Vocabulum; or, the rogue's lexicon. Compiled from the most authentic sources

New York: George W. Matsell & Co, 1859. First edition, 16mo, pp. 130 plus leaf of ads for Matsell's "National Police Gazette"; new quarter calf with marbled boards, near fine, with contemporary additions in pen in the appendix on terms used by pugilists. There was a reprint made in the 1890s with illustrations which is often confused with the first edition of 1859. The page height of the first edition is 148 mm. Matsell (1811-77) was a major in the 6th Infantry of the New York Militia. In 1843 he became police magistrate at the Tombs in New York, and later organized the first municipal police force in the United States, which he headed until 1857. "Occupying the position of chief of police in the great metropolis of New York, where thieves and others of a like character from all parts of the world congregate, and realizing a necessity of possessing a positive knowledge of everything connected with the class of individuals with whom it was my duty to deal, I was naturally led to study their peculiar language" (Preface). Following the lexicon proper are texts of several stories employing the rogue's language (with English translation), and brief word lists for gamblers and billiard players.