The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-12
THEY SOLD A GOLD BRICK
THE PURCHASER WAS A TEXAS
JUDGE. WHO SOON DIScoV-
Erred THE TRICK,
ONE MAN LEFT THE STATE
His Two Pals Were Caught, and
They Are Now Doing n Sem
tence of Forty-Five
Years Each

can lay claim to distinction re-
marked Big Bill Halligan, an ex-conti-
dence man, at police headquarters re-
Gently, says the Cincinnati Enquirer.
That's right" replied ex-Ghief Larry
Hazen. You are the biggest four
fusher unhung''
"Oh, cut it out, Larry. You ana 1 have
always been good friends, so what's the
use of handing me wanop like that.
am on the square now and have quit the
film fam game for good.''
Il wouldn't believe you if you made a
meal out Of Bibles Well, anyhow, what s
the Distinction"
Larry, it is this: You see before you
the only guy who ever sold a gold brick
In Texas and got out alive. I'll tell you
about it. In the first place it Is neces-
sary to tell you something about Hand
some Dan Willikin, the prince of all con
men, but the unluckiest. You rememS
Der Dan, Lally. l think you and he
hooked it up once AMI you sent him to
the works. Dan and / went to school
together. AT that tender age, even. he
showed he possessed certain traits which
afterward made him famous The kids
played marbles then a great deal more
than they do now. Dams dad was the
engineer of a wheelbarrow at the gas
house, and he had no money to give his
younker to buy marbles with. That cut
no ice with Danny. He dug a hole in
one corner of the school yard right
close to the spot where the boys made
their rings. He covered the hole with
paper, over which he laid a thin sprink-
ling of dirt. He left an aperture just
large enough to admit a marble.
THE lads began to miss their agates
and classics and they never tumbled
to the existence of this little cave, which
swallowed them if they happened to hit
the mouth OF it just right That was his
first CON game.
We'll, we grew up together, and 10th
of us got too wise. We believed the
world owed us a living, ard we swore to
make it give up whether it wanted to or
not. Both of US were pretty well up in
crooked ways AS to the Mexican, we
we possessed tons of it. We could toss
it into tough sucker and make him feel
as if he was having a bamboo dream.
We organized Misunderstanding trust Say,
we could make Mckinley and his stable
look like two spot when it come to that.
The salve, nerve, some blue steel and a
good hearty hand-shake are the neces-
sary qualifications of the real thing in
con games. We got our first experience
around the old Plum street depot We
used to lay for suckers down there. The
first man that we braced was an old guy
from somewhere up in Indiana. He had
q AAIIiC DullCAl VI JllllSOH NS6Q Oh MS
chin, and to us it looked just like taking
candy from baby to separate that rube
from his wad of the soft. Dannie nailed
him and gave him the bull con about
the folks at home and all that He filed
him full of hot air. and when he invited
him down to the levee the old fellow
was tickled. Dannie gave him the steer
OF course | was in the background.
was the owner of the river. The old man
was drinking in the beauties Of the
stream with open mouth, when l came
up and slapped him roughly on the shoul-
der. He was startled, and when 1 told
him he was on private property he nearly
threw a fit
I am very sorry, mister he said.
Well, TN have to charge you $50 for
looking at the steamboats,. Pay it or 1
will call policeman.
His face got long, but there was a
funny little twinkle in his eye He
showed one of his hands into his pocket,
pulled out a crumpled bill and handed it
to me. We let him go, and chuckling
to ourselves, we went over to a saloon
and bought some barbed wire. 1 toss
ed the bill on the counter The bar
boy looked at it and handed it back
He was roundhead and very rough
necked
E'Soy, wotll yer tink 1 am. OATS
Confederate money
''Well, say, neither of us had any real
money, and when that barkeep reached
under the counter for a mallet we duck
ed. That old farmer must have been
reading the papers
The next guy we braced was evidently
a country sport. He was dressed like the
village cut-up He paia1ed around the
depot flashing a big yellow watch. It
looked like the real thing / walked up
to him and said: Say, my friend, will
you please let me have your watch for a
minute? l want to set my gran3mother's
clock. He handed it over without a
word after I promised to bring it back
I congratulated myself on the ease of
the trick and looked at the watch 1t
evidently cost a dollar. and wound from
the back, like an alarm clock. You could
hear it tick for a block. l took 1t home
that night and laid it on the table The
main spring broke, flew out of the case
and tore all the wall paper off before /
captured and sat on it.
Dannie and 1 went to Chi and left our