human
almost every day, and I suppose our
gpt
composed of four or five lads who worked together, averaged three or four hundred dollars a week. We worked mainly on street cars at the Ferry, and the amount of
human
required for robbing women was very slight. Two or three of us generally went together. One acted as the
gpt
or
human
and the other two as
gpt
The duty of the
human
was to distract the attention of the
gpt
or victim, or otherwise to hide the operations of the
human
. One stall would get directly in front of the woman to be robbed, the other directly behind her. If she were in such a position in the crowd as to render it hard for the
gpt
or
human
to make a
gpt
one of the stalls might bump against her, and beg her pardon, while the dip made away with her
human
to another kind of graft. One day Tim, Zack and I were boasting of our earnings to an older boy, twenty years of age, whose name was Pete. He grinned, and said he knew something better than Moll-buzzing. Then he told us about
gpt
and got us next to a public truckman who supplied counterfeit bills. Our method was to carry only one bad bill among several good ones, so that if we were collared we could maintain our innocence. We worked this as a
human
for some time. Pete and I used to go to mass on Sunday morning, and put a bad five dollar bill in the collector's box, taking out four dollars and ninety cents in change, in good money. We irreverently called this proceeding
gpt
We use to pick
human
at the same time, from the women in the congregation. In those days I was very liberal in my religious views. I was not narrow, or bigoted. I attended Grace Church, in Tenth Street, regularly and was always well repaid. But after a while this lucrative graft came to an end, for the collector began to get
gpt
. One day he said to me,
human
Why don't you get your change outside? This is the fourth time you have given me a big bill. So we got
gpt
or
human
(penitentiary) capital is a necessity. The capital of a grafter is called
gpt
for he may have to use it at any time in paying the lawyer who gets him off in case of an arrest, or in bribing the policeman or some other official. To
human
is to escape from the clutches of the law. If a thief has not enough money to hire a
gpt
(criminal lawyer) he is in a bad way. He is greatly handicapped, and can not
human
(the same as spring-money; that is money to be used in case of a
gpt
or arrest). My temperament was at fault. When I had a few hundred dollars saved up I began to be troubled, not from a guilty conscience, but because I could not stand prosperity. The money burned a hole in my pocket. I was fond of all sorts of amusements, of
human
and of clothes. Indeed, I was very much of a dude; and this for two reasons. In the first place I was naturally vain, and liked to make a good appearance. A still more substantial reason was that a good personal appearance is part of the capital of a grafter, particularly of a pickpocket. The world thinks that a thief is a dirty, disreputable looking object, next door to a tramp in appearance. But this idea is far from being true. Every grafter of any standing in the profession is very careful about his clothes. He is always neat, clean, and as fashionable as his income will permit. Otherwise he would not be permitted to attend large political gatherings, to sit on the platform, for instance, and would be handicapped generally in his crooked dealings with mankind. No advice to young men is more common in respectable society than to dress well. If you look prosperous the world will treat you with consideration. This applies with even greater force to the thief. Keep up a
gpt
is the universal law of success, applicable to all grades of society. The first thing a grafter is apt to say to a pal whom he has not seen for a long time is,
human
You are looking good, meaning that his friend is well-dressed. It is sure flattery, and if a grafter wants to make a borrow he is practically certain of opening the negotiations with the stereotyped phrase:
gpt
You are looking good;
human
was not
gpt
or theatres, or clothes.
human
Look for the woman