The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-10-17
THE GIVE-AWAY RACKET.
A Little Operation by a Jewelry
Tramp.

Georgia, some time ago." said a jewel
~ tramp, 81 took revenge on the town
by playing what We term 'give-away
racket It's mighty fine thing to
play. and fellow has to he mighty
reful about working it or he will get
caught out. 1t can only be played
once in a town.
The way to do it is this /: Get a lot
ct fine gold rings which cost about a
dollar dozen and propose to be ad
vertising some big gold concern in New
York. First, | made speech to the
crowd, in which l 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 a
jewelers. l let out about twenty rings
at two cents, and then asked every
body 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 ringsY Yes came
again in chorus. Very well. here's
twenty cents for you, sir; and twenty
cents for you, SIR and SO on around
the crowd. They commenced to won
der what in the world / meant; said
was crazy, and lot of other things.
but | only told them I was advertising
goods for my house and had plenty
more things to give away. Next l
took up some of my handsome dia-
mond studs, which l explained were
Lake George diamonds, equal to any
on earth, ETC.. and that 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
up the diamonds and every man got
half dollar back who had bought.
1.-The thing began to get very
interesting. and the crowd numbered
three or four hundred. Then [ got
out some beautiful go,d-plated sleeve
buttons, which l explained could
not be bought for less than twelve
dollars. These [ proposed to sell for
fifty cents each, giving all who bought
dollar additional as before. each
time doubling the money gift. The
buttons soor went of, as had the other
things, and | was ready for the final
bite at the crowd. The twenty pairs
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 I replied
to this by saying that last week in
Macon I had given away 50. 500. and
THAT l was ready to do it again.
The crowd was perfectly crazy to
zee what came next. 1t was watch
chains. The chains / was to sell at
any price from two dollars and a half
to anything above that one wanted to
give, l telling them the while that the
more they paid the better 'twould be
for them. l limited that the watches
would come next, and this set them
eff like madmen. The trick now was
to sell as many as possible at two
collars and half. | had a devil of
a lot of chains, and so | sent them out
right and left. The dollars came
rushing blindly.at me, and / raked
them in like chat. Then l got out Of
chains
previously / had prepared two big
red silk handkerchief exactly alike,
and as soon as the chains were all sold
] took the money and in the presence
of the crowd. tied it all up together.
and after making speech. proposed
to throw the bundle in the crowd for
the best man to take. While talking
1 purposely dropped the bundle into
my little box by nv side, in which l
had the other handkerchief. In this
one was ten dollars in silver and some
paper 10 make it stand out and look
like the other one had dropped. All
this had been arranged beforehand, of
course. With a whoop l swung the
bag around my head after STOPPING to
pick it up where had first dropped
it, and up it went In the air. Great
heavens you should have seen that
mob! l never saw anything like it.
They fought like tigers over the hand
kerchief. while [ took occasion to
leave the spot. / had also arraigned
to bring the thing to climax about
the time the Albany train left, SO |
was driven at once to the depot. l was
lust two hundred and eighty dollars
ahead. But | got very weak in the
knees while waiting at the depot. +
was little too soon, and about dozen
young men run Up raising the very
mischief IF a noise which 7 thought Was