The Anaconda standard., 1897-12-06
A SMOOTH YOUkGSTER
Dick Deadeye," the Youngest
Confidence Man in America.
HOW HE WORKED HIS GAME
Tears Came at Command and Touched
the Hearts of Susceptible Suckers
He Had Infinite Resources Com
mtted to the Reform School.

Charles Feeds. the one-eyed newsboy.
known among his fellow newsboys i'm
Butte as Dick Deadeye" who has been
ordered committed to the state reform
school, is probably the youngest con-
fdence operator in America, if not in
the world. He is just years of age
but he has been a familiar figure on
| the streets of Butte for four or five
years, and was not more than or 6
when his confidence operations began
to make him locally notorious. His
! first and faVorite scheme was to buy
a few papers and then take up posi-
ton at some prominent point on one
of the most frequented streets, usually
| on Broadway or Main street. He then
gave the muscles of his face a few
witches and in a moment the tears
began to stream from his eyes. If he
was not Instantly noticed by some
passerby he set up a lusty howl and
cried so that he could be heard a block
away. This usually brought a dozen
on more sympathetic people around him
who inquired the cause of his heart
breaking outbursts. He said he had
dropped four bits and could not find
it and was afraid to go home for fear
he would get a beating. Half a dozen
persons made a search for the lost
bit, of course, they could not find It,
and Dick Deadeye' kept up his howl
ing. Finally some one often more than
one, gave the little confidence man four
bits to take the place of the money he
claimed to have lost. and soon the flow
of tears ceased, the crowd dispersed
and Dick Deadeye' shifted the scene
of his operations TO another street,
where the performance was repeated
with the same result.
The scheme worked all right for a
long time, but finally people dropped
on to it, and "DiCk" had to evolve a
nlN ana "a nl,h
Der of old papers and on a cold or dis
agreeable day, or at a later hour at
night, he attracted crowds about him
by his ready tears and loud crying.
This time his story was that his mother
had given him some money to make a
purchase for her. but he had invested
ii in papers and could not sell them.
Sometimes one person bought his whole
bundle, sometimes several contributed
and they did not discover the cheat
unless they chanced to look at the date
of their papers, but even if they found
that they had been buncoed they sim
ply laughed at the cleVerness of the
trick by which they had been taken in
10y the little scamp.
One of his later tricks, and success
full one in small way, was to lay in
wait With a bundle of papers until he
saw a young man with his best girl
come along, when he thrust a paper in
the gentlemans hand and demanded a
nckle for it. He usually got it; if he
didn't, he followed the couple and
howled until the young man was glad
to give him two bits to shut up. Some
times he varied this system by demand
ing the price Of paper which he
claimed the young man owed him.
He had another scheme by which he
often sold his morning and evening
papers. He kept one copy in his hand
and concealed the others under his
Waistcoat. Then he cried and pleaded
that he was cold or hungry and want
cd to go home as soon as he sold his
last paper, seldom any one refused
to buy what appeared to be his last pa
per so that the littlS fellow could go
home. but as soon as the purchaser had
turned his back Dick pulled out an
other copy of his stock and this method
of disposing of his last paper" was
hausted.
Many other stories of the little fel-
lows confidence games have been told,
some of them have perhaps been manu-
factured. but a sufficient number of
them are youched for to give Dick
Deadeye" well-earned reputation as
a very smooth youngster The readi-
ness with which he could make his
tears flow has long been a wonder
among people who have been familiar
with him, and on many occasions
young men about town, whom he failed
to work with any of his various
schemes, offered him small sums of
money to see him cry, and he pro-
ceeded to earn the money without much
effort
Lately Dick has fallen into bad
ways and refused to stay at home. He
kept bad company and slept on chairs
in saloons and dives. and his mother
was finally compelled 10 ask the au-
thorities to take him in charge and send
him to the reform school.