The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-06-21
WHOLESALE Sw1NDLING.
How Sharpers In Coles Circus
Robbed the People,

BY Ways that are Dark and
Tricks that are Vain.
Coles great show which presented
many daring and difficult .feats to
the gaze of thousands of admiring
people day before yesterday at the
depot, also taught many Of our citi-
zens as we'll as others from a distance
series of tricks in Fl iaanciering
which they will not soon forget.
Many who were robbed cannot tell
just how the feat was accomplished,
but others again have figured the
thing out and ''tumbled to the
racket" Mr.. Cole has daisy lot of
swindlers around him and if he
doesn't know it we will use little
printers ink in order that he as
we'll as the patrons of his circus may
learn the fact.
1t tseems the ticket sellers got away
with the larger sums, while others
connected with the show as vendors
of confectionery. ETC., were satisfied
with picking up an honest dollar here
and there from the unwary and un-
sophisticated. The former employed
several ingenious methods OF robb!ng
buyers of tickets. One was III giving
short change for ten, twenty or fifty
dollar bills. The owner would count
the money and call the attention of
the ticket seller to the shortage. The
latter would recount the money and
supply the shortage. The owner
would again recount the money
and find it all right, but before he
could put it into his pocket the
ticket seller would ask to count it
again with the remark: II think
I've made mistake in giving you
too much money! He would then
recount it himself and saying It's all
right" he would roll up the bills and
pass them to the owner. The latter
believing, of course, that the change
was all right after icing counted So
many times would put the roll in his
pocket and not find out he had been
swindled until he had occasion to
use some of the money when he
would discover that he had been
robbed by the expert ticket seller.
Instead of finding the expected
amount there would be deficiency
of a larger or lesser sum. This was
done by passing to the Owher, after
the last count, an entirely different
roll of bills, consisting generally OF
one and Two dollar notes.
Another method was to give change
for large bill in ones, fives and tens
the fves and tens being doubled
over SO that each end of the bill
would count for Its full face value.
Several were taken in that way.
Still another method was to watch
the pocketbook of the ticket buyer
and see if he had any large bills in
his possession. If he had be was
asked as a favor to take small bills
for it, the sharper pleading
that he had so many small
bills that he found them incon>
yenient to handle. The owner OF
the large bill or bills consenting their
full value would be counted out to
him in bills of smaller denomina-
ton. These the owner would also
count, and finding them all right,
would be in the act of putting them
in his POCKET when the polite ticket
seller would say, "Hold on, my
friend, l think l made a mistake in
counting those bills, let me count
them over again." This requs st
would be complied with and the
bills be recounted by the ticket
| seller before the eyes OF the owner
| OF course the exact amount would be
found and the roll again passed to
the wner who would put it into his
pocket and hurry into the tent to see
the show. He wouldn't discover his
loss until it was too late to correc,
the mistake.
One gentleman in the city los1
sl55. He had a couple of $loO bills
for which a ticket seller desired tt
give small bills. TO accommodate
him the owner consented to the ex'
change. The exact amount wa:
counted out to him in small bills
These he counted twice, but as ht
was putting them in his pocket ht
was requested by the ticket seller tt
let him recount them. This he did
and, as he supposed, the same roll o1
bills was returned to him. HI
did not look at the bills
again until in the evening
when he found that it contained JUS
SIS in ones and twos, instead Of S2O(
in fives and tens. Others were robbed
of $40, $50, $50 or smaller sums, while
scores lost from two dollars to ter
dollars each. Of course where al
was confusion and every one eagel
to get inside the tent 1t was a COM
paratively easy matter to swindle
ticket buyers, but very hard matter
for the swindled to identify the
sw1ndlers.
We have teen thus explicit IN Civ
ing the details of these outrageous
robberies that not only Mr.. Cole
! -.A..~co {I,;e, 11v SvnOC