Semi=weekly graphic., 1898-12-21
BUNCO AT SKAGWAY.
SEDUCTIVE GAMES TO TRAP THE
 UNWARY KloNDtKER.

The Innumerable Schemes Used to Separ-
 ate Him from His Pile-confdence 0per-
 ators Galore-steersrs Disguised as Pack
 CTS Help to Swell the Revenue.
 Since the grass has begun to grow too short for them Skagway, some of the confidence workers who still re- main in Alaska have taken to the trails, where they continue to set snares for the dollars of unwary Klon- dikers. On the Skagway trail, the sure-thing gambler seldom goes higher than the foot of White Pass summit. Half a dozen or so of the tribe usually travel together, sharing at the close of the day the profits of the tricks they have turned. One of the party is chosen as active operator. His neees- sary qualifications are a capacity to judge human character and a tongue that is gifted with glibness.
 The successful confidence operator is best described by the term spell-bin- der. His eonfederates-the steerers- carefully disassoeiate themselves from him whenever @ possible victim is in sight. The better to disguise his wolf ish character, the steerer frequently dons the sheep's clothing of a packer. It is no uncommon incident on the trail to see two or more notorious bun co steerers faring along, one after the other, apparently heavily burdened with packs which, if analysed, would prove to be nothing more than straw or chips in canvas sacks. A little ahead of them always is the operator, equipped with small portable table, three shells, and the elusive pea.
 When the first one reaches the ma nipulator of the ancient, but to the vic tim ever new game, he stops, watches and listens, and finally lays down his pack as if to rest and be amused. Steerer No. 2 follows his example, as do the others in turn. By the time the prospective victim arrives he finds spurious Klondiker just winning bet from the shell game player amid the half envious congratulations of his confederates.
 Well, well, this is my unlucky day, says the man with the table, but I'll give some other gentleman a chance to win with the little pea
 Back and forth and round about go the little shells again. a glimpse of the pea being given the watchers at seduct- tvely frequent intervals. Another steerer guesses it's location and wins a greenbaek or two.
 "If you fellows are hitting me too hard" dubiously comments the oper- ator, T must size up my roll before taking any more bets"
 He opens a Well-lined poeketbook, and, while his attention is taken up with it's contents, one of the steerers slyly raises the shell under which the pea is hidden. That catches the out sider, unless he be invulnerable against the temptations of bunco
 Laying his finger on the shell indi- cated to him, he offers to bet $10, S20, $50, or a higher sum that it covers the pea His bet is taken, the shell is lifted, and the pea proves to be some where else. Usually the victim makes a second and perhaps third bet, in the hope of retrieving his loss, always with the same result. A witness to one of these episodes tells of having seen a prospector who had lost $9O sit upon his pack and burst into tears. He said that his last dollar had gone on the game.
 Still higher up the trail that same day man who runs a tent restaurant bet and lost $2O, but the shell-game player was glad to disgorge 1t when the victims wife, 2OO-pound lady of German nativity, seized him by the coat collar and screamed Iustily for help.
 A woman who said she was going to the Klondike in the interests of the Smithsonian Institution, complained to Capt. L. A. Matile that confidence workers were so annoying her that she feared to continue the journey. She Is travelling alone, and had called at the regular army encampment on her way out of town Capt. Matile, who commands the troops here. sent an escort of two soldiers with her as far as the Northwest Mounted Police post at Summit Lake. After working one point on the trail thoroughly, the con- fdence men scatter, to reappear at an- other point under like circumstances some time later in the day
 On the Skagway trail the shell game is not in operation regularly. The men engaged at it are supposed to be a detachment of "Soapy'' Smiths gamb- lers. Those who operate in Dyea, Sheep Camp, and along to the base of Chilkoot are under the leadership of Tom Cady, notorious Colorado camp confidence man.
 Other devices for catching victims besides the pea and shells are heard of occasionally. The salted mine man is one of the most recent additions to those who seek to get something for nothing.
 J. T. Jonee, President of the Guar antee Title and Abstract Company of Juneau, saved Dyea merchant from falling into the clutches of a swindler of this variety. The merchant told Jones that he had a. chance to buy a ufQpar yfaSna fc,. .x-..-~ 70