The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-15
GRAFTERS WILL SCATTER.
They Have Not Fared Too Well in
Savannah

my wv wen IN
savannah
The horde of fakirs and grafters who
have been at the State Fair will begin
to scatter tomorrow night, when the
Fair closes. although quite a number
of them may remain in the city some
time. Not a few of them will prob
ably hang around for week or two
and try to pick up some stray coin be-
fore the opening of the exposition in
Charleston.
While the grafters have made some
little money during their stay in s'a-
vannah. it has not been a very lucra~
tive ten days for them. They have
been forced to fight shy of the city po-
lice and detectives, the county officers
and the specie officers at tie Fair
grounds, all of whom have worked in
dependently With so many obstacles
to overcome 1t has not been an alto
gether pleasant affair with them. Pub
licity almost put the touts out of bust
ness at the race track, and, all in all,
those without legitimate games have
had a rather hard time of it.
The races in Jacksonville next week
will attract the attention of some of
the fakirs and grafters, although it is
not believed that great many of them
will go to that point. The next big
fair will be the exposition at Charles
ton, and it will be there that the sew
eral sorts of grafters will head for.
They will have long stay in the South
Carolina city and expect to make up
for the time which they count as haV-
ing been lost in Savannah. Quite a
number of the grafters have already
expressed their intention of remaining
here until a few days before the Char
lesion show opens its gates. Others will
leave at once and lay their lines for
the work that they expect to do dur
ing the EastIndian Exposition.
Only one "store-h house" show has
been in operation since the Fair open
ed, and as far as is known those in
charge have not made a fortune, al
though not few people are carried in
the layout, including some eight or
nine women. The fairies appear in
the bally-hoo with a spieler of some
ability, and the attention of pedes-
TRANS is attracted to the lobby, access
to which is free. H.
The "ballyhoo" is supposed to get
the crowd interested and the real thing
is presumed to be on the three floors
within. The spieler is a warm arti-
Gle. and with the aid of some half
dozen cappers, or hangers-on, man
ages to get the crowd on the inside.
The talk put up by the spieler is by far
the best feature of the performance,
and hardly with the aid of a powerful
magnifying glass can that within be
compared with that described by the
oally-hoo orator.
The capper or booster, on such occa-
sions, and with such aggregations, is
an important individual When the
spiel is finished, and those who are
held spellbound have been invited to
step to the window and purchase tick
cts for the inside, the caper earns his
money and puts up an article of four
flushing that is a winner. There are
usually some half a dozen OF these in
dividuals and they make a rush for
the box office, where they put up
stupendous bluff at purchasing tickets,
and push their way in. Usually the
crowd follows. When business is par
ticularly dull the capers go on the in
side and applaud Justify, causing those
without to think that an entertaining
performance is being given and that
the crowd of spectators are enthusiasts
tic. 1t is really worth the price of
admission to see the caperS at work