Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-09-25

daughter's keenest disp,easure for
space OF nearly five minutes by declaring
that he believed st John sswormed
Lucrece,s identity ont OF the captain and
then had the hid thrown overheard on
purpose HAROLD b VYxxE.
FISHING FOR SUCKERS.
svlndliaE Cigar vendsrs Catch Hendricks
Of Them Every Week.
Ine young man stood on the corner
and held his hand between his eyes and
the blazing sun which had swept the
street quite clear of all but few bold
and hardy pedestrians. Across the
square two stalwart figures came roll
ing up ragged and brown. One of the
men carried loosely in his long. slim,
sunburnt fingers a box that might have
contained a pair of dueling pistols or
any thing else of equally romantic sug-
gestiVeness. And this was the visi n
that caused the young man to stand on
the corner and shade his eyes in closer
scrutiny Subsequent Developments,
however. didn't realize the young mans
romantic anticipations, but the discom-
fort that he endured was sufficiently re-
compensed by Information which he
received Of one of the most an
moving tricks Of swindling itin-
Grant Cuban" cigar sellers, for
to this class did the brown-skinned.
stalwart strangers belong. The time
OF this episode was yesterday after
noon, and the scene was busy part
of a prominent street in this city. The
two strangers and the young man
brought up in the back room of
mercantile house on the street where
two other young men were industri-
ously trying to edit long columns of
figures and keep cool. Neither of the
strangers could speak English. SO they
indicated their purpose by pantomim-
ic gestures, and they quickly displayed
the contents of the romanticlooking
bundle and wanted to sell the gentle
! men some fine cigars. The gentlemen
didn't want the cigars, they said, but
they might have said the first book Of
Xenophon's ..Anabasis," with equal
| effect for the Cubans didn't under
stand the conversation, Or, if they did,
they concealed their knowledge quite
| artistically, and. by their rapid
and eloquent gestures apd ex-
postulatory chatter, soon reduced
the young men to a condition of
PROSTATE helplessness- Out of the
little piles of damp, attractive-looking
cigars they jerked half dozen speci-
mems, which they ripped open with a
| pocket-knife, and showed to have been
made OF good material While they
were destroying their cigars for the
edification of the young men they told
their story They were Cubans who
were travelling through Boston, and
cigars were the best Habana- They
had the material. and the cost of labor
was very small, and would the gentle
men offer prices All this informa
ton was conveyed by means of gesturs
and broken scraps of English and writ
ten signs. They could afford to sci
good cigars for less price than the re
tailers could sell common cigars. and
being stranded, then were willing *
take any thing reasonable. The youne
men bought 200 of the Habanas at 81 1
hundred. That evening the reporter wa:
walking by he place when one Of tn,
lyou1g men called him in. The ethe,
young man was there. and with hin
was a man about town who knows al
that's worth knowing about the suee.
tricks that 60 On in q big city. Tn,
young man was telling how he ha,
found most of the cigars that he Ia,
used thus far to have been Of tn
cheapest character, and the man aboE
town was smiling quizzically. Nhe
the young man got through tine smil
ing cynic said quietly: Let me see
| I can describe the Cubans who sold tn
cigars and he proceeded to deserib
with marvellous fidelity the tws pictul
esque wanderers of that days episode
, MY dear boy" he said, conselingl,
, I'm sorry to say you've been dupee
> These fellows are rogaes who make
practice of swindling the susceptible
4 tenderfoot. Instead of being strande
Cuban wayfarers, they are regula.
/ ~ established In profitable bushes
r ! in this city They have place o
| kneeland street, in a garrett wher
i they manufacture these very chea
!. cigars. They mix in a reasonabl
= number of we'll favored and real]
, good cigars, and their method is to g
r about and tell plausible stories thu
will make smart young men, VII
= know good thing when they see i
bite hard. They pick out, with a de-
r terious movement born of long practie
= and general skill and expert knowledg
4 of tobacco, the good cigars, and the
open or smoke these specimens, blow
Il 4 ing the smoke into the purchaser
T face They will let you choose tt
It cigars if you like. But they han
enough skill to direct you to the cigs
= they want You to take They repr
: sent themselves as strikers, and the
i. want to sell their goods at any prio
So far as my experience goes, the
|, ara ,.raftr nearly all swindlers -