The Revenge of Moriarty (45 page)

BOOK: The Revenge of Moriarty

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Regarding this, one can only point to the fact that Watson describes Holmes as prefacing this remark with a smile. So we can now, perhaps, judge the depths of irony in that smile, and appreciate Holmes' jest in investing life in one who he knew was dead, and â¦ possibly death in one who he knew was living. I have no way of knowing, for the remains of the journals have yet to be deciphered.

GLOSSARY

area-diving	A method of theft which necessitates sneaking down area steps and stealing from the lower rooms of houses.
blag	To snatch; usually a blag is a theft, often smash and grab, but applied to any theft in a public place.
broadsman	Card sharper.
buck cabbie	A dishonest cab driver.
cash-carrier	Ponce, or whore's minder.
Chapel, The	Whitechapel.
chink	Money.
cracksman	A housebreaker; burglar; safe-breaker.
crib	A house, room, shop, brothel, etc., often used by the criminal fraternity to denote a place or building to be burgled.
crimping shop	Barbary Coast boarding house, mainly associated with the practice of forcibly impressing, or shanghaiing, sailors.
crow	A look-out (particularly for a burglar).
demander	One who demands money with menaces.
dipper	Pickpocket.
esclop	Policeman. Backslang, though the c is never pronounced and the e often omitted.
Family, The	The criminal underworld. (Viz. Tait's Magazine , April 1841. âThe Family â¦ The generic name for thieves, pickpockets, gamblers, housebreakers, et hoc genus omne '.)
gonoph	Minor thief.
growler	A four-wheeled cab.
Haymarket Hector	Prostitute's bully, or âminder': applied to those who worked in the neighbourhood of the Haymarket and Leicester Square.
lakin	Wife.
lamps	Eyes.
London particular	A thick London fog or âpea-souper'.
Lump Hotel	The Workhouse.
lurker	Strictly speaker, a professional beggar. Here it is used to denote beggars and confidence men in Moriarty's employ as spies, watchers and purveyors of intelligence.
macer	A cheat.
magsman	An inferior cheat.
mark	Victim â usually intended victim of prostitute or confidence trickster.
mobsman	Swindler, pickpocket working with a gang or mob.
mug-hunter	A street robber or footpad. Hence contemporary mugging .
mumper	Beggar or, more possibly by this time, a scrounger.
nobbler	One who nobbles, i.e. criminal used for the express purpose of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
palmer	Shop-lifter.
pigeon	Victim.
punisher	Superior nobbler , employed to inflict severe beating.
rampsman, ramper	A tearaway, a hoodlum.
ream	Superior; good.
roller	A thief who steals from drunks, or a prostitute who steals from her clients.
screwing	Burglary, usually by using false or skeleton keys.
shivering Jemmy	One who practises the art of begging while partially clothed.
slap-bang shop	A night cellar frequented by thieves and where no credit is given.
snoozer	A thief who specializes in robbing hotel guests while they sleep.
star-glazing	Cutting out a pane of glass to gain access to a door or window catch.
starving	Device used by beggars, or lurkers; posing as one in need of food.
tooler	Superior pickpocket.

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