Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19
MURRAY'S MUSINGS.
The Genteel Beat Who Cots Your Money
- Over Terrapin and Champagne-Novel
Methods of Petty swindlers-A Waiter
Who Was Famous-Gotham Stories
rr.o,, , sr.rr connpsno~nr,

| rFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT.
NEW York, July ls-"There is feature of
| New York life," said gentleman of fortune
and weIl-known man about town, (which
| has never been adequately described In
| the nature of things it would be impossible
to do the subject Justice. To be sure, every
now and then some clever swindler or bunco
sharp gets his head tangled in the meshes Of
the law and the public is entertained with
an elaborate account of his operations. But
the great army of sharps and flats go on
operating and being operated upon just as if
nothing had happened. Having the reputa-
tion of considerable money and a liberal al
lowance of good nature l have been taken
in again and again, though the times have
escaped imposition outnumber the fatal at
tacks so to ]. Money is invariably the OBJ
ject, of course.
"You know 1 am not stupid and will credit
me with pretty good knowledge of my fel-
low man; yet 1 have left some thousands in
the wake of my ten years of metropolitan
life. haven't been bunkoed or robbed,
either The schemes that are put up and
the skill and adroitness with which they are
worked challenge admiration. They run all
the way from loan of ST. 'on the dead
square indefinitely, to cash my check for
500 till day after tomorrow suppose am
not alone in this thing, but l have been so
harassed at times by impecunious gentle
meh' that life has seemed scarcely worth
living. 1t would take a volume to even give
illustrative samples of these people. The
man who strikes you for small loan of 80
cents is easily gotten rid OF; but the gen
teel, cultured, well-authent ticated gentle
man who comes at you through terisipin
and champagne is not so easily disposed of.
And the very worst of the lot is the man you
nave nave fS, once known ' dlnly. perhapsIstill you
1rreproachable, and it isnot an easy matter
to dispose of him. l have had smart fellows
pursue me for months, Systematically, with
out their being able to get their hooks in;
whereas one OF this gentry says in a casual
way some evening: Let me have a-a-ah-
fifty, my dear boy-little short tonight
it's gone, never to show up again. will
say that the dead beat crowd is composed
mostly of people of other States. They are
not New Workers. They hail from every
York on some scheme or another, expend
what money they have in making acquaint-
ances and pushing their project, then, in
hook or crook until they get into Jail OF Join
the regular 50cent beat gang. Oh. yes"
concluded my moneyed friend languidly,
"l'm touched a dozen times q day. They
make me tired"
Playing the Check Game.
THE man who wants to get a check cashed
has come to be an object of grave suspicion.
1t makes little difference whether it is his
II
pay of a responsible moneyed man or firm
its sudden presentation anywhere is apt to
create panicky feeling of insecurity. The
man with check is wholly distinct from
the vulgar borrower of a "tenner till to-
morrow" He is usually smooth-spoken
man of gentlemanly appearance, whose sur
roundlngs and associations may be some
what cloudy but to whom it is difficult to
say no. You may have met him socially or
in business way for months, perhaps years,
and yet, not having occasion to test it, have
no resonable knowledge OF his financial re-
sponsibility
If he is genial fellow whom you do not
care to offend unnecessarily, the simple re-
quest to cash small check for him or put
your name on a bit of paper at the hotel
counter Is pretty hard to refuse. The most
suspicious and iron-hearted man in the
world Will be caught occasionally by such
do SO again will be ruthlessly broken down.
And, after oil, is it not much more desirable
TO get taken in now and then than to go
through the world distrusting every human
creature and refusing to do even your best
friend financial favor.
Learning to Walk.
at requires year or two of experience
before woman can come upon the stage OF
walk across it properly" said q well-known
theatrical manager. This is the key to that
most remarkable gait one sees on upper
Broadway every day: When the stage walk
else under the heavens
Her Game Was Penny-Ante.
A wELL-DREsSED and not bad-looking |
woman, with small handbag, rushing into |
shops and stores for 'just cent to make up |
cents for car fare" illustrated q surprising |
bit of uptown work the other day. She took |
it systematically and nearly everybody she |
came across stood the raise. A group of |
gentlemen in a cigar store each contributed |
oil hNIt In lnfd IN
ally that he was sorry. but that he had moth |
ing less that half dollar.
AZ can change it," she said, promptly. |
The three contributors opened their eyes |
very widely, but she saw her bad break at |
the same moment and slipped away with a |
faint smile creeping up from behind her |
ears.
A Newsboy's Novel Game.
THERE are good many ways of earning an |
honest living by the sweat of somebody else's |
brow. The other evening the usual crowd |
of genteel and semi-genteel sporting people |
occupied the sidewalk in front of the White
pool room, while the rest of the |
public walked around by way of the narrow
curb or the street.
"Ye-o-ow! Wea-o-ow!''
succession of sharp yelps and prolonged |
howls broke on the tympanum, and 6-year-
old newsboy came bounding from a car plat
form, his papers flying right and left in the
mud.
How he did sob and yell
And how the sympathetic crowd gathered |
round him and swore at the railway COM
pany and went down into their individual
pockets and f1shed up stray dimes and
quarters and half dollars!
And how that dirty little fraud scooped I
'em all in and ran Off round the corner with
two or three dollars in this same hard-earned
silver!
Smart? He beat the whole pool room
crowd.
Odd Freaks of Habit.
81 NEVER tread on a crack in the pavement
when 1 walk alone" said Custom House
official. at is an involuntary habit now,
but 1 used to do it as a diversion. A thing
like that takes a mans mind Off of more
serious things. When 1 was very much
with business troubles 1 would
walk out and concentrate my mind on AVOID.
ing the cracks in the pavement. 1t engages
the attention just enough to take the mind
from. the more disagreeable subject. A
friend of mine counts the finger and thumb
of one hand and adds the sum to the fingers
of the other-.fve and four are nine'-'four
and five are nine and repeats the count.
He has been using that method so long how |
ever that he pursues the count mechanical
ly, telling off one finger after another and
busy with other things. Any apparently
ha rmless thing of that kind is apt to fasten
itself on man in the course of time much |
to his annoyance.
A Famous Waiter Gone.
On Thirty fifth street is little low-browed
,hophouse. 1t has but one small room and
, kitchen, and the high wooden bar in one
end, the iron safe your chair tilts against be-
tween the two windows and the icechest
seem toencroach upon the public rights
rhc place seats about 80 people, the walls
ire smoked and dingy and exude odors of
ID. 900 bygone chops and toasted cheese enter
~ oinuents The paintings crowd ca ch other