The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-07

"Buncoing isn't anything nke the business
1t used to be" he said, putting away dreamily
at his cigar, shut we occasionally get hold Of
some pretty rum softies.
"We capture men llustrious IN all the
walks of life don't mind giving some of
the snap away, because they have been
worked threadbare and besides there is a
sucker born every minute. No matter what
they read they all imagine they can down US
we'll, Rithe fools didn't try we'd never get a
sight Of their money, so good luck to em.
$50 you'd like to know all about it. Well,
in the first place our profession is divided up
into specialties. There are hotel and side
walk men, like James Maurice, alias O'Brien,
Kid Miller. Eddie, or d. d. Kelly the
bunco man pronounced it 'Deedy1 and Harry
Foster. They hang round Madison square
and Broadway, where the big hotels are
Then there are many fellows like Pete Lake
Grand Central Pete'-poor Hungry Joe,'
George Andrews, Bill Decker and Charlie
Wilson, that's Spanish joe They worked
the railroad depots, the Pennsylvania, West
Shore and other ferries, where people from
the far west and way back generally strike
the town.
First of all, you must know that there
are no dens in the business. The boys hire
furnished room on the first floor of building
in any quiet side street, telling the landlord
that they are agents for some company or
other. The hand shaker grasps prosperous
looking stranger and sings out: How are
you, Mr.. Greenl How are my friends in
BrownvilleF The chump generally replies:
Why, you've made mistake; I'm Mr. Brown
from Greenville.' The shaker apologies,
hurries off and reports to the steerer, who
pulls book out Of his pocket and hunts up
Greenville. Tho book, by the way, is what
is known as bank note reporter, and gives
a complete list of all the banks in the coun-
try. From the list the steerer finds that Mr..
Jones is the president Of the Greenyille bank
and that Messrs. Smith and Gray are among
its directors OF he goes to the chump,
shakes hands with him, calls him by name
and saying no is Mr.. Jones nephew, asks for
the health of the Smiths, Grays and other
prominent people. See2 The chump is fiat
tered by the attentions of the bank presidents
stylish nephew, and it does not take long to
steer him into the room where the boss bunco
man is waiting to play his part. There is the
usual story about the painting drawn as in
the lottery prize, then the cash prize and the
rest of it. Usually the chump bites in a few
minutes; he is anxious to get $500 for 500,
he puts up his wad of bills, the boys get it,
and he walks out in brown study, not know
ing exactly how he was done up, but quite
sure he has been swindled.
Complain to the policel Not much. The
bunco men leave their Office minute or two
after he does, and no ono could find them;
besides, the man is ashamed to tell how green
he was. Even if the boys are arrested, you
can't find one man in a hundred who will
go to police court and give himself away
for q sucker
Then there's a very pretty scheme of
Grand Central Pete's You'd laugh to see
the dozens of farmers he gets to lend him $50
on worthless check so that he can pay man
the balance due for an imaginary horse. That's
q dandy scheme, and it's perfectly safe. 1t
generally takes the haybag about an hour to
tumble after he's been left standing outside
store where Pete has to go in for minute on
important business
'Oh, it makes me tired to try and remem-
Der all the racketS KID Miller worked q
nice one on an Episcopal clergyman the other
day. He's a pale, slender chap, not much
more than boy, and when he handed the
Rev. Mr.. Blank forged letter of introduction
from another minister in Cleveland, whose
name he faxed out of church almGnac, Mr..
Blank said he was glad to meet the Rev. Mr..
Whites brother. The letter read: Ny
brother is buying books for me. Please honor
his draft for 500 and thereby do me great
favor The preacher thought it was o. K,
and put up his check for S75 when it was
asked for. Unfortunately for Kid the
check overdrew the Rev. Mr.. Blanks bank
account and Kid got left. But the scheme
was all right.
Zone of the Oldest schemes that chumps still
bite at is the top and bottom" game This is
played with dice, and usually worked with
confederate. You may not know that the
sum of the numbers appearing on the top
and bottom of any three dice, no matter how
they are thrown, always amount to twenty
one. On the general ignorance of that fact
the top and bottom game is so often sue
cessful in beating the uninitiated. The ia