The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1889-05-16
BEWARE OF THESE TRICKS !
The Little Games The BunCO Men Try
10 Work on You.


u ever was, sald sergeant .SchmltDer5eI
The panel game isn't worked any more
There couldn't be a panel.house in this
town without the conniyanCe Of the po.
lice. The first sucker who was bled and
squealed would break the place all up.
So with the badger game. There isn't
one and there can't be one, except for a
day or two, inside the jurisdiction Of the
authorities. No Centennial visitor has
anything to fear, in my judgment, from
either Of these old dodses. Of course, q
man can blow in what he pleases under
the inspiration Of lovely woman's society,
but that can't count in law, you know,
unless some overt act is committed. And
yet one might give pointers to the visitors
we expect in town. One might say, for
instance:
Beware tie ca.ual glove on the side.
walk. When gentleman from the rural
regions is clappcd upon the shoulder by
a slick looking chap in a silk hat and a
red necktie and is asked IL he has lost a
glove--a plain, everyday brown or tan
kid glove-the chances are he'll say he
has not lost one. Oh, Of course! But
when the smooth chap holds out gold
ring and tells how he found it in one of
the fingers Of the glove and insists, more
over, that the glove dropped out Of the
Strangers pOcket the chances are ten to
one that the Jay will say that II the glove
doesn't belong to him at least he ought to
go whack IN the find. To this the finder
agrees. But, says he, while Pm willing
you should 90 to the pawn shop and price
the ring want your coat left here as Sc
curity, because don't know YOU. Well,
that seems fair enough; and the stranger
leaves his coat until he can get the value
Of the ring. When he comes back he
still has the ring-the other fellow has
the coat and keeps it.
Beware the soap-box! is another label
which ought to be pasted in every visitors
hat. The artist usually has handcart
on two wheels and stocked With packages
Of soap for dime. He squiIts the car
bonic acid OF Excitement into the business
Of purifcation by showing one or five
dollar bill which he pretends 10 twist into
some one Of dozen soap-bOxes just under
the cakes. But he doesn't. Not much.
By an easy sleight-of-hand trick he
changes the real bill he showed for Deer
stamp, which is big and likewise is green.
After he has put the beer stamp in n box
he shows the crowd the bit Of green
paper, and they at once assume it is the
treasury bill he showed before. So when
he throws that particular box into the
pile every ybody makes grab for it-at 81
a grab. While the Fabbers 90 off to one
side to examine their find the capper,
who is always on hand, shouts "Policew
and the fakir runs his wagon off before
the one man who has found the beer
stamp has detected the fraud.
"Beware the man whose hands passes
gently down your leg on your way up
from the ferry, and who holds up pock-
etbOok as you look around. Ii you're
honest you'll say it isn't your pocket hook,
though the man who picks 1t up shows it
to be full Of bank-notes. But, after all,
findings is keepings, he says, and when
he says you can have il all for a small
percentage Of what is in 1t, say $50 on
$3.50, you will probably, II a stranger, fish
the amount out Of your clothes, especially
IL a respectable looking man happens
along and tells you that is the proper
thing to do. II you find the bills to be
Confederate money or patent medicine
advertisements when you come to exam
them, nobody in particular is around to
be blamed. The other fellows have lit
out.
This is a wicked city," continued the
sergeant, signing, "and may be that's
why men who come in from the outlying
regions think they have a license to be
wicked, too. It must he so to account for
the success Of the picture book game. A
countryman who has heard but never
seen anything Of Illicit literature is almost
certain to be struck by fellow who has
a book to sell, which, II exposed, would
bring down Anthony Comstock and Judge
Duhy's righteous sentance. But that
.o,I,, unakaa Il more valuable In the