Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-29

StdDtIy carries DlllS or all denominations
from 81 TO 500 They can easily do this,
for their daily profits always reach high
figure. He takes s. bill, for instance,
and in three folds he brings 1t into nice
square shape. He tucks it into his right
lower vest pocket and waits. 1t Ism I a
long wait, either. ''Here's a plant,
sure, - softly hummeth the nervy Jug
gler of everyone 8 cash but his own, as a
sturdy, prosperous looking farmer ap-
proaches him, attracted by his leather
hinged voice shouting &c tickets ryeheer!'
The callous-palmed tiller of the soil
learns that he can buy q seat just as
oheaply of this lively snip of chap as he
can at the ticket wagon. And so he
reaches way down into an inside vest
pocket and draws forth a great old-fash-
toned leather strapped wallet. He un-
winds yard of strap which encircles
the greenback receptacle and extracts
a $40.
''Jess gin us q couple o seats, mister
man, - he says, imposingly.
Certainly, sir, an good ones, too, -
replies the CRATER, as he gTasps the note
with its alluring XXX. He first folds it
in precisely the same manner as he did
the five, which nestIes so innocently IN
his lower right vest pocket. All! but you
will be called into service very, very,
soon, my dainty little five-spotl The
short-change chap tucks the country
man bill into that same vest pocket
wherein is slowed the flyer. Then he
runs over the bills which are sandwiched
between his fingers. He hasn't change
enough.
''Haven It you anything smaller than
twenty?' he asks, anxIously, as if re-
GREETING the probable loss of q customer
for the tickets.
81 ham I, - responds Farmer jump
son.
''I can IS change this, sir. m sorry,
but here, you take it to that gentleman
over there, sir; he'll fix you up all
right and thrusrng a note into the
Reuben open palm the fakir turns him
half around and gently-oh, so gently
pushes him toward another of the gen.
try. The countryman barely chances at
the note in his hands and puts it in his
pocket. He never suspects that he has
been film flammed. Why should he?
HASN'T he seen that lively Young buck
take it Outen the same pocket he put it
in? Oh, but Mr.. Farmer JlmpsOn, if you
had only unfolded that greenback before
you moved toward the other gentle
man, your goOseberry colored hair would
havs fallen from your pate in sections at
the sight. The lively young buck, as
you call him, rung in cold flyer on you
AS he would phrase it-instead of your
nice, crisp twenty. OF course, you II
never see that young buck s face again.
And that is what the grafters call the
push note act. It Is clever skin game,
cleverIy worked by very clever swind-
dleIs.
The slide and the push are the tricks
most commonly practiced by the big
grafters. They can make 80 much
money by these simple methods, crooked
as they are, that they do not adopt other
and more laborious practices Indeed,
the more work that attaches to a swindle
at once stamps it in the mind of the cir
Gus CRATER as an n. g. graft; in better
words, he doesn't see financial returns
enough in complicated dishonesty for
him to practice 1t. So he sticks to his
slide and push notes with thoroughly
religious devotion.
How is it that these hangers-on are
allowed TO travel with circuses? The
question is natural one. The answer
follows just as naturally. They all have
permits to accompany the show they are
travelling with. What are called privi-
l6R66 arc SOA0 HLAOA ~ lIAO 6boA I'LL > CNAe "a
a tent show. 1t is at this season of the
year that these sales occur. The priVi-
leges of selling tickets outside the tent
or reserved seats on the inside, and the
traffic in peanuts, popcorn and lemonade
are eagerly purchased by the grafters.
These privileges come high, but the pro-
gressive and ambitious grafters must
have 'em. What do you think of
CRATER paying the proprietor Of certain
circus $500 a week for the exclusive
right to sell tickets outside the official
circus wagon? This has been done, and
Jim Jordan is the man who paid that
enormous sum for that privilege. He
had couple of assistants to help him in
the work, and it is the boast of the
grafters that Jim and his pals made
barrel of money that season. OF course
all circus proprietors do not tolerate
the presence of these vampires. The
fragrant manner in which grafters have
actually robbed the public in GER
tain sections of the South and
west has caused the authorities in
these sections to issue orders prohibiting
the appearance of specified oircuses in
these prescribed sections. But little
thing like that doesn It bother your fly,
up-to-snuff, old sawdust men. They
simply change the name OF the CIRCUS,
sell it, temporarily, to a new firm and
the grafters get there just the same.
There s an unwritten law, too, existing
between the circus proprietOrs and the
grafters. It is this: If victim of the
latter makes herculean kick the circus
men will rub him down the back, brush
some imaginary flies off his coat collar
and tell him how sorry they are it hap
pened so. They don t know the culprit,
and how much did the poor man lose?
Twenty dollars2 Too bad. Would
he take ten and call things
square? If the circus men discover
the sharper, they'll make him
disgorge and they'll send the verdant
pleasure seeker the remainder. The
man is glad enough to get 80 per cent. of
his cash and he is easily amelorated. He
goes away with lingering hope that he
will most likely see the rest or his money
some day. 1t is only hope, though,
and 1t fingers and fingers vigorously. 1t
never materIaliZes.
To estimate accurately the weekly in
come of the star grafters is difficult
problem to solve. We have seen where
$500 a week has been paid for a season 3
~;u 70 he Tf