafters. A fist; a hand; glad hand; +a hand in a card game. “Reading the duke” is “fortune-telling by +palmistry”; “tipping your duke” is “betraying your intention”; +“cropping his duke” is reading an opponent’s hand by trickery in a card +game. + + +DUKIE, Noun + +Used by yeggmen and hobos. A hand-out, or donation of cold victuals to +a beggar. See “LUMP.” + + +DUMMY, Noun + +Current amongst yeggmen, hobos and prison habitues. Bread. See “PUNK.” + + +DUMP, Noun + +General usage. A rendezvous; an establishment of any kind; a hangout; a +joint; a meeting place. + + +DRAG, Noun + +General currency. An influence with one in authority; a “pull”; a main +thoroughfare in any community; the main street. See “STEM.” Examples: +“The boys are pivoting on the main drag,” i. e., begging on the street; +“The muffs are cruising on the drag tonight,” i. e., soliciting on the +street. Amongst female impersonators on the stage and men of dual sex +instincts “drag” denotes female attire donned by a male. Example: “All +the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.” Also +an inhalation of smoke, tobacco or opium. + + +DROP, Noun + +General currency. An apprehension in criminal action. See “FALL”; +“SNEEZE”; “RUMBLE”; “TUMBLE.” Also used as a verb to express the action +corresponding to a similar state. Example of the latter: “The tribe +dropped a man in the day’s work,” i. e., lost one by arrest. “We had +to drop a stall for missing too many meets,” i. e., discharged him. +Command or control by reason of advantage in an exigency when shooting +may be expected. + + +EIGHT DIE CASE, Noun + +Current amongst open-air or “sure-thing” grafters. See “FLAT JOINT.” A +glass showcase containing numbered prizes, as jewelry or gewgaws, for +which eight dice are thrown by players, the totality of spots on the +eight dice corresponding with the numbers on the prizes. The secret of +this graft consists in the dealer’s fraudulent counting of the spots +arbitrarily and disarranging them before the victim can finish the +count. + + +ELBOW, Noun + +General usage in cosmopolitan centers. A detective. See “RICHARD”; +“DICK.” + + +ELEVATOR, Noun + +In shoplifter’s and holdup men’s parlance. A lifter; a booster; a +hoister; a “stick-up” man. See “PUT-EM-UP.” + + +END, Noun + +General currency. A share; a portion; a division. See “BIT.” + + +EYE (The), Noun + +General currency amongst long-odds criminals. The Pinkerton Detective +Agency; an operative of the Pinkerton Agency. Example: “Blow this +joint; it’s protected by the Eye.” + + +EYE FULL, Noun + +General usage. The object of scrutiny or of attentive observation. See +“STRETCHING.” Example: “Nix Crackin’! The mark on your left is getting +an eye full.” + + +FALL, Noun + +General currency. An arrest. See “RUMBLE”; “DROP.” Example: “He was +soused when he attempted to pull off the stunt and got a fall.” Used +as a verb, “to fall for” is to be deceived by; to be taken in; to be +influenced. + + +FALL DOUGH, Noun + +Current amongst criminals who operate under clique or fraternal +organization. A fund kept in reserve for protection, to be expended in +procuring legal representation, bail, or bribery of officers or court +functionaries. Example: “No one can join out unless he puts up five +centuries for fall dough.” + + +FALL GUY, Noun + +General currency. A scapegoat; a victim. See “FALL.” + + +FAN, Verb + +In pickpocket parlance. To surreptitiously feel a victim’s pockets, or +inadvertently brush the person for the purpose of locating an object +sought, as pocketbook, watch or weapon. Example: “Fan the pratt for a +poke.” + + +FIEND, Noun + +Used by narcotic habitues chiefly. One addicted to the use of drugs, as +a “hop fiend,” a “dope fiend.” + + +FILL, Verb + +General currency amongst gang criminals. To join a mob, as of guns, +or of confidence men, and thus fill a vacancy in the organization. +Example: “If you know a good man who can make a fill steer him in.” + + +FILLY, Noun + +General usage. A young woman of questionable morals, not necessarily +criminal by choice but potentially so. See “SKIRT”; “JANE”; “MUFF[5].” + +[5] There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text. + + +FINGER, Noun + +Current amongst criminals who localize more or less extensively. See +“STOOL[6].” An informer; an investigator for officers. Example: “He got +the push sneezed by mixing with a finger.” + +[6] There is no entry for “STOOL” in the text. + + +FINGER PRINT, Noun + +Current amongst confidence crooks who specialize in paper securities or +signed orders for merchandise or service. A signature; an endorsement. +Example: “Put your finger print on this line.” See “JOHN HANCOCK.” + + +FINK, Noun + +Current chiefly in eastern criminal circles. An unreliable confederate +or incompetent sympathizer. See “CRAB”; “LOB.” Example: “We staked him +to a day’s work for a try-out, but he proved to be a fink.” + + +FISH EYE, Noun + +General currency. A diamond. See “PROP.” + + +FIX, Noun + +Used in general criminal parlance. A condition of security where +grafters may operate with impunity. Example: “Don’t pay any attention +to the bulls; it’s a fix.” + + +FIXER, Noun + +General currency. One who acts as go-between for thieves and bribe +takers. Example: “If you get a rumble, send for Jones, the mouthpiece; +he’s a sure-shot fixer and can square anything short of murder.” + + +FLAGGINGS, Noun + +Used by yeggs and hobos. Meat of any description, usually applied to +cold victuals. Example: “If you are not a vegetarian, stay away from +that man’s burg, for flaggings is scarce.” + + +FLAP, Noun + +Current amongst pimps and criminals who are contemptuous of female +values. An opprobrious epithet for loose women. Also employed to +designate the female sex organ. + + +FLASH, Verb + +General currency. To show; to exhibit; to submit an object for +inspection. + + +FLAT JOINT, Noun + +Current amongst open-air sure-thing men who operate at circus +gatherings, fairs, carnivals, any gaming establishment where fortune +is presumed to wait upon skill combined with risk. The “TIVOLI”; the +“SWINGING BALL”; the “SPINDLE”; the “PINCH WHEEL”; the “PADDLES”; the +“SHELLS”; “THREE CARD MONTE”; the “EIGHT DIE CASE”; the “FISH POND”; +the “DISCS” are all grafting flat joints. The term is derived from the +essentiality in all of these crooked devices of a counter or other flat +area across or upon which the swindle may be conducted. + + +FLIM, Noun + +Current in polite criminal circles. A swindle; a fraud. See “BUNK”; +“TWISTED.” Derived from “flim-flam.” + + +FLIM, Verb + +Supra idem. To swindle; to defraud. Used especially by short-change +experts. See “LAYING”; “FLOPPER.” + + +FLOATER, Noun + +General currency in police circles. A suspended sentence; a mandatory +order to quit a community or locality. Example: “The rap wasn’t strong +enough, so they took a floater.” + + +FLOP, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs, dope fiends, prison habitues and to some extent +in general use by initiates in the mysteries of informal annexation. A +bed; a place to sit, recline or lie down. Also used by short changers +as a synonym of “flim.” + + +FLOP, Verb + +Same as above. To sit or lie down. Example: “Let’s flop here on the +grass and pound our ear.” Also used by money changers to signify fraud +by confusion. Example: “There’s a muff in that candy store that can be +flopped because she can’t count change.” + + +FLOPPER, Noun + +In general use by money changers, switchers (substituters); +flim-flammers. See “LAYING.” Example: “He calls himself a star flopper, +but he’s crabbing a string of good lays by hyping with a deuce where a +saw buck could be changed just as readily.” See “HYPER.” + + +FRAME, Noun + +General currency. A prearranged plan of action; a secret implying +sinister intention; a “frame-up.” The contraction is used for greater +secretiveness, as is the case with all terms which have become the +common property of both criminals and their enemies. Example: “What’s +the frame for putting this one over? The lemon.” + + +FRISK, Noun + +General usage. A search; a “shake-down”; an examination of the contents +of one’s pockets, of a room, of receptacles or of a community. Example: +“Give him a frisk and see if he has a rod.” + + +FRISK, Verb + +Supra idem. Example: “Frisk everybody that enters the hall.” + + +FRONT, Noun + +Some general currency, but used mainly by crooks whose operations +require a shield or distraction. An auxiliary defense; a “stall”; +a secondary who interposes his person or contributes overtly to a +surreptitious action. Example: “Give me a front here till I nick this +leather.” + + +FRONT, Verb + +See above. To hide; to conceal a principal in open criminal action. See +“STALL.” Example: “Front me out of this joint and don’t lose my left +wing.” + + +FLUZIE, Noun + +Current in the cosmopolitan demi-monde. A woman; a questionable female +character. See “DONY”; “HOOKER.” + + +GAFF, Noun + +In general currency. An offensive action, thing or condition, of vague, +complex or undetermined meaning. It is variously employed or construed +to mean defeat, punishment, failure, or the instruments of these. +Example: “There’ll be no hop-heads joining out with this mob, for they +can’t stand the gaff.” + + +GANDER, Noun + +General currency. An inquisitorial glance; a searching look; an +impertinent gazing or staring. Also the simple act of looking or +seeing. See “RUBBER[7]”; “EYE FULL.” Example: “Take a gander at this dump +as we pass, and don’t get the eye of the guinea inside.” + +[7] There is no entry for “RUBBER” in the text. + + +GAP, Noun + +Supra idem. General currency. Used also as a verb. + + +GASH, Noun + +General currency. An invidious term for woman; synonymous with flap, +which see. + + +GAT, Noun + +General usage. A gun; a pistol; a firearm. See “ROD”; “ROSCOE.” Derived +from “Gatling.” + + +GAZABO, Noun + +In general use, but originating in the East. A man; any man without +regard to qualities. + + +GAZUNY, Noun + +Supra idem. Current in ultra slangy circles. A man. + + +GEEZER, Noun + +General circulation. A drink of liquor; a man (contemptuously). + + +GINK, Noun + +General currency. Synonymous with “gazabo,” “gazuny,” “gink[8].” + +[8] “Gink” cannot be a synonym for itself. The author probably intended +“geezer.” + + +GLIM, Noun + +General usage. A light; a lamp; a match. Also used as a verb, +signifying illuminated. Example: “Go and take a pike (peek) at the dump +and see if it’s glimmed.” + + +GLIMS, Noun + +General currency. A pair of spectacles or nose glasses. See +“SCENERIES”; “RINGERS.” + + +GLOM, Verb + +General currency. To grab; to snatch; to take; implying violence. +Example: “Glom this short and drop off two blocks below.” + + +GOBBLED, Verb, Past Part. + +General currency. Arrested. See “NAILED.” + + +GONGER, Noun + +Current amongst opium smokers and drug fiends. An opium pipe. Also used +in the diminutive form of “GONGERINE.” + + +GONIF, Noun + +General currency. A thief of any class; a pickpocket. The term is taken +intact from the Hebrew and is used mostly by pickpockets. See “GUN”; +“CANNON”; “BUZZARD.” Also a verb, to rob. + + +GOOSEBERRY, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs, hobos and meanderers. A clothesline; laundry +hung up to dry. Example: “He prowled a gooseberry for a skin.” + + +GOPHER, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs chiefly. A safe; a strong box. See “PETE.” + + +GRAB, Verb + +General currency. Passively it signifies arrested; actively it +signifies the imperfect past action of arresting or seizing. Example: +“Steer clear of the tip: It’s made and you are liable to get grabbed.” +See “GLOMMED”; “SNEEZED.” + + +GRIFT, Noun + +General usage. Graft; an opportunity for plying criminal talents. +Example: “How’s grift on the shorts in the winter? Crow. Too many togs.” + + +GROUCH BAG, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs and western thieves. A place, as a pocket or +receptacle, for concealing money or valuables; a reserve fund held in +secret to the exclusion of fraternists. Example: “He’s under cover with +a grouch bag.” + + +GUFF, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs, sailors, and old-timers. Palaver; conversation; +a contumelious synonym for egotism. See “BREEZE.” + + +GUINEA, Noun + +General usage. In the sense of a man it is synonymous with “gazabo,” +“gink,” “mark”; it also means an Italian, as well as Europeans +generally. + + +GUMP, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs, hobos and peripatetics generally. A chicken; a +fowl. Examples: “We’re going down in the jungles and have a gump stew.” + + +GUM SHOE, Noun + +General currency. A detective; a silent trailer. See “PUSSY FOOT.” + + +GUN, Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets chiefly, though enjoying familiar usage in +general circles. A pickpocket. See “CANNON”; “GONIF.” + + +GUN, Verb + +General usage. To watch; to scrutinize. See “GANDER”; “GAP.” Used both +as verb and noun to express action or thing. Examples: “Nix! There’s a +dick on the corner gunning us.” “He’s giving us a gun.” + + +GUN MAN, Noun + +General currency. A gun fighter. + + +GUNNELS, Noun + +Used by all classes of criminals who beat their way on trains. The +curved trusses extending from end to end underneath both freight and +passenger cars. Example: “The only way you can ride this rattler +tonight is to make the gunnels or the rods.” + + +GUNSHEL, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs chiefly, A boy; a youth; a neophyte of trampdom. +Example: “The tribe’s got a gunshel pivoting on the stem with a bug,” +i. e., “The gang of tramps have sent a boy up on the main street to beg +under pretense of having a wounded or disabled arm or limb.” The term +“bug” is derived from railroad parlance, denoting a signal attached +to the front of the engine as an indication of the train’s nature, +attracting attention. + + +GUTS, Noun + +General currency. Nerve; “sand”; ability to withstand the most +powerful emotions. A metaphor derived from the common experience of +depressing sensation concomitant with an inrush of the violent emotions +of fear, horror or other moral obstructions. To have “guts” is to +be unencumbered with conscientious scruples relative to the object +contemplated. Amongst yeggs and others familiar with clandestine +railroading the “guts” signifies the various constructive parts +underneath a car, or the hidden essentials of rolling stock. Example: +“We’ll ride the guts tonight over this division,” i. e., the gunnels, +rods, brake-beams, trucks. + + +GUY, Noun + +Eastern currency mainly. A man. “TO GUY” is to ridicule. + + +GYP, Noun + +Current in polite circles. The act of short-changing; a duplicity; +a defrauding by substitution; an action that belies a professed +sincerity. Example: “Look out for this guy, he’s a clever agent to slip +you a gyp.” Derived from the popular experience with thieving Gypsies. + + +GYP, Verb + +Some general currency, but especially significant amongst short +changers. To flim-flam; to cheat by means of guile and manual +dexterity. See “HYPE”; “FLOP”; “LAYING.” Example: “Gyp this boob with a +deuce.” Also used by “flat-joint” grafters, comprehending the general +meaning of face-to-face criminal transactions. + + +HABIT, Noun + +Current amongst dope fiends. Necessity for opiates; a craving; the +condition produced by habitual indulgence in drugs. See “YEN YEN.” +Example: “I must drop into the hotel donegan (lavatory) and fire (take +a hypodermic injection), for I feel my habit coming on.” + + +HACK, Noun + +Current amongst yeggmen and prowlers, in general. A night watchman; a +night policeman or marshal. Most usually it signifies the watchman of +a building. Used as a verb in the past participle it describes the +accomplished function of a night watchman. Example: “The joint’s hacked +but not kipped,” i. e., watched but not occupied by a sleeper. + + +HAM, Verb + +General usage. To walk. Example: “If we get a tumble, it’s a case of +ham.” + + +HANDLES, Noun + +Limited usage, chiefly by criminals who understand more or less about +physiognomical description and disguises. Side-whiskers; “mutton chops.” + + +HANKY PANK, Noun + +Current in polite slangy circles. Insincere or trifling small talk; +flattery; garrulousness. See “BREEZE”; “BULL.” + + +HARDWARE, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst merchandise thieves. Weapons; knives; razors; +tools and paraphernalia used by safecrackers and forcible entry +prowlers. Used by holdup men to signify a weapon. Example: “Fan him for +hardware.” + + +HARNESS, Noun + +General currency. A uniform; a shoplifter’s equipment for concealing +merchandise. A “harness bull” is the commonest form of the term’s +use, signifying a uniformed policeman in contradistinction to a plain +clothes officer or detective. + + +HARP, Noun + +General currency. An Irishman; used principally to designate the raw +type. + + +HARPOON, Noun + +General currency. A metaphor for lampoon; used as a verb it signifies +to “give a person the worst of it.” See “GAFF.” + + +HATCH, Noun + +General usage. A calaboose; a prison; police station; a jail. Derived +from the nautical term “booby-hatch.” See “CAN”; “WICKY.” Example: “The +only way he can be sprung is to crush the hatch.” + + +HEAVY WEIGHT, Noun + +Current amongst long-odds crooks. A desperate thief; a husky capable +of delivering a dangerous attack in the event of personal encounter; a +yegg; a burglar; a “stick-up man.” + + +HEEL, Noun + +General currency. An incompetent; an undesirable; an inefficient or +pusillanimous pretender to sterling criminal qualifications. See +“FINK”; “DEAD ONE”; “CRAB”; “LOB.” Used also in the sense of “sneak” as +noun and verb, to stalk. + + +HEP, Noun + +General circulation. Sapiency; understanding; “next”; “on.” Derived +from the name of a fabulous detective who operated in Cincinnati, the +legend has it, who knew so much about criminality and criminals that +his patronymic became a byword for the last thing in wisdom of illicit +possibilities. Example: “Chop the skirmish; he’s hep.” + + +HICKS, Noun + +Current amongst “sure-thing” grafters. The walnut husks used in the +three shell and pea game. Example: “This proposition is as sure as fate +and as strong as the hicks.” + + +HIP, Noun + +General currency. A burden; an attachment; a responsibility; an +incubus. Examples: “I can’t see you tonight; I’ve got a Jane on my +hip.” “What’s the use of taking more on your hip?” Also used to denote +being shadowed or followed. Example: “Don’t round, we’ve got somebody +on our hip.” Always used colloquially. Also current amongst opium +smokers, designating the act of lying on the side to smoke the “pipe.” + + +HIRAM, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst yeggmen. A metaphor taken from masonry to +signify initiation into the secrets of the yegg profession. A synonym +for yegg, adopted when the latter term acquired too much notoriety. +Example: “By way of the Hiram!” An exclamatory challenge or password +used for a “feeler” to probe the state of mind of the encountered one. + + +HOBO, Noun + +General usage. A tramp, not necessarily of criminal tendencies. + + +HOIST, Noun + +Current amongst shoplifters mainly. The profession of shoplifting. See +“BOOSTER”; “DERRICK.” Example: “What’s his grift? He’s on the hoist.” + + +HOOKS, Noun + +Current amongst shoplifters. A set of steel hooks shaped like the +letter “U,” fastened through the cloth of a heavy “boosting ben” under +the armpits; concealed from the outside view by a pad of cloth similar +in pattern to the cloth of the coat and having the inner arm of the +hook filed to a needle-like sharpness; upon the hook merchandise may +be hung, or slung around the operator’s back and suspended from both +hooks. When not in use the hooks’ sharp points are sheathed in cork +to prevent injury to the person. They are instantaneously detachable +and may be “sloughed” by an expert without detection. “Hooks” also +signifies the worst of a bargain. “HOOK” means a thief; “HOOKY” is +larcenous. + + +HOOKER, Noun + +General currency. A prostitute. See “DONY”; “FLUZIE.” + + +HOLLER, Noun + +General currency. A protest; a vehement refutation. See “BELCH”; +“WOLF”; “SQUAWK.” Example: “Did the sucker make a holler? Sure he +rumbled the touch before we blowed the joint and made a roar.” + + +HOMBRE, Noun + +Western usage. A man. From the Spanish for man. + + +HOPSCOTCH, Verb + +General usage. To jump or travel about from place to place. + + +HOOP, Noun + +General currency, though used most frequently by “short-odds” grafters +who practice merchandising by unlicensed solicitation. A finger +ring. A “phony hoop” is a gold-plated ring. Grafters of mediocre +intellectuality seek protection from apprehension for vagrancy by +carrying a stock of “hoops,” “glims” and “supers,” or “blocks” +(watches). Not to be confounded with the jovial exclamation, “Whoops! +my dear,” of fairies and theatrical characters. + + +HOP MERCHANT, Noun + +Current amongst drug habitues. A dispenser of opium and opiates. +Usually applied to drug peddlers who have no established headquarters, +but are itinerant. + + +HUCKS, Noun + +Current amongst “sure-thing” grafters. The walnut shells used in the +three shell game. See “HICKS”; “NUTS.” Example: “We’ll make the ball +game on Sunday and play the hucks.” + + +HUMP, Noun + +Current amongst prison habitues. The middle of a term; the half-way +point in a prison sentence. Example: “How long have you got yet on your +bit? I’m just over the hump.” + + +HUNCH, Noun + +General usage. An inspiration; an intuition; an “office.” + + +HUNDRED PER CENT, Noun + +Used by sure-thing admen, by confidence grafters who maintain the +plausible appearance of giving value for moneys received, but who in +reality give nothing. Fake advertising is the principal hundred per +cent graft. + + +HUNKIE, Noun + +Current in localities where North European laborers abound. A +corruption of Hungarian, but employed to signify a Continental European +who is unwashed and unnaturalized. + + +HUSTLER, Noun + +General currency. A grafter; a pimp who steals betimes. The genteel +thief is designated a “hustler.” + + +HYPER, Noun + +Current amongst money-changers. A flim-flammer; a layer of currency, +that is, one who makes a purchase and tenders a bank note and after +receiving proper change pretends to discover the exact amount of +change required to pay for the goods purchased and thereupon declares +his preference for the bank note rather than for the change. In the +exchange he strives to confuse the obliging changemaker for the +purpose of obtaining an excess of his proper due. Or, the “hyper” +requests a bank note for subsidiary coin and upon being accommodated +ostentatiously seals the bank note in an addressed envelope. The +merchant discovers that the subsidiary coin is less than the stated +amount and demands his bank note, whereupon a substitute envelope +is tendered by the “hyper” with a request that he hold it until the +“hyper” returns to his home and secures the additional small change. +There are other systems of the “hyper” in vogue, but the principle is +the same in all. + + +IN DUTCH, Adverb + +General usage. Mistaken; in trouble. See “JACKPOT.” + + +JAB, Noun + +Current amongst morphine and cocaine fiends. A hypodermic injection. + + +JACKPOT, Noun + +General currency. A dilemma; a difficult strait; a retribution; +trouble; an arrest. See “JINX”; “IN DUTCH.” Example: “Where’s Joe? He +pulled a raw-jaw stunt and made a jackpot.” + + +JAKE, Noun + +General currency amongst cosmopolitan crooks. The state of knowing; +familiarity with a secret or a scheme or meaning. See “HEP”; “JOE.” +Example: “You’re making a boob out of yourself; he’s Jake to the whole +works.” As an adjective “jake” means good; satisfactory; acceptable; +all-right. + + +JAMB, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst yeggs and prowlers. The state of being closed, +as a store or house; locked up; inaccessible. See “Sloughed,” not in +the sense of “sluffed” as the same word is sometimes used, though with +the latter pronunciation while retaining the former spelling. Example: +“The front’s in the jamb; try the rear.” Also used to signify trouble +in the sense of “JACK POT.” + + +JANE, Noun + +General currency. A woman, though not in any opprobrious sense; the +sexual complement of the term “JOHN,” a man. + + +JERVE, Noun + +Current amongst pickpockets. A vest pocket; the “tool”; the “wire”; the +“claw” in a gun mob. Examples: “Go after the left jerve for a bundle of +scratch.” “The jerve was nailed bang to rights coming through the tip.” + + +JESSIE, Noun + +General currency. A bluff; a threat. Example: “He rang in a jessie and +got away with it.” + + +JIG, Noun + +General currency. An affair; a misfortune; a mistake. Example: “He used +bad judgment and got into a jig.” + + +JIGGER, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs and tramps. A fake wound, burn, scald, or other +crippled condition. See “BUG”; “P. P.” Example: “They’re all jigger +bums.” + + +JIGGER, Verb + +Supra idem. An exclamation of warning; an injunction to cease; to mar; +to spoil; to deface or derange. Examples: “Jigger! The bull’s coming.” +“You’ve jiggered the lock.” + + +JIM, Noun + +General currency. A cheap, inferior or worthless thing. Contraction of +“JIM CROW.” See “CROW.” + + +JIM, Verb + +General currency. A synonym for “JIGGER.” Example: “Lay off! You’ll jim +the whole works.” + + +JIMMY, Noun + +Used mainly by yeggs and prowlers. A burglar’s tool. A short, powerful +chisel or lever used by thieves for prying doors and windows open. + + +JIMMY, Verb + +Supra idem. To pry or wrench loose with any instrument. + + +JINKS, JINX, Noun + +General usage. In difficult straits. See “IN DUTCH.” + + +JITNEY, Noun + +General currency. A nickel; a dime; a small coin; a picayune. Used +variously to signify an extremity in finance. Example: “Break away; he +hasn’t got a jitney.” + + +JOE, Noun + +General currency in polite criminal circles. Wise; sophisticated. See +“Hep,” of which “JOE” and “JAKE” are subdivisions or contractions or +substitutions. + + +JOHN, Noun + +General currency amongst the demi-monde. A “captain”; a “sucker”; an +amorous fool with money and free love proclivities. Also a man in a +contemptuous sense. Examples: “She’s got a John keeping her.” “Ask this +John what time the train starts.” + + +JOHN HANCOCK, Noun + +Current amongst confidence men and paper grafters generally. A +signature. Derived from the common observation that John Hancock, +of Revolutionary fame, wrote a massive, extremely legible hand. See +“FINGER PRINT.” + + +JOINT, Noun + +General currency. A business establishment; a hangout. Sometimes used +as a synonym of “DUMP,” though it does not necessarily imply meanness +or disrepute. Example: “Let’s drop in this joint and buy a suit of +clothes.” + + +JOLT, Noun + +General usage. A prison sentence; a penalization; a blow; a physical or +moral jar. Example: “He did a jolt once before in Joliet.” + + +JOHN O’BRIEN, Noun + +Current generally. A freight train, used in contradistinction to a +“RATTLER,” a passenger train. Example: “You can see by his clothes +that he has been riding John O’s.” Amongst “yeggs” it signifies also a +moneyless safe. + + +JUG, Noun + +General currency. A prison; a bank; a secret receptacle for money or +compact valuables. Example: “Tail this mark to the jug and case what he +draws,” i. e., “observe what money he draws.” + + +JUNGLE, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs. A loafing place or hang out beyond a city’s +limits, whether in the woods or not. An isolated or little frequented +spot. + + +JUNK, Noun + +General currency. Inferior goods; any property of relative +worthlessness. Example: “Everything in his keister is junk.” + + +KALE, Noun + +General currency. Bank notes; money of any kind. Evolved from the term +“GREEN GOODS,” the latter metaphor for money being derived from the +greenish aspect of currency. Example: “He’s got a bundle of kale that +would choke a cow.” + + +KEISTER, Noun + +General currency. A satchel; a handbag; a small grip. Example: “What’s +his grift? He prowls the depots for keisters.” + + +KICK, Noun + +Some general currency, but employed most effectively by pickpockets. +In common usage it signifies a pocket, any pocket; amongst “guns” it +is used exclusively to signify a front pants pocket. Also a protest, a +“squawk.” + + +KINK, Noun + +General circulation. A crook; a larcenous criminal. See “HOOK”; +“HUSTLER.” Example: “Are there any kinks in the joint?” Also used by +yeggs to designate a non-criminal tramp, or one who is not initiated +into the particular craft of the speaker. In this latter sense the +term is derived from the epithet “gay-cat,” meaning a “working plug.” +Example: “Cut him out; he’s got forty-seven kinks in his tail.” + + +KIP, Noun + +General usage. A bed; a place to sleep. See “PAD”; “DOSS”; “FLOP.” Used +also as a verb, to sleep, to go to bed, etc. + + +KISSER, Noun + +General circulation. The countenance. See “MOOSH”; “MUG[9].” Example: +“You’ll recognize him by his hatchet kisser.” + +[9] There is no entry for “MUG” in the text. + + +KITTY HOP, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst gamblers. A heads-I-win-tails-you-lose +situation or proposition; a “double-cross”; a “frame-up,” in which +“both ends may be played against the middle.” Also used to indicate a +practical joke. Example: “We got the skirt to frame a kitty hop for him +and he fell for it.” + + +LACE, Verb + +General currency. To slam; to punch; to beat unmercifully. Example: +“The three dicks laced him like a football and then squared it by +throwing an order of ham and eggs under his belt.” + + +LAG, Noun + +Current amongst statutory criminals. A prison sentence of one year; +sometimes used to signify an indefinite term of years in prison. The +“STRETCH” better expresses the latter sentence of penal servitude. +Example: “He’s doing a lag in the little can.” Also used as a verb as +the equivalent of “RAILROADING” a criminal to prison. + + +LAM, Noun + +General currency. A hasty get-away; a running escape. Example: “He +heeled to the door and made a lam.” + + +LAM, Verb + +General usage. To run; to flee. Most frequently employed in the +imperative mood. + + +LAMISTER, Noun + +Supra idem. A corruption of “LAM.” Also a fugitive from justice. +Example: “He’s a lamister out of Chicago.” + + +LAMOS, Adjective + +General currency. Gold-plated; flimsy; unsubstantial. Derived from +the name of a firm of Chicago jewelers who supplied the cheap jewelry +trade with “PHONIES,” or fake jewelry. Example: “You can’t hock it for +two-bits; it’s lamos.” Also used to signify inferior personal qualities. + + +LAYING OUT, Verb, Present Part. + +Current amongst prowlers and sneak thieves. To watch from ambush; to +spy upon a person or establishment. Example: “To get this dump right +we’ll have to lay out on it every night for a week and make the doings.” + + +LAYING (NOTES), Verb, Present Part. + +Current amongst flim-flammers. To make fraudulent change; to cheat by +the ruse of substitution. The latter craft is denominated “LAYING THE +ENVELOPE.” + + +LEATHER, Noun + +Some general currency, but used chiefly by pickpockets. A pocketbook; a +wallet; a billbook. See “POKE.” Example: “He has an inside leather.” + + +LEARY, Adjective + +General usage. Afraid; anxious; anticipatory. + + +LEMON, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst bunco men. A confidence game in which skill at +pool is the bait, though its successful negotiation is based upon the +dishonesty or avarice of the victim. See “WIRE”; “SPUD.” A lemon joint +is a crooked pool and billiard room. Lately evolved to comprehend the +general meaning of a disappointment, a commercial illusion. In this +regard “lemon” is used In the deprecating sense conveyed by the term +“gold mine.” Example: “Lemons are selling in the open market for thirty +cents a dozen, but this one cost me a hundred iron men.” + + +LIVE ONE, Noun + +General currency. An informed individual; a prospectively profitable +victim; an ambitious or keenly alert person. Example: “If we put this +live one through the sprouts we throw our feet under the mahogany at +the big top all the rest of the winter.” + + +LOB, Noun + +General currency amongst better informed crooks. An awkward craftsman; +a delinquent; an opprobrious character amongst thieves. Contracted +from “LOBSTER,” which in turn is a metaphor derived by suggestion from +“CRAB,” the latter symbolizing backward action or the propensity for +reluctant participation. “LOBBY GOW” is another form of the same term, +used principally by confidence and “flat-joint” grafters to signify a +minor confederate, or “booster.” + + +LOADING, Verb, Present Part. + +Current amongst pickpockets. The act of following, escorting or +forcibly jamming passengers aboard a street or passenger car or up any +flight of steps, as the entrance to an elevated railroad station; the +purpose of “LOADING” is to take advantage of unsuspecting eagerness +on the part of passengers so that violent extraction of valuables from +pockets shall scarcely be heeded. Example: “We were loading ’em on for +two hours steady in the Sunday excursion pushes.” + + +LOCO, Adverb + +Current chiefly in western circles, though not used exclusively by +criminals. Slightly erratic in mental processes. The Spanish value of +the term is “crazy,” but by American criminal adoption it has been +modified to comprehend just less than that. See “NUTS.” + + +LOSER, Noun + +Current amongst prison habitues. An ex-convict. See “Con.” Examples: +“Three time losers cop life in some states.” + + +LUMP, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst yeggs, hobos and the indigent. A donation of +victuals intended for consumption outside the house. But alas! lumps +are sometimes impaled on the fence pickets by fastidious beggars who +become offended at the failure of well meaning but non-intuitive +philanthropists to invite them in to eat at the table. This latter +operation is gratefully termed a “sit-down.” + + +MAC, Noun + +General currency. A pimp; a lover of a lewd woman. A man who lives upon +the earnings of a prostitute. Derived from the French term “Macquereau.” + + +MAIN STEM, Noun + +General currency. The main thoroughfare of a community. See “DRAG.” + + +MAKE, Verb + +General currency. To recognize; to discern; to solve; to acquire in +an intellectual sense. See “RAP.” Example: “You had better ring up +(disguise) so he won’t make you.” + + +MARK, Noun + +General circulation. A man; a prospective victim. + + +MATCH, Noun + +Current amongst confidence men. A bunco game similar in nature to +the “LEMON,” but in which coins are matched; the fraud consisting in +treachery on the part of the confidence man who steers the victim with +the professed intention of betraying his de facto confederate. + + +MEAL TICKET, Noun + +General currency. A female of the open market who supports a lover; any +gratuitous source of subsistence. Example: “The stiff won’t put up his +back so long as he’s got a meal ticket.” + + +MEIG, Noun + +General currency amongst cosmopolitans. A nickel; a five-cent piece. +See “JITNEY.” Sometimes used to indicate the minimum basis of exchange +medium, the cent, as a hundred meigs, fifty meigs, etc. Example: +“What’s the tax for the scoffin’s? Twenty-five meigs.” + + +MELT, Noun + +Current amongst loothunters, but pennyweighters and other jewelry +thieves particularly. Precious metals that may be melted in a crucible +to make identity difficult or impossible. See “BREAK UP.” Example: “The +swag netted a melt of a thousand dollars.” + + +M’GIMP, MEGIMP, Noun + +Current in western circles. A pimp; a lover in the vicious meaning. See +“MAC.” + + +MICHAEL, Noun + +Current amongst bottle drinkers. A flask of liquor. Example: “Have you +got a michael on your hip?” + + +MICHIGAN, Noun + +General currency. A spectacular ruse; a deceptive appearance, as a fake +bank roll; a hoax staged with sinister intent. Example: “They started a +michigan scrap and trimmed the sucker in the mix-up.” + + +MICKY, Noun + +Current amongst bottle drinkers. A corruption of “MICHAEL.” + + +MILL, Verb + +General currency, but of western origin. To amble around aimlessly; to +exercise by walking. Example: “We milled around town all day without +turning a trick.” + + +MITT, Noun + +Current chiefly amongst gamblers when the sense is a hand of cards. +The “MITT” is a confidence game of the same nature as the “LEMON” or +the “MATCH,” involving a double cross. Also a card hand in any square +game. In general currency it means both the human hand and any scheme, +system or personal character. See “DUKE.” Amongst prison habitues the +“MITTS” signify handcuffs. Example: “If he spiels long enough he’ll +tip his mitt.” “They framed a strong mitt for him and beat him for +half a century.” A “MITT JOINT” is a gambling house where victims are +“steered” for fleecing by means of deceptively “sure thing” hands. + + +MOB, Noun + +General currency. Two or more confederates joined together for +nefarious practices. Used most frequently to designate a gang of +pickpockets, a “GUN MOB.” + + +MOCHA, Noun + +Current amongst shoplifters. Cloth; a suit pattern. Example: “I know a +derrick who’ll peddle a mocha for a finif.” + + +MOLL, Noun + +General currency. A woman, regardless of character. See “JANE.” + + +MONACRE, MONACKER, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs and registering itinerants. A nickname; a +professional cognomen. A corruption of the term “monogram,” devised to +meet the contingencies arising out of the oft requested information: +“What’s your handle?” Example: “You’ll have to look in the cook book to +find a fancy monacker, for all the ready ones are appropriated, judging +by the register on this tank.” + + +MONKEY, Noun + +General currency. A man, used in the mildly indifferent sense of a +stranger. See “GEEZER,” “GAZABO,” etc. Sometimes used to signify a +“BOOB.” + + +MOOCH, Noun + +Current amongst beggars. A mendicant; an alms solicitor. + + +MOOCH, Verb + +General currency. To stroll; to move about. See “MILL.” Example: “Mooch +around the block and come back in ten minutes.” Also, to beg. + + +MOOSH, MOUSH, Noun + +General circulation. The human face; the physiog. See “KISSER.” Also +the mouth. Probably from French bouche (mouth). Probably derived from +the French “mouchoir,” a handkerchief, suggested by its utilization as +a face mop. Example: “He’s got a harp moosh,” i. e., Irish. + + +M, or MORPH, Noun + +Used by morphine fiends. Sulphate of morphia. + + +MOPE, Verb + +General currency. To walk away; to remove one’s presence to another +locality or spot. See “BLOW,” “MOOCH,” “DUCK.” + + +MOUSER, Noun + +Current in cosmopolitan circles. A “fairy;” a character obsessed by +lewd passions. + + +MOUTHPIECE, Noun + +General currency. A lawyer; an advocate; a spokesman; a representative. +Example: “The fall dough is to be used exclusively for a mouthpiece and +nothing else.” + + +MUD FENCE, Noun + +Current amongst yeggs, safecrackers. A soap lip, a trench of soap or +other plastic substance constructed to hold nitroglycerin in funnel +formation until it seeps through a joint in a safe. + + +MUSH, Noun + +General usage. An umbrella. Example: “When you can’t do anything else +you can heel the hotels and depots for mushes and turkeys.” + + +NAILED, Verb, Past Part. + +General currency. Apprehended. See “GRABBED,” “GLOMMED.” + + +NECKING, Noun + +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. + +Avoid crowds if you carry money on your person and do not be too +eager in the press when boarding or alighting from street cars, when +leaving a theatre or other public gathering, or when seeking a vantage +point at a fire or other unusual spectacle. For it is in these places +that they do it. It may be your house rent, or your entire savings, +or your employer’s or your friend’s money that you are carrying, but +if you must carry money don’t exhibit it nor get in a jamb. If you +observe these suggestions the only opportunity the pickpocket will +find to relieve you of valuables will be when you are intoxicated or +hypnotized. Women who carry money in a hand purse or bag on the street, +especially at night or in crowded places, run an even greater risk +of loss than do men, for there are ten amateur pickpockets, maybe a +score, to every one who by practice has acquired the skill necessary to +extract valuables from the person, and the amateurs operate on women +chiefly, finding little difficulty in opening a hand bag and extracting +a purse therefrom in a jamb. The fairs and carnivals on the Pacific +Coast in 1915 will call many of these gentry from the East. + +Greater familiarity with the ways of criminals could be acquired if +the department of public safety were provided with the means for +organizing and maintaining a publicity bureau whose operatives should +be charged with the duties of developing measures for preventing crime +by circulating all the information available upon the subject. Against +this proposal will be offered the objection that too many are already +familiar with criminal methods. On the contrary, though, the fact of +the matter is that too few are prepared by foreknowledge of the proper +means for defeating the propagation of criminal actions. + +The present system maintained by each community leans more toward +a cleansing of the locality of criminals by “floating” them off to +another locality than it does toward either prevention or permanent +suppression of criminals. These delinquent ones are as much the +nation’s wards as are the hundred-odd thousand dependent Indians or +the insane. While a great step in advance of old customs has been +taken by the adoption of the indeterminate sentence law, so long as +the individual who has repeatedly demonstrated his propensities for +moral obliquity is merely restrained and not improved both physically +and intellectually just that long will he continue to be a thorn in +the side of law-abiding society. And he will not be improved until you +demand that he shall. When a man’s principles and actions square with +each other you are impotent to convince him of his wrongness and your +rightness; and if punishment, the punishment of confinement, cannot +awaken a higher feeling of responsibility in the convict how can you +hope to eradicate his evil by hiding it from your sight, by consigning +him to a living limbo? This accusation against society’s present +methods could not be made without fear of refutation if it could be +shown that the ratio of criminals to population has diminished in the +past fifty years. But it has increased rather than diminished, which +points out the fact that there is a palpable flaw in the system of +apprehending, convicting and imprisoning criminals at such tremendous +expense. A sincerer effort must be made to lift up the delinquent if +lasting good is to come from our peace measures within the house. + + + + + MODERN PRINTING CO. + PORTLAND, OREGON + + + + +Transcriber’s Note + + +Some words are clearly typos, and those appear in the list of +corrections below. But some words are clearly malapropisms or even +unique constructions, , which have been left as in the original. + +All footnotes are the transcriber’s explanations for odd usage or +missing cross-referenced items. + +Missing punctuation, such as missing opening or closing quotes, has +been silently corrected. + + +Font representation + + • Italic text represented by _underlines_ + • Small caps converted to ALL CAPS + + +Corrections + + • p. 9: typo _stimullation_ corrected to _stimulation_ + • p. 11: change _over-head_ to _overhead_ to make usage consistent + • p. 15: change _PUTEMUP_ to _PUT-EM-UP_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 15: change _SMOKEWAGON_ to _SMOKE WAGON_ to match the + cross-referenced entry + • p. 18: typo _unitiated_ corrected to _uninitiated_ + • p. 18: typo _complimentary_ corrected to _complementary_ + • p. 21: added _BUMP OFF_ to match a cross reference + • p. 26: change _saw-buck_ to _sawbuck_ to make usage consistent + • p. 26: change _jack-pot_ to _jackpot_ to make usage consistent + • p. 27: typo _physyician_ corrected to _physician_ + • p. 27: typo _BRAKES_ corrected to _BREAKS_ (changed the title to + match the usage of the example text) + • p. 34: changed _TWIST_ to _TWISTED_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 37: changed _RINGERS_ to _RINGER_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 38: typo _SNEEZEZD_ corrected to _SNEEZED_ + • p. 41: typo _construtcive_ corrected to _constructive_ + • p. 41: changed _YEN-YEN_ to _YEN YEN_ for consistency + • p. 44: changed _BOOST_ to _BOOSTER_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 45: changed _FLUZY_ to _FLUZIE_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 47 and 48: changed _JACK POT_ to _JACKPOT_ to match the + cross-referenced entry + • p. 52: changed _HOOK_ to _HOOKS_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 57: typo _gratituous_ corrected to _gratuitous_ + • p. 61: typo _throuh_ corrected to _through_ + • p. 74: changed _RINGERS_ to _RINGER_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 75: changed _RAPPED_ to _RAP_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 76: changed _ear-ring_ to _earring_ to make usage consistent + • p. 81: typo _snonym_ corrected to _synonym_ + • p. 81: changed _NECK_ to _NECKING_ to match the cross-referenced + entry + • p. 85: changed _noncriminal_ to _non-criminal_ to make usage + consistent + • p. 86: changed _pocket-book_ to _pocketbook_ to make usage + consistent + • p. 86: typo _Se_ corrected to _She_ + • p. 95: typo _Pizzaro_ corrected to _Pizarro_ + • p. 100: typo _secruity_ corrected to _security_ + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76632 *** diff --git a/76632-h/76632-h.htm b/76632-h/76632-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f98d54a --- /dev/null +++ b/76632-h/76632-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4444 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + A vocabulary of criminal slang | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-family: serif; +} + +h1, h2 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h3 { + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; +} + +div.chapter, div.front {page-break-before: always;} +div.cover {page-break-after: always; } +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +p { + margin: 0; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 2.5em; +} + +.noindent { text-indent: 0; } + +.mt-half { margin-top: .5em; } +.mt1 { margin-top: 1em; } +.mt2 { margin-top: 2em; } +.fs200 { font-size: 2.0em; } +.fs150 { font-size: 1.5em; } +.fs120 { font-size: 1.2em; } +.fs80 { font-size: 0.8em; } + + +ins {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin dotted red;} +del {display: none; visibility: hidden; } +a:link { text-decoration: none; } + + +dt { + font-weight: bold; + margin-top: 1.5em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 85%; margin-left: 7.5%; margin-right: 7.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.center { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps;} +.bold { font-weight: bold; } + +.blackletter { + font-family: Old English Text MT, Lucida Blackletter, Amador, + Carol Gothic, SchwartzKopf, Blonde Fraktur, Avebury, + serif; +} + +/* Images */ + +img { + height: auto; +} + +img.w100 {max-width: 100%;} +img.h48 {max-height: 48em;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +dd { + margin-left: 2.5em; +} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnote { + margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 2.5em; + font-size: 0.9em; + margin-top: .5em; + background-color: #E6E6FA; + padding-left: 1em; + padding-right: 1em; +} + +.footnote .label { + padding-right: .25em; +} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +/* Signature block */ +.signature-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.signature-container {text-align: center; padding-left: 60%;} +.signature {text-align: center; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.signature .sig-block {margin: 1em auto;} +.signature .sig-line {} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote { + background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size: small; + padding: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; + font-family: sans-serif, serif; + padding: 1em; +} + +/* ebookmaker */ +.x-ebookmaker body { margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; } +.x-ebookmaker .pagenum { visibility: hidden; display: none; } +.x-ebookmaker div.chapter { margin-top: 8em; } +.x-ebookmaker div.front { margin-top: 8em; } + + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76632 ***</div> +<div class='cover x-ebookmaker-drop'> +<figure class='figcenter'> +<img class='h48' src='images/cover.jpg' alt='Book cover'> +</figure> +</div> + + +<div class='front'> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + +<h1> +A VOCABULARY OF<br> +<span class='fs120'>CRIMINAL SLANG</span> +</h1> +</div> + + +<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class='front'> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span></p> + +<p class="center">Copyrighted, 1914</p> +<p class='center mt1'>By LOUIS E. JACKSON</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class='front'> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> +<p class="center fs120">A VOCABULARY OF</p> +<p class='center mt-half fs150'>CRIMINAL SLANG</p> +<p class="center mt2 fs80">WITH</p> +<p class="center mt2">SOME EXAMPLES OF</p> +<p class='center'>COMMON USAGES</p> +<p class="center mt2 fs80">BY</p> +<p class="center mt1"><span class="smcap">Louis E. Jackson</span></p> +<p class="center mt2 fs80">Assisted by</p> +<p class="center mt1"><span class="smcap">C. R. Hellyer</span>, <i>City Detective Department</i></p> +<p class="center mt1">PORTLAND, OREGON</p> +<p class="center mt1">Price, $1.50</p> +</div> + +<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='front'> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span></p> +<p class="center">DEDICATED TO</p> +<p class='center fs200 blackletter bold mt-half'>T. M. Word</p> +<p class='center mt1'>Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon</p> +<p class='center mt2'>A Fearless</p> +<p class='center mt-half'>and Intelligent Administrator</p> +<p class='center mt-half'>of a Public Trust.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span></p> + +<h2 id="INTRODUCTION"><i>INTRODUCTION</i></h2> + +<p>It is not with a view to sensationalism that this little work +is undertaken, but with a sense of helpfulness, of social obligation. +It is submitted for the perusal and study of all those +public officers and professional servants whose responsibilities +are such as to bring them into casual or constant contact with +the confirmed criminal classes.</p> + +<p>It may fall into the hands of some unfit subjects and +thereby contribute to the propagation of its contents in undesirable +quarters. On the other hand we may consider that publicity +is the speediest agent for the destruction of cankerous +moral growths. Perhaps the possession of such knowledge as +is here presented argues a sordidness; but Gordian knots can +be untied only by use of the sword; to have cherries in the +winter a can opener must be used, or to stand eggs on end you +must smash them.</p> + +<p>By the very nature of crime its efficient vehicle of transmission +is ephemeral, very ephemeral. The vernacular of +twenty-five years ago is almost oblivion today. So with the +future; provided, of course, that the idiom of the underworld +surrender its meaning to the social layers superimposed upon +it. This process can be made effective by investigation and +publicity. When bench and bar, the press, custodians of law +and order and private agencies devoted to the detection, repression +and correction of crime are made familiar with the +wiles and mode of communication of criminals, the latter are +rendered less powerful insofar as the evolved system of guile +and wrong-doing are concerned.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p> +<p>It is noticeably true that our average law officer or advocate +is necessarily a specialist in one or perhaps a few, at +most, of the many recognized branches of professional crime. +The limitation is occasioned in part by prescribed capacity and +in part by inexperience or unfamiliarity with criminals of all +types and their methods. Efficiency in general correctional +labor may undoubtedly be promoted by a fuller understanding +of the linguistic acquirements of subjects to be dealt with in +every day practice. It is hoped that the publication of this +vocabulary of criminal terms will render material advantages +to the conscientious workers in this large field.</p> + +<p>We are conscious of many errors of omission in the work +and we request the co-operation of all who are interested in its +utility. Only the essential and most pertinent or purely criminal +vernacular usages have been selected from the mystical +parlance of professional violators and their accomplices, for +the reason that popular slang is so extensively comprehended +as to make its publication of doubtful value as a new contribution +to our literature.</p> + +<p>An analysis of the four hundred and thirty terms included +in the vocabulary reveals the interesting fact that criminal +idiom is largely an ingenious combination of epithet suggested +by similitude and a perverted construction of essential and +accidental attributes of things and powers to imply or express +the things and actions themselves. An occult jargon on its +face, yet systematic enough when the key is acquired.</p> + +<p>Some of the terms seem to have been derived by simple +partition of legitimate English words, occasionally with the +addition of euphonious prefix or suffix. As a prime example +of the transposition of an attribute for the thing itself, consider +what is perhaps the most popular slang term in use +today in the unregenerate world—“dope,” at present signifying +“news,” “intelligence,” or “meaning.” Originally this word +was derived from opium by partition, with the disguising +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>consonant “d” prefixed to the accented syllable. Amongst +narcotic habitues the most salient attribute of opium is +<del>stimullation</del><ins id='cor009' title='was: stimullation'>stimulation</ins> +of loquacity, or imaginativeness or of exaggeration. In +process of time any of these powers came to characterize +narcotic intoxication; thence information on any subject was +designated “dope.” The “dope sheet,” a “line of dope,” are +natural offshoots of this tendency to transpose attribute into +a new substantive. To philologists this noteworthy observation +should infallibly point out the utter lack of scientific relation +between an artificial sound—or visual—symbol and the thing, +quality or quantity symbolized thereby.</p> + +<p>Without previous instruction a person gifted with intuition +might divine the signification of the majority of these terms in +vogue by weighing the context of the sentences in which they +are included. Yet a practical working knowledge of them should +be made more available by frequent reference to a complete +list. The sole excuse for criminal slang is the protection +afforded by secrecy, which once destroyed the slang is forced +to die of neglect, though it will naturally be superseded by +evolutionary linguistic devices.</p> + +<p>To fraternize with a secret order we must equip ourselves +with a knowledge of the ceremonies and aims as well as the +selective means of the secret fraternists. To combat criminals +successfully it is necessary to understand their complete vehicles +of intercommunication, else the investigator is unqualified +to fraternize with them so as to gain a fuller insight both into +their actions and the living motives concealed behind them. +Unquestionably, every term in the vocabulary is known to some +officer of the law; unquestionably, too, every term contained +therein is understood by but very few individuals even amongst +criminals themselves. Therefore it would seem a distinct gain +to become familiar with them all.</p> + +<p>Aided by a panoramic view of recorded crime in the last +generation we may roughly divide criminal offenses into the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>four great departments of crimes against self, or reflexive crimes +against personal character, which have their fountain head in +intemperance and gluttony; crimes against sex, which have +their basis in the emotions flowing out of lust; crimes against +property, fed by the sins of avarice or greed; and the crimes of +violence, growing out of anger. Of these four, reflexive crimes +and crimes of violence are distinctively psychological and must +be left to the individual for corrective solution. Crimes against +property and crimes of sexual depravity constitute the bulk of +costly and troublesome cases which choke the machinery of our +legal tribunals and necessitate a regrettable public tax for maintenance +of penal and detentional institutions. The chronic defectives +who most seriously menace the social body are +comprised of prostitutes; gamblers; nondescriptively larcenous +tramps; yeggs; burglars; sneak thieves; confidence men; dishonest +solicitors; promoters and agents; forgers; merchandise +thieves; pickpockets; highway robbers; and their accessories, +the unscrupulous pawnbroker, the unrestrained liquor dealer, and +the drug dispenser. It goes without saying that the volume and +value of business transacted by these latter three attest the +stupendous proportions of the direct losses sustained by the +commonwealth through the misdirected energies of the principal +professional criminal classes.</p> + +<p>From an economical standpoint the traffic of professional +crime is stupendous. We are mulcted some four hundred millions +of dollars annually by reason of the criminal element in +the nation. A conservative estimate of the number of active +professional criminals of high and low degree is probably 100,000. +We have one uniformed police officer for every thousand of +population, and about one auxiliary officer per thousand of +population in addition. Here are 200,000 more persons in the +non-productive class. Criminal lawyers and criminal court functionaries +contribute another ratio of one to the thousand of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>population, making a conservative total of 400,000 engaged in +preying upon and relieving the producers from distress occasioned +by crimes against person and property.</p> + +<p>Admitting that the average income of the 300,000 police +officers, lawyers and court officials is about $1,200 per year, we +have a $360,000,000 <del>over-head</del><ins id='cor011' title='was: over-head'>overhead</ins> cost charged against production. +The loss sustained through the peculations of criminals and the +cost of detaining them is not less than another $88,000,000 per +year, on the estimated basis of $882 per year per criminal. A +grand total of $448,000,000!</p> + +<p>Suppose the average age of the professional criminal to be +30 years. As the average financial investment in an individual +of that age in the U. S. is $12,600, his productive capacity +should be at least six per cent on the investment (if possessed +of industrial training), plus the cost of human upkeep; which +means a total of about $1,170 per year earning capacity for the +average individual. Or at six per cent interest alone on the +personality investment he represents an annual potential addition +of $757 to the national wealth. Add to this the cost to the +state of detaining him, say an average of $125 per year, and we +have $882 per year per prisoner. The actual loss in interest +on criminal personality investments is about $75,000,000 per +100,000 prisoners per year; a waste that is perpetuated by the +present judicial and penal system.</p> + +<p>Now, the average thief cannot steal $1,170 per year, nor +even $757, when account is taken of time lost in prison. The +crux of the situation seems to lie in the criminal’s lack of training +in the useful arts, together with moral delinquency. So far +we have experimented chiefly with two extremes in penology—employment +of convicts for their exploitation by selfish interests +on the one hand, and unemployment or else employment of such +nature as tends to lower the standard of efficiency of the individual +on the other hand. The evolution of labor unions has +suppressed reform that makes for the criminal’s economical +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>independence; and yet the criminal element is recruited mainly +from the fourth estate. To date the history of penology shows +some development of apprehenders and keepers in the practical +side of the work, but at the prime expense of the apprehended. +The producers at large pay the interest on the debt, whilst the +principal is shouldered by the deficient themselves who are +passing it along to the future generations.</p> + +<p>As to the moral aspect of the problem with which the professional +criminal confronts the nation, it must ultimately be +determined by psychology. Intemperance, greed, lust and anger; +these are the radical causes. Economical dependence is the +first outgrowth of these known qualities but unknown quantities.</p> + +<p>How are we going to reduce the overshadowing difficulty? +By ostracism? By sterilization? By simple detaining repression +without corresponding elimination of root causes? As for +ostracism, folly flees a grave danger whilst moral courage +fortified by intelligence faces and overcomes it. Ostracism revives +and perpetuates caste divisions of society. Sterilization +is as wrong in a larger moral view as infanticide in a smaller; +the theory has emanated from higher intellectual, moral and +spiritual darkness. It solves the criminal problem like national +debt solves the economical problem—saddles a moral mortgage +upon posterity. Detention without conferring assimilable moral +uplift and increased economical efficiency is a parallel for the +fabled delusion of the ostrich. Imprisonment as it obtains today +costs much and produces little or nothing save waste. The +maintenance of delinquents in rotting idleness or at labor which +is subsequently unprofitable to the prisoner from the standpoint +of talent and character development is an unbusiness-like as +well as an inhumane make-shift which reacts upon society like +a boomerang.</p> + +<p>But it was not the aim to air views on criminology and +penology in a preface, though it has seemed appropriate that +the intelligence of interested men and women should be appealed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>to, as the widespread use of the following idioms has a +deep significance. If this work achieves no other result than +this it should be regarded as well worth while.</p> + +<div class="signature-container"> +<div class="signature"> +<div class="sig-block"> +<div class='sig-line'>C. R. HELLYER</div> +<div class='sig-line'>City Detective Dept., Portland, Ore.</div> +<div class='sig-line'>and LOUIS E. JACKSON,</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='noindent'>Portland, Oregon, October 3rd, 1914.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Should you find any terms missing from the following vocabulary +which in your opinion should be included in it you will +confer a favor by communicating same to the publisher.</p> + +<div class="signature-container"> +<div class="signature"> +<div class="sig-block"> +<div class='sig-line'>W. H. THORNTON,</div> +<div class='sig-line'>872 Brooklyn St., Portland, Ore.</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='chapter'> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span></p> + + +<h2> +A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang<br> +Alphabetically Arranged<br> +with Practical Examples<br> +of Common Usages +</h2> + +<figure class='figcenter'> +<img class='w100' src='images/i_p015.jpg' alt=''> +</figure> + +<dl> +<dt id='ADMAN'>ADMAN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst literary confidence men. A fake advertising +solicitor. See “<a href='#HUNDRED_PER_CENT'>HUNDRED PER CENT</a>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ANGEL'>ANGEL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A financial backer. Derived from “good +thing.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ARM_MAN'>ARM MAN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst “heavyweights.” A strong arm man; a +holdup; a highway robber. See “<del>PUTEMUP</del><ins id='cor015a' title='was: PUTEMUP'><a href='#PUT-EM-UP'>PUT-EM-UP</a></ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ARTILLERY'>ARTILLERY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general currency. Firearms of any description. See +“<a href='#ROD'>ROD</a>,” “<a href='#ROSCOE'>ROSCOE</a>,” +“<del>SMOKEWAGON</del><ins id='cor015b' title='was: SMOKEWAGON'><a href='#SMOKE_WAGON'>SMOKE WAGON</a></ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='B_A'>B. A., Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst literary confidence men. A book agent +who commonly employs confidence methods for obtaining +subscriptions or orders.</dd> + + +<dt id='BADGE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> +BADGE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst “hustlers” and the demi-monde. A +badger; a blackmailer; an extortioner. See “<a href='#SHAKE_DOWN'>SHAKE DOWN</a>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BALLY_HOO'>BALLY HOO, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst exhibition and “flat-joint” grafters. A +free entertainment used for a decoy to attract customers. +See “<a href='#READER'>READER</a>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BANNER'>BANNER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Used in the colloquialism “carrying the +banner,” meaning to walk the streets all night or otherwise +endure the hardship of loss of sleep.</dd> + + +<dt id='BATCH'>BATCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A number; a quantity; a lot; a great +many.</dd> + + +<dt id='BELCH'>BELCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general usage with all grafters. A protest; a complaint. +See “<a href='#SQUAWK'>SQUAWK</a>,” “<a href='#ROAR'>ROAR</a>,” “<a href='#HOLLER'>HOLLER</a>.” Example: +“When he blowed his dough he put up an awful belch.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BELCH_V'>BELCH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Idem Supra. Example: “He cannot stand the gaff without +belching.” Also used to denote the giving of information. +See “<a href='#COME_THROUGH'>COME THROUGH</a>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BEN'>BEN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. An overcoat; derived from Benjamin, in +reference to the biblical coat of many colors.</dd> + + +<dt id='BENNY'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>BENNY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A sack coat; derived from Benjamin, +some say the biblical character, while others say the +New York manufacturer of men’s garments.</dd> + + +<dt id='BENT'>BENT, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Crooked; larcenous. See “<a href='#TWISTED'>TWISTED.</a>” +Example: “His kisser shows that he’s bent.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BIG_TOP'>BIG TOP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst circus grafters and “open-air men.” The +large tent used by circuses; now evolved to include the +meeting of the maximum exhibit possible in any given +case. Example: “I’m flopping at the big top,” i. e., “I +am rooming at the biggest hotel in town.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BIT'>BIT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A portion; a division; a share or a part +of anything, as profits or proceeds of a transaction. Example: +“You’re supposed to be in on anything that comes +off, so you’re entitled to your bit.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BIT_V'>BIT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage, particularly amongst grafters who operate +on the outside of the law. A prison sentence. Example: +“He did a bit in Joliet.” Also a share. See “<a href='#END'>END</a>.” +Example: “If you don’t take a chance you’re entitled to +no bit.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BLOCK'>BLOCK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A watch. See “SUPER<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>,” “<a href='#TURNIP'>TURNIP.</a>” +Example: “The wire rung six blocks in the breaks,” i. e., +“The tool (pickpocket) detached six watches from their +rings in the crowded exit.” As a noun it has another +meaning, i. e., a head. See “<a href='#NOODLE'>NOODLE.</a>” Example: “He +got his block sapped,” i. e., struck. + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> There is no entry for “SUPER” in the text.</div> +</dd> + +<dt id='BLOOMER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>BLOOMER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current with genteel grafters. An error; a failure. Example: +“We framed wrong and scored a bloomer.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BLOW'>BLOW, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To cease; to get away; to lose; to miss +something absent. Examples: “Blow! here comes a bull.” +“We blowed some kale that night” (spent it). “Just as +the touch was scored the boob blowed his poke.” “A +shilliber’s work is to cop and blow,” i. e., to take and give +in a gambling, ostensibly winning and losing in good faith +from and to a confederate.</dd> + + +<dt id='BLOW_CARD'>BLOW CARD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst gamblers and genteel grafters. Any useless +thing or condition; financial embarrassment; the last +card; the final play or thing in any series. Examples: +“Don’t connect with this wop, he is on the blow card,” +i. e., broke. “Pull this one off and call it the blow card.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BOOB'>BOOB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general usage amongst all sophisticated classes. An +inferior in any specific sense; a victim; an <del>unitiated</del><ins id='cor018a' title='was: unitiated'>uninitiated</ins> +person when used by a “gonif.” Derived from booby.</dd> + + +<dt id='BOOSTER'>BOOSTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by confidential grafters. One who endorses a person, +thing or action of immoral nature either by <del>complimentary</del><ins id='cor018b' title='was: complimentary'>complementary</ins> +action or by moral support; a helper; a confederate.</dd> + + +<dt id='BOOSTER2'>BOOSTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general currency amongst “gonifs.” A shoplifter; a +thief who operates in merchandise stores in daytime. A +“Boost” is an assistance; “The Boost” is the shoplifting +profession.</dd> + + +<dt id='BREAKS'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>BREAKS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. Any place of exit where +throngs of people pour through en stream, as from a +theatre, from a convention or other popular gathering, or +from a street or railroad car or from a boat, all of which +afford facilities for the pickpocket to operate under cover +and in the press of unusual excitement. Example: “The +guns are rooting into the swell mob at the Grand Opera +breaks.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BREAK_UP'>BREAK UP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst thieves who specialize in plunder or loot. +Melted silver or gold. See “<a href='#MELT'>MELT.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='BREEZE'>BREEZE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Loquacity; guile; “hot air;” +“bull con.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BREEZE_V'>BREEZE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To deceive; to beguile; to occupy one’s +attention; to descant loquaciously. Example: “She +breezed everybody on the line.” Also to move on, to +leave, to come in or go out. See “<a href='#BLOW'>BLOW.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt>BREECH (britch), Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets chiefly. The rear pants +pockets, designated right and left breech, in contradistinction +to the front pants pockets, for which see +“<a href='#KICK'>KICK.</a>” Example: “Fan his right breech for a leather,” +i. e., “Feel of his right hip pocket for a pocketbook.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BROAD'>BROAD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst genteel grafters chiefly. A female confederate; +a female companion; a woman of loose morals. +See “<a href='#DONY'>DONY</a>,” “<a href='#FLUZIE'>FLUZIE</a>,” “MUFF<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>.” Broad is derived +from the far-fetched metaphor of “meal ticket,” signifying +a female provider for a pimp, from the fanciful correspondence +of a meal ticket to a railroad or other ticket, +which latter originally was exclusively used by “gonifs” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>to indicate “broad,” or a conductor’s hat check. Also a +playing card from the deck of fifty-two. A “three-card +monte man” is a “BROAD SPIELER”; “Tipping the +broads” is riding on a purchased transportation ticket; +“Beating the broads” is corrupting the conductor or other +collecting functionaire of a transportation line. + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='BUCK'>BUCK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current generally. A dollar. Example: “They tax you +one buck for a room without a bath at the cheapest hotel +in the burg.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BUFFALO'>BUFFALO, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage in the northern states. A negro. See +“<a href='#DINGE'>DINGE.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='BUFFALO_V'>BUFFALO, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To bluff; to intimidate; to frighten. Example: +“The dick buffaloed him into tipping his plant.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BUG'>BUG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by alms beggars. A fearful looking sore artificially +produced to simulate a burn or scald by the use of Spanish +blister.</dd> + + +<dt id='BULL'>BULL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Misrepresentation; a lie; deception. +Probably derived from the financial term bull, which in +polite and legal circles signifies inflation, optimism. See +“<a href='#BREEZE'>BREEZE.</a>” Also used to indicate an officer of the law +whose function is to apprehend or arrest, whether a constable, +marshal, sheriff, detective or policeman.</dd> + + +<dt id='BULL_CON'>BULL CON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem.</dd> + + +<dt id='BUMP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>BUMP, <ins id='cor021'>BUMP OFF</ins>, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst heavyweights and desperate characters +chiefly, though understood by grafters generally. To kill; +reflectively it signifies suicide. Examples: “He bumped +himself off when he saw that the game was up.” “He +copped a cuter and got bumped making a get-away.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BUNCO'>BUNCO, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Deceit. Derived from “BUNCOMBE.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BUNK'>BUNK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general currency. Deceit; ostentation. Derived by +corruption of form while retaining the meaning of +“Bunco,” a contraction of buncombe. Example: “If you +fall for this bunk you’re a simp.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BUNK_V'>BUNK, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To employ misrepresentation; to defraud; +to cheat; to establish confidential relations with intent to +abuse the influence so acquired. Example: “The frame-up +in the play was to bunk the sucker with protection +and scare team work.”</dd> + + +<dt id='BURNEYS'>BURNEYS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst “hop-heads,” dope fiends. A catarrh +powder containing an illicit proportion of cocaine, used +as a snuff, administered with a combination detachable +rubber and glass blowing tube.</dd> + + +<dt id='BUZZARD'>BUZZARD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. A timid or amateur or low +life “gun” who operates on “molls,” women. Example: +“The moll buzzards tore into the jam at the market house +on Saturday night and glommed a batch of pokes.”</dd> + + + +<dt id='BUZZER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>BUZZER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current mainly in western circles. An officer’s badge or +star, the insignia of authority. Example: “Who are you? +says he. For reply I flashed my buzzer.” Derived, doubtless, +from the metal disc toy with starlike points which +revolves by pulling crossed strings which pass through it.</dd> + + +<dt id='CAN'>CAN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A place of confinement; a prison; a cell. +A practical metaphor for a receptacle designed to confine +or bottle humans. Also a lavatory, toilet, urinal. Example: +“He rumbled and made the can.” See “<a href='#CANISTER'>CANISTER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CAN_V'>CAN, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To discharge; to eliminate. Derived from +the prankish cruelty of tieing a tin can to a dog’s tail, +whose effectual purpose is to get rid of a useless or undesirable +object. Example: “He made so many bad +breaks we had to can him.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CANISTER'>CANISTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst prison habitues. A prison. Also +in use amongst crooks who resort to the use of weapons, +denoting a firearm. Example: “He’ll stick his hands up +if you flash the canister.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CANNON'>CANNON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A revolver. In pickpocket parlance it +signifies a pickpocket of indefinite order. See “<a href='#GUN'>GUN</a>,” +“<a href='#GONIF'>GONIF.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CASES'>CASES, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Observation; scrutiny; survey. Example: +“Keep cases on his actions and you will learn his motive.” +Also an ultimate, a finality, the last of a series of +things or actions. Example: “He hasn’t turned a trick +for so long that he is down to cases.” The term is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>derived from gambler’s parlance; in faro bank the recording +of cards turned out of the dealer’s box is denominated +“keeping cases,” whilst the last card to remain in the +box is called the “case card.” “Down to cases” is used +to signify that the cards are all dealt and played; the +money or resources at an end.</dd> + + +<dt id='CASE'>CASE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To watch; to observe; to scrutinise.</dd> + + +<dt id='CAT_HOP'>CAT HOP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst gamblers. See “<a href='#KITTY_HOP'>KITTY HOP.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CENTURY'>CENTURY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A hundred; a hundred dollar bill.</dd> + + +<dt id='CHIP'>CHIP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst burglars and store prowlers. A cash-box; +a till; a cash drawer without belling device. A cash +receptacle with belling device is called a “combination +chip,” or a “damper,” or a “dinger.” Example: “He +copped a heel on the chip and glommed a century.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CHIV'>CHIV, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general use amongst yeggs and rough-neck criminals. +A knife; a sharp-edged tool or weapon. Derived from +the French word “chef,” by reason of a cook’s use of a +carving knife, though the French term for knife is “canif.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CHIV_V'>CHIV, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. To cut; to slash; used only in regard to an +attack upon a human. Example: “Beware of that geezer +that he does not chiv you.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CHOP'>CHOP, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To quit; to cease.</dd> + + +<dt id='CHUMP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>CHUMP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. An unsophisticated individual; a victim; +an inferior; an “angel”; a “captain.” See “<a href='#JOHN'>JOHN.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CLATTER'>CLATTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A patrol wagon.</dd> + + +<dt id='CLAW'>CLAW, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. The “tool”; the “jerve”; +the “wire”; or the expert operator in a “gun mob” who +lifts the money and valuable collateral from the victim’s +person. Example: “Our mob is working under one of +the speediest claws in the country.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CLAW_V'>CLAW, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To snatch; to appropriate; to annex.</dd> + + +<dt id='CLEAN'>CLEAN, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A state of financial embarrassment; exhausted +supply of a given property. Example: “He +wasn’t very dirty when he got in town, but he is thoroughly +clean now.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CLEAN_V'>CLEAN, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To take all one possesses of a given +commodity; to deplete one’s assets. Example: “He +headed in wrong with that bunch and got cleaned.” Also +used by exponents of the art of self-defense to indicate +the infliction of defeat upon an opponent. Example: “He +made a pass at me and I cleaned him in one, two, three.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CLOUT'>CLOUT, Verb</dt> + +<dd>In currency amongst the plunderbund. To purloin any +kind of valuables in any manner.</dd> + + +<dt id='COME-ON'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>COME-ON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A prospective victim; a “steered” prospect.</dd> + + +<dt id='COME_THROUGH'>COME THROUGH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To give up, to deliver, to surrender any +secret information or any material goods demanded. Example: +“After I showed him the situation was in our +hands he came through with the dope.” In pickpocket +parlance “to come through” describes a function of one of +the “wire’s” “stalls,” consisting of a frontal attack or +sudden onslaught upon an intended victim with the purpose +of bewildering the latter in order that the “wire” +may operate upon the victim from the rear; or, the relative +positions may be reversed, when the “stall” should +“come through” from the rear. Example: “Precede this +mark through the car door, wheel and come through just +as he descends the steps.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CON'>CON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A convict; a lie; a misrepresentation. +See “<a href='#BUNK'>BUNK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CON_V'>CON, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To ingratiate; to establish confidential +relations. See “<a href='#BUNK'>BUNK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='COP'>COP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A policeman.</dd> + + +<dt id='COP_V'>COP, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. See “<a href='#CLOUT'>CLOUT.</a>” Cop is an old Cockney +flash-word and signifies capture; conquer. Example: +“Booze and the blowers (women) cops the lot.”</dd> + + +<dt id='COPPER'>COPPER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prison habitues. The commutation or +good time allowed prisoners for good behavior. Example: +“You grab one month copper off the first year.”</dd> + + +<dt id='COSE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>COSE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A five-centpiece. “Cosan” is a ten-centpiece.</dd> + + +<dt id='CRACK'>CRACK, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To talk. For example see “<a href='#EYE_FULL'>EYE FULL.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CRAB'>CRAB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A grouchy, stingy person; of inferior +quality in intellectuality or habits. See “PIKER<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> There is no entry for “PIKER” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='CRAB_V'>CRAB, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To spoil or ruin or render impossible +any plan of action. Example: “This fink crabbed the +play and we went on the nut for a double <del>saw-buck</del><ins id='cor026a' title='was: saw-buck'>sawbuck</ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CRAP'>CRAP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Treachery. See “<a href='#BUNK'>BUNK</a>,” “<a href='#BULL'>BULL</a>,” +“<a href='#CON'>CON.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CREEP'>CREEP, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prowlers and panel-joint workers. To +use stealth; to crawl.</dd> + + +<dt id='CREEP_V'>CREEP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst crooked pimps. A creeper, a crawler +who searches the clothes of a victim while the latter is +abed with the creep’s paramour.</dd> + + +<dt id='CROKE'>CROKE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Passively it means to die; actively it is +used as an elegant expression for murder. Examples: +“He croked himself with bichloride.” “The copper got +croked in the <del>jack-pot</del><ins id='cor026b' title='was: jack-pot'>jackpot</ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CRIMPY'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>CRIMPY, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>Used by yeggs principally. Cold, applied to the weather.</dd> + + +<dt id='CROKER'>CROKER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A <del>physyician</del><ins id='cor027a' title='was: physyician'>physician</ins>.</dd> + + +<dt id='CROSSLOTS'>CROSSLOTS, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>In use amongst yeggs, hobos and the meandering unemployed. +Cross-country; away from frequented routes +of traffic; by star route. Example: “In the get-away +they hammed twenty miles cross lots.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CROW'>CROW, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst shoplifters and pennyweighters. Poor; +mean; trivial; insignificant; worthless. Example: “There’s +a bale of slum in the joint, but it’s all crow.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CROWNS'>CROWNS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by drug fiends. Same as “<a href='#BURNEYS'>BURNEYS.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='CRUSH'>CRUSH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A forcible entry or exit. Also as verb.</dd> + + +<dt>CUT TO THE <del>BRAKES</del><ins id='cor027b' title='was: BRAKES'>BREAKS</ins>, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst gamblers and ready-money grafters. Reducing +action to its lowest terms; displaying only the +essential. Example: “The mark stalled to the can, +gunned his soft and cut to the breaks,” i. e., “The victim +retired to the lavatory, inspected his bank-roll and separated +the amount required to finance the intended operation.”</dd> + + +<dt id='CUTER'>CUTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by gamblers and western criminals. A surprise; a +fool; a josh; “a boob.” For example of first-cited value +see “<a href='#BUMP'>BUMP.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='DAMPER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>DAMPER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by prowlers and daylight “heels.” A combination +cash drawer or register. See “<a href='#CHIP'>CHIP.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='DANGLER'>DANGLER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst jewelry thieves and those who commit +larceny from the person. A watch fob; an earring; a +pendant; any article of jewelry which swings free at +one end.</dd> + + +<dt id='DEAD_ONE'>DEAD ONE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. One who is useless in any specific case; +out of funds.</dd> + + +<dt id='DERRICK'>DERRICK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst shoplifters chiefly. A “hoister”; a +“lifter”; a “booster”; an “elevator.” Example: “The +boosters are making a plunge with a derrick ben.” In +this sense it is used as an adjective, but can be transposed +for “boosters.”</dd> + + +<dt id='DICK'>DICK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A detective. See “<a href='#RICHARD'>RICHARD.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='DINGE'>DINGE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A negro. See “<a href='#BUFFALO'>BUFFALO.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='DIP'>DIP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. See “<a href='#CLAW'>CLAW</a>”; “<a href='#WIRE'>WIRE</a>”; +“<a href='#JERVE'>JERVE</a>”; “<a href='#TOOL'>TOOL</a>”; “<a href='#GUN'>GUN</a>”; “<a href='#CANNON'>CANNON</a>”; “<a href='#GONIF'>GONIF.</a>” A +common term for a pickpocket of any degree.</dd> + + +<dt id='DISE'>DISE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst store burglars, shoplifters, and box-car +thieves or “RAT WORKERS” mainly. A contraction of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>merchandise. Loot; plunder; effects that can readily be +disposed of in the market as new goods. Example: +“There’s a mob riding the rattlers between here and the +junction who have a dise plant stashed (cached) in the +jungles.”</dd> + + +<dt id='DONY'>DONY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pimps and free lovers chiefly. A female +member of the demi-monde. See “<a href='#HOOKER'>HOOKER</a>”; “<a href='#JANE'>JANE</a>”; +“<a href='#FILLY'>FILLY</a>”; “MUFF<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>.” Derived from the Hebrew “yoni,” +the female sex organ. + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='DOSS'>DOSS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A place to sleep; a bed. See “<a href='#KIP'>KIP</a>”; +“<a href='#FLOP'>FLOP.</a>” Example: “Stake me to two-bits to get a doss.” +Apparently from the French “je dors,” I sleep.</dd> + + +<dt id='DOUBLE'>DOUBLE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A conspiracy to deceive or defraud a +victim; the “double-cross.” Example: “He got the +double.”</dd> + + +<dt id='DUCAT'>DUCAT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst genteel grafters. A ticket of admission +or transportation. See “<a href='#BROAD'>BROAD.</a>” Example: “The ducat +box was crushed last night,” i. e., “The ticket office was +burglarized.”</dd> + + +<dt id='DUCK'>DUCK, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To retire; to leave; to flee; to disappear.</dd> + + +<dt id='DUKE'>DUKE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by gamblers and genteel grafters. A fist; a hand; +glad hand; a hand in a card game. “Reading the duke” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>is “fortune-telling by palmistry”; “tipping your duke” is +“betraying your intention”; “cropping his duke” is reading +an opponent’s hand by trickery in a card game.</dd> + + +<dt id='DUKIE'>DUKIE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by yeggmen and hobos. A hand-out, or donation of +cold victuals to a beggar. See “<a href='#LUMP'>LUMP.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='DUMMY'>DUMMY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggmen, hobos and prison habitues. +Bread. See “<a href='#PUNK'>PUNK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='DUMP'>DUMP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A rendezvous; an establishment of any +kind; a hangout; a joint; a meeting place.</dd> + + +<dt id='DRAG'>DRAG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An influence with one in authority; +a “pull”; a main thoroughfare in any community; the +main street. See “<a href='#STEM'>STEM.</a>” Examples: “The boys are +pivoting on the main drag,” i. e., begging on the street; +“The muffs are cruising on the drag tonight,” i. e., soliciting +on the street. Amongst female impersonators on the +stage and men of dual sex instincts “drag” denotes female +attire donned by a male. Example: “All the fagots +(sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.” +Also an inhalation of smoke, tobacco or opium.</dd> + + +<dt id='DROP'>DROP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An apprehension in criminal action. +See “<a href='#FALL'>FALL</a>”; “<a href='#SNEEZE'>SNEEZE</a>”; “<a href='#RUMBLE'>RUMBLE</a>”; “<a href='#TUMBLE'>TUMBLE.</a>” Also +used as a verb to express the action corresponding to a +similar state. Example of the latter: “The tribe dropped +a man in the day’s work,” i. e., lost one by arrest. “We +had to drop a stall for missing too many meets,” i. e., discharged +him. Command or control by reason of advantage +in an exigency when shooting may be expected.</dd> + + +<dt id='EIGHT_DIE_CASE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>EIGHT DIE CASE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst open-air or “sure-thing” grafters. See +“<a href='#FLAT_JOINT'>FLAT JOINT.</a>” A glass showcase containing numbered +prizes, as jewelry or gewgaws, for which eight dice are +thrown by players, the totality of spots on the eight dice +corresponding with the numbers on the prizes. The +secret of this graft consists in the dealer’s fraudulent +counting of the spots arbitrarily and disarranging them +before the victim can finish the count.</dd> + + +<dt id='ELBOW'>ELBOW, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage in cosmopolitan centers. A detective. See +“<a href='#RICHARD'>RICHARD</a>”; “<a href='#DICK'>DICK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='ELEVATOR'>ELEVATOR, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In shoplifter’s and holdup men’s parlance. A lifter; a +booster; a hoister; a “stick-up” man. See “PUT-EM-UP.”</dd> + + +<dt id='END'>END, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A share; a portion; a division. See +“<a href='#BIT'>BIT.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt>EYE (The), Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst long-odds criminals. The +Pinkerton Detective Agency; an operative of the Pinkerton +Agency. Example: “Blow this joint; it’s protected +by the Eye.”</dd> + + +<dt id='EYE_FULL'>EYE FULL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. The object of scrutiny or of attentive +observation. See “<a href='#STRETCH'>STRETCHING.</a>” Example: “Nix +Crackin’! The mark on your left is getting an eye full.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FALL'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>FALL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An arrest. See “<a href='#RUMBLE'>RUMBLE</a>”; “<a href='#DROP'>DROP.</a>” +Example: “He was soused when he attempted to pull +off the stunt and got a fall.” Used as a verb, “to fall for” +is to be deceived by; to be taken in; to be influenced.</dd> + + +<dt id='FALL_DOUGH'>FALL DOUGH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst criminals who operate under clique or +fraternal organization. A fund kept in reserve for protection, +to be expended in procuring legal representation, +bail, or bribery of officers or court functionaries. Example: +“No one can join out unless he puts up five +centuries for fall dough.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FALL_GUY'>FALL GUY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A scapegoat; a victim. See “<a href='#FALL'>FALL.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='FAN'>FAN, Verb</dt> + +<dd>In pickpocket parlance. To surreptitiously feel a victim’s +pockets, or inadvertently brush the person for the purpose +of locating an object sought, as pocketbook, watch or +weapon. Example: “Fan the pratt for a poke.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FIEND'>FIEND, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by narcotic habitues chiefly. One addicted to the +use of drugs, as a “hop fiend,” a “dope fiend.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FILL'>FILL, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst gang criminals. To join a mob, +as of guns, or of confidence men, and thus fill a vacancy +in the organization. Example: “If you know a good +man who can make a fill steer him in.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FILLY'>FILLY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A young woman of questionable morals, +not necessarily criminal by choice but potentially so. See +“<a href='#SKIRT'>SKIRT</a>”; “<a href='#JANE'>JANE</a>”; “MUFF<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.</div> +</dd> + +<dt id='FINGER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>FINGER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst criminals who localize more or less extensively. +See “STOOL<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>.” An informer; an investigator +for officers. Example: “He got the push sneezed by +mixing with a finger.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> There is no entry for “STOOL” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='FINGER_PRINT'>FINGER PRINT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst confidence crooks who specialize in paper +securities or signed orders for merchandise or service. A +signature; an endorsement. Example: “Put your finger +print on this line.” See “<a href='#JOHN_HANCOCK'>JOHN HANCOCK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='FINK'>FINK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly in eastern criminal circles. An unreliable +confederate or incompetent sympathizer. See “<a href='#CRAB'>CRAB</a>”; +“<a href='#LOB'>LOB.</a>” Example: “We staked him to a day’s work for +a try-out, but he proved to be a fink.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FISH_EYE'>FISH EYE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A diamond. See “<a href='#PROP'>PROP.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='FIX'>FIX, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used in general criminal parlance. A condition of security +where grafters may operate with impunity. Example: +“Don’t pay any attention to the bulls; it’s a fix.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FIXER'>FIXER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. One who acts as go-between for thieves +and bribe takers. Example: “If you get a rumble, send +for Jones, the mouthpiece; he’s a sure-shot fixer and can +square anything short of murder.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLAGGINGS'>FLAGGINGS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by yeggs and hobos. Meat of any description, +usually applied to cold victuals. Example: “If you +are not a vegetarian, stay away from that man’s burg, +for flaggings is scarce.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLAP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>FLAP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pimps and criminals who are contemptuous +of female values. An opprobrious epithet for loose +women. Also employed to designate the female sex organ.</dd> + + +<dt id='FLASH'>FLASH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To show; to exhibit; to submit an +object for inspection.</dd> + + +<dt id='FLAT_JOINT'>FLAT JOINT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst open-air sure-thing men who operate at +circus gatherings, fairs, carnivals, any gaming establishment +where fortune is presumed to wait upon skill combined +with risk. The “TIVOLI”; the “SWINGING BALL”; +the “SPINDLE”; the “PINCH WHEEL”; the “PADDLES”; +the “SHELLS”; “THREE CARD MONTE”; the +“EIGHT DIE CASE”; the “FISH POND”; the “DISCS” +are all grafting flat joints. The term is derived from +the essentiality in all of these crooked devices of a +counter or other flat area across or upon which the +swindle may be conducted.</dd> + + +<dt id='FLIM'>FLIM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in polite criminal circles. A swindle; a fraud. +See “<a href='#BUNK'>BUNK</a>”; “<a href='#TWISTED'>TWIST<ins id='cor034'>ED</ins>.</a>” Derived from “flim-flam.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLIM_V'>FLIM, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. To swindle; to defraud. Used especially by +short-change experts. See “<a href='#LAYING'>LAYING</a>”; “<a href='#FLOPPER'>FLOPPER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLOATER'>FLOATER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency in police circles. A suspended sentence; +a mandatory order to quit a community or locality. Example: +“The rap wasn’t strong enough, so they took a +floater.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLOP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>FLOP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs, dope fiends, prison habitues and +to some extent in general use by initiates in the mysteries +of informal annexation. A bed; a place to sit, recline or +lie down. Also used by short changers as a synonym of +“flim.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLOP_V'>FLOP, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Same as above. To sit or lie down. Example: “Let’s +flop here on the grass and pound our ear.” Also used by +money changers to signify fraud by confusion. Example: +“There’s a muff in that candy store that can be flopped +because she can’t count change.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLOPPER'>FLOPPER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general use by money changers, switchers (substituters); +flim-flammers. See “<a href='#LAYING'>LAYING.</a>” Example: “He +calls himself a star flopper, but he’s crabbing a string of +good lays by hyping with a deuce where a saw buck +could be changed just as readily.” See “<a href='#HYPER'>HYPER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='FRAME'>FRAME, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A prearranged plan of action; a secret +implying sinister intention; a “frame-up.” The contraction +is used for greater secretiveness, as is the case with +all terms which have become the common property of +both criminals and their enemies. Example: “What’s +the frame for putting this one over? The lemon.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FRISK'>FRISK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A search; a “shake-down”; an examination +of the contents of one’s pockets, of a room, of receptacles +or of a community. Example: “Give him a +frisk and see if he has a rod.”</dd> + + + +<dt id='FRISK_V'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>FRISK, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. Example: “Frisk everybody that enters the +hall.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FRONT'>FRONT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Some general currency, but used mainly by crooks whose +operations require a shield or distraction. An auxiliary +defense; a “stall”; a secondary who interposes his person +or contributes overtly to a surreptitious action. Example: +“Give me a front here till I nick this leather.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FRONT_V'>FRONT, Verb</dt> + +<dd>See above. To hide; to conceal a principal in open +criminal action. See “<a href='#STALL'>STALL.</a>” Example: “Front me +out of this joint and don’t lose my left wing.”</dd> + + +<dt id='FLUZIE'>FLUZIE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in the cosmopolitan demi-monde. A woman; a +questionable female character. See “<a href='#DONY'>DONY</a>”; “<a href='#HOOKER'>HOOKER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GAFF'>GAFF, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general currency. An offensive action, thing or condition, +of vague, complex or undetermined meaning. It is +variously employed or construed to mean defeat, punishment, +failure, or the instruments of these. Example: +“There’ll be no hop-heads joining out with this mob, for +they can’t stand the gaff.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GANDER'>GANDER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An inquisitorial glance; a searching +look; an impertinent gazing or staring. Also the simple +act of looking or seeing. See “RUBBER<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>”; “<a href='#EYE_FULL'>EYE FULL.</a>” +Example: “Take a gander at this dump as we pass, and +don’t get the eye of the guinea inside.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> There is no entry for “RUBBER” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='GAP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>GAP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. General currency. Used also as a verb.</dd> + + +<dt id='GASH'>GASH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An invidious term for woman; synonymous +with flap, which see.</dd> + + +<dt id='GAT'>GAT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A gun; a pistol; a firearm. See “<a href='#ROD'>ROD</a>”; +“<a href='#ROSCOE'>ROSCOE.</a>” Derived from “Gatling.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GAZABO'>GAZABO, Noun</dt> + +<dd>In general use, but originating in the East. A man; any +man without regard to qualities.</dd> + + +<dt id='GAZUNY'>GAZUNY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. Current in ultra slangy circles. A man.</dd> + + +<dt id='GEEZER'>GEEZER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. A drink of liquor; a man (contemptuously).</dd> + + +<dt id='GINK'>GINK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Synonymous with “gazabo,” “gazuny,” +“gink<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> “Gink” cannot be a synonym for itself. The author probably intended +“geezer.”</div></dd> + + +<dt id='GLIM'>GLIM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A light; a lamp; a match. Also used as +a verb, signifying illuminated. Example: “Go and take +a pike (peek) at the dump and see if it’s glimmed.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GLIMS'>GLIMS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pair of spectacles or nose glasses. +See “<a href='#SCENERIES'>SCENERIES</a>”; “<a href='#RINGER'><del>RINGERS</del><ins id='cor037' title='was: RINGERS'>RINGER</ins>.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GLOM'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>GLOM, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To grab; to snatch; to take; implying +violence. Example: “Glom this short and drop off two +blocks below.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GOBBLED'>GOBBLED, Verb, Past Part.</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Arrested. See “<a href='#NAILED'>NAILED.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GONGER'>GONGER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst opium smokers and drug fiends. An +opium pipe. Also used in the diminutive form of “GONGERINE.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GONIF'>GONIF, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A thief of any class; a pickpocket. +The term is taken intact from the Hebrew and is used +mostly by pickpockets. See “<a href='#GUN'>GUN</a>”; “<a href='#CANNON'>CANNON</a>”; “<a href='#BUZZARD'>BUZZARD.</a>” +Also a verb, to rob.</dd> + + +<dt id='GOOSEBERRY'>GOOSEBERRY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs, hobos and meanderers. A clothesline; +laundry hung up to dry. Example: “He prowled a +gooseberry for a skin.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GOPHER'>GOPHER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs chiefly. A safe; a strong box. +See “<a href='#PETE'>PETE.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GRAB'>GRAB, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Passively it signifies arrested; actively +it signifies the imperfect past action of arresting or seizing. +Example: “Steer clear of the tip: It’s made and +you are liable to get grabbed.” See “<a href='#GLOM'>GLOMMED</a>”; +“<del>SNEEZEZD</del><ins id='cor038' title='was: SNEEZEZD'><a href='#SNEEZE'>SNEEZED</a></ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GRIFT'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>GRIFT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Graft; an opportunity for plying criminal +talents. Example: “How’s grift on the shorts in the +winter? Crow. Too many togs.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GROUCH_BAG'>GROUCH BAG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and western thieves. A place, as +a pocket or receptacle, for concealing money or valuables; +a reserve fund held in secret to the exclusion of fraternists. +Example: “He’s under cover with a grouch bag.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUFF'>GUFF, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs, sailors, and old-timers. Palaver; +conversation; a contumelious synonym for egotism. See +“<a href='#BREEZE'>BREEZE.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUINEA'>GUINEA, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. In the sense of a man it is synonymous +with “gazabo,” “gink,” “mark”; it also means an Italian, +as well as Europeans generally.</dd> + + +<dt id='GUMP'>GUMP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs, hobos and peripatetics generally. +A chicken; a fowl. Examples: “We’re going down in the +jungles and have a gump stew.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUM_SHOE'>GUM SHOE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A detective; a silent trailer. See +“<a href='#PUSSY_FOOT'>PUSSY FOOT.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUN'>GUN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets chiefly, though enjoying +familiar usage in general circles. A pickpocket. See +“<a href='#CANNON'>CANNON</a>”; “<a href='#GONIF'>GONIF.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUN_V'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>GUN, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To watch; to scrutinize. See “<a href='#GANDER'>GANDER</a>”; +“<a href='#GAP'>GAP.</a>” Used both as verb and noun to express +action or thing. Examples: “Nix! There’s a dick on +the corner gunning us.” “He’s giving us a gun.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUN_MAN'>GUN MAN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A gun fighter.</dd> + + +<dt id='GUNNELS'>GUNNELS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by all classes of criminals who beat their way on +trains. The curved trusses extending from end to end +underneath both freight and passenger cars. Example: +“The only way you can ride this rattler tonight is to +make the gunnels or the rods.”</dd> + + +<dt id='GUNSHEL'>GUNSHEL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs chiefly, A boy; a youth; a +neophyte of trampdom. Example: “The tribe’s got a +gunshel pivoting on the stem with a bug,” i. e., “The +gang of tramps have sent a boy up on the main street +to beg under pretense of having a wounded or disabled +arm or limb.” The term “bug” is derived from railroad +parlance, denoting a signal attached to the front of the +engine as an indication of the train’s nature, attracting +attention.</dd> + + +<dt id='GUTS'>GUTS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Nerve; “sand”; ability to withstand +the most powerful emotions. A metaphor derived from +the common experience of depressing sensation concomitant +with an inrush of the violent emotions of fear, +horror or other moral obstructions. To have “guts” is to +be unencumbered with conscientious scruples relative to +the object contemplated. Amongst yeggs and others familiar +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>with clandestine railroading the “guts” signifies the +various <del>construtcive</del><ins id='cor041a' title='construtcive'>constructive</ins> parts underneath a car, or the hidden +essentials of rolling stock. Example: “We’ll ride the +guts tonight over this division,” i. e., the gunnels, rods, +brake-beams, trucks.</dd> + + +<dt id='GUY'>GUY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Eastern currency mainly. A man. “TO GUY” is to +ridicule.</dd> + + +<dt id='GYP_N'>GYP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in polite circles. The act of short-changing; a +duplicity; a defrauding by substitution; an action that +belies a professed sincerity. Example: “Look out for +this guy, he’s a clever agent to slip you a gyp.” Derived +from the popular experience with thieving Gypsies.</dd> + + +<dt id='GYP_V'>GYP, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Some general currency, but especially significant amongst +short changers. To flim-flam; to cheat by means of guile +and manual dexterity. See “<a href='#HYPER'>HYPE</a>”; “<a href='#FLOP'>FLOP</a>”; “<a href='#LAYING'>LAYING.</a>” +Example: “Gyp this boob with a deuce.” Also +used by “flat-joint” grafters, comprehending the general +meaning of face-to-face criminal transactions.</dd> + + +<dt id='HABIT'>HABIT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst dope fiends. Necessity for opiates; a +craving; the condition produced by habitual indulgence in +drugs. See “<del>YEN-YEN</del><ins id='cor041b' title='was: YEN-YEN'><a href='#YEN_YEN'>YEN YEN</a></ins>.” Example: “I must drop into +the hotel donegan (lavatory) and fire (take a hypodermic +injection), for I feel my habit coming on.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HACK'>HACK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggmen and prowlers, in general. A +night watchman; a night policeman or marshal. Most +usually it signifies the watchman of a building. Used as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>a verb in the past participle it describes the accomplished +function of a night watchman. Example: “The joint’s +hacked but not kipped,” i. e., watched but not occupied +by a sleeper.</dd> + + +<dt id='HAM'>HAM, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To walk. Example: “If we get a tumble, +it’s a case of ham.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HANDLES'>HANDLES, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Limited usage, chiefly by criminals who understand more +or less about physiognomical description and disguises. +Side-whiskers; “mutton chops.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HANKY_PANK'>HANKY PANK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in polite slangy circles. Insincere or trifling +small talk; flattery; garrulousness. See “<a href='#BREEZE'>BREEZE</a>”; +“<a href='#BULL'>BULL.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='HARDWARE'>HARDWARE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst merchandise thieves. Weapons; +knives; razors; tools and paraphernalia used by safecrackers +and forcible entry prowlers. Used by holdup +men to signify a weapon. Example: “Fan him for hardware.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HARNESS'>HARNESS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A uniform; a shoplifter’s equipment +for concealing merchandise. A “harness bull” is the +commonest form of the term’s use, signifying a uniformed +policeman in contradistinction to a plain clothes officer or +detective.</dd> + + +<dt id='HARP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>HARP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An Irishman; used principally to designate +the raw type.</dd> + + +<dt id='HARPOON'>HARPOON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A metaphor for lampoon; used as a +verb it signifies to “give a person the worst of it.” See +“<a href='#GAFF'>GAFF.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='HATCH'>HATCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A calaboose; a prison; police station; a +jail. Derived from the nautical term “booby-hatch.” See +“<a href='#CAN'>CAN</a>”; “<a href='#WICKY'>WICKY.</a>” Example: “The only way he can be +sprung is to crush the hatch.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HEAVY_WEIGHT'>HEAVY WEIGHT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst long-odds crooks. A desperate thief; a +husky capable of delivering a dangerous attack in the +event of personal encounter; a yegg; a burglar; a “stick-up +man.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HEEL'>HEEL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An incompetent; an undesirable; an +inefficient or pusillanimous pretender to sterling criminal +qualifications. See “<a href='#FINK'>FINK</a>”; “<a href='#DEAD_ONE'>DEAD ONE</a>”; “<a href='#CRAB'>CRAB</a>”; +“<a href='#LOB'>LOB.</a>” Used also in the sense of “sneak” as noun and +verb, to stalk.</dd> + + +<dt id='HEP'>HEP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. Sapiency; understanding; “next”; +“on.” Derived from the name of a fabulous detective who +operated in Cincinnati, the legend has it, who knew so +much about criminality and criminals that his patronymic +became a byword for the last thing in wisdom of illicit +possibilities. Example: “Chop the skirmish; he’s hep.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HICKS'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>HICKS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst “sure-thing” grafters. The walnut +husks used in the three shell and pea game. Example: +“This proposition is as sure as fate and as strong as the +hicks.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HIP'>HIP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A burden; an attachment; a responsibility; +an incubus. Examples: “I can’t see you tonight; +I’ve got a Jane on my hip.” “What’s the use of taking +more on your hip?” Also used to denote being shadowed +or followed. Example: “Don’t round, we’ve got somebody +on our hip.” Always used colloquially. Also current +amongst opium smokers, designating the act of lying on +the side to smoke the “pipe.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HIRAM'>HIRAM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst yeggmen. A metaphor taken +from masonry to signify initiation into the secrets of the +yegg profession. A synonym for yegg, adopted when the +latter term acquired too much notoriety. Example: “By +way of the Hiram!” An exclamatory challenge or password +used for a “feeler” to probe the state of mind of +the encountered one.</dd> + + +<dt id='HOBO'>HOBO, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A tramp, not necessarily of criminal +tendencies.</dd> + + +<dt id='HOIST'>HOIST, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst shoplifters mainly. The profession of +shoplifting. See “<a href='#BOOSTER'>BOOST<ins id='cor044'>ER</ins></a>”; “<a href='#DERRICK'>DERRICK.</a>” Example: +“What’s his grift? He’s on the hoist.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HOOKS'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>HOOKS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst shoplifters. A set of steel hooks shaped +like the letter “U,” fastened through the cloth of a heavy +“boosting ben” under the armpits; concealed from the +outside view by a pad of cloth similar in pattern to the +cloth of the coat and having the inner arm of the hook +filed to a needle-like sharpness; upon the hook merchandise +may be hung, or slung around the operator’s back +and suspended from both hooks. When not in use the +hooks’ sharp points are sheathed in cork to prevent injury +to the person. They are instantaneously detachable and +may be “sloughed” by an expert without detection. +“Hooks” also signifies the worst of a bargain. “HOOK” +means a thief; “HOOKY” is larcenous.</dd> + + +<dt id='HOOKER'>HOOKER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A prostitute. See “<a href='#DONY'>DONY</a>”; “<del>FLUZY</del><ins id='cor045' title='was: FLUZY'><a href='#FLUZIE'>FLUZIE</a></ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HOLLER'>HOLLER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A protest; a vehement refutation. See +“<a href='#BELCH'>BELCH</a>”; “<a href='#WOLF'>WOLF</a>”; “<a href='#SQUAWK'>SQUAWK.</a>” Example: “Did the +sucker make a holler? Sure he rumbled the touch before +we blowed the joint and made a roar.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HOMBRE'>HOMBRE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Western usage. A man. From the Spanish for man.</dd> + + +<dt id='HOPSCOTCH'>HOPSCOTCH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To jump or travel about from place to +place.</dd> + + +<dt id='HOOP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>HOOP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency, though used most frequently by “short-odds” +grafters who practice merchandising by unlicensed +solicitation. A finger ring. A “phony hoop” is a gold-plated +ring. Grafters of mediocre intellectuality seek protection +from apprehension for vagrancy by carrying a +stock of “hoops,” “glims” and “supers,” or “blocks” +(watches). Not to be confounded with the jovial exclamation, +“Whoops! my dear,” of fairies and theatrical +characters.</dd> + + +<dt id='HOP_MERCHANT'>HOP MERCHANT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst drug habitues. A dispenser of opium +and opiates. Usually applied to drug peddlers who have +no established headquarters, but are itinerant.</dd> + + +<dt id='HUCKS'>HUCKS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst “sure-thing” grafters. The walnut shells +used in the three shell game. See “<a href='#HICKS'>HICKS</a>”; “<a href='#NUTS'>NUTS.</a>” +Example: “We’ll make the ball game on Sunday and +play the hucks.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HUMP'>HUMP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prison habitues. The middle of a term; +the half-way point in a prison sentence. Example: “How +long have you got yet on your bit? I’m just over the +hump.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HUNCH'>HUNCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. An inspiration; an intuition; an “office.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HUNDRED_PER_CENT'>HUNDRED PER CENT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by sure-thing admen, by confidence grafters who +maintain the plausible appearance of giving value for +moneys received, but who in reality give nothing. Fake +advertising is the principal hundred per cent graft.</dd> + + +<dt id='HUNKIE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>HUNKIE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in localities where North European laborers +abound. A corruption of Hungarian, but employed to +signify a Continental European who is unwashed and unnaturalized.</dd> + + +<dt id='HUSTLER'>HUSTLER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A grafter; a pimp who steals betimes. +The genteel thief is designated a “hustler.”</dd> + + +<dt id='HYPER'>HYPER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst money-changers. A flim-flammer; a +layer of currency, that is, one who makes a purchase and +tenders a bank note and after receiving proper change +pretends to discover the exact amount of change required +to pay for the goods purchased and thereupon declares +his preference for the bank note rather than for the +change. In the exchange he strives to confuse the obliging +changemaker for the purpose of obtaining an excess +of his proper due. Or, the “hyper” requests a bank note +for subsidiary coin and upon being accommodated ostentatiously +seals the bank note in an addressed envelope. +The merchant discovers that the subsidiary coin is less +than the stated amount and demands his bank note, whereupon +a substitute envelope is tendered by the “hyper” +with a request that he hold it until the “hyper” returns +to his home and secures the additional small change. +There are other systems of the “hyper” in vogue, but the +principle is the same in all.</dd> + + +<dt id='IN_DUTCH'>IN DUTCH, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Mistaken; in trouble. See “<del>JACK POT</del><ins id='cor047' title='was: JACK POT'>JACKPOT</ins>.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JAB'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>JAB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst morphine and cocaine fiends. A hypodermic +injection.</dd> + + +<dt id='JACKPOT'>JACKPOT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A dilemma; a difficult strait; a retribution; +trouble; an arrest. See “<a href='#JINKS'>JINX</a>”; “<a href='#IN_DUTCH'>IN DUTCH.</a>” +Example: “Where’s Joe? He pulled a raw-jaw stunt and +made a jackpot.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JAKE'>JAKE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst cosmopolitan crooks. The state +of knowing; familiarity with a secret or a scheme or +meaning. See “<a href='#HEP'>HEP</a>”; “<a href='#JOE'>JOE.</a>” Example: “You’re making +a boob out of yourself; he’s Jake to the whole works.” +As an adjective “jake” means good; satisfactory; acceptable; +all-right.</dd> + + +<dt id='JAMB'>JAMB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst yeggs and prowlers. The state +of being closed, as a store or house; locked up; inaccessible. +See “Sloughed,” not in the sense of “sluffed” as the +same word is sometimes used, though with the latter pronunciation +while retaining the former spelling. Example: +“The front’s in the jamb; try the rear.” Also used to +signify trouble in the sense of “<a href='#JACKPOT'><del>JACK POT</del><ins id='cor048' title='was: JACK POT'>JACKPOT</ins>.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='JANE'>JANE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A woman, though not in any opprobrious +sense; the sexual complement of the term “<a href='#JOHN'>JOHN</a>,” a +man.</dd> + + +<dt id='JERVE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>JERVE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. A vest pocket; the “tool”; +the “wire”; the “claw” in a gun mob. Examples: “Go +after the left jerve for a bundle of scratch.” “The jerve +was nailed bang to rights coming through the tip.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JESSIE'>JESSIE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A bluff; a threat. Example: “He +rang in a jessie and got away with it.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JIG'>JIG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An affair; a misfortune; a mistake. +Example: “He used bad judgment and got into a jig.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JIGGER'>JIGGER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and tramps. A fake wound, burn, +scald, or other crippled condition. See “<a href='#BUG'>BUG</a>”; “<a href='#P_P'>P. P.</a>” +Example: “They’re all jigger bums.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JIGGER_V'>JIGGER, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. An exclamation of warning; an injunction +to cease; to mar; to spoil; to deface or derange. Examples: +“Jigger! The bull’s coming.” “You’ve jiggered +the lock.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JIM'>JIM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A cheap, inferior or worthless thing. +Contraction of “JIM CROW.” See “<a href='#CROW'>CROW.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='JIM_V'>JIM, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A synonym for “JIGGER.” Example: +“Lay off! You’ll jim the whole works.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JIMMY'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>JIMMY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used mainly by yeggs and prowlers. A burglar’s tool. +A short, powerful chisel or lever used by thieves for +prying doors and windows open.</dd> + + +<dt id='JIMMY_V'>JIMMY, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. To pry or wrench loose with any instrument.</dd> + + +<dt id='JINKS'>JINKS, JINX, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. In difficult straits. See “<a href='#IN_DUTCH'>IN DUTCH.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='JITNEY'>JITNEY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A nickel; a dime; a small coin; a +picayune. Used variously to signify an extremity in +finance. Example: “Break away; he hasn’t got a jitney.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JOE'>JOE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency in polite criminal circles. Wise; sophisticated. +See “Hep,” of which “JOE” and “JAKE” are +subdivisions or contractions or substitutions.</dd> + + +<dt id='JOHN'>JOHN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst the demi-monde. A “captain”; +a “sucker”; an amorous fool with money and free love +proclivities. Also a man in a contemptuous sense. Examples: +“She’s got a John keeping her.” “Ask this John +what time the train starts.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JOHN_HANCOCK'>JOHN HANCOCK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst confidence men and paper grafters generally. +A signature. Derived from the common observation +that John Hancock, of Revolutionary fame, wrote a +massive, extremely legible hand. See “<a href='#FINGER_PRINT'>FINGER PRINT.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='JOINT'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>JOINT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A business establishment; a hangout. +Sometimes used as a synonym of “<a href='#DUMP'>DUMP</a>,” though it does +not necessarily imply meanness or disrepute. Example: +“Let’s drop in this joint and buy a suit of clothes.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JOLT'>JOLT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A prison sentence; a penalization; a +blow; a physical or moral jar. Example: “He did a jolt +once before in Joliet.”</dd> + + +<dt>JOHN O’BRIEN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current generally. A freight train, used in contradistinction +to a “<a href='#RATTLER'>RATTLER</a>,” a passenger train. Example: +“You can see by his clothes that he has been riding John +O’s.” Amongst “yeggs” it signifies also a moneyless safe.</dd> + + +<dt id='JUG'>JUG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A prison; a bank; a secret receptacle +for money or compact valuables. Example: “Tail this +mark to the jug and case what he draws,” i. e., “observe +what money he draws.”</dd> + + +<dt id='JUNGLE'>JUNGLE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs. A loafing place or hang out beyond +a city’s limits, whether in the woods or not. An +isolated or little frequented spot.</dd> + + +<dt id='JUNK'>JUNK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Inferior goods; any property of relative +worthlessness. Example: “Everything in his keister +is junk.”</dd> + + +<dt id='KALE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>KALE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Bank notes; money of any kind. +Evolved from the term “GREEN GOODS,” the latter +metaphor for money being derived from the greenish +aspect of currency. Example: “He’s got a bundle of +kale that would choke a cow.”</dd> + + +<dt id='KEISTER'>KEISTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A satchel; a handbag; a small grip. +Example: “What’s his grift? He prowls the depots for +keisters.”</dd> + + +<dt id='KICK'>KICK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Some general currency, but employed most effectively by +pickpockets. In common usage it signifies a pocket, any +pocket; amongst “guns” it is used exclusively to signify a +front pants pocket. Also a protest, a “squawk.”</dd> + + +<dt id='KINK'>KINK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. A crook; a larcenous criminal. +See “<a href='#HOOKS'><del>HOOK</del><ins id='cor052' title='was: HOOK'>HOOKS</ins></a>”; “<a href='#HUSTLER'>HUSTLER.</a>” Example: “Are there any +kinks in the joint?” Also used by yeggs to designate a +non-criminal tramp, or one who is not initiated into the +particular craft of the speaker. In this latter sense the +term is derived from the epithet “gay-cat,” meaning a +“working plug.” Example: “Cut him out; he’s got +forty-seven kinks in his tail.”</dd> + + +<dt id='KIP'>KIP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A bed; a place to sleep. See “<a href='#PAD'>PAD</a>”; +“<a href='#DOSS'>DOSS</a>”; “<a href='#FLOP'>FLOP.</a>” Used also as a verb, to sleep, to go +to bed, etc.</dd> + + +<dt id='KISSER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>KISSER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. The countenance. See “<a href='#MOOSH'>MOOSH</a>”; +“MUG<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>.” Example: “You’ll recognize him by his hatchet +kisser.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> There is no entry for “MUG” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='KITTY_HOP'>KITTY HOP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst gamblers. A heads-I-win-tails-you-lose +situation or proposition; a “double-cross”; a +“frame-up,” in which “both ends may be played against +the middle.” Also used to indicate a practical joke. +Example: “We got the skirt to frame a kitty hop for +him and he fell for it.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LACE'>LACE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To slam; to punch; to beat unmercifully. +Example: “The three dicks laced him like a football +and then squared it by throwing an order of ham and +eggs under his belt.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LAG'>LAG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst statutory criminals. A prison sentence +of one year; sometimes used to signify an indefinite term +of years in prison. The “<a href='#STRETCH'>STRETCH</a>” better expresses the +latter sentence of penal servitude. Example: “He’s doing +a lag in the little can.” Also used as a verb as the +equivalent of “RAILROADING” a criminal to prison.</dd> + + +<dt id='LAM'>LAM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A hasty get-away; a running escape. +Example: “He heeled to the door and made a lam.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LAM_V'>LAM, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To run; to flee. Most frequently employed +in the imperative mood.</dd> + + +<dt id='LAMISTER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>LAMISTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Supra idem. A corruption of “<a href='#LAM'>LAM.</a>” Also a fugitive +from justice. Example: “He’s a lamister out of Chicago.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LAMOS'>LAMOS, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Gold-plated; flimsy; unsubstantial. Derived +from the name of a firm of Chicago jewelers who +supplied the cheap jewelry trade with “PHONIES,” or +fake jewelry. Example: “You can’t hock it for two-bits; +it’s lamos.” Also used to signify inferior personal +qualities.</dd> + + +<dt id='LAYING_OUT'>LAYING OUT, Verb, Present Part.</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prowlers and sneak thieves. To watch +from ambush; to spy upon a person or establishment. +Example: “To get this dump right we’ll have to lay out +on it every night for a week and make the doings.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LAYING'>LAYING (NOTES), Verb, Present Part.</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst flim-flammers. To make fraudulent +change; to cheat by the ruse of substitution. The latter +craft is denominated “LAYING THE ENVELOPE.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LEATHER'>LEATHER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Some general currency, but used chiefly by pickpockets. +A pocketbook; a wallet; a billbook. See “<a href='#POKE'>POKE.</a>” Example: +“He has an inside leather.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LEARY'>LEARY, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Afraid; anxious; anticipatory.</dd> + + +<dt id='LEMON'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>LEMON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst bunco men. A confidence game +in which skill at pool is the bait, though its successful +negotiation is based upon the dishonesty or avarice of the +victim. See “<a href='#WIRE'>WIRE</a>”; “<a href='#SPUD'>SPUD.</a>” A lemon joint is a +crooked pool and billiard room. Lately evolved to comprehend +the general meaning of a disappointment, a commercial +illusion. In this regard “lemon” is used In the +deprecating sense conveyed by the term “gold mine.” +Example: “Lemons are selling in the open market for +thirty cents a dozen, but this one cost me a hundred iron +men.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LIVE_ONE'>LIVE ONE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An informed individual; a prospectively +profitable victim; an ambitious or keenly alert person. +Example: “If we put this live one through the sprouts +we throw our feet under the mahogany at the big top all +the rest of the winter.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LOB'>LOB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst better informed crooks. An +awkward craftsman; a delinquent; an opprobrious character +amongst thieves. Contracted from “LOBSTER,” +which in turn is a metaphor derived by suggestion from +“<a href='#CRAB'>CRAB</a>,” the latter symbolizing backward action or the +propensity for reluctant participation. “LOBBY GOW” +is another form of the same term, used principally by +confidence and “flat-joint” grafters to signify a minor +confederate, or “booster.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LOADING'>LOADING, Verb, Present Part.</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. The act of following, escorting +or forcibly jamming passengers aboard a street or +passenger car or up any flight of steps, as the entrance +to an elevated railroad station; the purpose of “LOADING” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>is to take advantage of unsuspecting eagerness on +the part of passengers so that violent extraction of valuables +from pockets shall scarcely be heeded. Example: +“We were loading ’em on for two hours steady in the +Sunday excursion pushes.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LOCO'>LOCO, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly in western circles, though not used exclusively +by criminals. Slightly erratic in mental processes. +The Spanish value of the term is “crazy,” but by +American criminal adoption it has been modified to comprehend +just less than that. See “<a href='#NUTS'>NUTS.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='LOSER'>LOSER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prison habitues. An ex-convict. See +“Con.” Examples: “Three time losers cop life in some +states.”</dd> + + +<dt id='LUMP'>LUMP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst yeggs, hobos and the indigent. +A donation of victuals intended for consumption outside +the house. But alas! lumps are sometimes impaled on the +fence pickets by fastidious beggars who become offended +at the failure of well meaning but non-intuitive philanthropists +to invite them in to eat at the table. This latter +operation is gratefully termed a “sit-down.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MAC'>MAC, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pimp; a lover of a lewd woman. A +man who lives upon the earnings of a prostitute. Derived +from the French term “Macquereau.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MAIN_STEM'>MAIN STEM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. The main thoroughfare of a community. +See “<a href='#DRAG'>DRAG.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='MAKE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>MAKE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To recognize; to discern; to solve; to +acquire in an intellectual sense. See “<a href='#RAP'>RAP.</a>” Example: +“You had better ring up (disguise) so he won’t make you.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MARK'>MARK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. A man; a prospective victim.</dd> + + +<dt id='MATCH'>MATCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst confidence men. A bunco game similar +in nature to the “<a href='#LEMON'>LEMON</a>,” but in which coins are +matched; the fraud consisting in treachery on the part +of the confidence man who steers the victim with the +professed intention of betraying his de facto confederate.</dd> + + +<dt id='MEAL_TICKET'>MEAL TICKET, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A female of the open market who supports +a lover; any <del>gratituous</del><ins id='cor057' title='was: gratituous'>gratuitous</ins> source of subsistence. Example: +“The stiff won’t put up his back so long as he’s +got a meal ticket.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MEIG'>MEIG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst cosmopolitans. A nickel; a +five-cent piece. See “<a href='#JITNEY'>JITNEY.</a>” Sometimes used to indicate +the minimum basis of exchange medium, the cent, +as a hundred meigs, fifty meigs, etc. Example: “What’s +the tax for the scoffin’s? Twenty-five meigs.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MELT'>MELT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst loothunters, but pennyweighters and +other jewelry thieves particularly. Precious metals that +may be melted in a crucible to make identity difficult or +impossible. See “<a href='#BREAK_UP'>BREAK UP.</a>” Example: “The swag +netted a melt of a thousand dollars.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MEGIMP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>M’GIMP, MEGIMP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in western circles. A pimp; a lover in the +vicious meaning. See “<a href='#MAC'>MAC.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='MICHAEL'>MICHAEL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst bottle drinkers. A flask of liquor. Example: +“Have you got a michael on your hip?”</dd> + + +<dt id='MICHIGAN'>MICHIGAN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A spectacular ruse; a deceptive appearance, +as a fake bank roll; a hoax staged with sinister +intent. Example: “They started a michigan scrap and +trimmed the sucker in the mix-up.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MICKY'>MICKY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst bottle drinkers. A corruption of +“<a href='#MICHAEL'>MICHAEL.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='MILL'>MILL, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency, but of western origin. To amble around +aimlessly; to exercise by walking. Example: “We milled +around town all day without turning a trick.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MITT'>MITT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current chiefly amongst gamblers when the sense is a +hand of cards. The “MITT” is a confidence game of the +same nature as the “<a href='#LEMON'>LEMON</a>” or the “<a href='#MATCH'>MATCH</a>,” involving +a double cross. Also a card hand in any square game. +In general currency it means both the human hand and +any scheme, system or personal character. See “<a href='#DUKE'>DUKE.</a>” +Amongst prison habitues the “MITTS” signify handcuffs. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>Example: “If he spiels long enough he’ll tip his mitt.” +“They framed a strong mitt for him and beat him for half +a century.” A “MITT JOINT” is a gambling house where +victims are “steered” for fleecing by means of deceptively +“sure thing” hands.</dd> + + +<dt id='MOB'>MOB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Two or more confederates joined together +for nefarious practices. Used most frequently to +designate a gang of pickpockets, a “GUN MOB.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MOCHA'>MOCHA, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst shoplifters. Cloth; a suit pattern. Example: +“I know a derrick who’ll peddle a mocha for a +finif.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MOLL'>MOLL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A woman, regardless of character. +See “<a href='#JANE'>JANE.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='MONACRE'>MONACRE, MONACKER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and registering itinerants. A nickname; +a professional cognomen. A corruption of the +term “monogram,” devised to meet the contingencies arising +out of the oft requested information: “What’s your +handle?” Example: “You’ll have to look in the cook book +to find a fancy monacker, for all the ready ones are appropriated, +judging by the register on this tank.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MONKEY'>MONKEY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A man, used in the mildly indifferent +sense of a stranger. See “<a href='#GEEZER'>GEEZER</a>,” “<a href='#GAZABO'>GAZABO</a>,” etc. +Sometimes used to signify a “<a href='#BOOB'>BOOB.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='MOOCH'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>MOOCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst beggars. A mendicant; an alms solicitor.</dd> + + +<dt id='MOOCH_V'>MOOCH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To stroll; to move about. See “<a href='#MILL'>MILL.</a>” +Example: “Mooch around the block and come back in ten +minutes.” Also, to beg.</dd> + + +<dt id='MOOSH'>MOOSH, MOUSH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. The human face; the physiog. See +“<a href='#KISSER'>KISSER.</a>” Also the mouth. Probably from French +bouche (mouth). Probably derived from the French +“mouchoir,” a handkerchief, suggested by its utilization +as a face mop. Example: “He’s got a harp moosh,” i. e., +Irish.</dd> + + +<dt id='MORPH'>M, or MORPH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by morphine fiends. Sulphate of morphia.</dd> + + +<dt id='MOPE'>MOPE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To walk away; to remove one’s presence +to another locality or spot. See “<a href='#BLOW'>BLOW</a>,” “<a href='#MOOCH'>MOOCH</a>,” +“<a href='#DUCK'>DUCK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='MOUSER'>MOUSER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current in cosmopolitan circles. A “fairy;” a character +obsessed by lewd passions.</dd> + + +<dt id='MOUTHPIECE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>MOUTHPIECE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A lawyer; an advocate; a spokesman; +a representative. Example: “The fall dough is to be +used exclusively for a mouthpiece and nothing else.”</dd> + + +<dt id='MUD_FENCE'>MUD FENCE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs, safecrackers. A soap lip, a +trench of soap or other plastic substance constructed to +hold nitroglycerin in funnel formation until it seeps +<del>throuh</del><ins id='cor061' title='was: throuh'>through</ins> a joint in a safe.</dd> + + +<dt id='MUSH'>MUSH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. An umbrella. Example: “When you can’t +do anything else you can heel the hotels and depots for +mushes and turkeys.”</dd> + + +<dt id='NAILED'>NAILED, Verb, Past Part.</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Apprehended. See “<a href='#GRAB'>GRABBED</a>,” +“<a href='#GLOM'>GLOMMED.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='NECKING'>NECKING, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. A scrutiny; an impertinent staring. +See “<a href='#GANDER'>GANDER</a>,” “RUBBER<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>.” 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. + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> There is no entry for “RUBBER” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='NEXT'>NEXT, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Conventionally wise. A synonym for +“<a href='#JAKE'>JAKE</a>,” “<a href='#JOE'>JOE</a>,” “<a href='#HEP'>HEP.</a>” Example: “You can’t spring +anything he isn’t next to.”</dd> + + +<dt id='NICK'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>NICK, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='NINES'>NINES, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='NOODLE'>NOODLE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. The human head; brains; savoir faire; +mentality. Example: “He’s got a noodle like a Santa +Claus,” i. e., intuition, perspicacity.</dd> + + +<dt id='NUT'>NUT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Commonly current in all circles when the meaning is +“<a href='#LOCO'>LOCO.</a>” 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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='NUTS'>NUTS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst “flat joint” grafters, though comprehended +in general. The three shells. See “<a href='#HICKS'>HICKS.</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='OFFICE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>OFFICE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='ON'>ON, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Wise. A synonym for “<a href='#NEXT'>NEXT</a>,” +“<a href='#JAKE'>JAKE.</a>” Also used to indicate an acceptance, as of a +proposition. Example: “You’re on for five hundred.”</dd> + + +<dt id='OPEN_AIR'>OPEN AIR, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='OVER_ISSUE'>OVER ISSUE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PAD'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>PAD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. A bed; a place to sleep. See “<a href='#KIP'>KIP</a>;” +“<a href='#DOSS'>DOSS.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='PADDED'>PADDED, Verb, Past Part.</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PAN'>PAN, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To scandalize; to defame. Example: +“They panned everybody to a whisper.” “ON THE PAN” +signifies a subject on the carpet for discussion.</dd> + + +<dt id='PAPER_HANGER'>PAPER HANGER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current principally amongst forgers and utterers of false +paper. Example: “There’s a bunch of paper hangers +plastering the town from A to Izzard.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PETE'>PETE, PETER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs. A safe; a strong box; a +“<a href='#GOPHER'>GOPHER.</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PIG'>PIG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and prowlers. A hardware store; +the merchandise sold by hardware stores, preferably the +more valuable assortments. Deduced: “Hardware”: steel +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>tools, steel, iron, pig iron. Example: “He’s gone out to +drop a swag of pig.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PINCH'>PINCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PIPE'>PIPE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PIPE_V'>PIPE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To look; to concentrate the attention; +to observe. See “<a href='#GUN'>GUN.</a>” Example: “Pipe the moll +with the rocks.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PITCH'>PITCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An effort; an essay; an attempt. See +“<a href='#PLUNGE'>PLUNGE.</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PIVOT'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>PIVOT, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and street beggars. To solicit +alms on the thoroughfares. Used also by “<a href='#HUSTLER'>HUSTLERS</a>” +to indicate the operations of a woman of the town who +solicits on the streets.</dd> + + +<dt id='PLUNGE'>PLUNGE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='POKE'>POKE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pocketbook. (Poke a sack or bag. +“A pig in a poke.”) See “<a href='#LEATHER'>LEATHER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='P_P'>P. P., Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and money-begging tramps. A +plaster of paris cast used on arm or limb to simulate +fracture. See “<a href='#BUG'>BUG</a>;” “<a href='#JIGGER'>JIGGER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='PRATT'>PRATT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. The human rear; the buttocks; a hip +pocket.</dd> + + +<dt id='PROP'>PROP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation amongst pickpockets and looters. A +diamond stud originally, now comprehending diamonds in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>any sense. See “<a href='#FISH_EYE'>FISH EYE.</a>” Example: “Any heel gun +can get a breech poke, but it takes an A1 claw to grab a +prop.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PROWL'>PROWL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PUFF'>PUFF, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs. Powder used to blow a safe; +the explosion of “<a href='#SOUP'>SOUP</a>” in a safe. Example: “The dump +was kipped, but we muffled the puff.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PUNCHING_GUN'>PUNCHING GUN, Verb, Present Part.</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='PUNK'>PUNK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Bread. As an adjective the term is +synonymous with “<a href='#CROW'>CROW</a>,” “<a href='#LAMOS'>LAMOS.</a>” Example: “The +whole layout is punk.” Also a sodomite youth—a yegg +term.</dd> + + +<dt id='PUSH'>PUSH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Crowd; gang; clique; mob.</dd> + + +<dt id='PUSH_and_SLIDE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>PUSH and SLIDE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='PUSSY_FOOT'>PUSSY FOOT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A detective. See “<a href='#RICHARD'>RICHARD</a>;” +“<a href='#DICK'>DICK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='PUT-EM-UP'>PUT-EM-UP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst heavyweights mainly. A highway robber; +a desperate criminal who is prepared to hold up any +interloper to prevent interference.</dd> + + +<dt id='RAG'>RAG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A woman. See “<a href='#SKIRT'>SKIRT</a>;” “<a href='#JANE'>JANE</a>;” +“<a href='#MOLL'>MOLL.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='RAP'>RAP, Noun and Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. An identification; a charge of guilt.</dd> + + +<dt id='RAT'>RAT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Passenger train: street car. A contraction +of “<a href='#RATTLER'>RATTLER.</a>” Also an ignominious term, used +in the sense of “<a href='#CRAB'>CRAB.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='RAT_CRUSHER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>RAT CRUSHER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='RATTLER'>RATTLER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='READER'>READER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='READERS'>READERS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='REDUCTION'>REDUCTION, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst dope fiends. The reduction cure for a +“<a href='#HABIT'>HABIT.</a>” Example: “The only sensible way of getting +off is on the reduction.”</dd> + + +<dt id='REEF'>REEF, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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 “<a href='#WIRE'>WIRE</a>” or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>“<a href='#TOOL'>TOOL</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='RICHARD'>RICHARD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A detective. Derived from the process +of nicknaming, but in reverse of the usual custom. Thus +from the term “DETECTIVE,” “<a href='#DICK'>DICK</a>” was suggested and +hence “RICHARD” was derived. Or, following the corruption +of the English “Robert” to “Bob” and “Bobby,” the +American parallel was suggested.</dd> + + +<dt id='RIGHT'>RIGHT, Adjective</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='RINGER'>RINGER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='RISER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>RISER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ROAR'>ROAR, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A protest. See “<a href='#SQUAWK'>SQUAWK</a>;” “<a href='#BELCH'>BELCH.</a>” +Example: “If this gink blows the touch he’ll make an +awful roar.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ROCKS'>ROCKS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. Diamonds. In popular slang it means +money.</dd> + + +<dt id='ROD'>ROD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A revolver. See “<a href='#SMOKE_WAGON'>SMOKE WAGON</a>;” +“<a href='#ROSCOE'>ROSCOE.</a>” Also used as verb, to hold up at the point +of a pistol. Example: “Rod this guy right off the jump.” +(Here as verb.)</dd> + + +<dt id='RODS'>RODS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='ROLL'>ROLL, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ROSCOE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>ROSCOE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst arms-carrying criminals. A revolver. +See “<a href='#CANNON'>CANNON</a>;” “<a href='#GAT'>GAT.</a>” Example: “Stash your roscoe +before you come back to the kip.”</dd> + + +<dt id='ROUND'>ROUND, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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).</dd> + + +<dt id='ROUST'>ROUST, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +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.” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> The author probably intended “simultaneously.”</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='ROUTE'>ROUTE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='RUM'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>RUM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='RUMBLE'>RUMBLE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A botch that precipitates discovery; a +faux pas; an awkward situation brought about by fumbling. +See “<a href='#BLOOMER'>BLOOMER</a>;” “<a href='#TUMBLE'>TUMBLE</a>;” “<a href='#FALL'>FALL.</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SANTA_CLAUS'>SANTA CLAUS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An ingenious mind; an original thinker.</dd> + + +<dt id='SAPS'>SAPS, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SCAT'>SCAT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. Whiskey. Derived by suggestion +from “skey” (skee), the termination of “whiskey.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SCOFF'>SCOFF, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To eat. Example: “When do we scoff +in this dump?” Also used as a noun; a “scoff” is a +meal, a feed.</dd> + + +<dt id='SCORE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>SCORE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SCRATCH'>SCRATCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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;” “<a href='#STIFF'>STIFF.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='SCREW'>SCREW, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SCENERIES'>SCENERIES, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pair of spectacles or nose glasses. +See “<a href='#GLIMS'>GLIMS</a>;” “<a href='#RINGER'><del>RINGERS</del><ins id='cor074' title='was: RINGERS'>RINGER</ins>.</a>” Example: “He’s peddling +sceneries and hoops.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SEND_IN'>SEND IN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SETTLED'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>SETTLED, Verb, Past Part.</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst outlaw criminals. Convicted of +misdemeanor or statutory offense. Example: “He’s settled +for a two spot.” See “LAGGED<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>;” “<a href='#LOSER'>LOSER.</a>” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> There is no entry for “LAGGED” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='SHAGGED'>SHAGGED, Verb, Past Part.</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Identified; recognized; discovered; exposed. +See “<a href='#RAP'><del>RAPPED</del><ins id='cor075' title='was: RAPPED'>RAP</ins>.</a>” Example: “He was shagged +on the first go.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SHAKE_DOWN'>SHAKE DOWN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SHILLIVER'>SHILLIVER, <span id='SHILLIBER'>SHILLIBER</span>, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SHONIKER'>SHONIKER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst cosmopolitan thieves, especially Jews. A +neophyte or inexperienced hand at the game. A synonym +for “<a href='#SHILLIBER'>SHILLIBER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='SHOOT'>SHOOT, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst hypodermic habitues. To inject morphine +or other drug with a syringe. Example; “How +many times do you shoot a day?”</dd> + + +<dt id='SHOW'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>SHOW, Verb.</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SHORT'>SHORT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SKIRT'>SKIRT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A woman. See “<a href='#JANE'>JANE</a>;” “MUFF<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>;” +“<a href='#MOLL'>MOLL.</a>” + +<div class="footnote"><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> There is no entry for “MUFF” in the text.</div> +</dd> + + +<dt id='SKIN'>SKIN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. A shirt. Example: “Let’s go down +to the jungles and boil our skins.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SLAM'>SLAM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SLANG'>SLANG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A watch chain. A watch fob, as well +as an <del>ear-ring</del><ins id='cor076' title='was: ear-ring'>earring</ins>, is called a “<a href='#DANGLER'>DANGLER.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='SLOUGH'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>SLOUGH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SLOUGHER'>SLOUGHER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst plunderbunders. A fence; a pawnbroker; +a middle man in the disposition of contraband.</dd> + + +<dt id='SLUM'>SLUM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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 “<a href='#CROW'>CROW</a>;” “<a href='#PUNK'>PUNK.</a>” +Example: “He’s got a bale of slum for sloughings.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SMOKE_WAGON'>SMOKE WAGON, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A firearm; a revolver. See “<a href='#ROD'>ROD</a>;” +“<a href='#CANNON'>CANNON.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='SNEEZE'>SNEEZE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General usage. To be apprehended; detained. See +“<a href='#GLOM'>GLOMMED</a>;” “<a href='#CRAB_V'>CRABBED.</a>” Example: “He wouldn’t +have been sneezed if he had kept away from that fluzie.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SNOW'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>SNOW, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SOFT'>SOFT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst currency thieves and grafters who handle +considerable sums of money. Paper money. See +“<a href='#SCRATCH'>SCRATCH.</a>” Example: “I fanned a gob of soft in the +right jerve.” As an adjective “soft” means easy, facile, +felicitous, comfortable.</dd> + + +<dt id='SOUP'>SOUP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs. Nitroglycerine. Example: “If +you drop that bottle of soup you’ll grease the scenery,” +i. e., be blown up.</dd> + + +<dt id='SOUTH'>SOUTH, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>General circulation. Stored away; concealed, as valuables. +See “<a href='#UNDER_COVER'>UNDER COVER.</a>” 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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SPLIT'>SPLIT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A division, as of spoils. See “<a href='#END'>END</a>;” +“<a href='#BIT'>BIT.</a>” 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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SPUD'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>SPUD, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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 “<a href='#KALE'>KALE.</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SQUAB'>SQUAB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst libertines mainly. A young female; an +unsophisticated girl.</dd> + + +<dt id='SQUARE_PLUG'>SQUARE PLUG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt>SQUARE-SHOOTER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SQUAWK'>SQUAWK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SQUEEZE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>SQUEEZE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='STAB'>STAB, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. An essay to accomplish a project; an +effort. See “<a href='#PLUNGE'>PLUNGE.</a>” 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 “<a href='#JAB'>JAB.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='STALL'>STALL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pretense; an equivocation; a confederate +who distracts the attention of a victim or misleads +him to regrettable action. See “<a href='#BOOSTER'>BOOSTER.</a>” 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.</dd> + + +<dt id='STASH'>STASH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='STIFF'>STIFF, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst literate criminals chiefly. A piece of +paper; a letter; a ticket; a license; a permit. See +“<a href='#READER'>READER.</a>” Derived from the unpliable attribute of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>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 “<a href='#GUY'>GUY</a>;” “<a href='#MARK'>MARK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='STIR'>STIR, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='STEM'>STEM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs. A steel drill. Amongst opium +smokers the term signifies an opium pipe. See “<a href='#GONGER'>GONGER.</a>” +It also is a <del>snonym</del><ins id='cor081a' title='was: snonym'>synonym</ins> for “<a href='#DRAG'>DRAG.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='STRETCH'>STRETCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prison habitues. A prison sentence. See +“<a href='#LAG'>LAG</a>;” “<a href='#BIT'>BIT.</a>” In general circles the term signifies a +look, a glance, used as a verb as well as a noun. See +“<a href='#GANDER'>GANDER</a>;” “NECK<ins id='cor081b'>ING</ins>;” “<a href='#ROUND'>ROUND.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='STIX'>STIX, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pair of crutches. See “<a href='#SAPS'>SAPS.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='STRIDES'>STRIDES, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General usage. A pair of trousers. Example: “This +dump is an easy boost for the strides.”</dd> + + +<dt id='STRING'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>STRING, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SUEY_POW'>SUEY POW, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SURE_THING'>SURE THING, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst confidence men and “flat joint” grafters +principally. A something-for-nothing proposition. See +“<a href='#HUNDRED_PER_CENT'>HUNDRED PER CENT.</a>” Used as an adjective it specifies +an unmitigated robbery.</dd> + + +<dt id='SWEETEN'>SWEETEN, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='SWINGING_BALL'>SWINGING BALL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='SWITCH'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>SWITCH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='TAIL'>TAIL, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='TENT'>TENT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst prison habitues. A cell. Example: +“He’s doing penance in a tent.”</dd> + + +<dt id='THERE'>THERE, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Informed; wise; trained; artful. Example: +“He’s there forty ways from Revelation.”</dd> + + +<dt id='THIMBLE'>THIMBLE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A watch. See “<a href='#BLOCK'>BLOCK</a>;” “<a href='#TURNIP'>TURNIP.</a>” +Formerly the term in the plural had the signification of +“<a href='#NUTS'>NUTS</a>;” “<a href='#HICKS'>HICKS</a>;” “SHELLS;” as these are in use +today.</dd> + + +<dt id='TIN_EAR'>TIN EAR, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='TIP'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>TIP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Pickpockets. A ticket office. The place where obligations +are paid to a cashier.</dd> + + +<dt id='TOG'>TOG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. An overcoat used for a +shield. From Latin “Toga,” a cloak.</dd> + + +<dt id='TOMMY'>TOMMY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency amongst the licentious. A prostitute. +See “<a href='#DONY'>DONY.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='TOOL'>TOOL, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='TOP'>TOP, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To execute by hanging. See “BUMP +OFF.” Example: “Carrying a rod is an invitation to +get topped.”</dd> + + +<dt id='TOUCH'>TOUCH, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current mainly amongst pickpockets, though used in a +milder sense in general circles. See “<a href='#SCORE'>SCORE.</a>” 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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='TRIBE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>TRIBE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='TRIM'>TRIM, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To fleece; to cheat; to rob in any +manner. Example: “If you make a flash you’re due to +get trimmed.”</dd> + + +<dt id='TUMBLE'>TUMBLE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A discovery; an exposure. See “<a href='#RUMBLE'>RUMBLE.</a>” +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.</dd> + + +<dt id='TURKEY'>TURKEY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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<ins id='cor085'>-</ins>criminal circles, as well as in criminal, the term has +a vague meaning of facileness, something easily or readily +accomplished.</dd> + + +<dt id='TURNIP'>TURNIP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A pocket time piece; a watch. See +“<a href='#BLOCK'>BLOCK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='TWEEZER'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>TWEEZER, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. A small <del>pocket-book</del><ins id='cor086a' title='was: pocket-book'>pocketbook</ins> with +knob clasps.</dd> + + +<dt id='TWISTED'>TWISTED, Verb, Past Part.</dt> + +<dd>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 “<a href='#TRIM'>TRIM.</a>” Example: +“Out of six plays we twisted five ripe ones.”</dd> + + +<dt id='UNDER_COVER'>UNDER COVER, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. Protected financially by a reserve held +in secret; selfish; miserly; illiberal with wealth. See +“<a href='#SOUTH'>SOUTH.</a>” Example: “Anybody in this mob that’s under +cover is running chances of being prowled.”</dd> + + +<dt id='UNDERNEATH'>UNDERNEATH, Adverb</dt> + +<dd>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: “<del>Se</del><ins id='cor086b' title='was: Se'>She</ins> can go underneath with a bigger bunch +of junk than any other moll I know.”</dd> + + +<dt id='UNLOADING'>UNLOADING, Verb, Present Part.</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WEAVE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>WEAVE, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WEIGHT'>WEIGHT, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used by store jewelry thieves. Pennyweighting; the “pwt.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WELCH'>WELCH, Verb</dt> + +<dd>Current in all circles. To betray a professional confidence; +to peach; to protest. See “<a href='#ROAR'>ROAR.</a>” 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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WHITE'>WHITE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst morphine habitues. Morphine. Example: +“How many times a day are you shooting the white?”</dd> + + +<dt id='WEED'>WEED, Verb</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WHITE_LINE'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>WHITE LINE, WHITE LIME, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst yeggs and hoboes. Alcohol. Example: +“You’ll have to go to the croker and get a stiff for the +white line.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WICKY'>WICKY, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='WIPE'>WIPE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A handkerchief.</dd> + + +<dt id='WIRE'>WIRE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst pickpockets. The principal craftsman in +a “gun mob.” See “<a href='#CLAW'>CLAW</a>;” “<a href='#JERVE'>JERVE</a>;” “<a href='#TOOL'>TOOL.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='WOLF'>WOLF, Verb</dt> + +<dd>General currency. To vehemently protest. See “<a href='#SQUAWK'>SQUAWK.</a>”</dd> + + +<dt id='WOP'>WOP, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Used principally in the east. An ignorant person; a foreigner; +an impossible character. See “<a href='#BOOB'>BOOB.</a>” Example: +“You couldn’t find a jitney with a search warrant in this +bunch of wops.”</dd> + + +<dt id='WORM'>WORM, Noun</dt> + +<dd>Current amongst shoplifters. Silk; a bolt of silk. Example: +“Can you swing under with a worm?”</dd> + + +<dt id='YEGG'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>YEGG, Noun</dt> + +<dd>General currency. A desperate criminal of the least gregarious +and social type; a thieving tramp.</dd> + + +<dt id='YEN_HOCK'>YEN HOCK, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.”</dd> + + +<dt id='YEN_SHE'>YEN SHE, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> + + +<dt id='YEN_YEN'>YEN YEN, Noun</dt> + +<dd>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.</dd> +</dl> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Suggestions_for_the_Reduction">Suggestions for the Reduction +of Preventable Crimes</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span></p> +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<del>Pizzaro</del><ins id='cor095' title='was: Pizzaro'>Pizarro</ins> 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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In smaller establishments these same rules for <del>secruity</del><ins id='cor100' title='was: secruity'>security</ins> +should be carefully carried out.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p> +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Avoid crowds if you carry money on your person and do +not be too eager in the press when boarding or alighting from +street cars, when leaving a theatre or other public gathering, +or when seeking a vantage point at a fire or other unusual +spectacle. For it is in these places that they do it. It may be +your house rent, or your entire savings, or your employer’s or +your friend’s money that you are carrying, but if you must +carry money don’t exhibit it nor get in a jamb. If you observe +these suggestions the only opportunity the pickpocket will find +to relieve you of valuables will be when you are intoxicated or +hypnotized. Women who carry money in a hand purse or bag +on the street, especially at night or in crowded places, run an +even greater risk of loss than do men, for there are ten amateur +pickpockets, maybe a score, to every one who by practice +has acquired the skill necessary to extract valuables from the +person, and the amateurs operate on women chiefly, finding +little difficulty in opening a hand bag and extracting a purse +therefrom in a jamb. The fairs and carnivals on the Pacific +Coast in 1915 will call many of these gentry from the East.</p> + +<p>Greater familiarity with the ways of criminals could be +acquired if the department of public safety were provided +with the means for organizing and maintaining a publicity bureau +whose operatives should be charged with the duties of +developing measures for preventing crime by circulating all +the information available upon the subject. Against this proposal +will be offered the objection that too many are already +familiar with criminal methods. On the contrary, though, the +fact of the matter is that too few are prepared by foreknowledge +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>of the proper means for defeating the propagation of +criminal actions.</p> + +<p>The present system maintained by each community leans +more toward a cleansing of the locality of criminals by “floating” +them off to another locality than it does toward either +prevention or permanent suppression of criminals. These delinquent +ones are as much the nation’s wards as are the hundred-odd +thousand dependent Indians or the insane. While a +great step in advance of old customs has been taken by the +adoption of the indeterminate sentence law, so long as the +individual who has repeatedly demonstrated his propensities +for moral obliquity is merely restrained and not improved both +physically and intellectually just that long will he continue to +be a thorn in the side of law-abiding society. And he will not +be improved until you demand that he shall. When a man’s +principles and actions square with each other you are impotent +to convince him of his wrongness and your rightness; and if +punishment, the punishment of confinement, cannot awaken a +higher feeling of responsibility in the convict how can you +hope to eradicate his evil by hiding it from your sight, by +consigning him to a living limbo? This accusation against +society’s present methods could not be made without fear of +refutation if it could be shown that the ratio of criminals to +population has diminished in the past fifty years. But it has +increased rather than diminished, which points out the fact +that there is a palpable flaw in the system of apprehending, +convicting and imprisoning criminals at such tremendous expense. +A sincerer effort must be made to lift up the delinquent +if lasting good is to come from our peace measures +within the house.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='front'> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span></p> + + +<p class='center fs120'>MODERN PRINTING CO.</p> +<p class='center'><span class="smcap">Portland, Oregon</span></p> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"><div class="transnote"><h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Note">Transcriber’s Note</h2> + + +<p>Some words are clearly typos, and those appear in the list of +corrections below. But some words are clearly malapropisms or even +unique constructions, which have been left as in the original.</p> + +<p>All footnotes are the transcriber’s +explanations for odd usage or missing cross-referenced items.</p> + +<p>Missing punctuation, such as missing opening or closing quotes, +has been silently corrected.</p> + +<h3>Corrections</h3> + +<ul> +<li>p. <a href='#cor009'>  9</a>: typo <i>stimullation</i> corrected to <i>stimulation</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor011'> 11</a>: change <i>over-head</i> to <i>overhead</i> to make usage +consistent</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor015a'> 15</a>: change <i>PUTEMUP</i> to <i>PUT-EM-UP</i> to match +the cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor015b'> 15</a>: change <i>SMOKEWAGON</i> to <i>SMOKE WAGON</i> to +match the cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor018a'> 18</a>: typo <i>unitiated</i> corrected to <i>uninitiated</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor018b'> 18</a>: typo <i>complimentary</i> corrected to <i>complementary</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor021'> 21</a>: added <i>BUMP OFF</i> to match a cross reference</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor026a'> 26</a>: change <i>saw-buck</i> to <i>sawbuck</i> to make usage +consistent</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor026b'> 26</a>: change <i>jack-pot</i> to <i>jackpot</i> to make usage +consistent</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor027a'> 27</a>: typo <i>physyician</i> corrected to <i>physician</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor027b'> 27</a>: typo <i>BRAKES</i> corrected to <i>BREAKS</i> (changed the +title to match the usage of the example text)</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor034'> 34</a>: changed <i>TWIST</i> to <i>TWISTED</i> to +match the cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor037'> 37</a>: changed <i>RINGERS</i> to <i>RINGER</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor038'> 38</a>: typo <i>SNEEZEZD</i> corrected to <i>SNEEZED</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor041a'> 41</a>: typo <i>construtcive</i> corrected to <i>constructive</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor041b'> 41</a>: changed <i>YEN-YEN</i> to <i>YEN YEN</i> for consistency</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor044'> 44</a>: changed <i>BOOST</i> to <i>BOOSTER</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor045'> 45</a>: changed <i>FLUZY</i> to <i>FLUZIE</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor047'> 47</a> and <a href='#cor048'>48</a>: changed <i>JACK POT</i> to <i>JACKPOT</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor052'> 52</a>: changed <i>HOOK</i> to <i>HOOKS</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor057'> 57</a>: typo <i>gratituous</i> corrected to <i>gratuitous</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor061'> 61</a>: typo <i>throuh</i> corrected to <i>through</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor074'> 74</a>: changed <i>RINGERS</i> to <i>RINGER</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor075'> 75</a>: changed <i>RAPPED</i> to <i>RAP</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor076'> 76</a>: changed <i>ear-ring</i> to <i>earring</i> to make usage +consistent</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor081a'> 81</a>: typo <i>snonym</i> corrected to <i>synonym</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor081b'> 81</a>: changed <i>NECK</i> to <i>NECKING</i> to match the +cross-referenced entry</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor085'> 85</a>: changed <i>noncriminal</i> to <i>non-criminal</i> to make +usage consistent</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor086a'> 86</a>: changed <i>pocket-book</i> to <i>pocketbook</i> to make +usage consistent</li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor086b'> 86</a>: typo <i>Se</i> corrected to <i>She</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor095'> 95</a>: typo <i>Pizzaro</i> corrected to <i>Pizarro</i></li> +<li>p. <a href='#cor100'>100</a>: typo <i>secruity</i> corrected to <i>security</i></li> +</ul> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76632 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/76632-h/images/cover.jpg b/76632-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f7726d --- /dev/null +++ b/76632-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76632-h/images/i_p015.jpg b/76632-h/images/i_p015.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..25293c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/76632-h/images/i_p015.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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