Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-01-15
Tricks of Confidence Men, Who Make
the Streets Their Hunting
Ground, Exposed.
A Little Drama in Real Life is En-.
acted to Draw in the
unwary.
A Bird Swindie Cleverly Used by
Raiders and Piles of
Silver Taken.

I men, rlns-drOpperS, and others or that
ilk find it more and more difficult to find
! dupes, even among the verdant coun ry
folk who occasionally visit the city. But
there are other swindles practlsed by those
who make the steeets their hunting
ground, with many of which the general
public are unaCquainted, and a few OF
these 1t is my purpose to describe.
| On a suburban road leading into a
! good-slZed town, you may occasionally
meet with a group of pedestrians whose
appearance is by no means striking. There
is man who is dressed after the style of
an artisan or mechanic, though there is
an Undesirable touch of the tramp, or
! loafer, both in his walk and his carria e;
he frequently carries basket, from which
| the handles of few joiner's or masou's
tools prelude rather ostentatiously; and
he sports the 'rolled-up" apron which is
the distinguished badge of those trades.
With him is woman, presumably his
wife, who is poorly but neatly dressed,
carries baby, and who generally has a
youngster toddling at her side; and behind
this advance guard strolls leisurely a boy
of uncertain age-he may be anything
from ten TO siAteen--whOse countenanUe
Indicates, to student of human nature,
an alarming amount of prec1city.
Just as the travellers approach the out
skirts q the town you will notice tie man
give a look round, and then exclaim some
what angrily:
"Now. then, come on a bit quicker,
can yep
And then curious thing happens. Toe
boy boy makes frantic effort 20 obey the
order by breaking into 'rky trot; and,
stumbling in his stride, falls on the path
motionless. Mlttering an execration, the
man turns toward the fallen lad; but the
woman reaches him first, and raising his
head on her knee, attempts to restore him
to consciousness. Of course crowd
gathers and the woman commences to
weep bitterly.
"What's the matter" inq lires a by.
stander, and in reply to the question the
woman volubly tells her story, interspers
ed with sobs.
Times, she says, have been bad with
them. They had tramped all yesterday
and to-day hoping to get work in the town;
but poor little BiIl-the recumbent lad
was never very strong; and now Ee's done
up; and God help them, &c, &c.
crowd is sympathising enough under
gentleman slips shilling .nto the woman
sum in small silver and copper is conscib,
uted; even labo-or who has paused, at
tracted by the crowd, adds his mite, and
just when the ream of charity ceases TO
flow Bill opens his eyes and gazes around
with a bewlldered air as he appears to re-
cover consciousness.
Here, let me curry HID a biz, - say the
man, hosting the boy on to his shoulders;
and after yOlubly thanking their benefact-
ors, man, woman and children resume their
route for III town.
I Was by the merest chance that [ first
discovered that the above little drama In
real life was very artfuiy concocted
swindle. | first saw it performe on the
road from Newport to Cardiff, just about
d mile outside the latter town, IN the
suburb of r )lth and believing that the
distress displayed was genuine, I contrib
uted my quota to the relief s the suif orars
That samesevening entered a public house
in Crockherbtown no5 very aristocratic
district of Cardiff, and in the next com
partment | heard the sounds of feastlng
and revelry.
Its bin good day, Jim remarked
a female voice, the owner Of which was
evidently far from sober.
''Yus-nigh on guild, - was the mans
gruff reply.
81 kin do it proper can't |, dad?' sad
a ounger voice; and then, looking over
the partition, | saw my distressed friends
of the morning. There was a coarse but
plentiful collation. of cold IA eat, new crusty
bread, and pickles on the table, graced 10y
a quart 1t and sundry glasses containing
liquids mora potent than beer; and my
disgust was complete when the man HE
coughed out reAectively:
An ter think theirs lot o'-fools wot
akchully wurks fur Twin y
Have you ever seen small girl about
eight or nine years old, clasping a bottle
of medicine tightly in one hand, suddenly
tip and fall, breaking the bottle, and, of
course, spiling its contents? | have;
and the first time | witnessed the sight |
was near enough at hand to raise the little
one, and to sympathise with her distress
Dear me, how that child did cry; feared
she was badly hurt; but no, it wasn't that,
she explained amid her sob5; her mother
was ill-very ill-they were poor, Oh! so
poor; father was at sea; and the doctor
had ordered the medicine; and they bad
spent their last shilling In purchasing it;
and now she did'n know what she should
do; aud then there was another and a more
bitter outburst of tears. What would you
have done under the circumstances, gentle
reader? Just what | did of course: and
the shilling | gave the child was followed
by smaller coin from another spmpatn
iser in The crowd which quickly gathered;
and when the little maid dried her
eyes and gracefully expressed her thanks,
she had far more than enough to replace
the split medicine.
And was the little maid an impostor?
She was, and very clever one, too.
few weeks later | was runmag.ng over
the stock of a general dealer, looking for
some Leyden jars | was trying to buy
cheaply, when in trotted the little heroine
of the broken bottle. She made her way
straight to crate In which were stored
some hundreds of empty phials; she Sc
lected dozen of those on which the chem
lists labels still remained tolerably clean;
she paid her two pence at the counter, and
went out of the shop with the air of a
regular customer, as, indie, d, she actually
was. When, some time after wards, /
came across crowd In q lite an opposite
quarter of the city, which had surrounded
little girl who was crying over an empty
medicine b0ttie, was not one of the good
Samaritans who relieved her distress.
Perhaps | ought to have exposed her i'm
posture then and there. but | contented
myself with following the example of the
Levite, and passed by On the other side :"
Some day when you are enjoying a
4nouthful of lunch In confectioner shop
especially If the weather be wet or cold
you will see the door open, and wretch
edy dressed man will timidly approach the
,.1unter His thraa dhara coat Ia hnttonod