Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-11-16
THE GIVE.AWAY GAME.

ing jewelry from dry goods box TO reporter,
s'that the Americans are the easiest humbug
ged of any in the world 1t is true and have
helped to humbug them about as much as the
average man." Somebody had just been read
ing an account of the Louisville lottery draw
ing, which brought forth this speech.
"Can't you tell us some Of your experience
in that line ?" asked a man near.
"Well, you would laugh to know what fools
people make of themselves sometimes. About
two years ago 1 was down in Brunswick,
where saw afellow 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 hocked to give him trial. lie rented a
store and put a showcase across the counter
in the centre. In the showcase he had, /
know, my hat full of ten and twenty dollar
in the ether about the same sized pile of silver
dollars. A dice-box and six dice completed
his outfit. BY paying half dollar man had
one throw with the dice. If he threw six skies
he took the entire pile of gold if he threw six
aces he was entitled to all the silver. OF
course no one ever threw all the SKIES, neither
was it possible to get the aces to come all in a
bunch. A man might as we'll expect to get
struck by lightning from a cloudless sky at
MONDAY as to throw six aces it is almost an
impossibility, that's all. Well, the fellow
made several hundred dollars and left"
s'Did you ever hear of how easy it is to fool
man with soap % continued the talker.
''We street men know that as an old story, of
course l was down to Troy, Ala, several
months ago. when fellow came along almost
strapped. He went to grocery store, bought
a few bars of this transparent soap, cut it into
small pieces about the size of ones thumb,
wrapped it in colored tissue paper very neatly,
and then covered the package with tin foil,
sprinkling the whole with bottle of cologne
to give it good smell. Well, sir, that fellow
got on box and soon gathered crowd by
some nice talking, and proposed to take out
all the grease from hats. coats, &C., 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 sponge we'll saturated
with benzne and arnica, which of itself will
take out almost anything, and by using bit
of the soap soon had the marshal's coat en-
tirely free from grease That started the soap
sales, and in two or three hours, it being Sat
urday and a crowd in town, the soap man had
sold $36 WORTH nearly all of which was clear
profit"
Stopping to draw long breath the jewelry
man continued his interesting story. u tell
you you can humbug anybody. am not un-
like the rest of the world. believe l would
bite at my own tricks if could only get in
the crowd"
"While 1 was at Brunswick, Ca, some time
ago, l took revenge on the town by playing
what we term the give away racket 1t is
a mighty fine thing to PLAY, but a very dam
gerous one in some localities. l had been
using a big umbrella, large enough to cover
fifty people, when one night on the street a
crowd of sailors, led by some fifty of the town
boys, threw rotten eggs at the umbrella and
broke up the crowd. Then l resolved on the
give away racket A fellow has to be nigh
caught out. 1t can only be played once in a
town.
''The way to do it is this Get lot of
fine gold rings which cost about dollar a
dozen and propose to be advertising some big
gold concern In New York. l called mine the
great brazed gold of San Francisco, stated
that l would show the crowd thing or two,
and soon got them interested. First, made
a speech, in which stated by business then
I 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.. let out about twenty
rings at two cents, and then asked everybody
who had bought rings to hold them up. In
stantly every ring was in the air. Now,
said, 1, addressing the crowd, this is your
money, is it Yes said a dozen. And
you give it 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 COM
menced to wonder what in the world meant !;
said | was crazy and a lot of other things !;
but l only told them was advertising goods
for my house and had plenty more things to
give away. Next took up my handsome dia-
mond studs, which l explained were Lake
George diamonds, equal to any on earth, &C.,
and that l was going to sell them from
twenty-five cents up; the more one paid the
betterit would be, of course, for him. Twenty
studs were soon out and the same speech
made. Then made the crowd hold up 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
I got out some beautiful gold-plated sleeve
buttons, which l 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 the other things, and l was
ready for the final 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
I 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 was perfectly crazy to see what
came next. It was watch chains. The chains
was to sell at any price from $3.50 to any
thing above that 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 lot of madmen. The trick was now
to sell as many chains as possible at $25O. l
had devil Of lot Of chains, and SO l sent
them out right and left The dollars came
rushing blindly at me, and l raked them IN
like chaff. Then got out of chains.
'Previonsly had prepared two big red silk
hankerchiefS, 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, and after making speech proposed
to throw the bundle in the crowd for the best
man to take While talking purposely drop
ped the bundle into my little box by my side,
in which l had the other handkerchief. In
this was ten dollars in silver and some paper
to make it stand out and look like the one
had dropped All this had been arranged be-
forehand, of course With whoop, l swung
the bag around my head after STOPPING to pick
it up where first dropped it, and up 1T went
into the air. Great Heavens you should nave
seen the mob / never saw anything like 1t.
They fought like tigers over the handkerchief,
while | took occasion to leave the spot. had
also arranged to bring the thing to climax
about the time the Albany train left so was
driven at once to the depot, l was just $3.50
ahead. But l got very weak in the knees
,,,l ;1o ,,,,;t;po ,t tLa danot T was q little too