The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-10-01
Sharpars on Railway Trains.

! conductor, "but we We got EN- down so
! fine that they cam work our trains with
much profit Ten years ago were the
flush times with our monte men and
| confidence operators. ggisH adj 1868
ats a funny thing, but it's fact,
that these swindlers are not experts
from New York and other big cities. as
any one would naturally SUPPOSE them
| to be-, but are natives of the towns
along the road. .Waverley, Oweoo,
Elmira. and Binghamton- are the
places from which they usually comes
and | think these country sharpers can
discount anything that comes from the
big cities. They presume on their
knowledge of the country and acouaint-
ance with railroad men. They are GEN
erally what we call the best fellows in
the worldib They don't care for
money, and will 90 further to do any
one, ffavor than the best Sunday
school superintendent you ever saw.
Once we started subscription for
brakeman's family. He was killed at
Susquehanna, and left wife and four
children without a cent. had the pa
per at Binghamton, where quite a
number of the boys were, and was talk
ing about it so any one in the room
could hear. A preacher-looking sort of
a. fellow was on the platform waiting
for a train. He came up to me and
says: Il guess I'll help this 5IsSse-
mans wife a little He wrote down,
Cash, $50 and gave me the money.
Who do you s'pose he was? John Bal
ley, the worst confidence msn that ever
worked train. He's deaf now. He
got an even hundred out O a Granger
from Allegheny County or the busted
stock raiser business. The Granger
got on to the swindle at addison. He
just necked the fellow. showed him
down the aisle of the ca to the plat
form, and in the struggle Bailey fell
of. His father was County Judge in
one of the northern counties of Penn
sylvania, and they sem his remains
home. a..-.. ru bul Hotie 5f '
Emigrants ten years ago were big
game for the three-cardmonte men and
other swindlers. 1t was impossible to
watch them because trains were so long
They could get throughwith their bust
ness and off the train before we knew
anything was wrong. big jersey
one of The quietest fellows you ever
saw, was the boss worker of emigrant
trains. He could talk al the languages
there are. His real name was Warren
Kirkham. He was native of Balti-
more, but lived nearly al his later life
in Northern Pennsylvania He always
claimed to be a graduate of Yale Col,
lege. He was the originator of very
many of the card tricks with which
sleight-of-hand performers amuse their
audiences. He could handle cards with
a dexterity that was simply wonderful.
He took over $1,000 from an emigrant
train on the Central road between Au-
burn and Canandaigua in one night.
He was an inveterate faro player. One
night he went into Steve Bradford's
place, in Scranton the Majors they
used to call it-and won SO 900, break
ing the bank and causing Bradford to
leave the place. The same night he
was robbed OF the entire sum in a. noto-.
rious resort in Commercial Alley, and
he went to New Mexico. He was killed
there in drunken row by the brother
of the brakeman in aid of whose family
John Bailey, chum and an occasional
assistant of Kirkham's subscribed fifty.
dollars. 3d.. .fsu.. r.. ,...
"But the vigilance of the men who
are now running the Erie has about
broken up the three-card monte bust
ness on our cars. We know pretty well
now who the swindlers are, and we al
ways keep an eye on them The other
day, for the first time in years, one of
them managed to get his work in on a
passenger, and got S4O0 out of him.
He was spotted, though, by brake
man, and was caught as he was at
tempting to jump off the train at Belvi-
dere. He's in the Steuben County Jail
now, and no doubt he will serve the
State for a spell. uas to#a, ~.l"a
''About the neatest thing any of the
Erie employees ever did in the way of
getting the best of a train sharper was
Poppy Aver scapture of well-known
expert known as 'Buuky.' Silver Sill
yer had been printer, and could do
more tricks with cards than any fellow
ever knew. He hailed from Syracuse.
if remember right, and did a first.
class business on, the Central for long
time. Under the old Minot manage
ment trains on the Erie were rather few
and far between, and finally Silver
got to working our trains, as the
chances were better for his getting
away with his gains. He got down into
Cattaraugus County, and one night at
Ellicottville swindled LAWYER out of
800 by one of his card tricks. n. 1t was
necessary for him to get out, and he
struck across to Dayton, station on
the Erie road. He boarded Poppy
Ayers train, which had big load of
Swedes who We're going out to Illinois.
The Swedes who emigrated to this
country in those DAYS generally had
money about them. What does Silver
do but watch his chance and personate
an agent of the road. He went throuoh
the cars telling them in their own Ian
guage, for he could talk it, that It
would be necessary for them to ex-
change their money for American
money. Then emigrants did not oct
their money exchanged in Castle Gar.
den. Silver got big pile of money
and showed off on the emigrants a lot
OF queer stuff. When the train arrived
in an out-of-the-way place he gave the
bell rope jerk, and waited for the
train to stop. Poppy Aver was in the