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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 *** |