Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-05
RED SHIRTS HAND AT POKER.
Tales of the Tricks of Sharpers on the Erie
RaiItoay- Poppy 4ycr's Capture.
New York Sun

while now," said an old Erie Railway
conductor, s'but we've got 'em down so
fine that they can't work our trains with
much profit. Ten years ago were the
flush times with our monte men and con-
| fidence operators.
"It's 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, Owego, Elmira, and Bing
hampton are the places from which they
usually come, and | think these country
sharpers can discount anything that
| comes from the big cities. They pre-
sumo on their knowledge of the country
and acquaintance with railroad men.
| They are generally what we call the best
fellows in the world They don't care for
money and will go further to do anyone a
favor than the best Sunday school super
| intendent you ever saw. Once we start
| ed subscription for brakeman's fam
ily. He was killed at Susquehanna, and
| left wife and four children without a
| cent had the paper at Binghampton,
| where quite number of the boys were,
|
room could hear. A preacher looking
| ing for train. He came up to me and
says: I guess III help this brakeman's
wife a little He wrote down, Cash,
$780, and gave me the money. Who do
you s'poSe lie vast John Bailey, the
worst confidence man that ever worked
train. He's dead now. He got an even
hundred out of a granger from Allegheny
county on the busted stock raiser bust
ness. The granger got on to the swindle
at Addison. He just necked the fellow,
| showed him down the aisle of the car to
the platform, and in the struggle Bailey
| fell off His father was county judge
in one of the northern counties of Penn
sylvania, and they sent his remains
home.
"Emigrants ten years ago were big
game for the three-card monte men and
other swindlers. 1t was impossible to
| watch them because the trains were so
long They could get through with
their business 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 emlgrant trains.
He could talk all the languages there
are. His real name was Warren Kirk
ham. He was native of Baltimore, but
lived nearly all his later life in northern
Pennsylvania. He always claimed to be
a graduate of Yale college. He was the
originator of very many of the card
tricks with which sleight of hand per
formers amuse their audiences. lie coaiu
hand e cards with deA,erlty that wa
simply wonderful. He took over So, DOT
from an emigrant train on the CenIra
road between Auburn and Canandaigua
II one night. He was an inveterate faro
player One night he went in5o Steve
Bradford's place, in Scranton-'the Ma
jor's,' they used to call it-and won
! 1000, breaking the bank, and causing
Bradford TO leave the place. The same
night he was robbed of the entire sum IN
| a notorious resort IN Commercial alley,
and he went TO New Mexico. He was
killed there in drunken row by TIL.
brother of the brakeman in aid of whose
family John Bailey, chum and an occa-
| sional assistant of Kirkham, subscribed
$50.
sBut the vigilance of the men who ar,
now running the Erie has about broken
I'D the three card monte business ON our
cars We know pretty well now who the
swindlers are, and we always 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
$500 out of him. He was spotted, though,
by brakeman, and was caught as he
was attempting to jump off the train at
Belvidere. He's in the Steuben county
Jail now, and no doubt he will serve the
State for spell. iH
eAbout the neatest thing any of the
Erie employees ever did in the way of get
ting the best of train sharper, was Pop
py' Ayers capture of well-known ex-
pert known as 'Bunky' Silver. Silver
had been printer, and could do more
tricks with cards than any man l ever
knew He hailed from Syracuse, if | re-
member right, and did first-class bust
ness on the Central for long time. I'm
der the old Minot management 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 EIlicottville swindled a
lawyer out of 800 by one of his card
tricks 1t was necessary for him to get
out, and he struck across to Dayton,
a station on the Erieroad. He boarded
Poppy Ayers train, which had a big
load of Swedes, who were gong 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 into the cars,
telling them in their own language, for
he could talk it, that it would be neces-
sary for them to exchange their money
for American money Then emigrants
did not get their money exchanged in
Castle Garden. Silver got a big pile of
money and showed off on the emigrants a
lot of queer stuff. When the train ar
rived in an out f-the- way place he gave
the bell rope jerk, and waited
for the train to stop. Poppy Aver was
in the baggage car. He saw the bell rope
jerked, and hurried back to see what
was the matter. He saw Silver jump off
and start on dead run across the fields.
Poppy knew something must be wrong,
so he hops off, and starts after the sharp
er. Poppy was fat, but he run that fell
low down, although it took the distance
across three ten acre lots to do it. He
collared him and brought him back to the
train. He got every cent of money back,
| and had the thief sent 70 Auburn for sew
en- years. Pop was reprimanded at head
quarters for leaving and delaying his
train; but when they investigated the
case the reprimand was RENTED, and the
conductors salary was raised.
"Ten years ago one of the boss card
sharpers was a young fellow known as
Red Shirt He was from Scranton. He
was the one who invented the tissue pa
per racket with cards. His plan was to
get up quiet game of euchre with with
a party of fellows in smoking car
After they'd played along while Red
Shirt would say:
"'Well, damme if l amt got just
about the pest little poker hand you ever
saw
.Whenever he'd say that, you could