The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-09-28
STREET FAKIRS.
The Vendors of Cheap Jew
elry and their Tricks.
How they Regard the Public
as their victims.

4
man who sold jewelrv and dry goods from
Ia box on the corner Of Second avenue aud
Seventeenth street Business was not very
| brisk with him in this locality, although
he managed to make a fair return for his
eloauenee and stock He has been in the
business Of selling from street corners for
seine years, and was well posted as 10 the
tricks of the trade. In detailing his expe-
rience in that particular line he said;
do you know that the American people
are the easiest humbugged of any in the
world? 1t is true, and | have helped to
humbug them 49,
He continued: ''Well, you would laugh
to know what fools people make of them
selves sometimes About two years ago
was at Bloomington where l saw a fellow
running a 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 trial. He rent
ed store and put show case across
counter in the centre In the show case
he had, know. my hat full of ten and
twentv dollar gold coins, piled in heap in
one corner. and in the other 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 shIew 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 in a bunch. A man might as well
expect to get struck by lightning from d
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>ls ~ 80
SOAP GAME.
Did you evei hear of how easy it is to
fool a man with soap?" continued the
talker. 1--WE street men know that as an
old story, of course. / was down at Troy,
Ala, several months ago. when a 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 colored tissue paper very. neatly and
then covered the package with tin foil,
sprinkhn the whole with bottle of CO.
logne to give tia good smell. Well sir.
the fellowgot upon a box and Soon gath
cred crowd by nice talking, and pro.
posed 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 in his
coat which he wanted taken out. The |
fellow carried a sponge well saturated |
with benzine and arnica, which of itself /
will take out almost anything, and by |
using bit of the soap, soon had the mar |
shals coat entirely free from grease. That
started the soap sales, and in two or three |
- ka.,x -,
town, the soap man had sold $50 worth, |
nearly all of which was clear profit
GIVE AWAY.
aWlile Twas at Brunswick, Ga.,s some |
time ago / took revenge on the town by /
playing what we term the game of give |
away racket It's mighty fine thing to |
play. but very dangerous one in some To-
calities.
"The way to do it is this: Get lot of |
fine gold rings which cost about 81 dozen /
and propose to be advertising some gold |
concern in New York | called mine the |
great brazed gold of San Francisco, i
stated that I would show the crowd a thing |
or two, and soon got them interested,
First, / made speech, IN which / stated
ny business; then / commenced to offer +
he rings at any price, from two cents up.
cling them that they could not be bought |
or less than "a apiece at jewelers. 1
ct out about twenty rings. at two cents
ind then asked everybody who had bought
.ngs to hold them up. Instantly every
ing was in the air. Now, said /, address
ng the crowd, this Is your
money, is it?' Yes said a dozen,
And you give it freely for
he rings2' YES, came again the
.horus. Very well. here's twenty cents
or you, twenty cents for you;' and SO on
around the crowd. They commenced to
wonder what on earth I meant-said was
,razy, ana a lot of other things; but l
,nly told them I was advertising goods
or my house, and had plenty of more
Kings to. give away. Next took up some
If my handsome diamond studs, which, |
explained, were Lake. George diamonds, |
EQUAL TO any an earth, etc, and that I was
,eing to sell them from twenty-five cents
lp-the more one one paid the better it
would be, sof course, for him. Twenty
tuds were soon out, and the same speech
made Then made the crowd hold up the
diamonds, and ca sh man got fifty cents
rack who had bought.
THE CROWD
vas perfectly crazy to see what came next. |
t was watch chains The chains 1 wrs to
ell from % so to any price above that one
wanted to give, / telling them the while
hat the more they paid the better it would
re for them. l limited that the watches
would come next, and this let them OF like
! lot of anadmen The trick now was to
ell as many chains as possible at So So f.
\ S4<wExx 49, - Fxnsr II II