Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-09-21

too, has been phenomenal. considering
the utter baseneSs of the spurious coin
they palmed off on their ordinarily
shrewd victims, The trick, as described
by the Call, was a combination of the
'tfim-ham" device, with a slight effort
at legerdemain. Whitfield and Melon
aid, both well-dressed men, would enter
a saloon in company. Whitfield would
pose as doctor and Mcdonald as his
patient. The latter, as he approached
the bar, would talk in loud vioce
about his gTatl,uue to the physician for
the wonderful cure that his friend had
accomplished. The conversation would
take this kind of a turn:
Doctor. I know / should have died
but for that prescription you gave me-
"Oh. that's all nonsense; you We're
not quite as bad off as all that" was
the answer
But I know better" would shout
Mr. Mcdonald. Il was ready to croak.
You're the best doctor I ever met, and
I've tried hundreds
Meanwhile the barkeeper had tossed
two little tumblers on the bar and had
become an interested listener.
We'll. let's have a drink. anyway
suggested the doctor. very cheerily. at
the same time throwing a good $40
piece down on the bar.
The two having named their drinks,
Mcdonald would walk to the lunch
counter and help himself to some cold
crab, keeping UP at the same time his
conversation with the doctor. who re
manned at the bar. BY the time Nc
Donald returned from the lunch count
er the drinks would be ready and the
doctors change counted out to him. in
Guiding good So piece and lot of sill
yer. McDOnald's face would then be
suddenly transformed into an interrO-
cation point. Then in voice of assum-
ed anger he would shout. as he showed
the change back to the barkeeper,
while the doctor was pretending to
reach for it:
THAT don't &c, 7 called for the
drinks and | amt going to let you pay
for them. No, doctor you have done
enough for me already. His money is
no good, barkeeper The drinks are on
me-
Saying this the grateful patient pull
ed big dollar out of his own pocket
and slapped it on the bar. Meanwhile
the two men would be engaged in a
contest in which their hands would be
on the doctors change, the one to push
it toward the barkeeper. the other to
seize it for himself.
The outcome was always the same.
Mcdonald was the most persistent and
the goOd-natured doctor always sur
rendered.
''Take back the change and give
him his So" said Mcdonald, as with
one hand he thrust his own good dollar
into the barkeeper's hand, while with
the other he pushed the doctors change
toward the man behind the bar.
The cOmplacent barkeeper was salts
fed so long he collected his tolls. See
ing that the doctor had succumbed he
swept the change back into the cash
register took his pay for the drinks out
Of McDonalds big dollar and returned
to the doctor his beautiful SO piece.
In the scramble during the controversy
as to which of the two should pay for
the drinks a cOunterfeited S. coin
would be substituted by the doctor or
by Mcdonald for the genuine one
which the barkeeper had taken from
the till. 1t was not until long after the
sharpers had left the saloon that the
spurious coin would be discovered.
Then the recollection of the struggle
between the two strangers flashed upon
the mind of the victim, and he knew
he had been Swindled.