The Opelousas courier., 1889-09-07
A CIRCUS FAKIR
HOW THE
SWINDLES PEOPLE.

While Selling Tickets Outside h
Show He Adroitly Abstracts Bills
in Making Change-Quick-
Fingered Rogues'
e%
A number of years agstiosaqn across one
of the most accomplished sA~-.-:change
workers in this country and got well &C
ouainted with him. He didn't suspect
me of being a newspaper man, N IN
the three months that I knew him | didn't
enlighten him. He grew very coniden-
tial and chatty, and gave away to me
the innermost secrets OF his craft.
He was a little, slim fellow, of Irish x
traction, and as bright and as sharp as a
new needle. He had a way of fitting his
Sq.d back and looking at folks with half
closed eyes, while he smiled slightly.
that was clever enough to make agreat
hit in a dramatic creation. 1t was per-.
fectly fetching, but the fine contempt ne
had for the ''suckers'' whom his kind
bled, and the way he had of speaking OF
them was much more SO. 1t was winter
time when I knew him, and he was rest
ing until the season opened up. I ap-
preached him a dozen times tp-get him
to tell me all about the short-change at
before he became pliable. He would
take a coin and palm it as cleverlya 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 scornfus-
ly: ,
"That's no goodl There's no money
in that. You can only get so cents or
81 out of hat. There's lots OF ways
stronger than thatl"
I 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
dc it with the long green"
He smoothed the bills out straight md
caressed them affectionately.
"Ahl When these new ones were
first issued" he said, ''the boys worked
all the banks in the country for .hem.
They were the best graft the boys ever
struck. You sec they look just N2%a
five 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
noticed a lot of hustlers in the crowd SELL
ing tickets and saving people the trouble
of getting in the jamaat the ticket wagon,
haven't you9 Well you naturally think
they are hired by proprietor of the
show because they Vsen tickets at the
regular price. But they are not. They
nav 100 cents6n 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.
IA young man with his best girl
comes along-or an old man alone, Or a
solid business man with two or three OF
his family; it doesn't matter who it is,
they're all victims-and he sees a great
crush around the ticket wagon. There
isn't much chance of getting a ticket
there in less than ten minutes, and there
at his elbow is a young man with, Choice
reserved seats at regular priest How
many9' We're here to relieve the rush at
the wagon! No extra charge, sirl How
manya' and he says, Two, please which
assumingly that the man buys reserved
seats, would be 50. He gives the young
ran a $40 bill or maybe $20-if there's
4 any place on earth where a man will fash
a big billapd whese he hadn't ought te
it's at a circus. Wen say he offers hin
a $40 bill this time for the sake of the
better illustration ofs1he story. Thu
young man takes it, puts 1t ine5 n1s pcs
ket, draws out a handful of bills, takes
ten, a two and five ones, and hands the
lump to the buyer of seats. tt is 81
short, but the man has handled it *
quickly and counted $18 out of it SC
easily that oftentimes the man takes il
and goes, but the fakir is sore if he does
If 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 win carefully count
his change and say:
"sHere, young mani You're 81 short
here. Only $17 here
asThat's beautiful and just as the fakil
wants 1T. So he says:
"rSure of that2 Just count it again
please
"Sohe counts again while the fakil
watches, and when he has turned ovel
the last bill he says with the air of q mar
who knows too much to be cheated By
these flip circus folks:
. sThat's all--seyenteen.'
"But the fakir IDA little doubtful, Sc
he saws. as if irving to make sure: