PAIR OF WINGS. A pair of oars.
PAL. A companion; the partner of a thief.
PALAVER. Talk; flattery; conference.
PALLIARDS. Female mendicants who beg with a number of children, borrowing from others of the same fraternity if they have not enough of their own, giving an opiate to one to make it sleep, pinching and sticking pins into another to make it cry, and making artificial sores on the arms, hands, and face of a third, all to move the hand of the benevolent from their purses to the outstretched hand of the beggar.
PALLING IN. A connection formed by a male and female thief to steal and sleep together.
PALMER. A thief that adroitly slips jewelry from the top of a show-case into his pocket.
PAM. A knave.
PANEL-CRIB. A place especially and ingeniously fitted up for the robbery of gentlemen who are enticed thereto by women who make it their business to pick up strangers. Panel-cribs are sometimes called badger-cribs, shakedowns, touch-cribs, and are variously fitted for the admission of those who are in the secret, but which defy the scrutiny of the uninitiated. Sometimes the casing of the door is made to swing on well-oiled hinges which are not discoverable in the room, while the door itself appears to be hung in the usual manner, and well secured by bolts and lock. At other times the entrance is effected by means of what appears to be an ordinary wardrobe, the back of which revolves like a turn-style on pivots in the middle above and below. When the victim has undressed himself and got into bed with the woman, the thief enters, and picking the pocket-book out of the pocket, abstracts the money, and supplying its place with a small roll of paper, returns the book to its place. He then withdraws, and coming to the door raps and demands admission, calling the woman by the name of wife. The frightened victim, springing out of bed, dresses himself in a hurry, feels his pocket-book in its proper place, and escapes through another other door, congratulating himself on his happy deliverance. He soon, however, finds out that he has been victimized, and not unfrequently tells the story of his loss and shame to the police; while others, minus their cash, pocket the dear-bought experience.
PANEL-THIEF. One who fits up a place for the purpose of robbing men that are brought to the panel-crib by women who are trained to pick up gentlemen that are on a visit to the city on business or pleasure. They endeavor to select those who are not likely to remain and prosecute the thieves that have robbed and duped them of their money.