Here is the third and final specialist thief from Henry Mayhew’s ““London Labour and the London Poor”, followed by some interesting details on their methods and their use in a Victoriana adventure.
“Star-glazers or those who cut the panes out of shop-windows”
Thick walls and locked doors stymie many thieves, but a star-glazer can always find a way in through a glass window.
Some thieves simply smash the glass out of a windows display and grab whatever they can before running away. Gangs of thieving children often practice this technique at candy and cigar stores, but it’s just as effective for a watchmaker, or a jewelry store.
A quieter, but more delicate technique involves sticking a knife into the windowpane’s side and prying just enough to crack a fist sized hole in the glass. If a hole is not quickly made, prying again a few inches away should be enough to pop out a section of weakened glass discreetly. Some sticky material, like tar or plaster helps noiselessly remove the loose glass. If the hole is too small for fists, or the goods too far away, the thieves insert a stick with a fishing hook tied to the end to pick up the goods.
Older more practiced thieves use equally ingenious methods to break into houses. The best time for the burglary of a home is during dinner, when the occupants are eating on the first floor, away from their valuables, and the servants are occupied. Thieves reach the home’s second floor using a ladder or roofs of nearby buildings and enter the attic window which is rarely locked. Confronted by a locked window, a thin knife is wedged in the gap of a window frame to work the latch open. The window is opened quietly and the house burgled.
Only the most successful thieves can afford to use an actual diamond (a glazier’s star) to cut glass, but a smart star-glazer with a sharp knife, a jimmy (crowbar) and pocket full of wax tapers (small candles ) for light can get in almost anywhere.
Marjorie Pennrose (Human second story girl)
Initiative: 4
Physical: 4
Mental: 6
Social: 6
Health: 8
Traits: “Respectable” young lady +2, Unexpected agility +3
Combat: Gut Punch (3), Jemmy (5)
Marjorie’s plain dress and innocent expression hide the occupational tools secreted on her person. Only the glint from a speck of glass in her hair and a few trinkets a shop girl couldn’t afford suggest any wrongdoing.
Fitzroy Burrows (Sticky-fingered human waif)
Initiative: 4
Physical: 4
Mental: 2
Social: 3
Health: 6
Traits: Gang leader +3,
Combat: Cry for help, Kick shins (3)
His dirty clothes, and small frame may inspire sympathy, but Fitzroy carries a blob of plaster wrapped in paper, and fishing hook for when his gang spots a good window.
Adventure Ideas
It may be possible for the magically inclined to take a pane of glass from a buildings and use their arts to see all that happened in the room the window looked into, like a sort of short ranged scrying glass
A window at the scene of a horrific murder shows the techniques of a star-glazer
Was this the murder’s entry or was another criminal witness to the crime?
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this series, I wrote an earlier post based on information from Henry Mayhew’s work:
How to Counterfeit a Shilling in the 1850’s
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