Huntsville gazette., 1889-02-02

of society he may be cast, he never
fails to shine as brilliant and accom-
plished conversationalist At all times
he is the polished and cultivated gen
tleman-so much so, in fact, that other
professional criminals do not like him
for a companion.
Hungry Joe" is thirty-eight years
old, well built, fairly good-looking,
and probably the smoothest talker in
America. He is regular dude in his
dress. and generally possesses as many
suits of clothing as Berry Wall. In
New York he has appeared on Broad
way in an entire change of dress seven
or eight times in a single day. He
and Wall and George Parkes, the actor.
few years ago had regulations of
being the three most elegantly dressed
men in America.
1t is nearly twenty years since
Hungry Joe" first started along the
crooked path that invariably leads to
prison, and for him the path has been
long one. Together with the no.
torious Garrity boys he got in with an
expert gang of confidence and bunco
men, and for years they intimidated
the police and terrorized the town.
No matter how shrewd he might be,
no man who came to Chicago was safe.
AS soon as spotted some member of the
gang would take the victim in tow,
and almost before he could say Jack
Robbins" every dollar in his wallet
would be gone. Hungry Joe" had
for his tutors such noted sharpers az
"Sir James," "White Pine" big"
Wallace and Jack Talcom, and under
their directions he became famously
expert in fleeing strangers. His
speciality was distinguished men OF
National reputation. At one session
of Congress he went to Washington
and cleaned out one-third of the mem
bers of the House, besides severa'
Senators. His greatest achievement,
and the one he Dragged the most
about, was when he bunkoed Charles
Francis Adams out of $4,000, About
the same time Oscar Wilde came over
from England and bunkoed the Ameri-
can public with his sunflower game
and Hungry Joe" determined not t.
let the apostle of short pants get away
with the profit He laid for Oscar and
within week they became fast chums
but only to separate the next week,
w hon hn cfa cS
bunko game and fleeced of 5000.
1t was a common expression OF
Hungry Joe" that new sucker in
born every minute, and he freely
boasted that there was not a man on
earth that he could not rob at bunko
If he once made up his mind to do it,
But Hungry Joe'' was not so cunning
but what he could be taken in at his
own game. Several years ago q clever
confidence man who was entirely un-
known to the New York gang arrived
in Gotham from the West, fell in with
Hungry Joe," and permitted himself
to be heeced to the extent of 81, 500
Then he told Hungry Joe" that he
was rich stock-raiser from Abilene,
Kan, on his way to Europe to be
treated for sore eyes. AS Hungry
Joe" had won all his money, he asked
him to help him place a mortgage on
his stock ranch. Joe telegraphed the
banks at Abilene, giving full de-
scription of the man and the fact that
he had asked for a loan. The banks
replied that the man was perfectly
good, and Hungry Joe" and his gang
advanced the stranger $15, 900, taking
a chattel mortgage. 1t was several
weeks later when they discovered that
they had been victimized and that the
genuine stockman was really in Eu-
rope, while the man who got their
money was only a clever confidence
operator from Denver.
The manner in which Hungry joe
feeced his victims is illustrated in In
spector Byrnes' history of professional
criminals in America. Joseph Rams
den. a wealthy Englishman, arrived in
New York one day on the steamship
Gallia and the following afternoon
strolled down Broadway. Reaching
the Metropolitan Hotel he was ac-
costed by an elegantly dressed
stranger, who held out his hand and
said:
why, how do you do, Mr.. Rams
den?n
Mr.. Ramsden had never seen the
young man before, but the latter in
troduced himself as Henry Post, a
business man from Baltimore and a
nephew of Captain Murphy of the
Gallia- His uncle, he said, had de-
scribed Mr.. Ramsden so accurately
and had spoken of him in such warm
terms that he had no difficulty in
recognizing the Englishman. 1t so
happened that Mr.. Ramsden and Cap
tain Murphy had become quite init
mate during the voyage and it seemed
perfectly natural to Mr.. Ramsden that
Captain Murphy should mention him
to his nephew. Young Mr.. Post said
he was on his way home and that he
was going to the ticket Office for his
NJ .IsnI