The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-11-25
THE GlvE-AwAY GAME.

''HO you AuO", SaAu Illdtl WHO
was selling jewelry from dry goods
|stitution, "that the Americans are the
easiest humbugged of any in the
world ? 1t is true, and 1 have helped
to humbug them about as much as the
average man." Some body had just
been reading an account of the Louis
Vile lottery drawing, which brought
forth this speech.
"Can't you tell us some of your ex-
perience in that line:'' asked man
near.
"Well, you would laugh to know
what fools people make of themselves
sometimes. About two weeks ago l
was down in Brunswick, where l saw
fellow running perfectly square
I game, but which was the most out
and.out steal 1 ever heard Of His
plan was simple, and hundreds of the
very best people of the town tlocked to
give him a trial. He rented a store
and put a showcase across the counter
in the center. In the showcase he
had, know, my hat full of $40 and
$50 gold coins, piled in a 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 so cents a man had
one throw with the dice. 1.-The threw
six skies he took the entire pile of
gold; if he threw six aces he was en-
titled to all the silver. OF course he
knew no one ever threw all the skies,
neither was it possible to get the aces
to come all in bunch. A man might
as we'll expect to get struck by light
! ming from a cloudless sky at monday as
to throw six aces; it is almost an i'm
oil "nll tho fol
low made several hundred dollars and
left"
"Did you ever hear of how easy it
was to fool a man with soap?" con-
tinued the talker. :sWe street men
know that as an old story, Of course.
1 was down to Troy, Ala, several
months ago, when fellow came along
almost strapped. He went to gro
Gerry 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, sprinlzling tho whole
with bottle of cologne to give it a
good smell. Well, sir, that fellow got
on box and soon gathered crowd
take out all the grease from hats, coats,
etc., that could be brought in. The
first case presented was the city mar
shal, who walked up with a great spot
on his coat which he wanted taken
out. The fellow carried a sponge we'll
saturated with benzine and arnica,
which of itself will take out almost
|anything, and by using bit of the
soap soon had the marshaPs coat en-
tirely 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 a long breath the
jewelry man continued his interesting
story. 81 tell you can humbug any
body. am not unlike the rest of the
own tricks if I could get in the
crowd"
"While was at Brunswick, Ga,
some time ago, I took revenge on the
town by playing what we term the
sgive-away racket 1t is a mighty
fine thing to play, but very danger
Gus one in some localities. 1 had been
using big umbrella, large enough to
cover fifty people, when one night on
the street a crowd of sailors lied on by
some of the town boys, threw rotten
eggs at the umbrella and broke up the
crowd. Then I resolved on the give
away racket a fellow has to be
mighty careful about working it, or he
will get caught out. 1t can only be
played once in a town.
sThe way to do it is this: Get lot
of fine gold rings, which cost about 81
dozen, and propose to be advertising
some big gold concern in New York.
I called mine the brazed gold of San
Francisco, stated that I would show
the crowd thing or two, and soon got
them interested. First, 1 made a
speech in which l stated my business,
then commenced to offer the rings at
any price from ? cents up, telling them
that they could not be bought for less
than 81 piece at jewelers.. l let
out about twenty rings at cents, and
then asked everybody who had bought
rings to hold them up. Instantly
every ything was in the air. Now
said I, addressing the crowd, 'this is
your money, is it?' sYes,' said a
dozen. sAud you give it up freely for
the rings?' sYes,' came again in
chorus. sVery we'll, here's 20 cents for
you, sir, and 20 cents for you, SIR and
20 cents for you, sir, and so on around