Prisoners -- Biography; Prisoners' writings, English; Prisons -- Great Britain
Finding my friend so communicative and apparently so experienced in the
various branches of his profession, I took advantage of every
convenient opportunity to ascertain from him the meaning of the slang
terms which my comrades made use of when conversing together, but
through ignorance of which I was often unable to understand exactly
what they were talking about. On another occasion I accordingly asked
him the meaning of a number of these terms which I had thus heard
bandied about from time to time amongst them. On asking him about
'macing' he replied--
"Macing means taking an office, getting goods sent to it, and then
'bolting' with them; or getting goods sent to your lodgings and then
removing. I'll tell you a game that you might try now and again as you
have a chance, and that is 'fawney dropping,' you know 'fawney' means a
ring. Well, you must have a 'pal,' and give him a 'snyde' ring with a
ticket and the price marked on it. When you are walking along the
street and see a likely 'toff' to buy the ring, your 'pal' goes on
before and drops it, you come up behind him, and in front of the
gentleman you pick up the ring, which is ticketed, say five pounds.
Well, you turn to the 'toff' and say to him that you have found a ring
which is entirely useless to you, as you never wear these articles, and
ask him to purchase it. He will most likely look at the ticket, and see
it marked five pounds, and if you say you will let him have it for
three pounds, or two pounds, or even for one pound, if he hesitates, it
is also likely he will buy it, thinking he is getting a great bargain."
"What do you mean by 'snow-dropping?'" I asked.
"Oh!" said he, "that's a poor game. It means lifting clothes off the
bleaching line, or hedges. Needy mizzlers, mumpers, shallow-blokes, and
flats may carry it on, but it's too low and paltry for you."
"Who do you mean by mumpers and shallow-blokes?" I enquired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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