Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-10-11

How Easily an American Crowd Can
be Duped-A Street Fakir's Expose
From the Chicago Herald.

"D0 you know. said a man who was selling
lewelry from dry goods box to reporter for
the Atlanta Constitution, that the Americans
are the easiest humbugged of any in the world?
1t is true, and have helped to hunlbuo them
about as much as the average man" Somebody
had just been reading an account of the Louis
vile lottery drawing, which brought forth this
speech.
Cant you tell us some of your experience in
that line?" asked man near.
well. you would laugh to know what fools
people make of themselves sometimes About
two years ago WAS down in Brunswick where
saw a fellow running perfectly square game
but which was the most out and out steal ever
heard of. His plan was simple, and hundreds
OF the very best people of the town fiOcked to
give him a trial. He rented a store and put n
showcase across the counter i'm the center In
the showcase he had. know my hat full OF ten
and twenty dollar gold coins piled in heap in
one corner. and In the other about the same sized
pile OF silver dollars dice-boX and six dice
completed his outfit. BY paving half dollar a
man had one throw with the dice If he threw
six skies he took the entire pile of gold: if he
threw six secs he entitled To all the silver
OF course no one ever threw all the skies neither
was 1t possible to get the aces to come all i'm a
ounch. A man might we'll expect to get
struck by lightning from cloudless sky at noon
day as TO throw six aces; it Is almost an impOs-
sioiilty, that's all. Well the fellow made several
hundred dollars and left"
Ibid you ever hear of how easy 1t is to fool a
man with soap? continued the talker I'VE
street men know that an old story of course
was GOWN to Troy. Ala, several months ago
when fellow came along almost strapped He
went to a grocery store. bought a few bars of
this transparent soap. cut it into small pieces
about the size of ones thumb. wrapped it in
coiored tissue paper very neatly, and then COW
cred the package with tin foil sprinklinp the
whole with a bottle of cologne to give it q good
smell Well. sir. that fellow got on box and
soon gathered crowd by some nice talking aud
proposed to take out all the grease from hats.
coats. etc, that could be brought in. The first
case presented was the city marshal who walked
up with great spot on his coat which he wanted
taken out. The fellow carried a sponge well
saturated with penZine and arnica. which Of
Itself will take out almost anything. and by
using a bit of the soap soon had the marshal's
coat entirely free from grease. That started the
soap sales, and in two or three hours it being
Saturday and crowd in town the soap man
had sold $50 worth, nearly all of which was
clear profit
Stopping to draw long breath the jewelry
man continued his interesting story. 81 tell
you you can humbug anybody. / am not unlike
the rest OF the world. / believe / would bite at
my own tricks if could only get in the crowd"
while was at Brunswick Ca. some time
ago, took revenge on the town by PLAYING
what we term the give away racket 1t is a
mighty fire thing to play. but a very dangerous
one In some localities | had been using a big
umbrella, large enough to cover fifty people
when one night on the street a crowd of sailors
led-On by some OF the town boys. threw rotten
eggs at the umbrella and broke up the crowd.
Then resolved on the give away racket A
fellow has to be mighty careful about working
1t, or he will get caught out. 1t can only be
play ed once i'm a town.
THE way to do it is this: Get lot of fine
gold rings which cost about dollar dozen and
propose to be advertising some big gold con-
Germ In New York. called mine the great
oraZed gold OF San Francisco. stated that
would show the crowd thing or two and soon
got them interested. First | made a speech i'm
which stated my business; then | commenced
to offer the rings at any price from two cents
up. telling them that they could not be bought
for less than four dollars apiece at jewelers.
i let out about twenty rings at two cents and
then asked everybody who had bought rings to
hold them up Instantly every ring was in the
air Now. said |. addressing the crowd. this
is your money, is IT," Yes said dozen. And
you give it up freely for the rings:' Yes came
again In chorus Very we'll here's twenty cents
for you. sir. and twenty cents for YOU sir and
so on around the crowd. They commenced
TO wonder what in the world /
meant; said / was crazy and a lot of
other Things, but only told them was adver-
Using goods for my house and had plenty more
things TO give away. NeytI took up some of
my handsome diamond studs. which explained
We're Lake George diamonds, equal to any on
earth, etc, and that j was going to sell them
from twenty-five cents up. the more one paid
the better it would be. of course for him.
Twenty studs were soon out and the same
speech made. Then made the crowd hold I'D
the diamonds. and each man got fifty cents back
who had bought
The thing began to get very interesting, and
the crowd numbered 300 or 400. Then got out
some beautiful gOld-plated sleeve buttons,
which explained could not be bought for less
than sl2- These | proposed to sell for fifty
cents each, giving to all who bought dollar
additional as before. each time doubling the
money gift The buttons soon went off. as had
no M hGrr inr
bite" at the crowd. The twenty pair of sleeve
buttons had been sold for half a dollar. and |
had given back twenty silver dollars. THAT
fellows darned fool" heard all around me-
but replied to this by saying that last week, in
Macon had given away 81 500, and that was
ready to do it again.
The crowd perfectly crazy to see what
came next. 1t was watch chains. The chains
was TO sell at any price from $3.50 to anything
ABOVE mat one wanted TO give, telling them
the while that the more they paid the better it
would be for them. | limited that the watches
would come next. and this let them off like
iot OF madmen The trick now to sell as
many chains as possible at S2-50 i had devil
OF lot OF chains. and so / sent them out right
and left The dollars came rushing blindly at
me. and raSed them in like chaff Then got
out Of chains.
Previously had prepared two biz red silk
handkerchiefs, exactly alike and as soon as the
chains were all sold took the MONEY! and in
the presence of the crowd. tied it up all together
ana AFTER making speech proposed to throw the
bundle in the crowd for the best man to take
nhie talking ! puipOsely dropped the bundle
INTO my little box by my side in which had the
other handkerchief. In this was ten dollars i'm
silver and some paper TO make it stand out and
look Ike the one had dropped All this had
oeen arranged beforehand of course. With
whoop. swung tine bag around my head after
STOPPING To pick it up where first dropped it,
anu up II went into the air. Great heavens,
you should have seen the mObi | never saw
anything like it. They fought like tigers over
tne handkerchief, while took occasion to leave
the spot / had also arranged to bring the
thing 10 Climax about the time the Albany
tram LETT; so was driven at once TO the depot.
was Just $50 ahead. But got very weak in
the knees while waiting at the depot / was>a
little too soon. and about dozen Young men
run up. raising the very mischief of a noise
which thought was FOR me- and il proved to he
true They saw me and came around me lauph-
Ing and Knocking each other like crazy men
didn't know what on earth was the matter until
they nnally told me it was the best Joke that
had ever been played on Brunswick, and
. although they had been victimized they want
ed to assure me it was all right.