The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-06-12

| III oh oiIi anu Iue Wn1le we were at
supper after the show. He said that
one of our people had fim-flammed a
number of the townsfolk right in the
shadow of our main tent. Sim was
| furious of course. I denied that any
of our people could practice such
fraud. but Price solemnly declared
that he'd investigate the whole froupe
for himself. And sure enough that
| night, when the vans were all loaded
he rounded up the whole COMPANY.
| read an awful lecture about the mar
| shaHs complaint and said that if he
| ever caught any of his employees en-
| gagged in any fraudulent games or even
in any games of chance he's spend his
| last dollar prosecuting the culprit.
| We knew all of our fellows pretty we'll
then, and /, for one, didn't believe that
| any of them were crooked But Price
was suspicious. He used to stink
around half the time spotting the
men, but try as he might he couldn't
get any proof against them. He did
catch Grif WheIan playing casino
with bartender one night, and
| though Griff was a first-rate elephant
man Sim discharged him without hesi-
| tation. The worst of it was that every
| town we made after that developed
| some kind of complaint about the
''circus crook" who had cheated some
| body. Sometimes three-cards was the
game; sometimes the shell-game was
| used, and again it was the f1ash-rou
Price was frantic. He used to hang
around the dressingtent, peeling un-
der the canvas, and he got his wife to
| come earlier than ever so that she
could help him catch the rascal
"It got so that II was rinemaster
you know-I never could tell when
to expect Sim to gallop into the ring
on his trick mule. While we were all
performing in the ring he'd be out
side somewhere prowling after the
swindler who was following us or who
was one OF our own people, so close
| ly did he tag ourstrail. We had plen-
| ty of descriptions of him too; a half
dozen town policemen had described
him the same way-short, stout, dark
hair and dropping black mustache
We had at least three men who came
near that appearance, but incessant
watching had failed to even hint of
| their guilt. Besides, they were all
| acrobats, trainers or riders, and the
frauds were always committed about
the time we were busiest in the ring.
"Well, one day Sim loitered so long
that it was nearly time for the
chariot race and he hadn't made his
appearance. l slipped out to the
dressing tent to see if he was there,
| and sure enough, back of the little
canvas partition that he always kept
for his own and his wife's privacy
he was smearing his face with grease
paint in hurried preparation for his
entree. l helped him onto his mule
and was buttoning up the back of his
baggy pantaloons when a stranger
ducked under the wall of the tent
and laid his hand on my arm.
Where did that fellow go that
just came in here?' he asked me ex-
| citedly. I told him that nobody had
come in, but he insisted that "a bunko
man had skinned, DIR. Schneider out
! of 5000 not five minutes ago. and that
he had seen the confidence man duck
into the dressing tent within the
minute.
We'll, sirs, poor Sim few into a
rage. He was for jumping off his
mule then and there to help find the
long-lookedfor swindler. l persuad-
ed him to gallap out into the ring
by promising to do the searching my
self, and, aided by the officer, l
searched diligently. The bugler at
the: ring entrance had seen nobody
enter from the dressing tent. We
opened all the trunks and hampers,
kicked over piles of flags, straw, can
vas and properties, but found moth
ing. Finally we decided that the
crook had slipped in at one side and
out at the other without being seen
by Mr.. Price, who was at the time
alone in his little dressing cell. The
officer looked nenplused, but he left,
after carefully describing the mans
appearance. 1t tailed exactly with
all the previous knowledge we had of
the elusive crook, and there was then
nothing more to do but renew our
vigilance. ......
''We were doing a three-day stand
at that particular town, so Sim and
sat up half the night discussing the
scandalous doings of the bunko man,
who had now clung to our route for
two months. Sim was almost sick
with anger and the sense of his dis
appointment. He scratched his bald,
shining head till it got red; he puffed
out his fat, cherubic cheeks till he
looked like an apoplectic, and then
he came as near swearing as I ever
heard him. What made him so par
ticularly mad was the fact that the
confidence man always did his tricks
right by the tent wall, so that every
village paper that had made a sensa-
ton of his swindles credited them to
''an attache of the Rockwell-Simpson-
Price Circus" That fairly ate into
the sensitive soul of Sim.