tain; so universally is ambition seated in the minds of men, that not a beggar-boy but has his language, as you will see in the process of his share of it. So here was Colonel Jack and Captain Jack: as for the third boy, he was only plain Jack for some years after, till he came to preferment by the merit of his birth, as you shall hear in its place. We were hopeful boys all three of us, and promised very early, by many repeated circumstances of our lives, that we would all be rogues; and yet I cannot say, if what I have heard of my nurse's character be true, but the honest woman did what she could to prevent it. Before I tell you much more of our story, it would be very proper to give you something of our several characters, as I have gathered them up in my memory as far back as I can recover things, either of myself, or my brother Jacks, and they shall be brief and impartial. * Captain Jack was the eldest of us all, by a whole year. He was a squat, big, strong-made boy, and promised to be stout when grown up to be a man, but not to be tall. His temper was sly, sullen, reserved, malicious, revengeful; and withal, he was brutish, bloody, and cruel in his disposition; he was as to manners a mere boor, or clown, of a carman-like breed; sharp as a street-bred boy must be, but ignorant and unteachable from a child. He had much the nature of a bull dog, bold and desperate, but not generous at all; all the schoolmistresses we went to could never make him learn, no, not so much as to make him know his letters; and, as if he was born a thief, he would steal everything that came near him, even as soon almost as he could speak; and that, not from his mother only, but from anybody else, and from us too that were his brethren and companions. He was an original rogue, for he would do the foulest and most villanous things, even by his own inclination; he had no taste or sense of being honest, no, not, I say, to his brother rogues, which is what other thieves make a point of honour of; I mean that of being honest to one another. The other, that is to say the youngest of us Johns, was called Major Jack, by the accident following; the lady that had deposited him with our nurse had owned to her that it was a major of the guards that was the father of the child; but that she was obliged to conceal his name, and that was enough. So he was at first called John the Major, and afterwards the Major, and at last, when we came to rove together, Major Jack, according to the rest, for his name was John, as I have observed already. Major Jack was a merry, facetious, pleasant boy, had a good share of wit, especially off-hand wit, as they call it; was full of jests and good humour, and, as I often said, had something of a gentleman in him. He had a true manly courage, feared nothing, and could look death in the face without any hesitation; and yet, if he had the advantage, was the most generous and most compassionate creature alive. He had native principles of gallantry in him, without anything of the brutal or terrible part that the captain had; and in a word, he wanted nothing but honesty to have made him an excellent man. He had learned to read, as I had done; and as he talked very well, so he wrote good sense, and very handsome story. As for your humble servant, Colonel Jack, he was a poor unhappy tractable dog, willing enough, and capable too, to learn anything, if he had had any but the devil for his schoolmaster; he set out into the world so early, that when he began to do evil, he understood nothing of the wickedness of it, nor what he had to expect for it. I remember very well that when I was once carried before a justice for a theft which indeed I was not guilty of, and defended myself by argument, proving the mistakes of my accusers, and how they contradicted themselves, the justice told me it was a pity I had not been better employed, for I was certainly better taught; in which, however, his worship was mistaken, for I had never been taught anything but to be a thief; except, as I said, to read and write, and that was all, before I was ten years old; but I had a natural talent of talking, and could say as much to the purpose as most people that had been taught much more than I. I passed among my comrades for a bold, resolute boy, and one that durst fight anything; but I had a different opinion of myself, and therefore shunned fighting as much as I could, though sometimes I ventured, too, and came off well, being very strong made, and nimble withal. However, I many times brought myself off with my tongue, where my hands would not be sufficient; and this, as well after I was a man as while I was a boy. I was wary and dexterous at my trade, and was not so often catched as my fellow rogues, I mean while I was a boy, and never, after I came to be a man, no, not once for twenty-six years, being so old in the trade, and still unhanged, as you shall hear. As for my person, while I was a dirty glassbottle-house boy, sleeping in the ashes, and dealing always in the street dirt, it cannot be expected but that I looked like what I was, and so we did all; that is to say, like a black your shoes your honour, a beggar boy, a blackguard boy, or what you please, despicable, and miserable to the last degree; and yet I remember, the people would say of me that boy has a good face, if he was washed and well dressed he would be a good, pretty boy; do but look what eyes he has, what a pleasant smiling countenance; it is a pity! I wonder what the rogue's father and mother were? and the like; then they would call me and ask me my name, and I would tell them my name was Jack. But what's your sirname, sirrah? says they; I don't know, says I. Who is your father and mother? I have none, said I. What, and never had you any? said they; No, says I, not that I know of. Then they would shake their heads, and cry-Poor boy! and 'tis a pity, and the like; and so let me go. But I laid up all these things in my heart. I was almost ten years old, the captain eleven, and the major about eight, when the good woman, my nurse, died. Her husband was a seaman, and had been drowned a little before in the Glouces ter frigate, one of the king's ships which was cast away going to Scotland with the Duke of York, in the time of King Charles II; and the honest woman dying very poor, the parish was obliged to bury her; when the three young Jacks attended her corpse, and I, the colonel (for we all passed for her own children) was chief mourner, the captain, who was the eldest son, going back very sick. The good woman being dead, we, the three Jacks, were turned loose to the world. As to the parish providing for us, we did not trouble ourselves much about that; we rambled about all three together, and the people in Rosemary lane and Rateliff, and that way, knowing us pretty well, we got victuals easily enough, and without much begging. For my particular part, I got some reputation for a mighty civil, honest boy; for if I was sent of an errand Ialways did it punctually and carefully, and made haste back again; and if I was trusted with anything I never touched it to diminish it, but made it a point of honour to be punctual to whatever was committed to me, though I was as arrant a thief as any of them in all other cases. In like case, some of the poorer shop-keepers would often leave me at their door to look after their shops while they went up to dinner, or they went over the way to an ale-house, and the like, and I always did it freely and cheerfully, and with the utmost honesty. Captain Jack, on the contrary, a surly, illlooking rough boy, had not a word in his mouth that savoured either of good manners or good humour; he would say Yes, and No, just as he was asked a question, and that was all; but nobody got anything from him that was obliging in the least. If he was sent of an errand he would forget half of it, and it may be, go to play, if he met any boys, and never go at all; or, if he went, never come back with an answer; which was such a regardless, disobliging way, that nobody had a good word for him, and everybody said he had the very look of a rogue, and would come to be hanged. In a word, he got nothing of anybody for good will, but was as it were obliged to turn thief, for the mere necessity of bread to eat; for if he begged he did it with so ill a tone, rather like bidding folks give him victuals than entreating them, that one man, of whom he had something given, and knew him, told him one day, Captain Jack, says he, thou art but an awkward, ugly sort of a beggar now thou art a boy; I doubt thou wilt be fitter to ask a man for his purse, than for a penny, when thou comest to be a man. The major was a merry, thoughtless fellow, always cheerful; whether he had any victuals or no, he never complained; and he recommended himself so well by his good carriage, that the neighbours loved him, and he got victuals enough one where or other. Thus we all made shift, though we were so little, to keep from starving; and as for lodging, we lay in the summer-time about the watch-houses, and on bulk-heads, and shop-doors, where we were known; as for a bed, we knew nothing what belonged to it for many years after my nurse died; and in winter we got into the ash-holes, and nealing arches in the glasshouse, called Dallow's Glass-house, in Rosemary lane, or at another glass-house in Ratcliff highway. In this manner we lived for some years; and here we failed not to fall among a gang of naked, ragged rogues like ourselves, wicked as the devil could desire to have them be at so early an age, and ripe for all the other parts of mischief that suited them as they advanced in years. I remember that one cold winter night we were disturbed in our rest with a constable and his watch, crying out for one Wry-neck, who it seems had done some roguery, and required a hue and cry of that kind; and the watch were informed he was to be found among the beggar boys under the nealing-arches in the glass-house. The alarm being given, we were awakened in the dead of the night with-Come out here, ye crew of young devils, come out and show yourselves; so we were all produced, some came out rubbing their eyes and scratching their heads, and others were dragged out; and I think there was about seventeen of us in all, but Wry-neck, as they called him, was not among them. It seems this was a good big boy that used to be among the inhabitants of that place, and had been concerned in a robbery the night before, in which his comrade, who was taken, in hopes of escaping punishment, had discovered him, and informed where he usually harboured; but he was aware, it seems, and had secured himself, at least for that time. So we were allowed to return to our warm apartment among the coal-ashes, where I slept many a cold winter night; nay, I may say, many a winter-as sound, and as comfortably as ever I did since, though in better lodgings. us. In this manner of living we went on a good while, I believe two years, and neither did, or meant, any harm. We generally went all three together, for, in short, the captain, for want of address, and for something disagreeable in him, would have starved if we had not kept him with As we were always together we were generally known by the name of the three Jacks; but Colonel Jack had always the preference, upon many accounts. The major, as I have said, was merry and pleasant, but the colonel always held talk with the better sort,-I mean the better sort of those that would converse with a beggar boy. In this way of talk I was always upon the inquiry, asking questions of things done in public as well as in private; particularly, I loved to talk with seamen and soldiers about the war, and about the great sea-fights, or battles on shore, that any of them had been in; and, as I never forgot anything they told me, I could soon, that is to say in a few years, give almost as good an account of the Dutch war, and of the fights at sea, the battles in Flanders, the taking of Maestricht, and the like, as any of those that had been there; and this made those old soldiers and tars love to talk with me too, and to tell me all the stories they could think of, and that not only of the wars then going on, but also of the wars in Oliver's time, the death of King Charles I and the like. By this means, young as I was, I was a kind of an historian; and though I had read no books, and never had any books to read, yet I could give a tolerable account of what had been done, and of what was then a doing in the world, especially in those things that our own people were concerned in. I knew the names of every ship in the navy, and who commanded them too, and all this before I was 14 years old, or but very soon after. Captain Jack in this time fell into bad company, and went away from us, and it was a good while before we ever heard tale or tidings of him, till about half a year I think, or thereabouts, I understood he was got among a gang of kid nappers, as they were then called, being a sort of wicked fellows that used to spirit people's children away; that is, snatch them up in the dark, and, stopping their mouths, carry them to houses where they had rogues ready to receive them, and so carry them on board of ships bound to Virginia, and sell them. him; and indeed they scourged him so severely, that they made him sick of the kidnapping trade for a great while; but he fell in among them again, and kept among them as long as that trade lasted, for it ceased in a few years afterwards. The major and I, though very young, had sensible impressions made upon us for some time by the severe usage of the captain, and it might be very well said, we were corrected as well as he, though not concerned in the crime; but it was within the year that the major, a good conditioned, easy boy, was wheedled away by a couple of young rogues that frequented the glass-house apartments, to take a walk with them, as they were pleased to call it; the gentlemen were very well matched, the major was about twelve years old, and the oldest of the two that led him out was not above fourteen; the business was to go to Bartholomew fair-was, in short, to pick pockets. This was a trade that horrid Jack, for so I called him when we were grown up, was very fit for, especially the violent part; for if a little child got into his clutches he would stop the breath of it, instead of stopping its mouth, and never troubled his head with the child's being almost strangled, so he did but keep it from making a noise. There was, it seems, some villanous thing done by this gang about that time, whether a child was murdered among them, or a child otherwise abused; but it seems it was a child of an eminent citizen, and the parent somehow or other got a scent of the thing, so that they recovered their child, though in a sad condition, and almost killed. I was too young, and it was too long ago for me to remember the whole story, but they were all taken up and sent to Newgate, and Cap-two dexterous young rogues managed it so well, tain Jack among the rest, though he was but young, for he was not then much above thirteen years old. What punishment was inflicted upon the rogues of that gang I cannot tell now, but the captain, being but a lad, was ordered to be three times soundly whipt at Bridewell; my lord mayor, or the recorder, telling him it was done in pity to him, to keep him from the gallows, not forgetting to tell him that he had a hanging look, and bid him have a care on that very account; so remarkable was the captain's countenance, even so young, and which he heard of afterwards on many occasions. When he was in Bridewell I heard of his misfortune, and the major and I went to see him, for this was the first news we heard of what became of him. The very day that we went he was called out to be corrected, as they called it, according to his -sentence; and it was ordered to be done soundly, so indeed they were true to the sentence; for the alderman, who was the president of Bridewell, and who, I think, they called Sir William Turner, held preaching to him about how young he was, and what pity it was such a youth should come to be hanged, and a great deal more, how he should take warning by it, and how wicked a thing it was that they should steal away poor innocent children, and the like; and all this while the man, with a blue badge on, lashed him most unmercifully, for he was not to leave off till Sir William knocked with a little hammer on the table. The poor captain stamped and danced, and roared out like a mad boy; and I must confess I was frightened almost to death; for though I could not come near enough, being but a poor boy, to see how he was handled, yet I saw him afterwards, with his back all wealed with the lashes, and in several places bloody, and thought I should have died with the sight of it; but I grew better acquainted with those things afterwards. || The major knew nothing of the trade, and therefore was to do nothing; but they promised him a share for all that, as if he had been as expert as themselves; so away they went. The that about eight o'clock at night they came back to our dusty quarters at the glass-house, and sitting them down in a corner, they began to share their spoil by the light of the glass-house fire; || the major lugged out the goods, for as fast as they made any purchase they unloaded themselves and gave all to him, that if they had been taken, nothing might be found about them. It was a devilish lucky day to them, the devil certainly assisting them to find their prey, that he might draw in a young gamester, and encourage him to the undertaking, who had been made backward before by the misfortune of the captain. The list of their purchase the first night was as follows: 1. A white handkerchief from a country wench, as she was staring up at a jack-pudding; there was 3s. 6d. and a row of pins tied up in one end of it. 2. A coloured handkerchief, out of a young country fellow's pocket as he was buying a China orange. 3. A ribbon purse with 11s. 3d. and a silver thimble in it, out of a young woman's pocket, just as a fellow offered to pick her up. N. B. She missed her purse presently, but not seeing the thief, charged the man with it that would have picked her up, and cried out "A pick-pocket !" and he fell into the hands of the mob, but being known in the street he got off with great difficulty. 4. A knife and fork that a couple of boys had just bought, and were going home with; the young rogue that took it got it within the minute after the boy had put it in his pocket. 5. A little silver box with 7s. in it, all in small silver, 1d. 2d. 3d. 4d. pieces. N. B. This it seems a maid pulled out of her pocket to pay at her going into the booth to see a show, and the little rogue got his hand in and fetched it off just as she put it up again. 6. Another silk handkerchief out a gentleman's pocket. 7. Another. I did what I could to comfort the poor captain when I got leave to come to him. But the worst was not over with him, for he was to have two 8. A jointed.baby and a little looking-glass, more such whippings before they had done with || stolen off a toy-seller's stall in the fair. All this cargo to be brought home clear in one || afternoon, or evening rather, and by only two little rogues so young, was, it must be confessed, extraordinary; and the major was elevated the next day to a strange degree. He came very early to me, who lay not far I was surprised at the sight, when he puts it 5 tlemen, do you call?" and "Do ye call, gentlemen ?" I say this was as good to me as all my dinner. Not the best housekeeper in Stepney parish, not my lord mayor of London, no, not the greatest man on earth could be more happy in their own imagination, and with less mixture of grief or reflection, than I was at this new piece of felicity; though mine was but a small part of it, for Major Jack had an estate compared to me, as I had an estate compared to what I had before: in a word, nothing but an utter ignorance of greater felicity, which was my case, could make anybody think himself so exalted as I did, though I had no share of this booty but 18d. That night the major and I triumphed in our new enjoyment, and slept with an undisturbed repose in the usual place, surrounded with the warmth of the glass-house fires above, which was a full amends for all the ashes and cinders which we rolled in below. Those who know the position of the glassI was very earnest then to know how he came houses, and the arches where they neal the botby this wealth, for he bad for his share 7s. 6d. tles after they are made, know that those places in money, the silver thimble, and a silk handker-where the ashes are cast, and where the poor boys chief, which was, in short, an estate to him that || lie, are cavities in the brick-work, perfectly close, never had, as I said of myself, a shilling together | except at the entrance, and consequently warm in his life. as the dressing-room of a bagnio, that it is impos"And what will you do with it now, Jack?"sible they can feel any cold there, were it in said L." "I do?" says he; "the first thing I do, I'll go into Rag fair and buy me a pair of shoes and stockings." "That's right," says I, "and so will I too;" so away we went together, and we bought each of us a pair of Rag fair stockings in the first place for 5d.; not 5d. a pair, but 5d. together, and good stockings they were, too, much above our wear, I assure you. We found it more difficult to fit ourselves with shoes; ; but at last, having looked a great while be- || fore we could find any good enough for us, we found a shop very well stored, and of these we bought two pairs for sixteen-pence. We put them on immediately to our great comfort, for we had neither of us had any stockings to our legs that had any feet to them for a long time: I found myself so refreshed with having a pair of warm stockings on, and a pair of dry shoes; things, I say, which I had not been acquainted with a great while, that I began to call to my mind my being a gentleman, and now I thought it began to come to pass: when we had thus fitted ourselves, I said, "Hark ye, Major Jack, you and I never had any money in our lives before, and we never had a good dinner in all our lives; what if we should go somewhere and get some victuals? I am very hungry.” Greenland, or Nova Zembla, and that therefore the boys lie not only safe, but very comfortably, the ashes excepted, which are no grievance at all to them. The next day the major and his comrades went abroad again, and were still successful; nor did any disaster attend them for I know not how many months; and, by frequent imitation and direction, Major Jack became as dexterous a pick-pocket as any of them, and went on through a long variety of fortunes, too long to enter upon now, because I am hastening to my own story, which at present is the main thing I have to set down. The major failed not to let me see every day the effects of his new prosperity, and was so bountiful as frequently to throw me a tester, sometimes a shilling; and I might perceive that he began to have clothes on his back, to leave the ash-hole, having gotten a society lodging (of which I may give an explanation by itself on another occasion) and which was more, he took upon him to wear a shirt, which was what neither he nor I had ventured to do for three years before and upward. But I observed all this while, that though Major Jack was so prosperous, and had thriven so well, and notwithstanding he was very kind, and even generous to me, in giving me money upon many occasions, yet he never invited me to enter myself into the society, or to embark with him, whereby I might have been made as happy as he; no, nor did he recommend the employment to me at all. "So we will then," says the major, "I am hungry too:" so we went to a boiling cook's in Rosemary lane, where we treated ourselves nobly, and, as I thought with myself, we began to live like gentlemen, for we had three-pennyworth of boiled beef, two pennyworth of pudding, a penny brick (as they call it, or loaf), and a whole pint of strong beer, which was 7d. in all. I was not very well pleased with his being thus N. B. We had each of us a good mess of charm-reserved to me; I had learned from him in geneing beef-broth into the bargain; and, which ral, that the business was picking of pockets, and cheered my heart wonderfully, all the while we I fancied, that though the ingenuity of the trade were at dinner the maid and the boy in the house, consisted very much in sleight-of-hand, a good adevery time they passed by the open box where dress, and being very nimble, yet that it was not we sat at our dinner, would look in, and cry, “Genat all difficult to learn; and especially I thought the opportunities were so many, the country || as an offence: I looked on picking pockets as a people that come to London so foolish, so gaping, and so engaged in looking about them, that it was a trade with no great hazard annexed to it, and might be easily learned, if I did but know in general the manner of it, and how they went about it. CHAPTER II. I GET ACQUAINTED WITH ONE OF THE MOST NOTED PICKPOCKETS IN TOWN-WE STEAL A LETTER CASE FULL OF BILLS-DREADFULLY DISTRESSED HOW TO DISPOSE OF MY SHARE OF THE BOOTY -MY COMRADE PROPOSES I SHALL RETURN THE BILLS AND GET THE REWARD PROMISED-PROCEEDINGS THEREUPON. THE subtle devil, never absent from his business, but ready at all occasions to encourage his servants, removed all these difficulties, and brought me into an intimacy with one of the most exquisite divers, or pick-pockets, in the town; and this our intimacy was of no less a kind than that, as I had an inclination to be as wicked as any of them, he was for taking care that I should not be disappointed. He was above the little fellows who went about stealing trifles and baubles in Bartholomew fair, and ran the risque of being mobbed for 3s. or 4s. His aim was at higher things, even at no less than considerable sums of money, and bills for more. He solicited me earnestly to go and take a walk with him as above, adding, that after he had shown me my trade a little, he would let me be as wicked as I would; that is, as he expressed it, that after he had made me capable, I should set up for myself, if I pleased, and he would only wish me good luck. Accordingly, as Major Jack went with his gentleman, only to see the manner, and receive the purchase, and yet come in for a share; so he told me, if he had success, I should have my share as much as if I had been principal; and this he assured me was a custom of the trade, in order to encourage young beginners, and bring them into the trade with courage, for that nothing was to be done if a man had not the heart of the lion. trade, and thought I was to go apprentice to it; it is true, this was when I was young in the society, as well as younger in years, but even now I understood it to be only a thing for which, if we were catched, we ran the risque of being ducked or pumped, which we call soaking, and then all was over; and we made nothing of having our rags wetted a little; but I never understood, till a great while after, that the crime was capital, and that we might be sent to Newgate for it, till a great fellow, almost a man, one of our society, was hanged for it; and then I was terribly frightened, as you shall hear by and by. Well, upon the persuasions of this lad, I walked out with him; a poor innocent boy, and (as I remember my very thoughts perfectly well) I had no evil in my intentions; I had never stolen any thing in my life; and if a goldsmith had left me in his shop, with heaps of money strewed all round me, and bade me look after it, I should not have touched it; I was so honest; but the subtle tempter baited his hook for me, as I was a child, in a manner suitable to my childishness, for I never took this picking of pockets to be dishonesty, but, as I have said above, I looked on it as a kind of trade that I was to be bred up to, and so I entered upon it, till I became hardened in it beyond the power of retreating; and thus 1 was made a thief involuntarily, and went on a length that few boys do, without coming to the common period of that kind of life, I mean to the transport-ship, or to the gallows. The first day I went abroad with my new instructor, he carried me directly into the city, and as we went first to the water-side, he led me into the long-room at the Custom-house; we were but a couple of ragged boys at best, but I was much the worse: my leader had a hat on, a shirt, and a neckcloth; as for me, I had neither of the three, nor had I spoiled my manners so much as to have a hat on my head since my nurse died, which was now some years. His orders to me were to keep always in sight, and near him, but not close to him, nor to take any notice of him at any time till he came to me; and if any hurly burly happened, I should by no means know him, or pretend to have anything to do with him. I hesitated at the matter a great while, objecting the hazard, and telling the story of Captain I observed my orders to a tittle. While he Jack my elder brother, as I might call him: peered into every corner, and had his eye upon "Well, colonel," says he, "I find you are faint-everybody, I kept my eye directly upon him, but hearted, and to be faint-hearted is indeed to be went always at a distance, and on the other side unfit for our trade, for nothing but a bold heart of the long-room, looking as it were for pins, and can go through stitch with this work; but, how-picking them up out of the dust as I could find ever, as there is nothing for you to do, so there is no risque for you to run in these things the first time. If I am taken," says he, " you having nothing to do in it, they will let you go free; for it shall easily be made appear, that whatever I have done, you had no hand in it." Upon those persuasions I ventured out with him; but I soon found that my new friend was a thief of quality, and a pick-pocket above the ordinary rank, and that aimed higher abundantly than my brother Jack. He was a bigger boy than I a great deal; for though I was now near fifteen years old, I was not big of my age, and as to the nature of the thing, I was perfectly a stranger to it; I knew indeed what at first I did not, for it was a good while before I understood the thing them, and then sticking them on my sleeve, where I had at last got forty or fifty good pins; but still my eye was upon my comrade, who, I observed, was very busy among the crowds of people that stood at the board, doing business with the officers, who pass the entries, and make the cocquets, &c. At length he comes over to me, and stooping as if he would take up a pin close to me, he put something into my hand, and said, "Put that up, and follow me down stairs quickly." He did not run, but shuffled along apace through the crowd, and went down, not the great stairs which we came in at, but a little narrow stair-case at the other end of the long-room; I followed, and he found I did, and so went on, not stopping below as I expected, nor speaking one word to ine, till |