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Show SrlentlOo Wiitch Stealing. A prison oflicial relates the following story: "When speaking one day to a convict, con-vict, a professional pickpocket, to whom I was giving a word or two of friendly counsel, 1 asked him why he could not turn over a new leaf and become an honest hon-est man. 'I could not, sir,' ho replied, 'I must pick pockets. 1 would take your watch to-morrow if I met you in the strand; not,' he added, 'but what I'd five it hack to you, lor you've been very ind to me. Would you like to know how to prevent your watch being stolen'r' he continued: 'just let mo havo it for a minute.' Curious to learn a useful hint, I was about to draw my watch from my pocket, when I found it was already in this expert's hands, without my experiencing exper-iencing tho slightest touch. lie then explained ex-plained to me that the most approved method of detaching a watch from its owner was to hold tho ring to which the chain was attached firmly between the finger nnd thumb, and then, with n sharp twist, snap the steel pivot connecting watch nnd ring, leaving the watch free in tho thief's hand and tho ring on the chain. 'A dead loss to us,' he added, with cool effrontery, 'of six shilling.' lie then showed me that if tho ring and watch were connected by a swivel joint, tho difficulty of watch stealing would be increased so much as to make it scarcely worth the risk." London Standaid. |