What an ordeal to pass through is this; said a respectable party after having got to a seat in the cars at the depot at the corner of 4th avenue and 27th street, New York, a few nights ago. The party had fallen into a swell mob, such as is organised on the instant, by smart thieves who watch for their opportunities and snatch watches, or other portable valuables, from the person of unsuspecting travellers who happen to be in a hurry. These scenes are sometimes varied with noise from the victims and violence from the party who are working the crowd, so as to render it necessary for a policeman to step in and send the victim, after a reprimand, very much humbled, to his hotel or his railroad train.

Illustrated Police News, April 11, 1872.