Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-21
GOLD BRICK GAME
Scheme by Whnh Wheezy Jim Was
Buncoed.
INCIDENT OF TEE KLONDIKE REGION
Alleged Pot of Butter Turns Out to
Be Fake.
REF OF THE VICTIM

That gold brick games are not confined
| to the large cities was shown by one that
| was practiced on victim in the Klondike
country. The victim was robbed of the
| greatest treasure he possessed, and it was
| feared for time that riot would be pre-
cipftated in view of the excitement that
was caused among the friends of the bun
coers and buncoed. The matter was finally
adjusted, however, and all hands expressed
satisfaction over the results.
| It was bunco game all the way
through, the story proves. The account
| of it was given one night in the smoking
room Of the Dead Duck Hotel, in Dawson
City. This smoking room, by the way,
served as bar, office, dining room and gen.
eral store room for the nuggets of the
miners 1t was found ON trial that these
nuggets took up much of the room that
| should have been given to fuel In con-
sequence any nugget Weighing less than
| sixteen ounces had been thrown out on
| the street. Owing to street fight which
| had arisen between a number of the
/ gamins the nuggets thrown out had been
used for pelting one another and had dis
! appeared finally and no one knew how and
| no one cared where.
| Miner Named Wheexy Jim.
The victim of the aforesaid bunco game
|
was on account of an asthmatic tendency
which made him puff like an engine on
10 per cent grade. The buncoers were
Bunker Bill' and his pal, Long Tom
Tasker," from Tuscarawres Junction.
| They didn't do much to 'Wheezy JIM "
said kankakee Charlie in the smoking
room of the Dead Duck Inn; but what
they done was a plenty. Yo hain't hearn
NV 1t. stranger? I asks yo' pardon. fer
gittin' We are a tenderfoot on the Klon-
dixie. They may think us pretty nigh ez
slow ez Philadelphia up in these diggin's,
| but faint so. Yo' see, we are sorter under
| cover like, as the sun Is most Of the time.
There's plenty of chance for hatchin' up
schemes during the winter months, an L
| guess most everybody has one incubator
or two goin' all the time.
| well, about this hyah bunco game. 1t
come mighty night depopulatin' Dawson
City. Yo' see, wuz this way. Wheezy
Jim had a whole bologny sausage he got
some way. 1t warnt no small part of
the sausage. 1t wuz a whole link, just
1T comes out of the machine. There wuz
| all sorts of stories affoat as to where he
got the bologny. Some say Jim traded his
| upper Eldorado claim for it to a fellow who
come up from Dyea or Skagway last sum-
mer. How the fellow managed to get to
| Dawson with sech valEbles about his pus-
son only he could tell, and he didn't. Any
way Wheezy Jim came up in town one
| mornin' mo- cited than when Reddy Hagan
dug up a sixty-pound gold nugget over in
| hat off, gun in hand. and he was maxim
things hum. He brought the bladderskin
in the Dead Duck bar and laid it on
| table. ~
| The Diggmgs at, n Stand Still.
'Well. say. the report got out an Their
was more work done in the diggin's
about Dawson that day The boys nocked
in from all aroun': JUST to take look at
| Wheezy Jim's treasure. One old Dutch
| he Itf
and shot hisself. r, There was sech a crowd
| in the Dead Duck bar the proprietors of
| the Hoot Owl, Frosty Elephant and Bald
| Eagle saloons pooled interests and offered
| WEeezy Jim ton of gold dust ter exhibit
| the bolony the same length of time at each
| of their hang-outs.
"'No. gentlemen said Wheezy jim, I
calc'late can do little bizness on my own
| account He done 1t, too. Hired a room
| and charged pound of gold dust admis-
| sion. He got sech pile he was threatened
| by the town council with arrest fer MAIN
taipin' private dumping ground. His
| pile Of dust looked like a hay stack. Bunco
| Bill and Long Tom gets their heads to-
gether and they fixed it up in style. One
! un 'em visited Wheezy Jim one night and
! after actin like man who wants ter say
somethin' and is afeared. an with tears in
his eyes, after Their door had been locked,
| he asked Jim If they wuz any one aroun'.
| Old WheeZy don't know wot to make of 1t.
| He begins ter be suspicious that Bill Is
| after the bologny, and pulls his gun.
Prize Above Price.
| This is no touch game Jim, Bill says
| It's a dead open and shut trade. You
Is the only man in the outfit has got any
thing like equal to my prize. Sh! for Gods
| sake don't let any one know possess such
a treasure as a two-pound hunk of butter
| Bill here goes TO the door and looks out
to make certain that Their is nobody
| around.
EFF it wuz ter git eroun' Long Tom
and had the butter, our lives wouldn't be
safe. Then ergin' Bill says mysterious
it. JIM you know Tom and 1 lived on
free lunch route for years. Eff We could
only sink tooth into bologny wunst more
! we would be ready to throw up our claims.
| hunk of butter for your link of bologny.
Yo' don't care for it like we does. Yo'
come from good people. and has been useter
ter cultivate its acquaintance
"Ther wuz tears in~ Bills eyes. He's
pretty foxy, Bill is, and they say he used
wouldn't hear Of no SIGH proposition. That
link of bologny had become a companion
| to him. He loved it as much as he onct.
loved dog he useter own, Jim told Bill.
| No. sir, he wouldn't part with that sau-
sage for all the gold in Klondike.
Jim Capitulates.
"Howsumever, they kept Fostering jim
|
| him the butter wuz in solid lump, shaped
like brick. frozen stiff SO ez ter Keep
They wuz sleek, them two sharpers wuz
They makes date with Jim to meet 'em
one night at the END of town and hand
| over the bologny fer a. two-pound pat NV
| butter. mn
"On the night selected, witch S somewhat
| dark, they meets Jim according to contract.
| He perduces the link or sausage and they
| hands over wot perports to be the rectan-
gilar,shaped two-potmds pat Of butter. Bill
ana Tom claims they have business else
where and leaves. -
when Wheezy ,Rill-,goes back to his
shanty and examines close wot he has been
dreamin' is two-ppund lump Of COW juice,
battered into grease, het nigh has fit, he's
Here. Kankakee Charlie aggravatingly
| stopped and proceeded ito dig for a nugget
in back tooth with his frog-sticker.
Well, what wuz fhe pot of butter?' the
tenderfoot inquiredf apxiously. Charlie
gave scornful laugh before he answered.
"Wot wuz it?' he said; SIT was nothing but
n HI Ill