The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-03-23
PLYMOUTH ROCK PANTS COMPANY:
THE CHLOROFORM TRICK
Practioed Upon Unwary Stran-
gers Who Visit Paris.
Wcll-Dressed Villains Who Employ tho
Drug in Plundcring UnsuspectinC
Travclers-How tho Victims
Arc Shared.

AiHcIlCtiuS Ill IHrlS, una lnUceU all
sisitors to the gay capital, should be
warned of the chloroform trick, which,
according to the police reports, is being
practiced there extensively on stran-
gers.
The chloroform trick is operated as
follows, says the New York Herald: A.
well-dressed, plausible-looking man
lounges about the hotel most freuuentcd
by wealthy Americans, manages to
scrape an acquaintance with such gen
tlemen as he judges to be easy victims,
and finally proposes one of those stereo-
typed rounds of nocturnal sightseeing
which are so alluring to man before
he has seen them and so disa ppointing
afterward.
Of course, the man who acts as de-
coy in this pernicious game poses as
Frenchman thoroughly familiar with
all the gilded wickedness of Paris, upon
which he dilates by the hour to his
eager listeners.
Finally the appointed night comes
around, and with pockets we'll filed
with gold and bank notes the unsus-
pecting traveller starts out on his round
of pleasure, which invariably turns out
to be a round of modification and finan-
cial loss.
After stroll up and down the boule-
wards, with various drinks ut various
cafes, the devoted guide informs his
companion that they will now go and
pay their respects to charming
actress, whose home is in the Passage
Colbert. The companion is delighted,
and his heart gives futter or two as
they climb the four flights of stairs
leading to the shrine at which he would
fain worship. /;
They are cordially received in
luxurious apartment and the actress is
lovely. They hear some music, drink
some wine, and then, on one pretext or
another, the stranger is introduced
into darkcned room, and at that
point his memory becomes a blank
as to the events of the night. The
next morning he finds himself he knows
not how, in bed at his hotel, with queer
feeling in his head and distressing.
nausea. He discovers, on examination,
that all his money and all his valuables,
at least all which he had carried in his
clothing, are missing as well as in
many cases portions of the clothing
itself.
He had been dragged and robbed.
that is simple enough, and, thoroughly
ashamed of his folly, he shrinlls, in nine
cases out of ten from appealing to the
police, or, indeed, making any mention
of his misfortune.
The result is that the large hotels in
Paris are infested with this class of
well-dressed vermin, who, thanks to the
unwillingness of strangers to admit that
they have made fools of themselves, arc
able to work this chloroform trick with
profit and impunity.
And that is the part the victims rare
ly understand-that they have been
drugged with chloroform They are
apt to fancy that something was put in
the wine given them to drink, but that
is an error. ~ much surer and more
convenient way of Supplying the pig
con to be plucllcd" is to bring him into
a room where the air has been satu-
rated with chloroform vapor. A few
seconds arc sufficient to produce uncon-
sciousness, and the man, having been
plundered lcisurely, is taken back to
his hotel dead drunk" by his sympa-
thizing friend, who has made several
hundred and possibly several thousand
francs by the deception.