Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-08-23
A CIRCUS FAKiR.
HOW THE SHORT-CHANGE"
SwINDLES PEOPLE.
While Selling Tickets Outside the
Show He Adroitly Abstracts Bills
in Making Change-Quick-
Fingered Rogues.

of the most accomplished short-change
workers in this country and got well ac-
! quainted with him. He didn't suspect
me of being a newspaper man, and In
the three months that knew him l didn't
enlighten him. He grew very confiden-
tial and chatty, and gave away to me
the innermost secrets of his craft.
He was little, slim fellow, of Irish ex-
traction, and as bright and as sharp as a
new needle He had way of fitting his
head back and looking at folks with half
closed eyes, while he smiled slightly,
that was clever enough to make great
ait in a dramatic creation. 1t was per-
iectly fetching, but the fine contempt he
had for the 'suc<ers" whom his kind
bled, and the way he had of speaking of
them was much more so. 1t was winter
time when knew him, and he was rest
ing until the season opened up. | ap-
preached him a dozen times to get him
to tell me all about the short-change act
before he became pliable. He would
take coin and palm it as cleverly as Mr..
Hermann and laugh and turn away.
But one evening he opened his heart to
me.
had been talking about the "tele-
graph" method of making short change,
and he spoke up and said quite scornful-
ty:
"That's no good There's no money
IN that. You can only get so cents or
81 out of that. There's lots of ways
stronger than that"
/ asked him what they were.
"Well," he said, taking a roll of small
bills, mostly ones and twos, out OF his
pocket, "they're worked this way: You
do it with the long green
He smoothed the bills out straight and
earessed them affectionately.
"Ah! When these new ones were
irst issued, he said, ''the boys worked
I'll the banks in the country for them.
They were the best graft the boys ever
struck. You see they look just like a
i've or ten if you don't show the figure.
Well, this is the way the boys take the
money away from the suckers You've
loticed lot of hustlers in the crowd sell
ng tickets and saving people the trouble
Of getting in the jam at the ticket wagon,
haven't you? Well, you naturally think
they are hired by the proprietor of the
show because they sell tickets at the
regular price. But they are not. They
paw 100 cents on the dollar for every
ticket they sell, and they depend on their
ability to swindle the buyers out of a few:
dollars now and then for their profit.
ga young man with his best girl
comes along-or an old man alone, or a
solid business man with two or three of
bis family; it doesn't matter who it Isl
they're all victims-and he sees a great
crush around the ticket wagon. There
sn't much chance of getting ticket
there in less than ten minutes, and there.
1t his elbow is a young man with, Choice,
,eserved seats at regular prices! How
nany?' We're here to relieve the rush at
.he wagon! Noextra charge, sir! How
many?' and he says, Two, please, which
assumingly that the man buys reserved
seats, would be 50. He gives the young
man so bill or maybe S20-if there's
any place on earth where a man will fash
a bic bill and where he hadn't ought to
it's at q circus. Well say he offers him
a $40 bill this time for the sake of the
better illustration of the story. The
young man takes it, puts it into his poc-r
ket, draws out handful of bills, takes q
ten, two and five ones, and hands the
lump to the buyer of seats. 1t is S1
short. but the man has handled it so
quickly and counted S1S out of it so
easily that oftentimes the man takes it
and goes, but the fakir is sore If he'does.>
# he is a cautious and knowing party who
is dead onto the tricks of these circus
sharps' it suits the 'short-change man.
exactly, for then he will carefully count
his change and say:
q Here, young man! You're 81 short
here Only S17 here.
es.That's beautiful and just as the fakir
wants it. So he says:
@ Sure of thatG Just count it again,
please
so he counts again while the fakir
watches, and when he has turned over
the last bill he says with the air of a man
who knows too much to be cheated by
these flip circus folks: