Evening star., 1900-08-11

his neck and imagining himself and friends
to be the hottest stuff in Paris.
DO you see that man? one of them
would begin. pointing out some inoffensive
person. Hes one of the slickets bunco
steerers in the capital And the talk would
begin about bunco. Each one would have a
tale of What happened to a man | knew
and each one. naturally, would try to make
out he knew more about the subject than
the others. Then a dispute would rise.
This Is how the pocket-book exchang-
ing game is worked, one would say. First
borrow your pocket book and walk around
the corner with it, then you borrow mine
No. that's not it at ALL another would
break In So the dispute would increase,
general confusion.
Now l will prove 1t to you that I am
right the young Irishman would say at
the right moment and you will have to
would not work. Here give me your pock-
ct book'-this to the sucker
Ihree times out of four the pocket book
would be handed over. Now, how could
that happen, after all the talk about bunco
II the victim were not pretty well softened
with high dining. He would hand it over,
and the lrishman would step out of the
restaurant. presumably to walk around the
corner He never said he was going ro
walk around the corner-hs appeal for the
pocket book was peremptory-he surprised
IL out of the victim-the asking for it, the
handing over, and the going off with #
were three ndistnguishable parts of the
same movement. When, after a few mo-
nents, he would not come back. another Of
the gang would go out to find him, saying,
Il believe that Charleys tipsy and can't
find his way back" That would end it.
unless there was third party to get away
How could all that be done without a
groSgy client?
Moneys the Bait.
One proof Of the truth of my friends
theory Is found in the fact that here in
Paris so few Frenchmen of any position
or education are caught by the classical
exchange trick. They do not drink deep
enough to lose their caution. To catch the
smart Parisian there must be money bait i;
and if it is not found in some gaudy propo-
sition to break private roulette bank YOU
may look for a counterfeit money scheme
or on the race track. A young French doc
tor of my acquaintance money spender
the despair of fond parents, who have set
MN up IN business several times already
has just finished getting rid of the last OF
l5,VU francs confided to him for the buyinp
OF a new pract ctice in a diabolically ingenious
race-track combination Including, as 1t
pretended to do. syndicate of six fairly
weN-known jockeys and as many moneyed
men about town, it seemed to invite the
closest scrutiny. He did scrutiniZe it, At
least two OF the moneyed men about town
alleged to be of the combination moneyed
as they were, he found-too late-to have a
guilty knowledge of the deliberately plan-
NED swlndie. The others, he thinks, never
were parties TO it. Their names were used
without their knowledge. Three iockeys
were deep in the fraud-wh hich took in MANY
victims besides my young doctor-yet moth
ing can be proved against them. 1t was a
kind of blind pool. Those who gave up their
money-to be played In heavy sums-trusted
that the dishonesty of the sypldcated
jockeys would win them innocent, loyal
players money. How Is 1t that the race
track so demoralizes otherwise honest men
Who will not bet upon the scabbiest kind of
tip. should 1t even involve a Jockeys or an
owners dishonor? They relieved my sport