A VOCABULARY OF CRIMINAL SLANG WITH SOME EXAMPLES OF COMMON USAGES - https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/76632/pg76632-images.html

 

ANGEL, Noun

General usage. A financial backer. Derived from “good thing.”

 

 

BALLY HOO, Noun

Current amongst exhibition and “flat-joint” grafters. A free entertainment used for a decoy to attract customers.

 

 

 

BREAKS, Noun

Current amongst pickpockets. Any place of exit where throngs of people pour through en stream, as from a theatre, from a convention or other popular gathering, or from a street or railroad car or from a boat, all of which afford facilities for the pickpocket to operate under cover and in the press of unusual excitement. Example: “The guns are rooting into the swell mob at the Grand Opera breaks.”

BREAK UP, Noun

Current amongst thieves who specialize in plunder or loot. Melted silver or gold.

 

BUFFALO, Noun

General usage in the northern states. A negro