The Portland daily press., 1898-08-25
PLAYED HIDE AND SEEK.
sheriffs Kept Busy Enforcing Orders
Against swindling Games.

sheriffs Kept Busy Enforcing Orders
| Against Swindling Games.
The tip had gone out, Tuesday after
noon, that the sheriffs would be on hand
the next day, to see that none of the
various fleeing schemes practiced on the
second day of the fair remained in the
way of the weak minded. But nobody
appeared to be the least bit frightened.
| The same gang that worked the pins,
tine arrow, the magic ball and the marble
dropping game were among the first ones
to start in on the new days business.
AT one O. clock when the people were
6ocking into the grounds by the hun.
dreds, no less than ten games of ques.
tionable character were running on the
Midway" Even that old time swindle,
the shell game, was being tried on inno-
cents in quest of sights worth seeing.
Some of the games had been varied some
what from the preceding day, cigars be-
ng put up instead Of cash, but when the
officers were not within hearing distance
the operators would forget to say any
thing about cigars, and would work their
patrons for straight cash, ing assisted in
their endeavor by ever present "cappers. f"
Reserving the privilege to buy lack the
boxes of cigars won gave the sohemers q
good loophole to take refuge in when
their game was under scrutiny Of the
sheriffs
Deputy Sheriff Firth caught one fellow
working the secret spring cabinet game,
and took in the whole outfit, including a
SS5 ''pot" that the operator had put up
and about Sl2 of the hard earned dollars
of young man from down east, who
was foolhardy enough to suppose that he
could beat out the handler Of the machine
If he only kept playing long enough. The
man who had lost was told by some of
the cappers, after Frith's raid, that he
was likely to be arrested for gambling, SO
the young man lost himself in the crowd,
instead of following up the officer and
putting in claim for his share of the
conflscated cash.
One of the lightning calculators was
working his little ten-pin game, up near
he Rigby restaurant, when Deputy Firth
.ppeared ON the scene. A young man
there, who ought to have seen through
the swindle at the start, had been in
weighed into putting up $3s in the hope Of
winning bunch OF greenbaoks that lay
on the board as conditional prizes.
Deputy Firth raised his hand and
ordered the thing to stop, just as this
victim was putting up So bill.
"All right, sir, I'll stop if you say 50, +"
responded the foxy manipulation of the
pins, at the same time giving swish of
his stick which upset the pins for final
play. Then he began: "Two, seven,
eleven, thirteen, seventeen, twenty -four,
twenty eight, tn irty -one-Boys. see what
No. 81 is, and remembe this is your last
play for the officer has ordered us to
quit
The young man whose $35 was on che
board nervously hunted for No. 81, and
found that it was blank-the only
blank on the cloth.
'Sorry for you, friend, that we should
have to quit just at this time, for you
would surely have won if we could have
played it OUT remarked the clever
operator as he gathered up the whole pile
of cash and began to stuff it into his
pockets
"But where is my part of that money!
You give me back my part" pleaded the
VICTIM
80, no, you hadn't won yet. The
money is mine because you hadn't hit a
winning number. It's tough luck for
you, but the sheriff said we must quit,
and of course we had to quit right where
we were.''
And SO it went When the sheriffs were
at one end of the Midway somebody
was being trimmed ut the other end.
Thus the sch amer and the sheriffs played
at hide and seek, till the latter got tired
out and gave up the chase.
Cant you put stop to that shell
game. out there?" Manager Libby asked
Deputy Sheriff Plummer, up in the Score
tary's office, late in the afternoon. Over
near the track, outside the fair grounds,
a shell game was going full blast.
What's the use for one man to try and
catch those fellows?" was the deputy re-
Spouse. II have been chasing them
around, but thsy stop playing when they
see me coming. Where are your officers!
You have got forty or fifty hired men
mere, why not send out some of themY ]
The she'll game continued till another
shower set in and scattered the crowd.
county Attorney Libby, accompanied
by Boston representative of ths Watch
and Ward society. made circuit Of the