1 JULY 1899, Page 34

Bye - Ways of Crime. By R. J. Power-I3errey. (Greening and Co.

2s.)—The "Black Museum" is a department of Scotland Yard, and may be compared to the "Chamber of Horrors" in Madame Tussaud. Only there is more of the real about it. Here are some of the implements with which Charles Peace plied his trade, the lantern, for instance, fnr Peace held much the same view about the common dark lantern that Mr. Sam Weller enter- tained. Here are Anarchist bombs, and the agreeable missiles with which Mr. Daly sought to avenge the wrongs of Ireland, and here are explosives which overthrew Clerkenwell Gaol and the Irish Church. After the " Black Museum" we have some very realistic accounts of various methods of crimes. Here we see how the pickpocket, the burglar, the portico-thief, the card- sharper, the coiner, the forger, the shop-lifter, and others set about their evil works,—all useful information, for it puts a reader on his guard.. The last chapter is given to " Swindlers of the Race Course," among whom the " welsher " is prominent. One of his dodges for escape is to have a reversible coat and a false moustache. His methods of eluding payment are various. One of them is to pay the bet to a confederate who has a false hand attached to his arm. It is a dangerous trade, however, for none are so indignant against the wet sher as the race course crowd, which is but a shade more respectable.