Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-05-31
PLUGGING IMMIGRANTS.
Nefarious Tricks Practiced by
migrant Runners.
A Loaf of Bread for Three Dol
lars and Fifty Cents.


recently charged a. immigrant, In
grocery at the Battery, for a Loaf Of
bread and a pound Of sausage. A
runner who took the innocent Gus
toner to the place shared with the
swindling shopkeeper the profits OF
the extortiouate charge. Thirty dol
lars was not long since paid by a second
immigrant, freshly over, in a grocery
near the former one. for a few small
parcels Of crackers, cheese, and other
articles of food. While the immigrant
counted out the money, which was
nearly all be had, the runner who had
inveigled him into the place stole two
bills from his pocket. book.
"You can have no idea" remarked
a reputable business man, whose office
is at the Battery, how these poor and
honest
IMMIGRANTS ARE swINDLED
BY the runners, grocers and hotel
keepers. To my personal knowledge
three Of the immigrant runners are
professional swindlers. They not only
prey upon these guileless people in
New York, but frequently take the
same train with them and follow them
out into the country. Often they re-
turn with large sums Of money. How
it has been obtained you may vaguely
surmise. One of them has been con.
victed of frauds, for which he ought
to have got fifteen years in the peni-
Tertiary at least. All are regularly
licensed, dress well, and look respect
able. Occasionally one is broken"
but you may see him at his nefariOus
work of sWindling again, restored
through corrupt political influence.
"a common trick with the runners
is to get aalot of excited and hurried
immigrants, on the point of taking a
train tor the West, into an immigrant
grocery, tell them that there is not a
single station between New York and
Chicago, a distance Of a thousand
miles, and adjure them to buy enough.
FOOD FOR A WEEKS JOURNEY.
They do SO. The shopkeeper gives
them short weights, goods for the most
part worthless, and charges them I'M
heard of prices. Lard cheese they
sell to them for eighteen and twenty
cents a pound. Sausage made out Of
refuse meat, unwholesome and unfit to
eat, they often charge them a dollar a
pound for. Loaves Of stale bread,
bought by the barrel at bakeries for
four cents apiece, they sell to them at
twenty-five cents apiece, and some
times more. Much Of this stuff the
immigrants are obliged to throw out Of
the car windows, as uneatable. They
use the hard, dry bread only.
THE hotel keepers inveigle immi-
graut families who have no money into
their taVerns, and on one pretext and
another, keep them, giving them al.
most nothing to eat, until their bill
amounts to a sum sufficient to enable
them to seize their baggage. Then
they turn them adrift, to be sent,
perhaps, as paupers to Wards Island.
A trick is played on the German i'm
migrants by all these people in the
counting Of money. For instance,
they say to the immigrant that the
price of some article, or the amount
Of some bill, is a dollar, or SO many
dollars. The immigrant does not
know what a dollar is, and inquiries.
They answer that a dollar is one
hundred cents. Now, in German
money Il taker four hundred cents to
make a dollar, so that one hundred
cents in their money is really but
twenty-five cents of ours. The Ger.
mar immigrant pays n hundred
cents in our money, ~ignorantly sup
posin gthat he is counting out but a
quarter in SO doing. Thus the grocers
sometimes sell a loaf of bread for a
quarter, and take a hundred cents Of
our money in payment for it. The
runners have
REDUCED LYING TO A FINE ART.
Their helpless prey know only Of
truth and Of honesty, having in the
old country seen nothing else, and are
easily imposed upon by their misstate-
ments and their various artfully dis
guised methods of robbery"
A Press reporter, disguised as a
runner, by the aid of a Bowery neck
tie and a paste diamond pin, entered
one of the stores alluded to above
with a friend, who, in turn, was dis.
guised by a German cap and an old
suit of clothes. The seeming runner
winked at the shopkeeper and drew
him 20 one side.
You're a new MANI" said the
grocer.
Yves; | just got my license to-day
How much per cent will you give?"
Forty per cent on all above the
regular profit"
II want fifty per cent"
II can't do it."
"Ill take him to another stor,
then. That's the regular profit"
I'VE pay the old men that. But i
we make a good thing out of him, II
doit"
Then followed a series of attempt
at intimidation and virtual robber
on the part of the runner and tn
s~hopkeeper, of which the alleged i'm
migrant was to be the victim. H
was cajoled, threatened and lied t
but all to no purpose. He RENAME
so strangely stupid that nothing coul
be done with him.
II will try to FIX him." said tn
runner, as he at length left with Ii
Immigrant"
II shall only give you twenty f1
per cent hereafter" said the grocer.
At the lunch stand in Castle GardC
they sell cigars for FIVE cents apiece
the immigrants, which a Mulberl
street Italian would blush to dispoI
Of at two for a cent, and which
ought to be a misdemeanor to sci
The petty officials Of the railway cor
paDies around the Garden treat Il
immigrants as if they were cattle.