Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-26
A DEPTS IN THE "TOUCEER'S' ART

to be, and was. in Amazonian health. He
has hated me ever since. l wouldn't
mind that, however, if he'd only make
good.
Say. chum,' he says, confidentially.
see those fellows I'm With ? Well. I've
got a chance to put a big business deal
through with that bunch but I've got to
spread myself around a little bit, and
blamed if they idn't get in town after
banking hours so that l didn't get a check
cashed. Just lend me a double sawbuck
until m~orning-I1l meet you on F street
at noon-so that l can throw a con into
these fellows This chap doesn't belong
to the hurry grade of 'touchers.' be-
cause he has watched you from his point
of vantage for some time and goes about
it deliberately to frame a story for you
to bite at. He collects pretty frequently.
THE CHEAP PIKER.
1.-THE young man with the receding chin
who fools with the stock market in a
cheap sort of way has a few ingenious
ones ON his string.
"Say.' he says, getting you off into a
corner, do YOU know that it's a lead-pipe
moral cinch that Sugars going up nine
points before II o'clock this morning?
Don't, hey? Well, l do, and I see a chance
for a man who knows how to work 1T
right to clean up 5000 on an investment
of $40. just you go in with me on this
and so on If your head is filled with
~mayonnaise dressing instead of average
brains, you'll bite at this 'toucher's' bait,
and have him meet you the next time
with a slow, dreary smile, and say, We'll,
we lost. didn't We?
Very similar is the game of the young
man on your list of friends who sloughs
off all of his earnings at the st. Asaph
barn across the river. He gets you into
a cool, shady spot and flashes on you a
telegram dated New York and signed
Bud or 'Dink' or something like that.
The telegram consists Of nothing but the
name of a horse that is going to run in
a race that day.
1.-The fellow who sends me these good
things is a baby-that's what he is, a
baby. and he never makes a mistake
says your young imbecile friend who has
the horse microbe. This one can fall
down and then win. He can take maps De-
tween poles, and then romp in. Dickens
of it is that l can't play him myself, 1of
I'm shy today. but | like to put my
friends next to real chocolate like this,
and thus ON. If you're suffering from
water on the brain you'll stand for this
touch and pass the youth a bit of money
to play the horse for you besides. III
you're in possession of half your faculties
you'll regard him with a polaric gaze ana
freeze him where he stands. Il dldht
learn the pOlarlc gaze myself ulllii "lleA
it ha~ppened-once.
MANY OF HIM IN WASHINGTON.
"Then there's the poor devil from your
home city who. never having heard or the
: civil service Gsn't it extraordinary now
many people in this country have never
heard of the civil serviceO, comes on to
Washington to get a government JOB. he
touches you with a shame-faced, hahg-
dog air, and you can't help but give up to
} him. He will not listen to your eloauent
suggestion thai he take the first train fol
home, and he goes on letting the fever OF
| deferred hope eat him up. AT length you
have to chip in your share, together win
: the contributions of other fellows from
your home city, to send him back to the
} old burg. ~
7 The pure gall TOUGHER is the reno"
) who. having crossed your trail on a nlgh'
s of conviviality. tackles you on the street
| YOU remember him but Ginly-and throws
/ one into you about delayed remlttahceS
' He has a front and as he seems to kllo"
. your first name and to be exceedingly
$ thick with YOU. even though you can
unite recall just how the intimacy came
' about. YOU are liable to stand for his very
nervy touch.